The Steel Guitar Forum

One of my affiliated sponsors is having a pre-Christmas sale, with up to 25% off their regular prices, on ink cartridges, toner and printer supplies. Free shipping is included on all US orders (contiguous US). The sale ends on Dec 15, at midnight, PST. Normally, they only offer 10 to 15 percent discounts, so this is a chance to save some moolah if you need ink. See my 123Inkjets page for details and links, if you are interested.

I'm afraid I don't have a very good report on 123. I bought a couple carts, one color and one B&W. I will admit I had them nearly a year and that may have been a problem. I was going to print an invoice to take to work a couple weeks ago, for Monday.

Guess what, black ink didn't work. After several tries I bought a cart at CVS Pharmacy. Of course it worked. I know I can send it back but I tossed it. Don't want the bother. When I buy ink I want it to work the first time. No muss, no fuss.

I will be buying the expensive stuff from now on.

I bought from 123 for several years, when I was still printing stuff, and most of the cartridges worked fine. It seemed like they did dry out after several months if I didn't use them. Worked out much cheaper than buying from the printer's manufacturer.

I've had OEM cartridges dry out after sitting around for a year, or so. They maximum shelf life on most ink jet carts is between 1 and 2 years. Sometimes you can reactive a dried up cartridge by warming it up, or placing the output side in warm water for a short time.

I buy ink as I need it. It only takes a few days for new carts to arrive by mail.

I have only sent back one non-functional cartridge - a yellow one for a Canon printer - in several years of purchasing online from 123inkjets.

Ken, expensive is a relative term. The majority of the price of an HP or Lexmark inkjet (example) is for the new printhead built in the cartridge not the ink. A long time ago these companies very ingeniously designed these carts so that the user is installing a new print head every time they buy a new ink cartridge. Sometimes refill troubles arise because obviously it is designed to be a temporary one time throw away. Most ink is alcohol based therefore evaporation is inevitable. It's just a matter of how long it takes.

Based on Wiz's recommendation, I bought two cartridges for my Epson printer from them, one black and one magenta. So far, I have installed the magenta and it appears to work great with no issues. That's all I can say at this point. Except that I saved a bundle. Thanks Wiz.

Jim Cohen wrote:Based on Wiz's recommendation, I bought two cartridges for my Epson printer from them, one black and one magenta. So far, I have installed the magenta and it appears to work great with no issues. That's all I can say at this point. Except that I saved a bundle. Thanks Wiz.

You're welcome Jim and thanks back.

On drying out...I fool my printer into opening for ink replacement, then take the cartridges out, put it back and it charges, thinking it has a new cartridge. This has worked pretty good on my Epson.I don't do a lot of printing lately on it, mostly laser jet.

Bill

So, Bill, you mean that there really is more ink in it after the computer tells you it's empty?

Jim Cohen wrote:So, Bill, you mean that there really is more ink in it after the computer tells you it's empty?

It is probably due to osmosis!

Jim Cohen wrote:So, Bill, you mean that there really is more ink in it after the computer tells you it's empty?

Jim,
No, when it quits printing and has ink dried on/in the jets. If you have an ink level monitor, and it shows more ink after it stops printing, do this. It works on my Epson RX500, it may, or may not work on every printer. When the popup says it's out of ink, it is.

Bill

Printers have no way of knowing how much ink you have. They count sheets. It is based on 5% black coverage. If you took the text on a fully typewritten page and squeezed it together in a solid black block it would be a black 1 square inch. That is 5% coverage. So another way to look at it is a fully typewritten page is 95% white.

So a cart can show empty but still have plenty of ink left or it can run out and show plenty of ink left depending on the type of prints you ran.