I’ve been an HP printer fan for a long time. My wife has one
hooked up to her computer. I like them for the ease in refilling the print
cartridges. Typically I could refill a cartridge three, four, sometimes more
times before the quality of the printing degraded. But a few years back, I saw a great price on an
Epson Workforce 520. Only $49.99. I was
looking for a printer for my computer. This one was a 3-in-1. Did everything.
Even faxed, which was great if I had a telephone like to hook to it. So I bought it.
I soon learned the print cartridges were trickier than my wife’s
HP to fill, if not darn right impossible. To buy new cartridges would cost a
fortune. First I’d need a
dual pack of black as the printer needs two. That costs $31.45. And I’d
need the
color pack which costs $35.49. For a whopping $66.99, which is $15 more
than I paid for the machine, I could replace the entire set of five cartridges
or throw away the printer and start over.
I opted for plan B and bought refillable
ink cartridges for $33.95 and the ink for $49.95
for a grand total of $83.90. A bit of an
investment, but considering how many times I can refill the cartridges, this
can pay for itself in no time. I have
been using this plan for about two years, until a month ago when suddenly the
printer no longer recognizes the yellow cartridge. Now the printer refuses
to print anything, even only with blank ink. Very clever!
I am not sure how a cartridge that has been in service
suddenly goes bad after two years. I tried all the tricks. Cleaning contacts.
Removing and reseating the cartridge. Power down and force a complete reset.
Nada. It’s not coming back from the
dead.
I have an email in to Ink Owl and see what they think. Maybe
I can buy just a yellow cartridges. Hey! Perhaps this thing has a lifetime warranty…probably
not. I am considering scrapping the whole plan and buying
third party cartridges, (IF Epson is the first party, who’s number 2?) while hoping the printer is not the fault. Or go to plan C?
What’s a good Cannon
printer model?
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