Cheap ink cartridges anywhere?

Where do you guys recommend I get cheap ink cartridges? I don't care if they are generic brands. I need to get some for a bunch of different printers so a good selection would be nice. Thanks for your input.

try HERE its a cheap place

Yo-

Here is a backdoor to some very good pricing on good cartriges-

www.private.abacus24-7.com

Mike

I have heard of people using abacus. No too bad if you want cheap carts. Have you ever thought of refilling? It is by far the cheapest way to go.

http://www.eink4u.com/

real fast shipping also

http://www.ezinkjets.com/

free shipping, and they have 15% off right now.

You could also try ebay as there are quite a few companies who sell on there at very low prices..
I recently bought 6 black and 6 colour (all chipped) for an epsom 680 for £16 including vat and shipping.........
And they work no problem and no difference in quality..

Definately the way to go. My Epson Black Cartridge is $19 AU and colour is $32 AU.(I'm sure I could get them cheaper) I get both refilled (which lasts just as long) for $20 AU. If you can get them as cheap as Dallshead, forget it though.

Meritline.com works very well for me and most of the time it is free shiping are very low price shiping
Bruce

u may want to try in4art.com. good reviews. 35% off coupon goin on now. i use these guys for my epson printers.

Hey BigMike7,

You know any coupon codes for that Abacus store?

Anyone know why HP cartridges are so much more expensive than every other kind?

Yes they Make 60% of there prff. on ink,they are talking about spining it off as it's own com.(the ink part)
Bruce

It seemed to me that for Epson, they generic cartridges available. However, for HP, all that was available were remanufactured cartridges which I guess are made by HP originally so are more expensive. Does HP have a patent on the ink cartridges or something?

HP and Lexmark are two makes which ALWAYS have the head in the cartridge, at least in all known consumer models.

While the cloners can create a compatible "ink tank" cartridge, creating a working clone of the printhead would be expensive, and probably violate patents as well - that's why you only ever see refill/remanufactured for the head/cartridge combo's - and why the quality of them is so variable.

The HP head IS good for several ink loads, provided it isn't burned by running to bone dry - I can remember doing a "pseudo CIS" on one old Deskjet with an old (wadding filled) cartridge, by re-inking though a home-made filler funnel through the vent hole - in my memory, that cartridge was never replaced, nor even removed from the printer!

Some Canon models had the best of both worlds, a complete head/tank set at a similar price to the HP style, with replaceable, individual ink tanks (and you could cut corners by using cheap clones) - the head was NOT a lifetime component of the printer, nor was it discarded at every refill like the WASTEFUL HP and Lexmark implementations. On the other hand, unlike the Epson, if the head clogged, it was no big deal.

Sadly, I now own an Epson C44 - for my low volume of printing, the price of chipped clone cartridges doesn't worry me, but the possibility of a "lack of use" fatal head clog does!
Got the thing on special offer for little more than the price of a set of genuine cartridges.

Many hp cartriges (as well as lexmark) have a disposable print head as part of the cartrige and the print head is patented (even on older cartriges where the patent has ran out, it would be much harder to make an after market print head than just an ink tank). The remanufactured ones are generally not remanufactured by hp (they prefer you use new ones because it is the most profitable for them). They cost more because the remanufacture has to find sources for used ink cartriges. You are better off refilling with a good quality ink (you have no idea how that print head has been treated, they don't always work right). Canon and epson use a semi-permanant print head (or in some cases a disposable print head that is seperate from the ink cartrige). When you buy ink cartriges for them you are just buying a plastic ink tank (which is easy to manufacture).
Edit: Looks like matth beat me to it by 2 minutes.

So I bought these fake epson cartridges from one of the above online stores. I installed them and I can't print anything. I think the problem is that my printer sat for a long time without being used and without ink cartridges in it. I think the heads might be clogged with dried ink. I used the head cleaning utility but no luck. I don't THINK the cartridges are defective but I also wouldn't be surprised because one of the cartridges I got for my mom didn't work either.

Any advice?

I am guessing your printer is not under warranty anymore. I am not that farmiliar with epson printers (I am resonably farmiliar with canon printers) but I used to spend quite a bit of time on the printers forum at dpreview (a digital photography forum). Most canon printers as well as most epson printers use semi permanant print heads. Canon printers are designed to have the print head replaced by the user but unfortunatlly epsons are not. Most epsons have seperate ink cartriges. WARNING, this may damage your printer. I am assuming your printer is dead and not under waranty so what do you have to lose? DO NOT continue to run cleaning cycles. It can actually burn out the head if you have a thermal head (most print heads are thermal but epson has made a few that are piezo electric and work on vibration rather than heat). If it is a thermal head, running cleaning cycles wil basically just sit there and bake the dryed ink that is clogging and it will burn out the head from excess heat. These print heads require ink flow through the jets for cooling.
The best solvent for cleaning print heads is windex or a decent quality generic equivalent. If you are not in the US, windex is a solution of ammonia, alcohol, detergents and water (and blue dye for color of course which plays no important purpose). In other words, blue window cleaner. Alcohol (like some of the cheap generic window cleaners) does not work near as well as the ammonia based windex. Remove the print cartriges and use a syringe to drip windex on the screns where the ink feeds. Let the windex sit on the screen till it gets sucked into the printhead, and continue to add a drop or two as nessasary. You have to break the surface tention in the head before it will suck in and clogs will block this from happening so be patient. If after some time (could be an hour or more), once several drops have sucked through each color, replace the ink cartrige (the ink is nessasary to flush out the windex) and run a cleaning cycle. DO NOT run several cleaning cycles till you know the print head is unclogged. If it doesn't work, repeat the process again. Also, if you can remove the print head (they were not designed to be user removed on epsons so on some models this will be very difficult), you can sit the print head in a shallow dish of windex to aid the process. Keep in mind, if the jets are clogged, this may help, but if they are thermally burned out, nothing will ever fix them so don't be suprised if it doesn't work. Try to avoide wetting the electrical contacts on the print head. Some people have had luck using ultrasonic jewlry cleaners but DO NOT use a high power, high speed one as it will cause the print head to disintigrate internally. As a last ditch effort, you may also try finding a piece of plastic tubbing (a straw if you can find one that fits over the ink feed where the screen is). Force windex through the ink feed (warning, you have a 50% chance of instantlly and completlly killing the print head doing this so this is a last resort measure). It has worked for some though. You can also try boiling hot distilled water instead of windex (I think windex works beter but some people have had good luck with boiling water). If the process works, run cleaning cycles or just print with the ink cartrige installed to flush out the windex/water imediatlly.
Keep in mind, printers have become more or less disposable (even if you paid 150$ for it). A print head and a set of ink cartriges costs more than a new printer (Unless you have a several hundred dollar printer). If this doesn't work, consider a new printer. It's cheaper than fixing it unless it is a very expensive printer.
On a side not, letting a printer sit without use is about the most liklly way to kill it permanantlly.
Hope some of this helps.
Edit, the second most liklly cause is cheap ink that is not specifically designed for the printer (like walmart, fits all printers refill kits). I only use inkjet goodies (now known as media street plug and play), photographic quality ink. I have run nothing but that thorugh my canon and it is running on two years with only one minor clog. I have heard of professionals pouring gallons of this ink through canon printers with few problems (as few as with canon ink). Ink quality is VERY important but you can get good quality ink for substantially less than oem ink.

Thanks. I'll give it a try. This was just a crappy second printer anyway...no biggie if it's broken.

ebay is a good place, as long as the seller provides picture of the actual item. I have a 2 years old Epson that still working fine. Every online store (not too many anymore) sell the inks above $20. I can find on ebay for $10 each.