Ink Cartridge Refill Caused Damage!

[coleslaw]

My dad (who is fairly up to date in his knowledge of technology) bought an inkjet cartridge refill at staples without my recommending it. I honestly don't know what I would have told him if he would have asked me if I thought they were OK to use, but he said that the Staples sales person mentioned that no one has had a complaint about them, so my dad proceeded to purchase what he thought was going to be a money-saving investment. He claims to have followed the directions exactly as they were given also. However, my sister tried to print a paper for school but only half of each line was printed and then nothing was printed after a few lines. They could not figure out what the problem was until they noticed that the ink had leaked out somehow and was all over inside the printer and even on the desk underneath. In the process of cleaning the printer, my dad broke a pin on one of the interior boards, so the printer no longer worked at all. Ultimately, he ended up buying a new printer instead of saving money which he originally thought was going to happen. So now it appears that I will have to make a trip home to see if I can fix the printer with my mad soldering skills(and also get their scanner working - my mom bought a USB scanner without having a computer with USB support, so I had to order a PCI USB card for the computer, and now the Windows98 CD they have doesn't contain the right USB drivers because it's the Win98SE cd but they are running the first release, so I have to figure that one out too).

[Edited by coleslaw on 09-07-2000 at 10:47 AM]

[Aristo]

That sure sucks. :(

[Nanotech9]

:confused:
really!?!? I've used several different refill brands on several different printers (HP, Canon, Epson) and they all worked great when I did it.... had to "train" my dad how to do it though. I remember him getting ink everywhere the first few times he tried it himself (before the "how-to" lessons ) :)

[Newbiee]

DAUYMN seems like your parents have a lot of probs w/ comps

[spigidygak]

That sure sucks. But that's one of the risks of using non-branded ink refils, especially ones that you literally refill the lil' buggers. Even though it seems like canon, epson, and hp would be ripping you off. . . they actually have a seemingly better quality ink cart. . . maybe just me though. But it is a known minor risk using genericos.

[pd123]

I have used refills on my Canon and generic cartridges in my Epson 740. In both cases, eventually, I clogged up my inkhead. The generic ink cartridge company told me the way to unclog the head (running the utility to clead nozzle didn't work) was to put an authentic cartridge into my Epson and then run cleaning utility. He said that even though they match the ink colors, they can't get the ink to flow as well as the OEM. I took his advice and it worked. I still use generic and refills, but in between I use the OEM. Refills, are good and work but are not 100%.

[Bires]

You have to maintain negative pressure in the ink cart. Make sure your refill comes with a syringe or something similar to suck air out of the cart to maintain the negative pressure inside the cart.