Old refill ink

[TJ]

My refill supplies for my HP 57 cartridges finally ran out, and I tried
some from an Inkube kit I'd purchased maybe as much as 6 years ago at a
garage sale. The kit is labeled as being for HP 600-series printers and
has four 4-oz bottles of ink - black, magenta, yellow, and cyan. I never
did use it in the 672C printer I had at the time, because I never had
much luck refilling those cartridges.(I kept getting to them too late
and nozzle circuits had burned out.)

I probably should have thrown it away, but I just couldn't resist trying
it. Well, the magenta has faded. It's now probably closer to light
magenta, going by the test pages. The cyan and yellow look good on the
test pages, which kinda surprises me, since I expected the yellow to
fade first. Shows what I know, huh? Blues, greens, and yellows look
close to normal in ordinary printing, but colors that have a magenta
component are off.

Being the cheapskate that I am, I'm tempted to just buy a 4-oz bottle of
magenta and use it with the two colors that look good. I hate the idea
of throwing all of them out just because one has gone bad. It's
wasteful, and the stuff I usually print doesn't demand top-quality
materials, anyway. However, I would like my reds to look closer to red
than to golden-orange.

What do you guys think? Worth a shot? (Measekite, don't bother. I
already know your opinion. You've put it here often enough.)

TJ

 

[Al Bundy]

My refill supplies for my HP 57 cartridges finally ran out, and I tried
some from an Inkube kit I'd purchased maybe as much as 6 years ago at a
garage sale. The kit is labeled as being for HP 600-series printers and
has four 4-oz bottles of ink - black, magenta, yellow, and cyan. I never
did use it in the 672C printer I had at the time, because I never had
much luck refilling those cartridges.(I kept getting to them too late
and nozzle circuits had burned out.)

I probably should have thrown it away, but I just couldn't resist trying
it. Well, the magenta has faded. It's now probably closer to light
magenta, going by the test pages. The cyan and yellow look good on the
test pages, which kinda surprises me, since I expected the yellow to
fade first. Shows what I know, huh? Blues, greens, and yellows look
close to normal in ordinary printing, but colors that have a magenta
component are off.

Being the cheapskate that I am, I'm tempted to just buy a 4-oz bottle of
magenta and use it with the two colors that look good. I hate the idea
of throwing all of them out just because one has gone bad. It's
wasteful, and the stuff I usually print doesn't demand top-quality
materials, anyway. However, I would like my reds to look closer to red
than to golden-orange.

What do you guys think? Worth a shot? (Measekite, don't bother. I
already know your opinion. You've put it here often enough.)

TJ

I don't think the ink has faded in the bottle, unless you can dab it
on a piece of paper and notice it. I think it's a cart problem and you
need a new donor cart to refill, unless you already tried that.

 

[measekite]

99999999

 

[TJ]

I don't think the ink has faded in the bottle, unless you can dab it
on a piece of paper and notice it. I think it's a cart problem and you
need a new donor cart to refill, unless you already tried that.

Could be, I suppose. Seems premature, though perhaps HP isn't making the
carts quite as they used to. Time was, not to long ago, when I could get
a couple dozen refills out of a set of carts. Now it seems like maybe
only 10 before it craps out. Ah, well - still cheaper than OEM ink.

My backup new cart package says, "You've been upgraded!" and says the 57
cart inside has been filled with Vivera ink at no extra cost.
Promotional deal, I suppose, trying to get me to pay even MORE for
over-priced OEM ink. Anybody know if this is likely to be dye-based or
pigment-based? I've read conflicting reports on the nature of Vivera ink.

TJ

 

[Al Bundy]

Could be, I suppose. Seems premature, though perhaps HP isn't making the
carts quite as they used to. Time was, not to long ago, when I could get
a couple dozen refills out of a set of carts. Now it seems like maybe
only 10 before it craps out. Ah, well - still cheaper than OEM ink.

My backup new cart package says, "You've been upgraded!" and says the 57
cart inside has been filled with Vivera ink at no extra cost.
Promotional deal, I suppose, trying to get me to pay even MORE for
over-priced OEM ink. Anybody know if this is likely to be dye-based or
pigment-based? I've read conflicting reports on the nature of Vivera ink.

TJ

I've posted this before so forgive the redundancy. I'm using dye based
ink that I purchase for 1$.oz at the local dollar store. I use it in
HP and Canon printers. They seem to love the stuff except I need
pigmented ink for the HP 45. I'm OK with the color results so that's
what counts. If you are getting 10 refills on a HP57, be grateful. The
key is to find a source of free donors.

 

[TJ]

I've posted this before so forgive the redundancy. I'm using dye based
ink that I purchase for 1$.oz at the local dollar store. I use it in
HP and Canon printers. They seem to love the stuff except I need
pigmented ink for the HP 45. I'm OK with the color results so that's
what counts. If you are getting 10 refills on a HP57, be grateful. The
key is to find a source of free donors.

It looks like my problem was just a stubborn head clog. This is the
first of these in 4 years of using this printer that I wasn't able to
clear with the refill bracket and syringe provided in my first refill
kit from Inktec. After soaking the cart in water overnight, the clog
apparently either dissolved or softened enough to clear. The cart works
fine now.

Now all I have to do is find a way to seal the Vivera cart back up until
I need it again...

TJ

 

[measekite]

Could be, I suppose. Seems premature, though perhaps HP isn't making
the carts quite as they used to. Time was, not to long ago, when I
could get a couple dozen refills out of a set of carts. Now it seems
like maybe only 10 before it craps out. Ah, well - still cheaper than
OEM ink.

My backup new cart package says, "You've been upgraded!" and says the
57 cart inside has been filled with Vivera ink at no extra cost.
Promotional deal, I suppose, trying to get me to pay even MORE for
over-priced OEM ink. Anybody know if this is likely to be dye-based or
pigment-based? I've read conflicting reports on the nature of Vivera ink.

TJ

Sounds like a good deal. You should enjoy it.