COSTCO's INK-CARTRIDGE REFILL SERVICE : QUICK & CONVENIENT

[Anonymous]

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COSTCO’s INK-CARTRIDGE REFILL SERVICE : QUICK & CONVENIENT
Everyone
knows that buying new, brand-name printer cartridges from the original
equipment manufacturer can be expensive. But are third-party
alternatives really a better deal? As PCWorld’s Serial Refiller, I’ve
set out to try third-party options–including remanufacturers, refill
services, and do-it-yourself refill kits–and tell you whether the
savings seem worth the hassle.Everyone knows that buying new, brand-name
printer cartridges from the original equipment manufacturer can be
expensive. But are third-party alternatives really a better deal? As
PCWorld’s Serial Refiller, I’ve set out to try third-party
options–including remanufacturers, refill services, and do-it-yourself
refill kits–and tell you whether the savings seem worth the hassle.

Because
I use each refill for just a brief period of time, and with only one
printer, my experience is anecdotal and does not test the durability or
archivability of third-party inks, nor how the printer will fare after
repeated use with them. Nevertheless, my hands-on trials will give you a
taste of what to expect if you try a third-party alternative with your
own printer.

My test printer is an HP Photosmart e-All-In-One.
For each evaluation, I start with a new set of HP cartridges, drain
them, and then use them for the refill or for comparison with the
remanufactured option. I use the standard-size HP 60 cartridges; the
high-yield 60XL cartridges will last longer and usually save you more
money.

With both the HP and third-party inks, I print out a set
of pages–ranging in content from plain text to a full-size color
photo–over and over again until the ink starts to run out (blank
streaks appear on the page). I count the number of pages that printed
before streaks appeared, to get a sample page yield. These page yields
will likely differ from those that HP or the third-party ink vendor
quotes, just as your own mileage will vary depending on what you print. I
also compare the print quality of the pages using third-party ink
versus those printed with the HP cartridges.

Costco Inkjet-Cartridge Refill Service: Quick and Convenient
Products:*
Costco inkjet refills ($8 to $10, plus sales tax where applicable; HP
60 refill for black or tricolor cartridge, $8)Vendor URL: Costco Inkjet
Refill ServiceWorth trying? YesHassle factor: LowPrint quality compared
with OEM ink: Satisfactory, but not as good as OEMYield (mixed set of
samples): 148 pagesCost per page: 11 cents (OEM: 27 cents)

I have
a Costco membership, mostly because I can’t the resist the warehouse
chain’s free bite-size food samples. Scarf down enough burrito bites,
pizza mini-slices, Louisiana hot links, and chocolate-coated almonds,
and you’ve pretty much taken care of lunch–and your cholesterol count
for the week.Recently I spotted a sign near the entrance of my local
Costco advertising the store’s Inkjet Cartridge Refill Service. The
price was right, and Costco promised to refill cartridges within 1 hour.
An ideal test for the Serial Refiller–and I could take a leisurely
tour of the food booths in the meantime.

Informative and Painless
Costco
refills dozens of specific Canon, Dell, HP, and Lexmark cartridges; you
can get a list of the models in a paper brochure as well as on Costco’s
Website. Prices range from $8 to $10 per refill, which is considerably
cheaper than buying a new cartridge. In my case, the cost to refill HP
60 black and tricolor cartridges was $8 each, or $16 total (plus tax).
That’s less than half the cost of buying the HP 60 black ($15) and
tricolor ($20) cartridges separately. (Buying the HP 60 Ink Cartridge
Combo Pack saves a few bucks at $32.)

To Costco’s credit, both
the brochure and the Web pages offer a lot of useful advice to promote a
successful refill. For instance, Costco recommends that you refill a
cartridge as soon as its print quality begins to diminish. Costco also
says that each ink cartridge is good for five to ten refills, depending
on how well you care for it.The experience was painless. I brought a
pair of empty HP 60 black and tricolor cartridges to my neighborhood
Costco’s 1-hour photo counter. I caught a glimpse of the big machine
they use to refill cartridges, tucked in the back of the workspace. The
clerk asked how long the cartridges had been dry, as dried ink can clog
printhead nozzles. The clerk even dabbed the printhead area with a
tissue to see if it was still damp–and it was, as I had just run out of
ink earlier that day.Costco generally promises to refill cartridges in 1
hour, which proved true in my case. Pickup times may vary, however,
depending on the number of cartridges you need refilled, and how busy
the photo department is when you arrive.

Big Savings
The
Costco-replenished HP 60 tanks worked perfectly well. The printer filed
the usual complaints once it detected the refilled cartridges, but I’m
used to ignoring those by now.The prints that the Costco-filled ink
cartridges created were adequate for everyday use. When I did a
side-by-side visual comparison of the Costco and HP samples, however,
the latter looked far better to me, with sharper text, brighter colors,
and more realistic flesh tones. I dribbled a little water across both
samples; each suffered some streaking and color bleeding, but Costco’s
ink did no worse than HP’s.Costco promises to “closely match or exceed”
the level of ink that comes in a new cartridge, and I found that to be
true. I printed 148 of my sample pages with Costco ink before seeing
streaks in images and text–that’s 16 pages more than I got with HP’s
ink.

More Prints for Less Than Half the Cost
Costco’s refills
will save you money, but how much, exactly? In my tests, the cost per
page with Costco ink was 11 cents. In contrast, printing pages using the
HP 60 black and tricolor cartridges costs 27 cents per page (if you buy
the cartridges separately). A significant savings, indeed.Now the
caveats. It certainly doesn’t make sense to join Costco, which charges
$50 or more for an annual membership, solely to refill ink cartridges.
If you’re already a Costco member, congratulations: You could save big
on ink refills. Or you could join for the ink and buy other stuff there,
too.Another option: If you print often and insist on using HP ink,
consider buying HP’s high-capacity cartridges, which hold more ink than
standard tanks and can lower your cost per page. High-capacity
cartridges don’t make sense if you print infrequently, however, because
printers that sit idle for extended periods require cleaning cycles that
consume ink.

Best Refill Experience Yet
A serial refiller
will try anything to save money. Costco’s cartridge-refill service is my
favorite option so far. The do-it-yourself refill kit that I tested
offered the best cost per page and output quality, but entailed the most
hassle. When I tried Office Depot remanufactured cartridges, they
provided paltry savings and underwhelming output quality. The Costco
ink’s output quality was also not quite as good as HP’s, but the
refilling was so easy and so cheap that for me the trade-off was
worthwhile.

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=E8AE2D29-1A64-67EA-E48BD905094C56AD

[Author]

February 9, 2011 at 9:45 AM