“Why should I buy remanufactured or compatible printer ink cartridges instead of the manufacturer brand cartridges?”

This is a question Pacific Ink operators answer just about every day. Part of our job as a provider of these types of cartridges is to educate inkjet printer, and laser printer, users about the benefits these products offer. So, we’ve compiled a list of reasons to share with you.

One of the main reasons to use remanufactured and compatible ink cartridges can be summed up in one word . . . REDUCE. When you use these products you are reducing the amount of waste that goes in to landfills. You are reducing the amount of manufacturing waste and pollution. And, you are reducing energy consumption.

Remanufactured ink cartridges are made from recycled ink cartridges. Logic follows that if we are recycling the old cartridges we are reducing what is thrown in the trash, and then what ends up in landfills. The recycling of printer cartridges is a far gentler on the environment that making new cartridges is. By making products from recycled products we end up with less air and water pollution. Finally, by recycling we reduce our energy consumption because recycling requires less energy than creating a brand new product.

The other simple word that helps explain why one should use compatible or remanufactured ink cartridges instead of brand new ink cartridges . . . IMPROVE. When you use recycled printer cartridges, you help to improve the recycling market and peoples attitudes about using recycled products. You help businesses and governments attain their recycled product procurement goals. You help improve the job market.

When our customers purchase remanufactured ink cartridges they are helping to create a demand for recycled materials collected through various cartridge recycling programs. They are setting an example for others that recycled cartridges are just as good as brand new cartridges, and far better for the environment.

Many state and government agencies have procurement guidelines that requires them to purchase a certain amount of recycled product each year. Printer cartridges are one of these products. Many businesses are now also instituting recycled product purchasing guidelines.

When printer users purchase remanufactured ink cartridges they are improving the job market. The jobs created through the collection and remanufacturing of ink cartridges are far greater, in number, than those created by throwing them in the trash. It does not take may people to throw old cartridges in an incinerators or landfills, but it does take quite a few to collect, sort, prep, remanufacture, test, and package them.

Finally, and this is usually the clincher, compatible and remanufactured ink cartridges are less expensive than brand new cartridges. Recycled printer ink cartridges are one of the few products in the world that cost less than their brand new counterparts. Most of the time we pay more for the recycled version of a product. Not the case here.

So, if you are reading this and have yet to try a compatible or remanufatured ink cartridge, give them a try. If you have been using them, good job, and go out and take a moment to let someone else know about their benefit.

(Thanks to the California Integrated Waste Management board and OSO for their inspiration)

Here’s one inspired by the folks who take your phone calls each day.

“My printer’s ink level monitor says my cartridges are full, but they won’t print. What can I do?”

This is a pretty typical question. Most folks are very quick to blame the problem on their printer cartridge, especially if they are using a non-manufacturer brand cartridge. Ah, don’t be so quick to blame the cartridge for the trouble, there is another possible cause:

Your printer nozzles might be clogged.

Ink often builds up in nozzles when the printer is not used to often. When you print the ink is wet and a small amount remains in the nozzles (nozzles direct ink on to the paper). If you do not print frequently and keep moist ink in the nozzles, the ink inside will dry. Once dried a semi-solid plug will form within the nozzle. This blocks ink from moving though the nozzle and on to the page.

Take a look at your printer’s user manual. There is often a warning in there about how often one should print. Customer feedback has shown us that unless one prints every 3-5 days they are more likely to experience clogged nozzles.

As a remedy, each manufacturer suggest that you run a cleaning utility, most commonly known as a head cleaning utility. This primes the components of the printer and should blow out any blocks in your nozzles. It is recommended that you run this utility 3-4 times if you are experiencing trouble and at least once before you print. Most printers automatically run the utility when you turn them on. Keep in mind, this does use a very small amount of ink.

So, next time you have some trouble, don’t automatically assume it is the cartridge. Check your nozzles!

Let us know what you think.

It’s Tuesday! Time to let you know about a new cartridge release at Pacific Ink. This week we are proud to announce the release of the HP 74 black and HP 75 tri color cartridges.

These Hewlett Packard manufactured ink cartridges come in both standard and XL capacities. The standard black HP 74 (CB335WN) yields 200 pages, while the HP 74XL (CB336WN) cartridge yields 750 pages. What’s the price difference for the 500 additional pages? The standard cartridge costs $16.99 while the XL cartridge costs $31.99. The difference in price per page is 8 cents (standard) as opposed to 4 cents when using the XL cartridge.

The color HP 75 (CB337WN) yields 170 pages, while its high capacity counterpart, the HP 75XL (CB338WN) yields 520 pages. These cartridges are priced slightly higer becasue they are color cartridges. The HP 75 is priced at $19.99 while the HP 75XL is priced at $36.99. Price per page is 12 cents (standard) and 7 cents (XL).

At this time there are no compatible or remanufactured versions of this cartridge, so consumers are stuck paying the higher HP brand prices.

These cartridges are made with Vivera ink, so they promise radiant colors, enhanced shadow detail, and reduced image grain for stunning color prints and exceptional black-and-white images.

These cartridges work in the following HP OfficeJet J5700 series printers:

These cartridges are one of the first to utilize HP’s new cheaper pricing structure (see previous post) for their print cartridges. Under this plan they will release different capacity cartridges. It is then up to the consumer to decide which capacity they wish to purchase based on their printing habits. It seems the bigger question is, “How much to I want to spend today?” or, “Am I thinking beyond the price tag in front of me to see that if I buy the lower priced cartridge I will be spending twice as much per page?”

If you have to buy 2 or 3 cartridges at $16.99 to make up for the one you could have bought at $31.99, then you are far worse off. You would be spending $33.98-$50.97 versus the initial $31.99. Our warning, do your math at the time you purchase.

We are also hoping this new plan, which was launched to combat Kodak, does not end up causing consumer confusion. HP used to use a variation of the same type of plan a few years ago, and still does use it a little. Ink cartridge numbers ended in a letter that signified how much ink was inside the cartridge. Customers were never really sure if they needed to buy the cartridge that ended in A or G for their printer. In an area that already has so many confusing numbers, this may just make it worse (they are adding different colored boxes as well).

If you have used these cartridges, let us know what you think.

The Epson Stylus Photo R1800 is designed for photographers. Those looking for an office style or general use printer should definitely not purchase this one. If you are a novice photographer you probably don’t want this one either, unless it is “only the best for you!” It is designed to print large archival quality glossy photos. Prices for this printer range from $424.00 - $593.00.

The printer uses an 8 color, individual ink tank system that includes both red and blue inks (in addition to the traditional magenta and cyan). Using these two additional colors gives you a wider color range, which means better looking prints. It also uses a photo black and matte black cartridges in addition to the standard black cartridge. Again, much better color range. Finally there is a gloss optimizer cartridge that provides the glossy finish to the image. Users rave about this cartridge because it makes their prints look like the came right off that expensive equipment in the photo labs.

The R1800 uses the following ink cartridges: T054020 Gloss Optimizer, T054120 Black, T054220 Cyan, T054320 Magenta, T054420 Yellow, T054720 Red, T054820 Matte Black, T054920 Blue. Epson manufactured cartridges for this printer cost around $11.00 per cartridge. There are 100% compatible versions of these same cartridges available at Pacific Ink for about $5 less per cartridge.

The print range of this printer is awesome. It can do everything from 4×6’s up to prints that are 13 inches wide, and panoramic photos that are up to 44 inches long. In addition you can print on a variety of media such as CD-ROM’s and DVD’s.

Here is how Epson describes the printer:

Epson Stylus Photo R1800 quickly creates large, archival quality glossy and matte photos worthy of display. Experience the rich, true-to-life colors and subtle detail that’s evident in every image. It’s all possible with Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Inks, plus an industry leading resolution and ink droplet size - the same innovative features that made the Epson Stylus Photo R800 a resounding success. This printer’s impressive 8-color individual ink system, which incorporates red and blue inks, means you get a wider color gamut for incredibly vivid photos. Its separate matte and photo black ink cartridges are integrated into the system as well, so you get the deepest, darkest blacks on matte paper, and brilliant results on glossy paper automatically. Finally, the unique gloss optimizer makes glossy prints look like they came from a traditional photo lab. And, since the inks are pigment-based, you can be confident the color and detail will remain true for up to 200 years. The Epson Stylus Photo R1800 delivers studio quality results on a wide variety of media and in eight popular borderless sizes - up to 13-inches wide, as well as panoramics up to 44-inches long. Best of all, the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 speeds through every project - so you can quickly print stacks of high-quality photos. And, its expertise goes well beyond the art of photographic prints. This photo printer makes it easy to add that special touch to your portfolio with professional quality printing on ink jet printable CDs and DVDs. Print directly on inkjet printable CDs/DVDs Accomodates 4, 8.3 and 13 roll papers Ink Shelf Life - 2 years from production date; 6 months from first use Input paper tray - 100 Sheets(plain paper)/ 20 sheets (photo paper)/ 1 printable CD/DVD Printer Dimensions & Weight (L x W x H) - 24.2 x 12.6 x 9.1 / Weight - 33 pounds Works with Windows PC and Macintosh.

Overall this printer provides very high quality color photos with good print speed. But, the printer’s nozzles quite a bit more maintenance than most other printers. Users have reported quite a few instances of the nozzles drying out if the cartridges sit without use for a few days.

Here is what users of this printer are saying:

If you own this printer, let us know what you think of it.

Buy the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Printer

Buy Cartridges for your Epson Stylus Photo 1800

This is an example of the power of the consumer.

We found a report today that in the first three months of this year more than $320 million dollars was spent on new printers. That’s more than $100 million a month!

Printer sales in China were up 4.1% from the same time last year, and these numbers do not include consumables such as ink, toner, and paper. It is reported that consumables provide up to two-thirds of printer market revenues. If that is the case, you can tack another $200 million plus on to that $320 million.

So, with all this buying going on, who was the big winner? Hewlett Packard. Just about 33% of the printers sold were manufactured by HP. Twenty-one percent of the market went to Epson and about 14% went to Canon. These percentages add up to 21 million printers being shipped in China in January, February, and March.

Amazingly enough, the Chinese really have no presence in the printer manufacturing business. They do, however, have a large presence in the consumables market, selling remanufactured and compatible inkjet cartridges.

Let’s end with one more staggering number. By 2010 it is expected that the money spent on laser printers alone will exceed $5 billion.

If you have any thoughts, let Pacific Ink know what you think.

(Thanks to Infomatics.com for the story)

Here is some help for a question we get quite often – “My printer won’t work, what can I do?”

This happens more than one would think. It us usually pretty easy to get your printer back up and running, if you know a few of these tricks. Okay, they aren’t really that tricky, but they will do the trick. We find it amazing how many help guides there are out there with these same suggestions and how many times this topic has been discussed online. But, the bottom line is that people are still having trouble finding the information when they need it. So, we’ll take our turn and put it out there one more time.

So, you’ve created your wonderful document, or prepared that wonderful picture and you are ready to print. You click the print button and . . . nothing! What do you do now?

First, do the obvious. Check your printer cartridges. They may be out of ink. If they are you will need to buy more. If you do still have ink in your printer cartridges (your ink level monitor should keep you informed of the amount of printer ink you have) then move on and check the cables (USB or Parallel) that connect your printer to your computer. For that matter, you should check to make sure the printer is still plugged in and is receiving power – Don’t laugh, you’d be surprised how often the solution to the problem is making sure the printer is powered on.

If none of this works you are on to step 2, checking your print queue. There may be other documents that are clogging up your print queue and preventing your current document from reaching its destination, your inkjet printer. To check your print queue simply do the following

Click on START
Click CONTROL PANEL
Click PRINTERS AND OTHER HARDWARE
Click Printers AND FAXES
Double click on the icon with your printer’s name

This will open the documents window for your printer and you can clear any documents in your print queue by selecting CANCEL ALL DOCUMENTS from the PRINTER drop down menu.

If you get to your inkjet printer’s print queue and it is empty, or you clear it and it still does not work you should try to print a test page directly from your printer. This will give you a better idea of where the problem lies. If you can print a test page directly from your printer then the problem is in the communication (connection) between your computer and your printer or within the printer software (drivers) on your computer. If you can’t print a test page, then the problem is with your printer.

Most printers now have a button, or a sequence of buttons you can push to print a test page. As it is different for each printer model, you will need to consult your printer’s user manual for directions.

You can also try to print something from a different program. We would suggest you use a simple word processing, or even better, Wordpad or Notepad. If you can print from one of these two programs then the problem is within the program you are trying to print from.

Hopefully this is helpful, and can prevent some hardships on your part. We’re happy to help, so if you get to a point in your tests, or find out what the problem is and don’t know what to do next, give us a call.

And, if you have any suggestions to add to these, please feel free.

You can also try to print something from a different program. We would suggest you use a simple word processing, or even better, Wordpad or Notepad. If you can print from one of these two programs then the problem is within the program you are trying to print from.

Hopefully this is helpful, and can prevent some hardships on your part. We’re happy to help, so if you get to a point in your tests, or find out what the problem is and don’t know what to do next, give us a call.

And, if you have any suggestions to add to these, please feel free.

We’ve decided to take page from the music and movie (DVD) industry and call Tuesdays, “New Cartridge Tuesday”. Each Tuesday, we’ll take the time to let you know about our latest cartridge release and give you some information on that new cartridge. So as you rush out to buy your copies of Norbit, The Messengers, and Seinfeld - Season 8 make sure you pick up the following printer cartridges.

This week we are proud to announce the release of the compatible version of the Canon CLI-8 series of black and color ink cartridges. So far the CLI-8 cartridges have been used exclusively in Canon’s PIXMA and PIXUS inkjet printers. We’ve had a great response from customers purchasing the Canon brand of these cartridges. Once added to our website the series quickly became one our top selling cartridge sets. We expect that this popularity will shift over to the compatible CLI-8 series (CLI-8BK, CLI-8C, CLI-8M, CLI-8Y) because of their high quality and lower cost. You can purchase these cartridges individually, or as a set of four with our compatible CLI-8 4 pack color ink tank set.

While the Canon manufactured cartridges are priced at $14.99 each, the compatible versions of these cartridges are priced at $9.99 each. When you buy three or more of each individual cartridge you only pay $8.99 each. You will also pay $8.99 each when you purchase the 4 pack color ink tank set.

So far we have been calling them compatible, which they are, but they also have an element of being remanufactured to them. Canon manufacturers these cartridges with a chip on them. The printer communicates through the chip so the correct amounts of ink are dispersed on the page. Chips from the Canon manufactured cartridge are collected and then used on these remanufactured/compatible cartridges. Bottom line is that you are receiving a cartridge that is made of completely new plastic and other components. They only piece that is not completely new is the chip. By reusing the manufacturer brand chip we can provide a higher quality product and prevent the silicon and other components that make up the chip from being thrown away (recycling!).

Pacific Ink’s preliminary test release provided great reviews of the product. If you have already used this cartridge, let us know what you think.

Our compatible version promises to print with the same quality you have experienced when using the Canon manufactured cartridge. Just as we do with every other cartridge we guarantee the compatible CLI-8 cartridges to your satisfaction. Give us a call if you are not happy with the cartridge.

The HP DeskJet 2360 inket printer allows you to print vibrant photos and crisp black text. HP has made use of the DeskJet series as a good hybrid of photo quality and every day text printing. It is a good general use printer. It also features a print cancel button to help you in those times of need when you accidentally click print, but really did not mean to. We have not had any experience to how quickly the cancel button stops the print though. In the past, print cancel buttons still allow 1/2 to 3/4’s of a page to be printed before it stops.

The printer prints up to 20 pages per minute in black/white, and 14 pages per minute in color. It also features five different print modes: Fast Draft, Fast normal, Normal, Best and Maximum dpi. Most printers only allow you three. The DeskJet 2360 has a compact design and holds, a maximum, 100 sheets of standard sized paper. It was designed NOT to be a desk hog.

The printer can be purchased for as low as $49.99 and uses the HP 21, HP 22, and HP 58 inkjet cartridges. Fully compatible, remanufactured cartridges are available for this printer to save you some money. Of course, Pacific Ink has them (shameless plug!).

Here’s what users of the 2360 are saying:

If you own this printer, let Pacific Ink know what you think.

Xerox has invented invisible ink! This is pretty cool.

It was announced this week that Xerox has developed an invisible ink that fluoresces under ultraviolet light and can be used by most commercial printers. Developed by the Xerox Innovation Group, the invisible ink is created by using a special combination of toners that creates the effect by using inks that react with the fluorescent agents paper manufacturers use to make their paper seem brighter.

What is the benefit of this?

Well, a four color digital printer can print anything it normally would, but could also print an individual identifier on each document using a fluorescent identifier. The best news is that it would seem there is no need for new printers, just new toner cartridges that hold the updated toner powder.

This technology has immediately been compared to that which is used to print currency (watch out!). High denomination bills are printed with a fluorescent coloring, but the equipment used to print money is very expensive. This technology allows for users to use it at a relatively low cost.

The ramifications of this are big. Let Pacific Ink know what you think.