Refilling at CostCo

[l_d_allan]

I'm using Costco refill ink

I'm not a CostCo member, but thought this might be of interest to some if you are just getting started with refilling, such as myself.

[Edit] Disregard most of following post ... written by a refilling pre-newbie (me ... mea culpa) who was intimidated by cart prep. I now have my doubts that Costco really uses oem Canon ink for refilling. Cart prep isn't that difficult, but there is a learning curve for either top-refilling or German-refilling.

For the rest of February, they have reduced the refill price by $2.00, limit of two cartridges at a time. I had an extended discussion with the Photo Dept. manager, and learned that:
* All Canon cart refills that they handle were $6.00 instead of $8.00. I didn't pay attention to Epson, HP, etc. Some Hp XL's were $2.00 higher, IIRC.
* They use real vendor OEM ink (Canon for Canon, Epson for Epson, HP for HP, Lexmark for Lexmark, etc.) I had barely heard of CostCo refilling, but had the misconception they used non-Oem ink.
* I watched them use a machine to drill the hole for what I would describe as "traditional top filling".
* Another step was the machine doing a minor purge on your cartridge, "not somebody else's junk" as she put it. In my limited experience (understatement), getting the hole opened up and the ball pushed into the reservoir with Canon carts is half the battle. It's also a one-time-per-cart task.
* Reset the chip, as applicable
* Only apples to certain carts, not including my CLI-8. Not yet for brand new CLI-225 / 226. [Edit] May include CLI-8 carts?
* Gotta be a CostCo member.

So what? Maybe this is a "who cares"? Is this another case of "Lynn is easly entertained"?

Well, if I were starting over ...
I'd consider letting CostCo prep my carts as they hit empty. If I had some empty non-prepped carts, I'd be tempted to let CostCo do the prep.

I'd consider juggling priorities to do a Lot of printing between now and the end of February so I ended up with two complete sets of carts for my printer, which had been prepped by a machine + tech who knows what they are doing.

From that point, I'd do my own refilling. Even at $6.00 per cart on sale, that adds up too fast for my limited budget and the amount of printing I want to do.

But maybe "life's too short" to have it revolve around printing and getting a deal on cart refilling ???

 

[mikling]

I have a hard time believing the use of real vendor OEM ink. That simply does not compute if I was Canon or Epson etc. When a major chunk>30-50%% of HP net profits ( including all the PC sales, med equipmeent etc) come from the ink sales, you think they will give that stuff away. No way.

Last year someone was telling me that they were speaking with the mgr. of the Photo dept who told him that their dry lab was using pigment ink for their 4x6!

 

[fotofreek]

opening a top filling hole is very easy. Open one end of a large paper clip but leave one loop intact. Hold the loop end in a pair of pliers and the straight end over a flame. Midway between the ball and the end of the cart "melt" a hole in the plastic over the reservoir side and enlarge it slightly. If you are going to use a stainless screw plus an O ring to seal, use a pan head sheet metal screw (look up dimensions in previous posts) as it is self tapping and will make its own correct size hole. If you will be using a silicone plug you will use the hole you created with the paper clip wire as a starting hole and use a drill of a correct size for the plug. After doing either of these to enlarge the hole to the correct size, take a sharp knive or a songle edge razor blade (available at hardware or paint stores) and shave off any "flash" of plastic above the top of the cart. This takes less than 10 minutes and is very easy to do. Practice first on a junk cart if you have one.

 

[pharmacist]

Actually there is a special refill adapter for the CLI-8 cartridges which forces the ink through the ink outlet hole and into the ink chamber by using a push-pull (creating a vacuum in the ink compartment) syringe. I believe Eweko GmbH (mother company of OCP inks) sells this rather expensive tool.

 

[fotofreek]

I'm using Costco refill ink

I'm not a CostCo member, but thought this might be of interest to some if you are just getting started with refilling, such as myself.

I remember that post - poor guy had so many things going wrong with his efforts! I use Image Specialist inks from Precision Color. I used to buy it from an online vendor named MIS, and the Costco refill ink kits were named IMS. The Costco ink was a "universal' ink that was sold to refill several brands of printers. Because there are different technologies with different brand printers I would only use ink specifically formulated for the brand printer I am refilling. Newbies would sometimes confuse the recommended MIS ink with the IMS inks from Costco. Since I don't have any need to buy their refill inks I don't know if that is the same brand they still sell.

 

[Pdub]

Will costco refill the Canon CLI-221 carts?

 

[l_d_allan]

PDub,

According to this page , they do. Note that the Feb sale is over.

I notice the Costco page mentions "6" and "8". I don't know if that means they will refill a BCI-6 or CLI-8.

I now have some doubts that it is the specific Canon ink for a specific Canon cartridge. The department manager said they used real Canon ink, but I wonder if it is a universal ink, perhaps from Canon. It may be that all modern ink cartridges from Canon use their Chromalife-100 ink. I really don't know.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The department manager said they used real Canon ink, but I wonder if it is a universal ink, perhaps from Canon.

You can rest assured, they do not use real Canon ink. I wouldn't believe anything that department manager says.

 

[Pdub]

Allan, thanks for your answer.

I think costco doing it for me will be a good option since I don't really want to shell out for a chip resetter or any of those other tools needed to refill the carts myself. Like others suggested above, I'm really only after the cartridge prep work and am not that concerned with the brand of ink used.

 

[The Hat]

Pdub I'm really only after the cartridge prep work and am not that concerned with the brand of ink used.

Speed on Brother Hell aint half Full yet.
Its the brand of ink that is in you cartridges, thats the most important otherwise trouble is sure to follow..