Before I purchase the compact mp230 to replace my gigantic mx870 I'd like an opinion please from anyone who has/had one? The replacement ink costs more then the printer and I wonder if these cartridges can be filled with generic ink?
Thoughts on the Canon mp230?
- Thread starter johneltin
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The two cartridge printers are cheap to buy but expensive to run. The cost of a set of XL cartridges may exceed the price of a new printer with standard cartridges.
A couple of years ago it was much more easy to recommend a printer: Buy one of the single ink tank Canon printers. The ink tanks are refill friendly and a resetter makes the cartridges look like new OEM to the printer, so you still have the ink monitoring and don't risk burning out the print head by printing with empty cartridges.
Now Canon has introduced the PGI-x50/CLI-x51 and PGI-x70/CLI-x71 cartridge series. x is a region dependent number. These new cartridges are opaque and no resetter exists for these cartridges, so they are not suitable for refill. If you don't want to pay the price for new OEM cartridges, you can use compatible cartridges for single use or refillable cartridges with auto reset chips. But some of these after market cartridges are good while others are not.
Even if the combined sponge/print head cartridges are not as refill friendly as the single ink tanks they can be refilled, and the ink level monitoring can be disabled to allow printing with refilled cartridges. Here is a druckerchannel article about refilling these canon cartridges, and here is a translation to something similar to English. The cartridges are older, but the PG-x10 and PG-x12 and CL-x11 and CL-x13 used in the MP230 are very similar, so the instruction is also suitable for these cartridges.
You can use ink harvested from older Canon single ink cartridges or you can buy suitable refill inks for the refill-
A couple of years ago it was much more easy to recommend a printer: Buy one of the single ink tank Canon printers. The ink tanks are refill friendly and a resetter makes the cartridges look like new OEM to the printer, so you still have the ink monitoring and don't risk burning out the print head by printing with empty cartridges.
Now Canon has introduced the PGI-x50/CLI-x51 and PGI-x70/CLI-x71 cartridge series. x is a region dependent number. These new cartridges are opaque and no resetter exists for these cartridges, so they are not suitable for refill. If you don't want to pay the price for new OEM cartridges, you can use compatible cartridges for single use or refillable cartridges with auto reset chips. But some of these after market cartridges are good while others are not.
Even if the combined sponge/print head cartridges are not as refill friendly as the single ink tanks they can be refilled, and the ink level monitoring can be disabled to allow printing with refilled cartridges. Here is a druckerchannel article about refilling these canon cartridges, and here is a translation to something similar to English. The cartridges are older, but the PG-x10 and PG-x12 and CL-x11 and CL-x13 used in the MP230 are very similar, so the instruction is also suitable for these cartridges.
You can use ink harvested from older Canon single ink cartridges or you can buy suitable refill inks for the refill-
palombian
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Is your MX870 broken or just too big ?
It has PGI x20/CLI-x21 cartridges who are transparant, resettable and refillable.
Placing the printer beside your desk on a low table (as the IKEA LACK, € 5.99 http://www.ikea.com/be/nl/catalog/products/20011413/#/20011408) makes it look less gigantic.
Replacements for the MX870 are the MX715, MX885, MX895.
These printers use PGI-x25/CLI-x26, the last series of resettable and although opaque, refillable carts.
You still can find one sometimes second hand with a low page count for about € 50 (I stock all printers using these carts
).
The newer models are indeed less bulky, but (besides being difficult to refill) lack dual input trays.
It has PGI x20/CLI-x21 cartridges who are transparant, resettable and refillable.
Placing the printer beside your desk on a low table (as the IKEA LACK, € 5.99 http://www.ikea.com/be/nl/catalog/products/20011413/#/20011408) makes it look less gigantic.
Replacements for the MX870 are the MX715, MX885, MX895.
These printers use PGI-x25/CLI-x26, the last series of resettable and although opaque, refillable carts.
You still can find one sometimes second hand with a low page count for about € 50 (I stock all printers using these carts
).The newer models are indeed less bulky, but (besides being difficult to refill) lack dual input trays.
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