Most of you people in this forum are business people doing an online store (referring mostly to SCCP) but I am sure this information will help most of you whether you do online stuff or not.

One of the most frustrating things about doing a business, online or not, is the expense of ink for your printers. I added it up some years back and was shocked at what I was spending. If you replace your ink cartridges once a month (which I feel is conservative for a business) that is 4 cartridges at a time (black, red, blue and yellow) at a cost of approximately $20 each for a total of $80 for that month times 12 months in the year equals a grand total for the year of $960 for ink. I think that is a disgrace and a true indicator of American Greed on the part of printer companies. Anyway, enough ranting.....

I have found a solution that I thought I would share with all of you. Some of you probably already know this but there are a few online stores out there that sell continuous ink systems that you hook up to your printers that replace the ink cartridges with a tank system that can be refilled at an EXTREMELY low price. I think the best place is this one:

http://inkproducts.com/

They have taken just about every printer out there and researched the possibility of putting their ink system on that printer. It does not work with all printers, so you will have to check their list of printers. It may even mean that you would have to buy a new printer, which is what I did 2 years ago when I bought my HP OfficeJet 6500 ($99). I figured it would be a good investment for several reasons. 1, because of the savings in ink and 2 because I would gain a fax machine and a copier in-one.

The ink for the printer cost me about $40 (including shipping) for a set of 4 bottles of ink (about $10 each). I get at least 5 refills from each bottle. That means that I am now paying $2 for ink each time I refill instead of $20. It is a tremendous savings.

Check it out. You can't go wrong. I have saved enough money over the years to buy a large screen LCD TV and pay off my car!!!!

Good luck. Let us know how the whole mess turns out.

Actually I have tried this type of thing for 3 different printers, and I have yet once to ever get it to work with any type of quality printing. I know some people though, that swear by it and it works great for them. Maybe I just suck at trying to put the ink in correctly lol. I gave up on the whole mess and I buy my printer inks at amazon.com for a pretty good discounted price

I am not sure what you mean Tom. It is far from a mess.

I have been doing this for over 5 years now on three different printers. Smartest thing I have done.

Jo Ann, the quality of print will be the same as what you get with any inkjet. It is the same ink after all, nothing different. Yes, it can be tricky to get the system to work sometimes, but once you do it and understand what is expected, it works awesome. I have no problem with the system.

Steve - You've been incredibly lucky
I tried this with an Epson printer and had horrible results. The colors were not the same at all and the ink didn't adhere to the various papers like the Epson ink did. And after taking the cartridges out the inside of the printer was a mess, had to clean it with Q-tips and alcohol.

With Epson printers (don't know about other brands) the inks are formulated for best results on Epson papers. Tried some HP photo paper once, it didn't work out well at all. Anyway, I'll stick with the same brand ink as the printer. Lesson learned!

Wow, this really makes me feel bad. I had really hoped that I was giving you guys some good advice. Sounds like maybe I am the only one that has had good luck.

Maybe it is the company that you used? The one I listed is the one most highly recommended.
Oh, well, I tried

Best solution I've found for saving $$$ on ink, Kodak Printer. I have the ESP 7 and spend about half of what I was spending on any previous HP that I've had. I can't be certain, but I think the prints are better quality too (actual photos).

About 8 years ago I purchased an HP LaserJet 4050N It was about $500 at the time and it is a network printer. I have only replaced the toner once in that time and that was actually 3 years ago. A new toner cartridge cost me around $20.

This printer has been hands down the best printer I have ever owned. You can get them now for under $200.00

Dang, my HP toner cost me $75.

What they charge for ink, they should give you the printer for free.

I can remember a time, before I started using these continuous ink cartridges, when I needed a new ink or a new printer (and seems like you always needed a new printer when Windows came out with a new version, not compatible) I would go to the office supply store and look for the cheapest printer (sometimes free after a whopping rebate) just so that I could get the ink that came with the printer. It was cheaper than buying new ink.