Testing the Water
Printers
Just found out to my cost that computer printers (at least HP and Epson) are regionalised, rather like DVD players, which means that even if you can get ink cartridges UK printers will not work in NZ. I brought spare cartridges with me and have now run out and am left with a couple of expensive footstools.
Can't see the logic behind it except possibly to sell more printers, Epson NZ customer services reaction when I called was basically "tough, buy a new printer"
Serial procrastinator and general busybody
Can you buy cartridges through Amazon and the like?
Senior Member
yep, that was the response I got when I asked them where I could get replacement cartridges. I did get my parents to bring over a few cartridges for me when I found out. I assume the cartridges could be refilled by the likes of Cartridge World but haven't tried it yet.Originally Posted by dragon56
Senior Member
Eeek! Thanks for this.. we're about to buy a secondhand HP from a friend, mainly because it's an A3 printer that would normally cost ££££. I shall check out future access to cartridges....
Member
I refilled my own cartridges for my HP printer when I was in NZ(you can buy the refill kits at various places in NZ). You will still have to replace the cartridges after several refills, but it would reduce the number of times a year you had to purchase cartridges from overseas.
Administrator
We started using Cartridge World when they first appeared in the UK, and to begin with, everything was fine and we recommended the service to everybody. Then, after about six months, we started to find that the refilled cartridges just didn't perform nearly as well - began to leak, or to print streaky, all kinds of malfunctions. The shop was very apologetic and would refill for nothing, but it kept on happening, and since it was a 35-mile round trip, it was expensive as well as inconvenient, so we took to buying new cartridges at much cheaper than shop prices from a supplier on the internet. I would hesitate to rely on Cartridge World now, though.
We did wonder if the printer-manufacturers had started to build something into the cartridges that would automatically sabotage the refilling process. (I believe many printers now have a feature that recognizes its own manufacturers' cartridges and will only function for them.)
Senior Member
The problem of printer regionalisation was previously reported by Jo Jo for HP printers. In that case, the manufacturer provided instructions as to how to change the region code of the printer so that it would accept NZ cartridges.
No idea if this is model specific though, so well worth contacting HP to see what they say.
Ian
Senior Member
Yes, definitely check with HP - I'm sure that they said they can change the regionalisation coding on all of their regionalised models, but it's worth checking just in case things have changed. It took me about an hour on the phone to customer services to change the regionalisation on my printer (this was in 2008 - I wonder if they've made the process any easier now?)
Administrator
There are lots of hits if you Google this - looks hopeful.
Junior Member
You could consider a Continuous Ink Supply System like you've seen advertised on the telly - Melco Technologies. I got fed up feeding my little HP. I'd tried alternative manufacturer carts from Stationary Warehoue on the HP and it was horrible.
So... I've had the tanks on the Brother MFD for about a year now, and have reloaded the black ink once. Still plenty of colour ink left. I print a lot of text, with colour text, but not many piccies or things like that. Overall, I'm very impressed with the CISS system.
However.... how easy is to fit depends on your printer; the Brother MFD was a cinch, as it already has a tanks based system, and the CISS just pops its thingies into the Brother tank holes. Five minute installation.
However... adding tanks to daughters Cannon pixma was less straightforward (she gave up and called on Dad, and he wasn't too clever either, it has to be said!), and I dont actually like the way it is mechanically, but it seems to work, and the student in her will enjoy not buying carts or paying student printing prices at her institution. Hers cost her $129 whereas mine was $69, but there was a year between those purchases.
Posting Permissions
