Today we can find computer in almost every household, so printing at your own home with your own printer is not a miracle at all. Printers became quite a cheap commodity, so it means – affordable to almost everyone. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about ink cartridges, which we can call the essence of the printer. It doesn’t matter, whether you use your printer every day or just once a week, you still have to buy and change ink cartridges quite often. If you have already done it at least once, probably you know what an embarrassing and complex procedure it is. And, of course, money-eating. Whether you did it or not, this article will be useful for you anyway, because next time when you will buy an ink cartridge, you will be able to avoid the most common mistakes done in the process.
Before beginning, it would be useful to get common knowledge about ink cartridges. It is a disposable part of a printer with a plastic body. Inside it, there are some separate reservoirs with different ink and also electric contacts – they help the cartridge to communicate with a printer. Basically cartridges are designed to work with a particular series of printer. It means that there are even more types of cartridges than printers. So what are the mistakes, you should avoid making, when buying a cartridge to your printer?
When you come to the printer supplies shop and you cannot tell what you need, you probably embarrass not only yourself, but also the consultant. The best way to avoid it, is to not to forget to read your printer’s manual. It has to be somewhere in your printer’s box or in a CD in PDF format. If you have thrown away the box already, you can easily get a free PDF file on internet. Just don’t be lazy to go to Google.
If you are too busy to read a manual, there is a solution as well – you just need to have the serial number of your cartridge. Take the cartridge with you (in some box) or just simply make a photo of the serial. If this is still too much for you, try at least to remember the model and producer of your printer. Shop consultant will easily find something suitable for you.
The other mistake is all about ink type. There are two types of ink: dye-based or pigment-based ink. The first one is slow-drying and makes blurred images, the other one dries much faster and prints clearer images. Consider what type of prints you are making the most and how important is the quality of the images and then it won’t be difficult for you to choose the right one.
Other mistake is about not buying a new cartridge and buying a refill set. It is better not to do it, unless there are no more factory produced ink cartridges in stores for your old model printer. If you decide to take a refill option, better let the professionals do it. You will remain clean and your printer still working.
The last and quite common mistake is spending too much money on your cartridges. There is always more than one option for you to choose, when you buy a cartridge for particular printer. If you do it in an official shop, probably there will be no chance for you to save money. Try to search for them online. And always consider buying a cartridge from other producer– quite often they can suite your printer very well and cost you less money. For example – Dell ink cartridges: there are many kinds of them and mostly they cost less than the ones, produced by competitors.
Avoid these mistakes and you will have no more problems with your prints and more money left in your wallet. Good luck!
