I paid forty dollars for a printer ink cartridge once, and it printed maybe two hundred pages before it died. The math hurt. Then I learned about refill kits, and my printing costs dropped to almost nothing.

Refilling a cartridge sounds messy and risky, but the modern kits make it a ten minute job, and the savings are hard to ignore.

What a refill kit includes

A kit comes with ink, a syringe, and instructions for your printer model. It costs a fraction of a new cartridge and refills the same cartridge several times.

Refill before it runs dry

The best time to refill is when the printer says low ink, not when it is empty. A cartridge that runs bone dry can clog, and a clogged print head is the one thing that kills refills.

Follow the kit steps exactly

Each kit is a little different. Read the instructions for where to inject the ink. Most cartridges have a fill hole under the label. Inject slowly, do not overfill, and wipe any excess off the contacts.

Clean the contacts while you are in there

The gold contacts on the cartridge get dirty and cause error messages. Wipe them with a dry cloth or a little rubbing alcohol before you put the cartridge back. Clean contacts mean the printer recognizes it.

Run a cleaning cycle after refilling

After refilling, run the printer cleaning cycle once or twice. It pulls the new ink through the print head. Then print a test page to check the colors.

When to give up on refills

Cartridges wear out after a few refills. When the print quality stays streaky no matter what, buy one new cartridge and start the cycle again. The savings still add up fast.

My printer ink costs about five dollars a refill now instead of forty. The first kit paid for itself on the first refill, and the second kit is still going.