# Canon says I have to purchase a new ink cartridge...refills don't work



## IngridN (Feb 28, 2012)

I recently purchased the Canon PIXMA MX882 all in one printer. I purchased a second set of ink cartridges as I like to have a backup just in case. I thought I would save some money by using Costco's cartridge refill plan. Lo and behold, when I replaced the empty black #225 cartridge with the Costco refilled one, the printer does not recognize it. It continues to tell me that the cartridge is empty and replace it. I did turn the printer off and back on...no change.

I can't believe Costco is scamming me...is Canon wrong? Their tech support guy keeps saying I have to purchase a brand new cartridge. He says that the cartridges have a sensor and the printer is picking up an 'empty' signal even though it's full.

Any thoughts as to what I need to do to get the printer to recognize the refilled cartridge?  Thx.

Ingrid


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## Makai Guy (Feb 28, 2012)

Will it print?  It may well be that the non-Canon cartridge cannot communicate its ink level to the printer.  I sometimes even have that problem with genuine Lexmark carts in my Lexmark printer -- but it will still print.


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## IngridN (Feb 28, 2012)

Makai Guy said:


> Will it print?  It may well be that the non-Canon cartridge cannot communicate its ink level to the printer.  I sometimes even have that problem with genuine Lexmark carts in my Lexmark printer -- but it will still print.



No, it won't print. It is a Canon cartridge with refilled ink from Costco. It is not a 3rd party cartridge.

Off to Office Depot to get some ink.

Ingrid


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## ronparise (Feb 28, 2012)

I tried the cartrige refill route with my HP...sometimes it works, sometimes not...so I gave in and have been buying the real deal


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## IngridN (Feb 28, 2012)

I'm going to look into inexpensive laser printers. Most of my printing is b/w and replacing the b/w cartridge every 2 to 3 weeks is ridiculous. Now that I'm retired, I need to watch my money  .

Ingrid


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## davhu1 (Feb 28, 2012)

Check ebay for hp catridge reset chips.


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## Passepartout (Feb 28, 2012)

You might check BestBuy. I saw in their ad this week a wireless laser printer for $110. Something like this will be my next printer- I'm tired of buying ink carts. 'Course you still have to buy toner carts and they are not cheap, but they won't dry out from lack of use.

Jim


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## Blues (Feb 28, 2012)

I have a Canon MX870.  I haven't tried refills, but I'm not too surprised they won't work.  Printer companies have become very adept at selling printers as loss-leaders, then hitting you hard on ink prices -- outrageous prices for smaller ink reservoirs, chip systems that lock you in, etc.

However, third-party ink vendors have come to the rescue with reasonable prices, and many of them have managed to duplicate the chips in the cartridges.  Don't pay Canon's prices for ink!

I've ordered ink cartridges from an Amazon vendor called ink4print.  I'm very happy with that vendor.  A complete set of 5 cartridges is less than $10, and they've all worked me, with no failures.  I'm about to order my 3rd set of cartridges from them (I've had the printer 2 years).

I'm sure there are other vendors that will work well, too.  But there are some that sell cartridges that don't work, so you have to be careful.  This is just a vendor that I've had good luck with.

HTH,
Bob


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## IngridN (Feb 28, 2012)

Passepartout said:


> You might check BestBuy. I saw in their ad this week a wireless laser printer for $110. Something like this will be my next printer- I'm tired of buying ink carts. 'Course you still have to buy toner carts and they are not cheap, but they won't dry out from lack of use.
> 
> Jim


Thx. I had an old HP cheapo laser jet for years and years and it was a workhorse. I worked at home sometimes and the company bought me the laser jet for home use. It seemed like the toner cartridges, although expensive, lasted forever. And for the printing I did in the last 2-3 weeks which depleted the b&w ink cartridge, the toner should last me at least a year.

I'll swing by tomorrow and also to Office Depot to check out the models.

Now I'm off to Costco to return the refill cart as well as price their laser printers.

Ingrid


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## DaveNV (Feb 28, 2012)

Ingrid, I work in IT, and I've found that some refilled cartridges don't work as expected because of that sensor you're being told about.  Sometimes they fail when the original cartridge is empty, and even if refilled, the sensor no longer works.  The printer thinks the cartridge is still empty, even though it isn't.  So what you're seeing is actually very common.  

The problem is you can't tell which cartridges will fail and which won't, so it's a crap shoot when using refilled cartiridges like that.  The same thing can happen with refilled laser toner cartridges, and quite often with HP branded printers.  I'm sure other brands have the same issue.

At the hospital where I work, they try and save a few dollars by getting "remanufactured" laser toner cartridges from Office Depot, and about half the time they don't work right, so need to be returned for credit.  It's a big pain in the rear, and to my way of thinking, rarely provides enough cost saings to be worth the hassle.

In the case of your Costco cartirdges, take them back and request a refund.  Costco will give you back your money without a problem.

In the case of a black and white laser printer, go with a brand you trust, with available supply of toner cartridges at affordable rates.  If you don't need color, laser is a much more affordable way to go.  Shop around and don't overpay - printers go on sale all the time.  Like in all things these days, buying the device is often very cheap, but the supplies for it can cost an arm and a leg.

Good luck!

Dave


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## IngridN (Feb 28, 2012)

Blues said:


> I have a Canon MX870.  I haven't tried refills, but I'm not too surprised they won't work.  Printer companies have become very adept at selling printers as loss-leaders, then hitting you hard on ink prices -- outrageous prices for smaller ink reservoirs, chip systems that lock you in, etc.
> 
> However, third-party ink vendors have come to the rescue with reasonable prices, and many of them have managed to duplicate the chips in the cartridges.  Don't pay Canon's prices for ink!
> 
> ...



I will definitely give them a try. $10 is a fabulous price vs. Costco's $60 for the complete set. I'm still going to look into the b/w laser as most of my printing is b/w. I recently purchased a scanner to digitize thousands of negatives and will be printing lots of them so a cheap source of ink carts is invaluable.

Ingrid

Ingrid


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## DaveNV (Feb 28, 2012)

IngridN said:


> I recently purchased a scanner to digitize thousands of negatives and will be printing lots of them so a cheap source of ink carts is invaluable.
> 
> Ingrid



Food for thought:  Since you're going to Costco anyway, check their printing prices for digital images.  You may find if you want to print a bunch of things that it's cheaper all around having the images printed by Costco.  For a couple of reasons:  You'll not only use their equipment and ink, (saving wear and tear on your own stuff while receiving a better quality print, and without using up your own [expensive] photo paper), and because you don't have to pay for images you don't want.  An added benefit now is you can upload your images from your computer at home, and pick up your prints at the Costco warehouse.  I do this a lot.

Dave


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## hypnotiq (Feb 28, 2012)

I second what bmwguy says.

The more prints you're going to print, the more cost effective it will be to have Costco (or Shutterfly online) print the images.  Between the time, cost, and wear and tear on your equipment.


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## IngridN (Feb 28, 2012)

Arghhhhhhhhh...Costco forgot to reset the sensor in the cartridge  . Works great now.

What really pisses me off is that the Canon tech guy lied and lied and lied. I asked the same question several times to be sure he really understood what I was asking as he answered it the first time around wrt to 3rd party carts and not refilled ones...don't they listen when you explain your problem? He stated that the printer will not recognize refilled or 3rd party cartridges and that my ONLY option was to buy the real thing...worse than some timeshare salesmen.

I stopped off at Office Depot as well as Best Buy and checked into b/w laser printers. I wish I had looked into color laser printers when our all-in-one died last Christmas. The color laser printers are not that much more than my ink jet and the b/w laser jet I'm sure I'll purchase. I think the $110 at Best Buy is the next gen of the HP laserjet I had for several years. I would like one that also copies and Office Depot has a Brother on sale for $150, so I may get that one instead. Will research both wrt to toner capacity and go from there. Assuming they are comparable, I'll probably go with the Brother. Both are wireless. It surprises me that there are lots out there that aren't wireless!

BMWguynw, thanks for the recommendation to print the digital images at Costco. I didn't think of that and will definitely look into it.

Ingrid


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## presley (Feb 28, 2012)

IngridN said:


> Arghhhhhhhhh...Costco forgot to reset the sensor in the cartridge  . Works great now.
> 
> What really pisses me off is that the Canon tech guy lied and lied and lied. I asked the same question several times to be sure he really understood what I was asking as he answered it the first time around wrt to 3rd party carts and not refilled ones...don't they listen when you explain your problem? He stated that the printer will not recognize refilled or 3rd party cartridges and that my ONLY option was to buy the real thing...worse than some timeshare salesmen.



He could be partially right.  We use to buy refilled from office depot.  I say they worked about 50% of the time.  After having to return them for the third time, we went back to buying new.

Recently when I buying some new ones at Office Depot, I saw another customer deciding between new and refilled.  I told him my experience.  At that point, even the Office Depot rep agreed with me and said they often do not work - despite being reset.


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## pedro47 (Feb 28, 2012)

IngridN said:


> Arghhhhhhhhh...Costco forgot to reset the sensor in the cartridge  . Works great now.
> 
> What really pisses me off is that the Canon tech guy lied and lied and lied. I asked the same question several times to be sure he really understood what I was asking as he answered it the first time around wrt to 3rd party carts and not refilled ones...don't they listen when you explain your problem? He stated that the printer will not recognize refilled or 3rd party cartridges and that my ONLY option was to buy the real thing...worse than some timeshare salesmen.
> 
> ...



I am going to share this post with my local Costco store.  Please re-set the sensor.


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## Kal (Feb 28, 2012)

I have two b/w laser printers and a canon color inkjet. The bought the old HP laser over 15 years ago and it works perfectly. The only problem is drivers for Windows 7, but I found a nifty work around so it keeps on going.  The laser toners are much cheaper than the toner for the new laser printer. However, the last refilled toner for the new laser sat on the shelf for maybe 5 months and when I installed it, it was DOA. I took it apart and dumped the carbon out into the old toner carcass and surprise it worked fine. Fortunately I did the refill in the garage and had black carbon all over the place but it cleaned up. 

I have a very reliable source for refilled inkjet cartridges but I can get the prints on line alot cheaper than the cost of cartridges and paper. The vendor pointed out that he fills the cartridges to the brim while the manufacturer cartridges are not even full. Another reason to avoid paying a ransom for manufacturer cartridges. Even then, I rarely use the inkjet except for large format images.


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## IngridN (Feb 28, 2012)

presley said:


> He could be partially right.  We use to buy refilled from office depot.  I say they worked about 50% of the time.  After having to return them for the third time, we went back to buying new.
> 
> Recently when I buying some new ones at Office Depot, I saw another customer deciding between new and refilled.  I told him my experience.  At that point, even the Office Depot rep agreed with me and said they often do not work - despite being reset.



If he were partially right, he would have explained that to me. We went round and round and he was insistent that 3rd party and Canon cart refills will NEVER work. I always have a full one around when close to empty so I'll test the refilled cartridge before the one in the printer fully depletes. That way I won't be stuck if it stops printing and Costco is closed. They fully guarantee that the refills work, so if one doesn't, I'll get my $ back and be stuck buying at full price.

When I was at Office Depot this afternoon, I asked them about their refills and the guy told me they don't do refills, on the ink carts or toner carts...I must have hit the idiots jackpot today as Best Buy told me there is no info that a new ipad is coming out anytime soon :hysterical: when I asked if they had any info on release date.

Ingrid


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## Talent312 (Feb 28, 2012)

I had a decent stash of after-market carts for my Lexmark.
One day, I had the bright idea of doing a firmware update.
Suddenly, my Lexmark no longer recognized any of them,
even when I pried the chips off the old genuine ones.

Duly chastened, I now stick to genuine carts.
I found, strangely enuff, that a local Wal-Mart has the best prices.


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## BevL (Feb 28, 2012)

You can't beat HP laser printers, in my opinion.  They are just workhorses that refuse to die, or at least that's been my experience, both professionally and now at home.


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## robcrusoe (Feb 28, 2012)

Talent312 said:


> ...One day, I had the bright idea of doing a firmware update....


cartridgeworld.com
has a store in my local strip mall here in Papeete
there's nothing online
but at the store they pass out a piece of paper that says
DON'T UPDATE FIRMWARE
becuase the printer manufacturers are making it impossible to use refills


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## pjrose (Feb 29, 2012)

For some previous printers - Epson I think - I refilled my own cartridges, and one particular model required me to do a chip reset.  I bought it cheaply from the same source that sold me the ink refill kits.  

It might not be a bad idea to have your own chip resetter on hand; check online.


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## Don (Feb 29, 2012)

I have an old Pixma MP150.  It's probably not as "smart" as yours, but even though it givess me the low ink alarm light with new refilled cartridges, it still prints.


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## IngridN (Feb 29, 2012)

My new Brother b/w laser printer/copier/scanner is sitting in the house waiting for install  . Office Depot had a great sales price ($150) on these. $10 less if ordering online thru Amazon, but for $10 I would rather not deal with potential problems and having to return. I'm a happy camper as most of my printing is b/w and this should save me substantial $$$ in ink cart costs. Costco has a Lexmark on sale for $99 and I was sorely tempted, however, it did not have the copy capability.

Ingrid


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## bobby (Mar 2, 2012)

We have an office size HP 5500N color copier. We bought what was advertised as compatible cartridges, assuming they were new. You could order them without opening up all the web description, where one place said remanufactured. We would never had bought remanufactured. Anyways, one of the toner cartridges ($183 compatible) fried the copier, to the tune of a $1,000 repair bill. Apparently in the remanufactured toners, the alignment of some part can not be exact and this can happen. Luckily, the company is taking all four back and I think will copy the damage. New cartridges from now on.


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