Remanufactured cartridges begin life as an original branded cartridge. Once used and returned (often via a charitable initiative such as that between Tonik and Macmillan Cancer Suport) the cartridge will then be thoroughly cleaned, removing any residual ink or toner and then dried. If the cartridge has a chip attached this will either be replaced or reset so that it can be used again.Finally ink or toner will be injected back into the cartridge until it is full before resealing the whole with a strong bonding sticker. The sticker will stop exposure to the atmosphere and keeping the ink from drying out inside the cartridge.

It is worth noting that you will probably get more ink from the remanufactured cartridge as you would do from the original as they will be filled to capacity.

Is remanufactured right for you? The use of remanufactured is not advised by the manufacturer of your printer for obvious reasons; they wish you to purchase there own cartridges at a much higher price. It is advisable that you use original cartridges if you still have the initial manufacturers' warranty on your printer. If not you may not be covered if you are found to be using remanufactured cartridges, whether they are to blame for the fault or not.

Moderate to heavy printing users such as text, where fine quality print is not important benefit the most from remanufactured cartridges. The savings to be made speak for themselves. Not only will remanufactured cartridges generally be cheaper but also cartridges will usually contain far more ink-sometimes around three times as much, offeing very considerable savings indeed.

The ink within the remanufactured cartridge should not be considered as good as the original ink for very fine work. Manufacturers spend a lot of time and money developing and adding various different composite chemicals to prevent against ink residue forming on components and for improved longevity and absorption onto paper.High Quality printing, such as photos and fine art graphics are best achievable when using the original inks.

Over time the use of remanufactured ink cartridges may cause a small build up of residual ink. The best method is to intermittently- every 4 or so remanufactured cartridges used, purchase an original. The original cartridges cleaning agent within the ink should breakup any build up of ink residue.With this precaution and when used appropriately however, remanufactured cartridges can offer you very worthwhile savings.