Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 2, February 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Fill 'er up: Island Ink-Jet refills cartridges

By JAMES BUSH

Some items that are small in size can be quite costly: gold, diamonds, printer cartridges.

But Celjeta Xaxa has the cure for the throwaway printer cartridge. She is the first U.S. franchisee of Island Ink-Jet, a British Columbia-based company whose shopping center-based locations refill color or black-and-white printer cartridges while you shop. She set up business at Northgate Mall in mid-December, adjacent to the shopping center's Food Court entrance.

"We refill just about any inkjet cartridge on the market," she says. The process takes as little as 10 minutes, but never more than an hour, depending on how many cartridges are waiting to be filled.

Unlike some refill kits, which use watered-down inks designed to be used in as many different cartridges as possible, Island Ink-Jet has reproduced some 100 different ink formulations used by the major printer manufacturers. The company also sells compatible cartridges for most Epson and Canon printers, plus do-it-yourself refill kits, although "about 95 percent" of Xaxa's business is refilling cartridges, she says.

She knows the figures because she originally operated her business in Puyallup's South Hill Mall for a year. She wanted to move the operation to Northgate because of its proximity to the University of Washington, where she is two quarters away from finishing an International Studies degree with a focus on international business.

Not that she doesn't know a bit about business already: hired to work at Island Ink-Jet's first company-owned U.S. store in Auburn, she worked there for two weeks before realizing the potential of the business and deciding to buy her own franchise.

A native of Albania, Xaxa says her family encouraged her to live with relatives in Seattle and attend the UW during that country's 1997 civil war. "The plan was to spend a year in school here," she says. "But I really loved it here and decided to stay."

While the cost of refilling cartridges varies by type, most can be replenished for between $12 and $17, a huge savings over buying new cartridges. "It's environmentally friendly as well," notes Xaxa, as it keeps empty cartridges out of the landfill. The number of times a cartridge can be refilled before failing depends on the type: Lexmark cartridges are basically just cheaply constructed ink containers and can be reused just three or four times. Cartridges by other makers can be refilled up to 30 times. Island Ink-Jet offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

It takes just a few minutes to refill a cartridge, using steam to loosen up ink which might be clogging the jets and a sonic cleaner (relying on ultrasonic waves) to remove it. A hole is drilled in the top, the ink is injected, and the hole is sealed.

The first few months in business will involve educating consumers on the care and reuse of inkjet cartridges, says Xaxa.

You should stop your printer immediately when you start to notice any streaking or deterioration of print quality, she says. The ink acts as a lubricant for cartridges which include print heads, so printing those last few streaky pages (which end up in the recycling bin anyway) can cause the head to heat up and incurably damage the cartridge. Many newer printers have ink level indicators which can provide early warning that a cartridge is near empty.

Xaxa advises that you remove the cartridge from the printer and put it in a sealable plastic bag with a bit of moist paper towel to keep the ink from drying up. Then get it refilled in a few days.

Have a drawer full of empty cartridges? Once dried, the ink permanently clogs the jets; please dispose of them properly.

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For more information, call Island Ink-Jet at 363-0070.