Lexmark Cartridge No. 17 - print cartridge (010N0217E)

...is outrageous. Most of the Lexmark printers on the market use 2 cartridges, a black and a tri-colour. These cartridges can cost up to £30 each making it an expensive do to print those masterpieces. Lexmark however seem to have come up with a pretty good idea and it is a simple one really, take a normal cartridge and do not completely fill it and sell it half price or in this case just under at £14.97. The box for this cartridge identifies the cartridge ...
...The cartridges are in fact Lexmark 27 cartridges which have not been filled completely with the ink required.

I have found that even using these economy cartridges I still get a pretty good amount of printing done for my near £15. And as of yet I have not had to discard one for having dried out, whereas when I used the No 27 the full version of the No 17 I was constantly purchasing cartridge flush to clean the print heads and get ... more

Having a printer can be very expensive, the prices generally of cartridges is outrageous. Most of the Lexmark printers on the market use 2 cartridges, a black and a tri-colour. These cartridges can cost up to £30 each making it an expensive do to print those masterpieces. Lexmark however seem to have come up with a pretty good idea and it is a simple one really, take a normal cartridge and do not completely fill it and sell it half price or in this case just under at £14.97. The box for this cartridge identifies the cartridge as a moderate use cartridge compared to the No 27 which is the same and identified as a high yield cartridge. Unfortunately there seems to be no indication as to exactly what is considered a moderate usage.

Since most people only use their prints now and then and the cartridges have a tendency to dry out it seems to me that it's good sense to use an economy version for those odd print offs that you require. The quality of print is exactly the same, the print head is exactly the same the only difference is the price and the fact that they are not full. The cartridges are in fact Lexmark 27 cartridges which have not been filled completely with the ink required.

I have found that even using these economy cartridges I still get a pretty good amount of printing done for my near £15. And as of yet I have not had to discard one for having dried out, whereas when I used the No 27 the full version of the No 17 I was constantly purchasing cartridge flush to clean the print heads and get the cartridge working again. This can once again be quite expensive since the flush itself is around £2.99 for 20ml.

The no 17 and No 27 are easily fitted to your printer and are obviously interchangeable should you have a big print job on. When you purchase your printer it is the economy cartridges that are supplied so take note if you intend to do a lot of printing because your No 17 cartridge will most probably not be sufficient to do the job especially if your project includes a lot of pictures.

With the prices of cartridges being so expensive it might also be worth considering re-filling your old cartridge. there are many kits out there to accomplish this task and you can save yourself a LOT of money by doing so. I have found that on average a Lexmark cartridge can be filled about 10 times before you can notice a appreciable drop in print quality, this is the time to get a new cartridge and start the process all over again.

All in all I certainly find that using the No 17 cartridge has saved me money overall since my print needs are moderate. I also find that it does not dry out as quickly as the No 27 although if your printing is done over a long period of time you may well still need to purchase some cartridge flush to get it printing after a long spell of inactivity.

Should this turn out to be the case then simply add a little of the flush to a lint free cloth and with a bit of TLC gently wipe the print heads to removed any dried in ink. To check whether you have been successful in your efforts dab the print heaqd onto apiece of kitchen roll and you should see three coloured dots RED BLUE and YELLOW. Repeat the process until you see the dots and your cartridge will work great again. 

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