The Truth About Discount Ink Cartridges - Comments Page 6

I have been using non OEM new ink cartridges for years in a Brother DCP 135 C. NO problems. With the CANON iP 4940 you can get super cheap cartridges on the net, but with those you have to re-install the small printed board from the used cartridge, which is not really worthwhile as you can get cheap cartridges that come with their own chip. It is obvious the manufacturers of printers copy Rockefeller's idea to hand out oil lamps for free (to the Chinese) and make huge profits on selling the lamp-oil. To keep ahead of the cartridge copy cats the manufacturers keep changing printer models very often and and thereby infuriate the buyers who stocked up on OEM cartridges which then must be thrown away. You can never buy the old printer model if you printer breaks down: it is no more available. Non-OEM cartridges also have to be thrown away, it is just that you throw away less money. My fridge and my Whirlpool micro-oven were expensive when I bought them 21 years (!) ago, but they still work perfectly. My two DELL 32 " screens are I think 15 years old and still perfect and so is my 24 year old Mercedes 350 SL. But they are all from a period when you had to be honest to succeed in business. In those days a new model had to incorporate new features you wanted, to-day you are forced to switch from XP to 7 which has no feature I would want to pay a cent for.

Kaarlo von Freymann Helsinki Finland

I do use rmanufactured toner in my Hp laserjet, but have been leery to use off-brand ink in my Epson Stylus 2880 because of its high resolution and extremely small nozzle size. Am I crazy? I'd love to hear that I am!
Dave Press

I notice the article did not mention the subject of Intellectual Property (IP) and if the aftermarket ink cartridges you refer to are IP cleared or not. My understanding was that if an ink cartridge is not IP cleared then the OEM may pursuit the supplier for IP infringement and the cartridge may even be illegal to purchase and use.

I have recently replaced the ink cartridge on our postage meter with an aftermarket cartridge, the savings were around 40% and guaranteed to be Canada Post approved and 100% IP cleared with a 12 months warranty from www.smartmeterink.com
Ultimately I want the savings without the risk, doesn't everyone?

I now also buy non OEM Toner and they work great

What is your views on non - IP cleared products?

I have tried on a very expensive Cannon printer. Clogged my print head. Replaced the head and went back at it. Clogged again. Ended up replacing the printer for an HP I got for near free off a buddy. Decided I needed fax capability and got a Brother. LD ink went in right after the "starter" ink was gone. Streaky printouts almost immediately... clogged again. Got a replacement printer on warranty. I really want to like them because they are so cheap, but I keep getting clogged heads. The only one that wasn't an issue was the HP because the print head was built into the cartridge and I got a new head on every cartridge swap. The other two printers are of the ink tank type.

I have been purchasing LD Ink Cartridges for two years now with no problem with their ink or my Epson printer. The latest problem which they seem to refuse to respond to is sending me High Yield Cartridges in Extra High Yield boxes when I indeed purchased Extra High Yield. BEWARE of your purchase as this really got to me for my last 6 purchases. One will not look to compare cartridges to container boxes.
The fact that I have not received any recourse from LD is more than disappointment. AGAIN BEWARE!!!

No matter what, when I pay for my second round of OEM printer inks, I've eclipsed the cost of the printer. This being said, if I have to replace the printer every 2 years, I'm still way ahead financially. The compatible cartridges are usually a 5th of the cost. Some are bad, I just throw them away. I'm still way ahead. Oh...and even if I use OEM inks, I still need to replace the printers frequently. Warranties? Packing and shipping things this heavy back and forth isn't worth the time and effort and ship fees, unless maybe the warranty pay for 2 way shipping? What about your printer being gone for weeks? Tie the old printer to the bumper of your friends car that just got married and pony up for a new one. Got a bunch of useless non OEM inks left? Just thrown them away and be glad they aren't OEM.

I have used LD cartridges for 5 years now, Only one bad one which was immediately replaced. Will continue to get them (with the chip). Price is right

I have tried after market ink in my iP100. I think the photo's I got with it were as good as Canon ink but had a problem with the cartridge. Didn't tell me I was out of ink was out of ink and photo's went south. I called the company once I got it figured out and asked about their cartridges, they are not Canon cartridge's but are supposed to work the same.

I gave it a lot of though and I could still use after market ink but I don't find the cost of OEM ink, for the most part, all that expensive. I think my OEM cartridge's run me about $20 for it. If I were doing this for a living, that cost would come back in the sale of a photo. If i don't sell enough photo's to cover the cost of ink, I'm not charging enough.

On my Pro 9000 MKII. again, OEM ink is just not that expensive and cost is covered many time's over in a print. I think if I was in business or a high volume printer, my attitude might change.

I started buying refilled ink jet cartridges from a local shop. I was happy at first, but I started getting fewer prints per cartridge. I ended up spending more money on refilled cartridges than I spent for new H.P. Cartridges.

I greatly appreciate your help Bob and have applied many of your suggestions over time. I was thinking about trying remanufactured ink based on your recommendations. However, after reading these comments I pictured many of the reasons I stopped using these cartridges in the first place. I even tried refiling them myself and what a mess that turned out to be. Just not worth the time and hassle to try to recover from a misstep. Been there done that.

I have used aftermarket inks (CISS) with Epson printer for years with great results. I'm now using InkProducts brand of refillable cartridges with my Epson XP-600. I have two set of carts, so I don't have to stop and refill so often; I just pop in a replacement when it tells me it can't recognize the cart. Biggest aggravation is convincing the stupid printer that I REALLY do want to use that non-Epson cartridge; it takes 6 button pushes to wade through all the dire warnings. I've heard that if you do the recommended firmware update on this printer, it will no longer give you all those warnings - it just will not work unless it's got an original Epson cartridge in place, but I can't confirm that. Print quality with InkProduct ink is great, so it's worth a bit of button pushing to save a ton of money.

I have been using refilled cartridges for many years. In fact I generally refill my own cartridges. I have had some issues and questions about aftermarket inks used in printers with permanent printheads. These are subject to clogs and getting them unclogged can be a bear. Is there something proprietary about brand name inks that helps prevent clogs?
I generally use older HP printers with printheads in the cartridge. If these get a stubborn clog, just replace the cartridge. Refilling them is easy once you get the hang of it. Just pay attention whether to use pigmented ( generally black) or dye (color) based inks. I just refuse to pay $50 for an ink cartridge.
Before advising one of my friends in a printer purchase, I will research whether refilled Cartridges are even available. For some new printers they are not (yet), or chips in the cartridges prevent their reuse. In these cases, a cheap printer is no bargain. People just don't check on refill cost, and after buying a cheap printer are shocked when the "starter" cartridges run out of ink very soon and how much it costs to get new cartridges--often as much or more than the printer cost.

As to Debbie's post above regarding IP infringement. That case has long since been litigated when the ink manufacturer (I think it was Epson?) lost that case. The manufacturers then went to electronics (i.e. Chips) to try to prevent refills--and with some success. With some printers with an expired chip in the cartridge, the printer just will not work at all.

Hi Bob! I really enjoy reading your newsletter and have learned a lot over the years. I've been using LD generic inkjet cartridges for about three years and have had to send about 8 of them back during that time. I have my original HP psc 2410 all-in-one printer and sometimes the printer does not "recognize" the generic cartridges. I phone LD and they send me replacements plus the envelope to mail the "bad" one(s) back to them. No hassle at all unless I need the ink right that second! Have also bought reams of printer paper from them at 92 Brightness and it has never ever jammed my printer. I've used other generic cartridge suppliers for over 20 years but am very happy with LD. Good customer service, too!

I used off brand toner cartridges for my All In one Brother with no problem in the past. However the last one I bought 2 months ago is producing terrible copies: very dark, streaks, gray background. I cleaned the drum according to directions but it's not better. I called the company that sold me the cartridge and all they could advise is to send me another cartridge. Is my machine ruined? Should I buy the Brother brand cartridge? Please help.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Probably bad toner. I'd advise you try a Brother cartridge and see it it clears up.

Used Sophia Global aftermarket ink. Colors and print quality as good as or better than OEM. Unfortunately, one day my Cannon MX 892 upped and died. Said, "Printer error (B200) ... Contact the service center." The service center said, "B200? That's a fatal error."

Cannon Community bloggers indicated error was related to print head. Not saying aftermarket ink caused this malfunction. Can't help but wonder...

Bought another $100.00 printer, still using Sophia Global's ink. So far so good.

Recentlt bought from Amazon a Office World 950XL and 951 color cartridges. I bought 2 sets one for mys sons HP 860O offijet pro and my newer version.

This ink is cheap but it is total junk. All I do is clean and realign printer heads to get 1 page in which colors still smear.

DO NOT BUY THESE. AVOID WHAT I WENT THRU.

I have been going to kinkos for prints. Maybe other work fine but this is jumk. On Amamzon web site there are reviews like this but I ignored them. What a nightmare!

I have been using ink cartridges from www.inkfarm.com in my Canon printers for several years now without any problems. Their prices are quite a bit lower than genuine Canon cartridges.

I own a 25 year old toner cartridge remanufacturing facility in Minnesota. As with everything there is a right way, wrong way, cheap way, etc. We guarantee yield, density, and performance to be equal or better than OEM. I would add that our defect rate in July 2016 was .32%. Are there applications where you should ONLY use OEM?....10 years ago I would've said yes, today I say no...ours are better and we've created jobs in this country providing them for you!

I started buying non-OEM inks through Amazon late last year for my classroom printers (3 Canon Pro9000 MkII), for the obvious reason of saving cash. At $15 a cartridge, the printers have been bleeding my budget for years. The cartridges I bought loaded well, I had one failure out of about 40.
However, I have noticed a few prints that have been exposed to UV/Fluorescents are fading rapidly. I have some prints that have been hanging under the same light for 10 years that still look pretty decent.
Amy I wrong to cheap out or should I just try another manufacturer?

I have been using non-oem inks for 3 1/2 years on my canon ip4920 and the results have been fantastic in printing greeting cards on heavy matte double sided paper from staples (which I got for practically free when they ran coupons on it a couple of years ago). I buy my ink from ink4work on Amazon and usually pay about $6.00 for all five of my needed cartridges, though I think the price has gone up a little. My printer died recently and I'm purchasing a new canon and hoping to get the same great results from the Amazon ink4work cartridges.