The Truth About Discount Inkjet Cartridges - Comments Page 1

I had a perfectly functional all-in-one that refused to print if ONE cartridge was dried up/empty/whatever.

Getting tired of this nonsense, I got a b&w laser printer.

Still great prints and no "drying" up.

No more inkjets for me.

Like Bob, I've been using cartridges from LD Products for several years in my Epson XP-400. Never a problem, good quality print (mostly text, sometimes with graphics, both b/w and color). Epson always gives me a 'scare' message that I ignore.

Based on your recommendation some time ago I ordered two black cartridges for my Epson WF-3520.
One would only print with streaks, one wouldn't work at all. After numerous cleaning operations no luck. I thought the print head was dead. Put an Epson cartridge in and printing was back to normal.

Your experience may be different but this was mine.

I should have said the company that supplied the failing cartridges. It was LD.

I did purchase from a supplier and they worked fine the first time. The next the printer said they were not original. I placed l old HP cartride and l from another supplier and it is working fine for now. The original was a color cartridge and I do not print in color. I will keep your information when I am ready to reorder.

Years ago I had an inkjet printer that took cartridges which had the printhead built-in to the cartridge. I had no luck at all with remanufactured cartridges, because the ink would dry and cake on the printhead and then streaks would appear on the paper. I had to throw away many remanufactured cartridges that failed before the ink was used up. Maybe I'll be brave enough to try non-branded ink cartridges again now that my new printer has a separate printhead.

Great article Bob. I have been wondering about this issue for quite some time! Keep up the good work!

I have have an HP Photoshop Premium for several years that has continued to work great. The only time I used it for color printing was when I brought it home from Staples. When the colored ink ran out I used only the black ink and kept replacing that cartridge with a new one.
A couple of years ago I found a local store that refilled for about $15 dollars. At Staples a new one was about $25.00. The printer has always accepted the refilled cartridge. Sometimes though it will pop up a message saying the cartridge is damaged, but unplugging and restarting the printer makes that warning go away.
My only complaint with the refill is that the duration of use varies greatly. Not sure if the store guy is partly refilling or the ink is suffering evaporation. My last cartridge just showed as empty and I had only printed less than a dozen pages with it.
They should make see-through cartridges!

Bob, Per your advice I started using LD cartridges about 4 years ago and since saved a few hundred dollars. They are not always perfect and twice I had to trim some plastic so they fit properly. I have recommended LD cartridges to my friends.

Epson XP-830 - if you install the "firmware update" which it keeps insisting you do (nagware)- you will not be able to use non-Epson ink, and it is 4x the price of my remanufactured ink. I had to do a lot to reverse/uninstall the new firmware back to the older one that allows my non-genuine Epson ink to work.

Just a hint - NEVER install the new firmware.

My experience with LD ink cartridges is different than yours Bob. It may depend on the printer and software. I bought three of them. My printer HP2610 printed a few pages from the first one and then gave check cartridge error message. It would not print at all from the other two.

LD advertisers a remanufactured cartridge, but the old chip was covered over, and there was no new chip. Appears to be refilled, but not remanufactured.

I have to agree with H. McPeake who commented earlier. After reading an earlier recommendation here for LD products I ordered a set of cartridges for my Canon MG6220. Almost every one I opened leaked before I got it into the printer. One of them even printed in a different color than was printed on the cartridge. I threw the rest out, reverted to the more expensive Canon cartridges and haven't had any trouble.

Finding a new source for printer ink is a good idea. Printer ink from an OEM is the MOST EXPENSIVE liquid known to man. More costly than blood, which could save a life. It works out to about $1700 a gallon. Anything you can save will be a good thing.

We've had an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 for 11 years and even though it's not fast nor network-enabled, it's very versatile. Since it's able to print on larger and thicker stock than the average inkjet and still works great, there's no reason to replace it. But, the cartridges for it haven't been stocked in local stores for a long time, as they're not popular anymore.

So, (due to Bob's past articles) we've kept it printing by using 123Inkjets and LD Products for years. Both are good companies to deal with, ship quickly without having to pay expediting fees and their house-brand cartridges are both reasonably priced AND consistently reliable.

I have learned there is a great deal of variability in third party toner cartridges. I have 2 lasers, HP B/W and Brother color. I have used 3rd party cartridges from CCS-Digital for great savings. The Black cartridges work great. The color cartridges can print small areas, but if you try to print a large color background they skip and leave white streaks. I asked CCS, and he told me he does not know who is China supplier is buying from. I went back to Brother brand for color. I will try LD products for the next order and see if they are any better.

Just like you stated Bob, I to used LD products for years until HP saw I was NOT using their products. They totally dismantled my print heads through some software update so I could not use the LD ink. They told me I have to replace my print heads which would cost more than a new printer. So I had to buy a new printer. That cost me $129. What a rip off. Now they lock you into using their auto ink program using their OEM ink. How can they legally do this? Is their any recourse to stop HP from this shady threat since they can monitor which ink you have in the printer? Please HELP!

Yo Bob, after your suggestion several years ago I switched to LD cartridges and for years they work fine. I recently had to buy a new HP printer which refuses to recognize the LD cartridges. Also, the new car just started exploding egg all over me when I remove the little tape. To LD‘s credit several times they replaced all of the cartridges no questions asked but none of them would work. I suspect HP is behind this rejection but what can I do about it? Nothing!

I purchased ink from 123 inkjets.com and I am sure my printer no longer worked because of their ink Right after I replaced my ink cartridges with theirs my Kodak Printer no longer worked.

In the UK have used Go Inks compatible cartridges for my Epson Stylus SX 400 & WF7015 printers for some years now without problem, available via Amazon. Prices are fantastic, and colour reproduction is great and does not appear to fade (I print colour photos as well as a lot of text). Have tried a couple of other suppliers who are not as consistently good. I'll stick with Go Inks from now on.

If Epson had included their standard cartridges, instead of ones which only lasted for a couple of test pages, with my last printer, I might have bought their OEM ones.