Peripherals: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills?
- 7/17/09 2:48 PM
Compatible Ink cartridges
by theonlygoldenboy - 7/11/09 12:22 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I do not have a Canon printer but a Brother DCP-130C. I buy all of my cartridges online from www.ink.co.uk @ £1.27 each 3 colours + black plus postage about £7.50 compared to about £40 for OEM ones. These cartridges have a higher ink capacity than the OEM ones so last longer, when the printer indicates that I have run out of a colour I have to remove the cartridge reinsert and confirm that it is a new one. In my opinion they print just as well if not better. I have had no problems with the printer since I started using them. This supplier also offers cleaning cartridges at a similar price.
No Contest - OEMs are a rip-off
by doclee2 - 7/11/09 12:41 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Joel, I've refilled the ink cartridges used in my Canon BJC-4400 since the printer was first produced and I've never had a problem.
The 4400 uses BCI-21 Ink Cartridges which can be refilled simply and easily using just a syringe. Every couple of years (if I remember) I buy a new Canon Colour and B&W cartridge "just in case". Since purchasing the printer I have replaced the print-head, which is disposable, on 2 occasions because the nozzles have become partly blocked and I have been unable to clear them by cleaning with either water or spirit which don't seem to cause any trouble.
However, <u>Please Note</u>; mine is an "old" printer and although slow (by today's standards) and clunky it does the job that I want - it prints letters and the like with no discernible difference in results between Canon's own ink cartridges and those that I have refilled. I do not print photos so cannot comment on whether the colours are as good as or as durable as Canon's own-brand of photo ink cartridges.
I reckon that the money I have saved on ink cartridges, particularly on colour cartridges would have enabled me to buy several of Canon's latest printers. However, I have not because of the expense of "consumables".
I have no doubt that manufacturers have "improved" their printers since the 4400 came out and are continuing to do so in order to make it increasingly more difficult to avoid using their own brand ink cartridges. So take care about cleaning print-heads, especially if they are expensive and need a technician to replace them - just another "improvement" by manufacturers.
The manufacturers' own brand cartridges etc are outrageously priced because that is now how they make their money. They sell their printers at ridiculously low prices and their profit comes from their own-brand consumables. For example, on the 4400 the colour cartridge holds all 3 colours so that a replacement is needed whenever one colour runs out irrespective of how much of the other colours remains. Do-it-yourself refilling overcomes that.
Making their profit on ink cartridges is the manufacturers' strategy and that is why they now try to ensure that their printers can physically use only their own brand of consumables (including chips on ink cartridges which decide when the ink has run out irrespective of how much ink actually remains and then refuses to let the printer continue printing - Hewlett-Packard stand up and take a bow) and why they try and put the fear-of-God into consumers about the dangers of using refills etc.
Whether you have an up-to-date printer or an old relic such as mine, I have no doubt that technically a refill from a reputable third-party supplier will not only be safe but will be considerably cheaper. It's just that it might be a bit more fiddly nowadays to get round the manufacturers' machinations.
Addendum to above
by doclee2 - 7/21/09 12:34 AM In reply to: No Contest - OEMs are a rip-off by doclee2A later contributor has suggested that specific names of ink brands be given. I'm happy to oblige.
My Canon printer uses BCI-21 cartridges - black and a combined 3-colour cartridge.
I refill them myself with Universal Ink from www.jrinkjet.com. Each 250mls bottle of ink (black, magenta, cyan & yellow) cost me a little over £20 and provide me with over 40 refills of 6mls of black ink (= 50p/refill) and over 80 refills of 3mls of coloured inks (= 25p/refill).
When a colour runs out it takes me about 5 minutes to complete a refill. I do not have to go out and buy a refilled cartridge or order and await its delivery but can get on with my printing without any further delay.
The decision to refill is a simple case of good economics and good use of available time. If you are able to refill your own cartridges there's no contest between doing that and purchasing remanufactured cartridges - refilling beats it both on cost and convenience.
caution: don't
by siile - 7/11/09 12:47 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Third party ink tends to dry up quicker than the branded ones. If the case happens then you have to buy a new cartridge.The cartridge have to be filled before the inks are have dried or clogging will cause you problems. So go for the branded ones its worth buying.
Compatible ink cartridges
by jock1but - 7/11/09 1:06 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have an EPSON STYLUS PHOTO R625 which takes six cartridges I get A1 INK cartridges from my local pc shop at £10 for the set of six and I have never had a problem with them, bearing in mind I have not registered my printer as with other printers in the past which I registered I had problems with compatibles.
If it is Canon, stay with it. Otherwise ???
by Ron_D - 7/11/09 1:14 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Where do you get the idea that Canon is too expensive ? Their picoliter nozzle size is too demanding for refill ink that very well may work in an Epson or HP. When doing Photo quality on Photo paper use the best possible ink for the job. I have used refill inks from I'net suppliers on my older Epson and HP w/very few problems. My daughter still does on her Epson. The type of replacement ink also may not be the best for your Canon. You get what you pay for.
Refill with non-brand inks
by Jozef - 7/11/09 1:15 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I run a audio duplicating business and print CD's. For years I have been re-filling my cartridges (mainly HP and Canon) with third-party ink, without any problems, and have saved myself a fortune in the process.
It can be tricky in the beginning, and I wasted a few cartridges in the process, but keeping the following tips in mind, even an amateur can do it from home:
1. Never allow a cartridge to run bone dry.
2. Never over-fill (less is more)
3. Refill very slowly
4. Allow at least one hour after re-fill, before re-fitting in the printer.
This is all a money making racket of the printer manufacturers.
Refill with 3rd party inks.
by joelb662 - 7/11/09 1:37 AM In reply to: Refill with non-brand inks by JozefVery good advice, Josef. I have had the same experience, and agree completely.
Inkjet compatibles
by Ronwe - 7/11/09 1:30 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have a Canon Pixma MP110. I have been using compatible cartridges from Phoenix for ages, with no problems at all. They cost £2.99 for two cartridges, are delivered by next-day post, and last long enough for my limited amounts of work. This is a saving of about £10 per cartridge!
Yes, Joel, there is a cheaper alternative -- Laser
by WhyldKnight - 7/11/09 1:32 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have an old LaserJet 5P at home sitting next to an HP 6110. The 6110 always needs to have new ink cartridges put in, but the last time I replaced a toner cartridge was about 2 years ago. And you can get color laser printers for less than $400, but in the long term, you save money.
Used re-fills in my Canon for years and it worked fine...
by darrenforster99 - 7/11/09 1:35 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had a Canon MP360 for years and used to use refills in it all the time.
The only slight problem I had was I had to print everything in "High Quality" to get it to print.
Sometimes I did switch to genuine Canon ink when the prices of their cartridges came down.
Depending on your Canon model it might not even be worth using refills. If it uses the BCI-24 series of cartridges you can get genuine versions of these cartridges for a couple of pounds.
My Canon printer eventually died after about 5 years, and it wasn't anything to do with the cartridges I'd been using, it was an auto end of life system built into the printer that killed it.
It came up with an error one day, I looked the error up on the internet and it said about needing to reset the number of prints the printer had done to remove the error and clean the waste ink tank in the bottom of the printer (I couldn't believe the waste ink tank was a big pad on the bottom of the printer where the Canon just squirted ink onto when it does the "cartridge cleaning" before each print and that Canon had set the printer up to automatically "kill" itself after so many prints.)
I was going to invest in another Canon after that one as the cartridges were really reasonable at only £3 for a genuine one or less than £1 for a re-manufactured one, but unfortunately I found out that most Canon's now use a "new" cartridge system with an expensive microchip put on them to try and stop people re-filling them (of course pushing the price of the cartridge up!)
So I did some research on other printer manufacturers and found a lot of recommendations for Brother. I invested in a Brother MFC465CN, it's a superb printer. I've printed off over 1,000 pages now and it's only half way through the first black ink cartridge that was included with the printer and has barely touched the colours.
The cartridges were really cheap as well, not as cheap as the old Canon's but reasonable, £8 for a full set of re-manufactured cartridges (the Brother takes individual cartridges for each colour, unlike the Canon, this is actually better because when one colour runs out you just replace that colour, rather than wasting a load of ink), and the genuine cartridges aren't too bad either, I've seen genuine cartridges for it as cheap as £5, although if I was to buy them from a superstore like Rymans (which is where I bought the printer from) they're about £15 a cartridge.
One thing I would certainly recommend against is trying to re-fill your own. There are numerous companies out there that sell refilled cartridges and for a couple of extra pence per cartridge why go through the hassle of ending up covered in ink, and risk getting it wrong and damaging the printer.
My first printer I had was a basic monochrome Canon and I refilled that all the time as it was so easy, I then switched to a Lexmark and tried to refill that. I ended up breaking the printer 'cos the ink went in the cartridge and came straight out again all over the printer. I wasn't too bothered 'cos the printer cost me £25 and a new cartridge was going to cost me nearly £30 so it was cheaper just to bin the printer and buy a new printer. After the third printer I thought this is getting ridiculous, so I then looked up the printer with the cheapest cartridges, it turned out to be Canon, they were far more expensive than the Lexmark's, but when you consider that for the past 5 years I've been paying £3 a cartridge, and £70 for the printer compared to £25 every month for a new printer, it works out far more cheaper to invest in a more expensive printer with cheaper cartridges.
The main thing that drives the cartridge price up with printers is the print head and the microchip, many manufacturers like Lexmark and HP include the print head on the cartridge, every time your ink runs out you have to buy both the cartridge and the print head again, and again. Print heads aren't cheap and it's a waste of resources to keep replacing them every time the cartridge runs out (so much for Lexmark's "we are an environmentally friendly company" policy on their website, if they were so "green" they'd make a separate print head so the cartridge is cheaper than the printer, and stop people keep buying printers or having to make more print heads every time the cartridge runs out, it's nearly as bad as the supermarkets giving away free carrier bags). Print heads do need replacing over time, the Canon MP360 was a really clever printer with the print head as the cartridge could be replaced independently from the print head, using less resources and making the cartridge a lot cheaper, even the genuine cartridges. The BCI-24 cartridges were one of the most environmentally friendly cartridges ever as all they consisted of was a plastic shell and the ink inside on a sponge, very cheap to manufacturer, and you weren't wasting loads of resources making them. Unfortunately though on the new Canon printers Canon have got greedy, and put a microchip on the cartridges to stop them being refilled, all this does is just drive the price up for the end consumer, it doesn't stop the cartridge from being refilled because there are people out there who can just re-program these cartridges, and it wastes yet more resources, not very environmentally friendly.
You should be quite safe now though using re-manufactured cartridges, the printer manufacturers will tell you not to use clone cartridges just because they want your money, and they want to rip you off. It really doesn't matter whether you use genuine or re-manufactured cartridges in your printer, both of them are just as likely to mess up your print head over time, the only difference is you'll have been paying £25 a time for your cartridge if you've been using genuine ones compared to £3 a time for clones.
It is the same with many other things for example in your printer manual it probably tells you that "Canon recommends you only use Canon paper with this printer". It's just put in there to get you to buy Canon paper, or when you buy a DVD recorder - "Sony recommends you only use high quality Sony DVD-R's in this DVD recorder", or in my car in the manual it says "Nissan recommend you fill the screenwash up with Nissan screenwash fluid, available from your local Nissan dealer", screenwash is screenwash no matter where I buy it from, it just costs me a couple of pounds more to buy the genuine Nissan stuff, that's probably come from the same production line as the Asda Smartprice bottle, so I don't buy it, it's all a load of rubbish just to get you to buy more of their products, a great marketing ploy.
Third party ink cartridges.
by Rrover2UK - 7/11/09 1:46 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I bought some "cheap" cartridges and 50% did not work properly.
You get what you pay for?
Canon IP4200
by kiwian - 7/11/09 1:49 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have been using Generic Cartridges For my canon Printer for the two years i have owned it.Approx 12 sets of cartridges>Started with refilling .Have now moved on to chipped generic Cartridges.I have had no problems at all Except with the Darned print manager.when refilling.Waste Tank problems also occorred but a good clean out.And Reset instructions ,I found on FIXYA.worked really good.Hope this is a reply that amy help a little.
4 years on refills
by bpeeren - 7/11/09 1:50 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
4 years ago I bought the then new Pixma IP4300 with two sets of (5) cartridges,
About 2 years later I bought a reconditioned IP4500 off Canon's Ebay outlet at 1/3 street price (also including two sets of cartridges).
On average I take 10-15 cartridges per month to a refiller and have never encountered any problem whatsoever.
Carteidges are cleaner ultra-sonicaly and refilled with inks that stand up very well against the originals my wife uses in her IP3300.
She hates the Canon warnings generated by refills).
In the Netherlands the price for refills is about 1/3 of originals.
Bart.
Third Party ink jet cartridges.
by walkerdine - 7/11/09 1:59 AM In reply to: OEM inkjet cartridges vs. third-party ink cartridges and refills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There is no doubt that there are a great many 'rubbish' inks on the market. After all this is a very lucrative business, so there are plenty of people trying to cash in on the profits. Unfortunately very few of them seem to have any idea, (or don't really care), about the chemistry of these inks.
The makers of the printers obviously want you to get the best from them, so their own inks are carefully researched and manufactured. But this is not to say that there are no good quality generic inks on the market. You will need to do some research in the web to find them and listen to what others say. On the whole, though, you will not save that much money, because good quality inks are expensive to manufacture. The best solution if you want to save cash, and you have the right kind of printer, is to use a continuoius feed system, where you buy inks in bulk. Bit pricy to set up, but in the end you will save a great deal of money.
Peter Amsden
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