Peripherals forum: Brand compatable ink cartridges

Just for interest sake, I have been using the same Canon BJ-200 B&W bubblejet printer since it was new in 1992. I don't think I have put more than six new cartridges through it. I just keep refilling the old one as needed (the ink itself is cheap, especially if you happen to luck into a large quantity of refill packs for next to nothing at an auction sale). The only time I have ever had a problem with print quality is if the printer sits for an extended period of time without being used. It seems that the ink can clog the nozzles in that situation and won't respond to cleaning. Remanufactured or OEM cartridges, makes no difference in my experience.
And as I'm sure everyone knows by now, there is absolutely no difference between the BC-01 and BC-02 cartridges, other than the price. The old AppleWriter cartridges are also fully compatible and work just fine (if you can get them).

I have used compatable ink cartridges from 3Inkjets <http://123Inkjets.com> for several years with Epson printers (740, C60, C82, Stylus Photo R200). I've have very little trouble with them and the price is about 1/2 to 1/3 or the EOM cartridges. I get very good color with my Stylus Photo R200. That was a problem with the C82, but I think the problem was with the printer settings rather than the ink cartridge.

Ruth

Ihave just started using orink cartridges in my epsom printer. I have not noticed any apppreciable difference in photo print quality & the cost is a saving of aprox 80% against originals. My only annoyance is 'every time I print I get a message telling me I'm not using a genuine cartridge, any ideas on how to switch this nuisance off.

Aaron,
Here are my thoughts based upon my experiences;
I currently own 2 different HP Photosmart Inkjet
Printers. Over the last year I have learned by
experience that not only are all cartridges NOT
created equally but that in my case only Brand will
do at least for color and phtographic printing.
I have tried off brand, refurbished and cloned
cartirdges that swear thay are 100% compatible,
Guess what, they are NOT. I tried 1 color cartridge
for my Photosmart 1 time and the colors came out all
Red.
I have also found that the paper does make a
difference as well especially if printing photos.
Black ink I have had limited sucess with but its not
quite as bad as the color or Photo inks.

I used a product called QUALITY CARTRIDGE RECYCLING in Victoria B.C.,
email: info@inkandtoners.com
I could not tell the difference from the original HP cartridge. www.ink@toners.com

Hope this helps you. Signed scatter

I have used 'Carrot Ink' compatical cartriges for my Epson & Canon printers for over 4 years. Only one time did I have a problem and they replaced the cartridge at no charge and free shipping. At once service with help, talking to a live person. Can you beleive it in todays 'service yourself' market!

I bought some HP compatible printer cartridges a few years ago - much cheaper. But the problem I found was that the ink took much longer to dry when I printed a page, and if I was printing a quantity then it resulted in a lot of smudging. Been a bit wary ever since, especially as some compatibles are ridiculously cheap!

Yeah, the printer, some are tricky, some are fine with anything. As far as I've seen, the cheaper cartridges will work, but after a few uses, say 5-10 cheap cartridges, the printer will start to screw up. The remedy to this problem in most printers is to pop in original cartridges, empty or full, print a page whether anything comes out or not, and then pop in the cheap cartridges. This method works well with HP printers. Canon, though, is a mystery. If you use cheap cartridges, most of the time they screw up the heads and you will have to replace the printer head, and in most cases, Canons are unrecoverable. But with printers and ink as cheap as they are these days, I say that you should stick with company cartridges. Furthermore, I say that you should buy a printer, preferably Canon, that has a cartridge for each color! Now that's SMART!

Search on Google youll find countless sites on very chep ink cartridges. Black from 1 and colour from 2

Ruth & Aaron,

I have had real good results from www.savoninks.com.

Dan

Aaron,

I have been using after market ink for years and I can tell you that there are good inks and there are bag inks. I've tried numerious places such as E-Bay, and a host of sites, but I always come back to a couple of vendors that have always had two things going for them. One, CompuBiz Inkjet, will always take the time to answer all my questions in an honest and friendly manner. This is important. And they have been around for at least six years, that I know of. Their products are dependable and very reasonable.

Two, AtlasCopy is also helpful, and it uses 'Repeat-O-Type' inks, which are first rate quality. Their inks are a little more expansive, but are second to none.

All my experience is with Epson Printers, and both the above vendors supply great products for me. I have just ordered a Canon iP-4000, as my latest Epson finally died out, and I expect to also use bulk inks with it as well.

I have never had problems with them whatsoever. But I have with others, and you have to be very careful and get excellent quality, or you can have problems all around.

So the old Roman term of "let the buyer beware" is true. But if you use the two I mention above, you cannot go wrong here.

I have also found that different brands of compatible ink cartridges give different results. You have to experiment.

I would just remind everyone that the printer manufacturers rip us off with their OEM inks (like Gillette who sells the razor for practically nothing but rips us off with the blades for which there is no compatible source like with inks), and they warn us that it jeopardizes the warranty. HAH!! The warranty is good for one year. After that I would suggest that anyone who hesitated should now switch to compatible brands and find the one he/she finds best. The prices of OEM inks are a sham.

As an engineer (MS) in mycro (not micro) - technology I would straight away say "NO", but the problem is not only there.
The problem is that the suppliers of the so-called "Original Replacement Inks" are cheating twice.
First of all they do cheat with the ink itself. It is rarely the same as the Original Ink.
This can create problems with the Printing Head,
The ReplacementInk usually has a denser consistency then the Original, and therefore "can" clog the head. Surprisingly, actually not, for BLACK, because it contains a fair amount of CARBON, mostly Carbon Black.
Surpringly Carbon Black is a major ingredient in Tyres.

The other "Cheat" of the "Refillers" is that they inject the ink (not through the body of the tank) but through the "Outlet" which consists of a very fine velvet-like material.
Without doubt the needle destroys the evenness of the ink-outlet.

I have seen the differences, and to my shame I have to admit it was at my offic.

Of course everyone knows that HP, CANON, EPSON etc. are crooks. They would be bankrupt without their Inks.
But at present we have no choice.

Anyone in my circle can be sure that I will be the first to promote Replacement Inks, once I am sure they are really OK.

Best regards,
Harm

Just recently I purchased a color cartridge from our local wally world and thought I would save about $5.00 and had some presentation documents to print and It didn't seem to have the clearity of the brand name cartridge. It would be ok for general printing but I wouldn't use it for pictures or if you are looking for high quality doc's.

Happy Printing...

I recently purchased refills for my Epson 1280 from www.ims-inks.com. I came here to read what everyone was saying about using replacements and refills. So I waited before using them and went to the website and looked at the FAQ section. One of the questions was "Will your inks cause me printer's warranty to be voided?" The answer was no, the company cannot void a warranty unless they offer their ink free with the printer. That was interesting. The other question was "Will your inks cause damage to my printer?" The answer of course was no.

The only thing about using these inks in the 1280 is that a chip needs to be reset or else the printer will not recognize the refilled cartridge. The chip resetter has to be purchased from ins-inks and costs about 15.00 which includes shipping. All this information was included in the package. Sure enough, after I had refilled the cartridges, the printer did not acknowledge the refills. So I ordered the resetter and am now waiting for its delivery.