Remanufactured ink cartridges vs the real McCoy

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on February 24, 2012 at 10:05

If you're keen and careful enough, you can "remanufacture" cartridges yourself. It involves buying ink in some bulk, a syringe and care, but it works and you'll save more than the apparent bargain of remanufactured. It's worth considering if you print a lot with inkjet printers.

As for original manufacture, OEM ink cartridges are hugely profitable, that's were a big chunk of Hewlett Packard's profits come from. Their slogan used to be Invent (although its long been in effect a distributor for Microsoft).

More truthfully the HP slogan ought to be Ink!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by LOUISA LIVERMORE on February 24, 2012 at 10:19

I always use remanufactured. Only had a problem once when cartridge didn't work but company very quickly sent me a replacement. There doesn't seem to be any difference in actual print quality.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on February 24, 2012 at 11:31

I use some recycled cartridges. They seem ok so far, these are for a laser jet printer, have not tried the ink jet cartridges. I don’t have any complaints, especially given the huge price differential.

On a related but slightly different tack.  I have been trying to work out how to raise tome more cash for the PSA/ School at South Haringey- above and beyond the usual cake sale. I approached one of the teachers some time back (who I think is no longer there) about collecting used printer cartridges. There are people who will take them and pay you for them.

Now, I have 8-10 ink jet cartridges collected over a period of time in my desk draw. They are worth something like 50p each. Not a great deal to write home about, but if I were to collect them from anyone who has a printer, and save them being thrown away or given to Sainsbury etc, they could be worth a bob or two for the school.

So, anyone out there with empty printer cartridges? If there is enough out there I will work something out with the school for them to take them in and I will sort them out.

What do you reckon?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hugh on February 24, 2012 at 12:53

Sounds like a good idea to me. The one thing that would make it workable for me would be easy collection points - for parents with kids at the local schools, the schools obviously male a convenient collection point - then what about places like Moka, Lemon, Salisbury, Garden Ladder or Old Ale?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by abstractjuz on February 24, 2012 at 15:54

The performance you get can depend on the ink you buy, the brand of printer you're using and the quality you expect.

There's often a big difference between 'authorized' third-party refills and some generic third party (non) brands.

Print-heads are generally the first thing to suffer - a slight drop in quality won't bother someone printing off the occasional letter but if you've bought a quality printer to do quality prints then you might end up with problems.

There can be other side-effects. My laser-printer 'knows' when it's using third party refills and stops the heat fusing process. Third party cartridges for it are cheap, do decent prints, have a ridiculously long life - but the ink won't stick to the paper.

Printers are a lot cheaper than they used to be - but they don't last as long. Maybe you're not meant to worry about taking care of them...

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by pamish on March 2, 2012 at 14:07

There is a difference. I swap them around, in the same printer. For everyday, I use the cheapo ones from 7dayshop in Guernsey. To print photos I swap back to Canon originals. The colours go (a bit) off when printing to proper photo paper, with most cheap inks, and they prob fade quicker. You have to seal the half-used carts between times to stop them evaporating. Oh yes they now put coded chips in the plastic cartridges to stop them being copied, that's why they are worth recycling.

I sometimes refill empties and get a binful of spectacularly multicoloured tissues and interesting fingers. 

It is a huge ripoff, we are trapped. A set of new OEM inks for my £50 printer costs more than £50, so I should just throw away the printer really.  

For bigger users you can  get a kit that sits outside the printer and feeds in via big ink tanks. I've got one sitting here waiting to be installed when i get that Round Tuit.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on March 3, 2012 at 0:33

I guess all the profit comes from the consumables and Epson etc may be 'dumping' the printers (selling below cost), which is legal, apparently.

Look out for how much ink remanufactured ink cartridges actually contain. It's usually impossible to tell. Many carts contain 20ml of ink but I suspect some contain less - how much does yours?

I've been using refillable cartridges in my epson printers for years. There's a wider range of all sorts of ink (including archival, and edible if you must eat your words) than ever. Doesn't seem to affect the nozzles. I don't want best quality, I want clearly legible and colourful.

Some people apparently replace the colours with different shades of grey for giclée (fine art).

Can you avoid spilling the ink when you refill? I can't.

I've known Coralgraph as a reputable seller for years - here's them on eBay so you can see their rep:

£18 for a set of four Refillable Ink Cartridge Set for Epson S22 SX125 SX130 Printers wit...

Bottles of ink can last for years (and seem not to go off) and so you can use them in your next printer.

Cheap ink (100ml of each of 4 colours, enough for, say, 4 refills) can cost £7. 

I've also used a few continuous ink systems (search for CISS). This one (for a different, cheaper printer) is £16.99 + delivery and arrives with 4x100ml:

I'd like to make my own organic ink from soya or something. How hard can it be?

• ▶ Reply