Anyone Using Cheap Printer Cartridges.

[johnny37]

My wife refuses to use them. She says they damage the printer. Put one in this evening and ended up with ink all over her hands. Are they a scam?

[woofgang]

some are, some aren't. I buy mine on amazon and they are fine

[cashier]

I buy mine from Inkredible Inks and they are fine. Last timemI bought Canon they were £63, the ones from Inkredible Inks were £13 with a third more ink in them. No problems whatsoever.

[sunny-dave]

It depends on

A: The printer

B: The cartridges

I've never had any problem using reputable 3rd party cartridges in various Canon printers - they work just fine.

Epson printers can be a bit picky, but are usually OK if you buy good quality cartridges

HP printers are brilliant printers, but I've yet to find any 3rd party cartridges that work reliably for any length of time - I always take the pain and buy original

If you want a good supplier I can recommend these people :

https://www.choicestationery.com/

I've bought laser and inkjet supplies from them for many years.

[Hopkirk]

I tried many times to use cheap cartridges, and had so many problems that I have given up.

[douglas9401]

I've used Epson copies for years without any problems. I buy from eBay.
I do give them a good shake in the sealed bag before opening to avoid accidents.

[murraymints]

i get HP copies from 999 inks..never any probs !

[Buenchico]

Like Cashier, I use 'compatible' inks from Inkredible:
https://www.inkredible.co.uk/

They're every bit as good as 'original' inks. They've got a sale on at the moment (ending at midnight on Friday). Earlier this evening I ordered 5 full sets of 5 inks for a total of just £29.39 (with free postage). That's just £1.18 per cartridge.

Using 'original' inks is simply throwing money away.

[chrissa1]

No way are they a scam. I’ve used compatible cartridges for years and years.

[diddlydo]

Ditto. The scam is the printer manufacturer who tries to con you into buying their own brand over-priced inks.

[sunny-dave]

I've seen an expensive HP printer wrecked by cheap cartridges - fortunately it was in warranty & HP replaced it. I've also had very variable print quality on another HP with (good quality) 3rd party carts.

I'd not risk it again - or buy another HP printer either - they seem to have gimmicked them all too effectively to fail with non-HP ink.

[ubasses]

HP put a chip in their cartidges which the newer printers are programmed to read. If you buy anything other than HP ink it will cause machine problems. This happened a few years ago and is probably still the same.
I did read somewhere, ages ago, that one of the cheaper Companies was trying to mimic the chip, don't know if they were successful.

[sunny-dave]

Yep - that's the problem, ubasses - and they keep changing the chip protocol, to keep one step ahead of the copiers.

It's illegal in many jurisdictions and highly anti-competitive - but the UK seem to let them get away with it.

[johnny37]

thanks for your replies. Mrs J says only name brand ink will give her the high definition she needs for artwork, etc.

[dannyk13]

I am on my second one and no problems.

[aelmpvw]

i've also used cheap ink cartridges for many years in my epson printer without a problem ... genuine inks would cost more than i paid for the printer!