Is Your Printer Ripping You Off?

An anonymous reader writes "Are original inkjet cartridges really worth the high cost? Do third party refill inks do as good a job? This article looks at printers from Epson, HP, Canon and Lexmark, with a combination of original inks and the top selling third-party options, using a whole host of different papers. A panel of printer users judged the output in a blind test — the printer manufacturers may not be happy with the results!"

Comments

Appearance is only half the story

[guanxi]

As they say in the article, there's also a question of how long the ink lasts before it fades (emphasis is mine):

We've established that third-party inks can produce prints which are equally well liked to those produced using manufacturers' own inks, but this is only half of the story. All the main printer manufacturers claim that third-party inks fade far more quickly than their own.

To test this out we are going to take the samples we obtained from this research and stick parts of them in an outside window, parts on a board on an inside wall and parts in an album in a drawer. We'll look at them again after three and six month intervals and see which samples have faded. Third-party inks and papers are not in the clear yet, but they've come through the first part of our examination with flying colours; literally.

On one hand, saying 3rd party inks don't last a long is perfect FUD -- it's something the consumer can't judge for themselves (without extensive testing). OTOH, I know the durability if the ink is (or at least was) an issue for artists, and Epson sold a special ink that lasted 100 yrs. Also, that may be a corner that some 3rd party ink manufacturers cut to reduce their costs.

Reliability and Looks aren't the only issues

[drfuchs]

I do infrequent, low-volume printing, and my biggest problem isn't how the output looks or the reliability of the cartridges; it's how long the under-used ink takes to evaporate from the cartridge. Brand-X cartridges seem to come up "out of ink" months and months sooner than OEM ones do.

Re:People still buy inkjets?

[JoeCommodore]

The only problem with color laser are all the parts, on the Xerox there is the OCP cartridge, Fuser, Charge Grid, Fuser Pad, each color toner etc. Some of the manufacturers hide the fact of all the bits by only offering say the toner and drum and the rest are a site maintenance stuff.

After the first color laser we are using a Xerox Solid Ink printer (I call it a "Crayon Jet" as the 'ink sticks' are very similar crayon material) It prints fast, the colors are as vibrant on a laser and it is darn fast (I think it has page-wide printheads) Besides the ink there is a maintenance kit (cleaning roller) which is replaces ever 30,000 copies (we're upto 69,000 on one of em). Cost per page (inks+maintenance kits) come to about 5.6 cents a page.

There is a downside though, given it is a wax based more then a toner based ink the ink is not as abrasion or heat resistant (I.e. if you use it for bus cards some color rubs off on the adjacent card, or if you heat-laminate it you get a really awful bleed from the ink liquefying during lamination.)

Most of what we do is short term signage, certificates, reports and brochures which is just fine.

Re:Reliability

[BoberFett]

Keep in mind that the cartridges which come with new inkjets are almost always low capacity, about 1/3 to 1/4 the amount of ink that's in the manufacturers retail cartridges.

Re:Reliability

[pilgrim23]

I purchased 3 dead printers at a Goodwill outlet store: a HP laser II and 2 Apple Laserwriters. Take the logic board from one laserwriter, the frame and fuser from the other, take off ALL the rollers and soak them a while in rubbing alcohol then use just a swab of gasoline from the lawn mower to soften the hard rubber, then back in the alcohol bath. then dry for a couple of days. take the better of the 3 toner carts, and all the best parts and assemble 1 printer. Cost: 15 bucks...output: quite good. It has lasted 4 years now.... so much for feel-good recycle. I RECYCLE :)