How Aftermarket Inkjet Ink Holds Up After a Year 152
An anonymous reader writes "About a year ago I found a link on here for a test of inkjet printer inks. The article compared original manufacturer inks against much cheaper third party stuff and the results were surprisingly in favour of third party products. They've now published the final part of this study, examining the prints produced a year ago. This time the printer manufacturers have come out far better, with some third party prints having disappeared completely! Cartridge World ink still seems worth a try though, if you don't want to pay manufacturers' inflated prices."
Why I love my Canon (Score:5, Informative)
This is why I love my Canon. HP could learn a thing or two about ink pricing from them...
Sunlight is key... (Score:5, Informative)
With cheap laser printers (Score:5, Informative)
If you need to print photos, a colour ink jet is a damned expensive way to do it... if do print photos occasionally, at least around where I live, photo printer kiosks abound.
My horror story (Score:4, Informative)
Then I found a link to third party inks at a great bargain. I bought 5 sets of color and black cartridges for about the price of one set of epson brand inks.
Within a relatively short period of time the print head got clogged up and the printer was useless. I tried everything I could to clean it, all the way to taking it completely apart. Nothing I did got the printer working again.
The printer was very old but never had any problems before. I think epson overcharges for ink but the third party ink cost me more. I wound up getting a color laser printer for normal printing and will be getting another epson photo printer at some point for photos. Though I mostly send out stuff to the lab since I prefer the tone and quality of lamda or fuji frontier prints over inkjet ones when I'm not printing them myself in my darkroom.
Get a laser. (Score:5, Informative)
Three years ago I bought a laser printer. It cost around $200, quite a bit more than an inkjet, and doesn't print in color. But I am STILL using the original toner cartridge that came with the printer - I have yet to run out. Admitedly, I'll probably have to pay a good $75 for a new cartridge when the existing one runs out, but I'd say $75 for several YEARS worth of ink that won't dry up and/or clog is well worth it.
Prices have dropped a bit since then. You can buy a laser for around $100, around triple that if you insist on color. And it'll really LAST - every place I've ever worked has had laser printer that have been around forever.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:1, Informative)
I would like to know more of people's experiences with a CIS (continuous inking system).
From quick google searches, a CIS is a tank of ink that is connected to a cart via tube. You can fill the tank of ink with any ink and the chip on the cart tells the printer it's always full.
The slashdot DIY crowd should be interested in this.
I'm cheap and i want to know if other people had good expereinces with this system?
Re:Does it matter? (Score:3, Informative)
Some of us could use a decent printer from a manufacturer that isn't out to bleed us dry.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:3, Informative)
Get an HP Officejet K5400. It has replaceable heads (which are NOT part of the cartridge, unlike all other HPs), and you can also install a $50 CIS kit. It prints faster and cheaper than any laser in its price range, with the quality of a color inkjet.
Re:That may be a feature for some (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So? (Score:3, Informative)
For example, a US court case in 2003 found that the Lexmark could not use the DMCA to prevent a competitor from making DRM-breaking chips for use in compatible cartridges [theregister.co.uk].
For another example: most Epson inkjet cartridges keep track of how many pages they've printed, then refuse to print when they think they're empty, to prevent refilling the cartridges. But you can buy a "chip resetter" for under $10 [google.com]. They work nicely.