Off-Brand Ink Jet Cartridges

Factual Questions
1

I just the read the thread on Ink Jet Cartridge Refills (here) and I have a related question:

What about buying “compatable” ink jet cartridges?

In my case, we have a small office, and our reception area uses two Epson C60 printers. These are the current top of the line cheap personal printers from Epson. I’ve had good results from past Epson printers. But the cartridges tend to be expensive, and we seem to be going through them faster than in former printers. (Maybe these cartridges have less capacity, or maybe we’re busier than we used to be, or something…)

Anyways, I just recently broke down and responded to a “junk fax” about fully compatable ink jet cartridges at a fraction of the price. In our case, these cartridge prices don’t match their advertised best buys (which would be less than a quarter of the price of new cartridges), but are still a little less than half price.

We’ve now used a couple of the black ink cartridges but have not yet used a new color ink cartridge. The results so far seem to be fine, but I did have a couple of unusual printing kind of problems (that I wouldn’t think had anything to do with the quality of ink) and dismissed them as the typical kind of phantom computer malfunction that I get all the time using various Windows operating systems. Reboot and you’re fine…

But reading about ink jet cartridge refills got me thinking. In the other thread, I’ve read that refill kits could potentially have sub-standard ink that could cause harm to the printer. Maybe not all, as some posters seemed to have no problems with them. I am wondering if instead of using refill kits, these off-brand cartridges are any better, or can they have the same problems.

Anyone care to report in?

2

Mrs. Kunilou has tried both off-brands and refills on the same printers.

Refills, as we all know, can be a tremendous pain depending on the cartridge.

With both refills and off-brands, she reports that the ink tends to be a little runnier than with the name brands, but given a few more seconds to dry, the print quality is fine.

3

Epson has quick drying inks - and unlike other printers pushes the new page right across the just printed page. This is OK if the ink is quick drying but and inferior ink might not dry in time.

HP and others holds the fresh page above the others till it’s done printing then drops it.

Also those bargin printers are no bargin - the capacity of the ink is less and that’s how they make their $.

4

Epson Stylus printers have SPONGE in their cartridges.

Royal PITA to refill.

5

I wouldn’t buy a cartridge from anyone who sends you a junk fax. First of all, junk faxes are illegal by Federal law. Talk to the authorities; the fines can be very hefty (there was a recent decision against a Hooters that ran in the millions of dollars, IIRC).

I figure that if they are breaking the law to sell the product, it’s hardly likely the product is any good.

I’ve used off-brand (i.e., Pelikan) cartridges for my HP deskjet. They ran out of ink sooner, plus I had other problems. I’m always willing to try cheaper, but it just didn’t work.