Original or Compatible?

Which ink cartridges do you go for when replenishing your inkjet printer? David Dorn examines the state of play and offers a few words of advice.

Somebody asked me the other day why seemingly fantastically capable inkjet printers sold so cheaply. Was it, they enquired, because the manufacturers made their profit from highly priced inks? And if that was the case, could they not subvert the cycle by purchasing low-cost “compatible” cartridges or re-filling the ones thy already had?

Frankly, this little barrage of questions threw the cat amongst the pigeons and opened a can of worms that led me into a very, very long conversation, in which the first port of call was to do with Warranties.

Sorry Mate – Wrong Ink!

My questioner first posed the question “So what happens if the printer goes wrong, and I’ve been using compatible inks?”

Chances are you’re stuffed. One of the first places the makers will look is in the nozzles of fixed-head printers to see what you’ve been squirting through them (in fact, it’s most likely that if a fixed head printer goes down, it’ll be the head that’s the problem, and it will have been clogged by using “compatible” inks).

“Fixed Head?” said my puzzled interlocutor. Fixed Head – a printer in which the bits that do the squirting of the ink – the nozzles and the heating/vibrating circuitry – the head – is fixed inside the machine, and do not come as part of the Ink tanks – think Epson and Canon.

The alternative – think HP and Lexmark – have the squirty bits attached to the ink cartridges, and often boast “a new head with every tank” or words to that effect.

So, a fixed head printer is much more likely to be sensitive to the makeup of the inks that are squirted through its nozzles. Since the nozzles are incredibly fine, it’s not likely to take much in the way of a particle to block one or two and render your printer as good as useless.

If the maker, then, discovers that you’ve been using non-original inks, then the warranty is likely to be null and void – a bit like feeding a petrol car diesel.

Just refill the tank, pal

Any of you who regularly watch the likes of QVC and Ideal World (two Satellite Shopping Channels) will have seen vendors touting their “fill ‘em up with our inks” products, claiming them to be “the same as“ or “just as good” (for most purposes) as the original inks.

Yes, well, while I’m sure they mean well, in my opinion, it’s very unlikely that the inks any third party vendor offers are going to be to exactly the same formulation as original inks, no matter who the original maker is. No doubt printer manufacturers would put it more strongly (and have the monetary clout to discover exactly where the inks are made). Either way, see paragraphs above re warranties.

I also have doubts about refilling head-included tanks. I strongly suspect that the nozzles and heads are built to last a finite time, in terms of the amount of ink they will have squirted through them before they degrade to the point of being useless. I also suspect that claims of being able to refill these things a couple of dozen times with no degradation in print quality are exaggerated.

Indeed, I’ve seen the results from multiply-refilled cartridges, and I can assure you that I would never let anything that bad escape my clutches!

Hang it out to dry

I also hear horror stories about inks that refuse to dry – even overnight – and smear all over the page when it’s in contact with something else. In truth, I’ve never come across this with an original ink in the last five years, but it seems a fairly regular occurrence with “compatibles”.

Gone Shopping

As you may have gathered, opinions I’ve canvassed from the trade and users have all led me down one path – unless you’re saving a barrowload of money, it’s probably not worth going down the “compatibles” route. That being the case, I went shopping to see what sort of prices I could get compatible cartridges for, and I have to say that I didn’t see enough of a price difference to warrant me risking the quality of print I achieve with a mixture of HP and Epson printers.

The bottom line is that ink squirting printers are sold cheaply because there is a premium on original cartridges, and the manufacturers can recoup some profit there. The “but” is that original inks do seem to provide better quality, maintain warranty status, dry quicker and are generally “better” for fixed head printers.

For head-in-the-tank cartridges, the price differential on a per page printed basis is negligible – and it’s probably worth sticking with original cartridges, unless you find someone selling compatibles at half price or better.

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David Dorn