Save Money on Inkjet Cartridges: The Ultimate Guide – Part One

You've probably heard the crazy comparisons before: Inkjet ink often costs more per ounce than Dom Perignon, caviar, and Chanel No. 5. (Imagine the romantic evening you’re forgoing just to feed your printer!) But this explains why reasonably priced, high-quality printer ink is the Holy Grail of computing, an ideal forever just out of grasp, akin to tasty fat-free potato chips, no-pain weight loss, and five-minute tax preparation. Just as Gillette gives away the razor to sell the blades, printer manufacturers sell the printer hardware for moderate prices and then insist that their premium-priced ink and paper are what you need to get the very best output quality. (And often, they’re right.) 

 

That's not the whole story, though. Inkjet makers counter that you’re not paying for the scant milliliters of actual ink but for the incredible technology and miniaturization behind the printer, its cartridges, and its printhead, which together make, for example, lab-grade photo prints possible. (Indeed, the cartridges are certainly not just simple boxes of ink).

 

 

But that’s chilly tech comfort if you’re handing over your credit card for a three-digit charge to replace a handful of cartridges. And considering the times, consumers faced with the usual outlay for inkjet cartridges are feeling the pinch more acutely than ever. The question crossing their minds: Is there any way around paying €40 for that three-color ink tank?

 

It’s the biggest inkjet temptation of all: With many ink cartridges running €20 or €30 a pop—and, often, several of them required for a full refresh—the temptation to use less-costly third-party ink cartridges can be almost irrepressible. After all, a savings of €10 to €20 (sometimes even more) per cartridge is no trifle if you print a lot. But what are you giving up by using third-party ink?

 

There’s no easy answer to that question. The short version is that it depends on the particular ink tank you’re holding in your hand, because not all third-party ink is created equal. Far from it: At one end of the scale, some aftermarket ink is premium-priced and designed for specific purposes, such as to exceed the archival longevity of the branded original equipment manufacturer (OEM) ink. At the other extreme, ink is priced to appeal to those seeking the lowest possible cost (with, predictably, the quality to match), well earning the moniker “knockoff ink.”

 

 

 

Between the two extremes is a vast swamp of cartridges that might as well have question marks festooned all over their packaging. Their quality is all over the map. There’s also a further wrinkle: Some third-party cartridges are refilled cartridges (the cartridge shells may be of OEM or third-party origin), while others are simply new cartridges from third-party manufacturers.  As a result, dipping into the grey zone of cheap ink can easily lead to confusion and disappointment.

 “Is Cheap Ink a Good Deal?”

Generally speaking, we would be wary of third-party ink if you don’t print very much. The ink’s drying characteristics may differ somewhat from those of your printer’s OEM ink, so if you leave your printer unused for long periods, it’s possible that the off-brand ink could dry inside the printheads. (We’ve had this happen on a couple of occasions.) If the printer has a fixed printhead—that is, the print head is not part of the cartridge—you could be looking at an unfixable problem. Our best advice: If you do use third-party ink, power up your printer at least once a week so it runs a cleaning cycle to keep the heads clear.

Also, unproven third-party ink might not be best for printing those photos bound for the family album. Tests by Wilhelm Imaging Research, widely acknowledged as the leader in inkjet-permanence testing, suggest that many third-party inks do not exhibit the same longevity characteristics as the manufacturer’s designated ink-and-paper combinations. On the flip side, though, so long as a digital version of a print still exists, it’s always possible to print out another copy at a future date should the print fade. But that means you have to protect those digital files for future generations.