Are Cheap Printer Cartridges Worthwhile?
Today a colleague asked a question on a mailing list I frequent. She’s in the market for new inkjet cartridges, and was wondering whether to buy OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) cartridges, or one of the third-party alternatives. The latter often cost significantly less money. I know of an Epson printer that uses $100 black cartridges — the printer itself is only $160 on the street — but you can save $60 by going with a third party.
All this said, the answer is “it depends.”
First off, manufacturers like using scare tactics, like “third party ink will clog your printer’s jets.” That might be true in some cases, but no third party could stay in business long if their product was that defective. At one point, manufacturers tried threatening consumers with ending a product’s warranty if third party supplies were used. That got shot down pretty quickly, and I’m not aware of any current cases where this is still in warranty literature.
On the other hand, third party ink has often been shown to produce lower quality output. In other cases, it’s been fade-tested against OEM ink and has lost. I’m also aware of a few situations where third parties have included the wrong ink in cartridges (often after the OEM has changed formulation for a new model of printer). This could damage a device, or simply might not work at all.
So the best answer I can provide is this: if you need to save money, test a third party cartridge from a reputable vendor against an OEM model. Print the same image or other document on the same printer, using the same paper, and compare the two side by side. If you’re worried about fading, hang both papers in a bright, sunny window for a few days or a month. See which fades more. Also, keep a running count of printed pages and see which cartridge produces more pages before running dry.
Saving money is a good thing. But “cheapest” doesn’t always translate to “best value.” As usual, your mileage may vary.