lovelylyn Loc: Fort Wayne, IN

I’m starting to print a lot more at home as I’ve found the color with my pro 100 printer far superior to those I’ve had printed elsewhere. On the flip side the cost of the canon ink is extremly high. I’ve read that some after market inks can cause clogging. Is there a compatible ink that doesn’t cause clogging and gives the rich color I’ve come accustome to with the canon ink?

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

Congratulations on having a great printer. I use ink from 123 Inkjet. Been using it for years in other printers, and now for the Pro 100. Pigment based ink for the 100. No problem ever.djt

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Lovelylyn, don't do it. Djtravels has been luck so far. For me, I had to toss a Canon i9900 printer in the trash because I used third party ink.

True, Canon charges an arm and a leg for their ink. Alternate? Go to eBay, enter the specific cartridge number (including color). There are several companies who actually go to camera stores, as well as retail stores, and they purchase the "damaged" boxes. Considering the price, why would anyone want to buy an ink cartridge in a damaged box? I think not. But the ink will still be factory sealed. I've saved large amounts over the years with the eBay store seller.

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Although I am not familiar with the Canon Pro 100, even if clogging isn't an issue I would certainly be cautious using cheaper inks in your machine. Although it was a few years back now I did some tests on a about 10 printers owned by members of a photographic group I ran all using cheap inks . The major problem was that of fading. Exposing samples to sunlight over a couple of months I found that to a greater or lesser degree none kept their original color saturation as well as samples printed on my printer, using Epson inks. Things could of course could have improved over the last few years but it is something worth considering before you decide on cheaper inks. I have 2 printers, an Epson Photo R3000 which I use only with Epson inks and a cheap A4 printer using compatible 3rd party inks on which I do unimportant and office work.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I buy from Cartridge America. No problems with clogging. They also sell cartridge cleaner.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I buy from Cartridge America. No problems with clogging. They also sell cartridge cleaner.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

YouTube channel by jtoolman has great info about Pro-100 and third party inks.

HardwareGuy

[quote=elliott937]Lovelylyn, don't do it. Djtravels has been luck so far. For me, I had to toss a Canon i9900 printer in the trash because I used third party ink.

Although I can appreciate what he is saying, and don't disagree, there are some top quality 3rd party alternatives out there.
I have had equal results with LD ink myself. This is what I use in my Canon Pro 100 without issue.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Consider that the risk of trying 3rd party inks in the Pro-100 is not that great.

$360 Price
-$250 Rebate
-$50 Value of Included Paper
-$125 Value of Ink
------------
-$65

Is Canon "paying" you $65 to try or replace a broken printer with a new one?

It has been argued that Canon does not supply "real" ink cartridges with new printers. When mine broke and I let them "pay" me for a new one, the cartridges were exactly the same as what I was buying at $17 each.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I use Precision Colors ink to refill my cartridges and have for a few years. No problems and look great.

Look here for knowledge about the subject https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9YXaSulpM90vC24lmAeZA

Look here for Precision Colors https://www.precisioncolors.com/index.html They get their ink from a company that produces ink for the industry, including OEM brands. In some cases special formulas to improve the ink. They also have ICC profiles for your printing with different papers.

There is a shortage of used Canon cartridges to refill so you may need to use their directions to clean and modify a set of old cartridges yourself (except yellow, buy one from them). They do have third party cartridges but warn that they are not nearly as good as Canon cartridges.

When I first went to Precision Colors I bought the deluxe kit with 4 oz bottles of ink (aprx 7 fills) and a complete set of modified cartridges for $175. When they have the kit available it is now $210 so that is about $30 a set as opposed to $124 to $136 a set for OEM. After that you just buy bottles of ink. You do have to be careful not to make a mess when refilling. To make things simple I (they recommend it) just top off all the cartridges when one goes empty and needs filling.

And the Pro-100 uses dye ink, not pigment.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

“ To make things simple I (they recommend it) just top off all the cartridges when one goes empty and needs filling.”

This is a good practice. It avoids the “domino effect”. After a cartridge is replaced the printer purges all eight cartridges. Depending on the level of the other seven one or more of them might reach alarm level as a result of the purge. Fill and repeat.

Its also a good idea for OEM cartridges. Print until a cartridge gets so low that printing stops. Replace that one and any others that have an exclamation point. You will discard a cartridge that isn’t completely empty, but overall save ink since it minimizes purges.

Al Freeedman

Have been using Ink Technoligies for years in my old Epson 2200. No problems.
ink cost about $4.50 each.

Captain Al

kd7eir Loc: Tucson, AZ

Along with managing thousands of workstations I manage hundreds of inkjet printers, including several multi-thousand dollar printers. We use ONLY 3rd party ink and have NEVER had a single problem because of the ink.

It's an old wives tale/folklore/BS/fake news that 3rd party ink ruins printers. USERS ruin printers by not properly filling ink cartridges allowing them to leak, OR not properly cleaning and priming the print heads on a regular basis.

Buy your 3rd party ink from a reputable dealer such as 123 Inkjet, properly take care of your printer, and use the money you save to buy something nice for your wife/husband/dog/cat.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

I've followed threads on this exact subject (relating to the Pro 100) on some different websites in the past and have asked the following question a couple of times: "Who manufactures Canon inks?" It seems no one knows because I've never gotten an answer. It seems doubtful to me that Canon is in the business of ink manufacture and probably outsources the ink instead but I don't know this for certain. If secondary market cartridges can be purchased that contain the same ink that Canon uses that would put this long time argument to rest. Anyone know where Canon gets ink or if they do manufacture their own?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY