Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

Question: To use printer mfg. made ink or generic ink? What has your experience been?

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

I used to fill my tanks now I use oem. I do very little printing anymore.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I can't tell you how much it cost a company who tried to cheap their way with other than OEM ink. I worked for them as a contractor. I made a comment about the ink they were using. They ignored that and went with "cost effective" ink. The fix cost a considerable mount of money. It's best to stick with OEM ink.
--Bob

WayneL Loc: Baltimore Md

I have been using Jarbo inks from Amazon in my Cannon IX 6820 for 2 years and no trouble.

Gallimaufry Loc: Denver, CO

For Canon Pixma Pro printers, printing expert Jose Rodriguez recommends the generic ink of only Precision Colors. I use it myself in my Pro 100 and have had no problems with it in about a 1 1/2 year period. It is not just generic ink available to any refilling company. Mike, the owner does his own formulation of it. It will be said by some that it doesn't last as long (20-30 years as opposed to 40 years for OEM). If you're printing for yourself you can always reprint your photo in 20 years. if you're using it for photos you're selling, be honest with the buyer and let him/her know you're using non-OEM ink. Then it's the buyers' choice whether or not to purchase.

Color reproduction is excellent.

Jose also notes that if you frame your non-OEM ink photos and put glass over it, and don't just lay your photo on a table and let it sit in the sun for a year to prove it fades it will last even longer. If you want even more protection, you can spray it with a good sealing spray before you frame it, as well. But you'd take the same precaution for a photo printed with OEM ink, wouldn't you? Jose has tested sprays also.

Jose has wide practical experience with other generic inks and strongly cautions against using those sold by any other company. You can find multiple videos he has made concerning non-OEM inks and refilling your own cartridges (using only OEM Canon cartridges) on YouTube, probably going back five or six years, and continuing through the present.

Others may disagree with me, which is fine. No, I do not have a vested interested in Precision Colors. None, nada, zilch, etc.

Bonnie Halsell Loc: Ocala, Florida USA

OEM for me. Many printer companies (including Canon) will not honor warranties if you use third party inks. Additionally I have heard, with no first hand experience, that some printers will not operate unless using OEM inks. For third party inks - which I have used at the office - the yellows are crap and the blues tends toward purples. Third party inks okay for work but not my prints.

mrpentaxk5ii

If you have a cheap printer it may not be a big deal, that being said using non OEM ink will normally void your warranties on your printer. I think if you don't print much have your prints done online.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I don't want to take a chance.
I bite the bullet and use OEM ink.

Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

Thank you for all your replies. I should have stated how I use my printers. I was in the wedding/portait business for 17 years and during that period I only used the best pro labs to do all my lab work. However I am retired from that for 25 years. My occasional small prints all go to Costco, etc. My printing these days is done on a laser printer (black only) and on a low end all-in-one printer. I do not do any high end printing of any kind any longer. I have used a better quality generic ink (in my opinion and many others) by a company (22 years in business making ink) in LA with great results for what I want. What prompted me to ask my original question is: A recent all-in-one low end printer that I bought (still under warranty) started giving me ink problems (using the generic) ink previously mentioned that I have used for 12 to 15 years with never a moments worry. I was given replacement cartridges by my ink supplier without resolution of problem (the printer simply would not print when I replaced the empty cartridges). I then call the manufacture's customer service dept. and was told to run new catridges through the machine (using their brand only). So here I am asked to spend about $70. locally for their brand ink which only is where I live and sold only in 4-packs -- only then will the printer manufacturer tell me whether they will fix it or not. I bought this low end machine for $50. (it was marked down from $80). Rather than doing that I am inclined to not have the printer fixed (assuming they might fix it under warranty) and instead buy another low end machine on sale. It seems to me that Manufacturers want to sell you their high priced ink and this could be one more way to do that. You have probably noticed that I did not give the manufacturers name -- because I do not wish to make a political thing out of this. Thanks again for responding.

repleo Loc: Boston

I have been using non OEM ink for years. They work for awhile, but if I don't do any printing for awhile, they dry out and it takes several cleaning cycles to get it going again. Downside of the cheapo ink is that I have a basement full of dead printers.
I bought a new HP printer at Best Buy last week for $99 which is less than a set of OEM cartridges. It came with four months of their 'autofill' ink service.

HamB

For casual home use, the cheapest ink I can find.
1 or 2 refills of cheap ink will pay for a new printer.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

I agree Bob
But it looks as if your wisdom has fallen on deaf ears!!!

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Since you're using what for all intents is a disposable printer with only 4 inks, quality of prints probably isn't a big consideration. Precision inks seems to have a good reputation. Instead of trying to have your printer repaired, just buy another one. The biggest problem with all of the 3rd party inks is they fade significantly over time.

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

Since I use the HP ink system, I don't even think about ink. It's always there before I need it!

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Bob
I concur with your recommendation of "It's best to stick with OEM ink."
I have an Epson Eco Tank (Ink) Printer. I needed to mail order ink during this virus sequestering. I went to Amazon online since I have their Prime membership for free shipping.
They did not have the Epson specific OEM ink I needed so I went to the Epson web site and ordered the correct OEM ink. Not only did they promptly ship it free, but it was also cheaper than the Off-Brand ink that Amazon was pushing. Just one more point, Epson made a very big point of saying that you should only use their ink and that it should also be their ink that is specific to their specific model printer.
I haven't used our printer for pics so I can't recommend it for that because I am a big fan of Costco.com printing. However, this Epson Eco Tank printer has saved me twice it's purchase price twice over. It only needs maintenance about every one thousand pages to correct alignment issues. The alignment takes about five minutes and is menu-driven.
Sometimes things just work out. I am so glad that I checked out the ink so thoroughly.
Smile,
JimmyT Sends