joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

I seldom print anything on my obsolete Canon Pixma. Over the years third party inks have clogged the print heads just as well as OEM inks. Its the nature of infrequent printing.

That is why when prints are needed I use a service...its also less expensive.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I worked in an office about 7 years ago. They had some high-end printers. I don't remember the brand. To cut corners they used other than OEM inks. They crapped up the printers to the point where it would almost be a replacement rather than clean and fix. So much for saving a penny here and there.
--Bob

amersfoort

In my (2011) Canon 9500 Mk II I have only used OEM inks and it is still going strong. That says a lot to me.

Thorburn Loc: Virginia

Ditto.

Jazztrader

I've found that in today's world, it's pretty easy to go to eBay and buy the printer manufacturer's ink at prcies that aren't much higher than third party cartridges. Often the resellers there will sell cartridges that are in the sealed paper from the factory, at prices that the Best Buys of the world can't match, and the seller will ship it free to boot. About all you give up is the factory box around the cartridges.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, I remember seeing that. That's why I don't hang prints on my walls.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

I print several thousand copies a month and have been doing that since around 1978. I have had every printer brand there is, including HP, Canon, Samsung, Brother.....

I have never had a problem specific to OEM, refilled OEM, or third party cartridges other than OEM cartridges being extraordinarily expensive. I remember an HP color laser printer that I bought in the late '90s. It was on sale for $699, about half off. Unfortunately, toner cartridges were $249 for color and $229 for black. Heck, just buy a new printer when the toner cartridges run out, which is what many people did, myself included. Shortly after that was when printer companies realized what the public was doing and started including "starter toner cartridges" with their printers. That's also the time when I started buying printers NOT based on who the manufacturer was or how much the printer cost BUT ON how much toner cartridges cost.

Right now my main printer is a Canon MF642Cdw. I bought it a couple of weeks ago because I needed a laser printer that would easily print 2-sided copies for my calendars which I sell at Etsy and at shows and conventions throughout Southern California. I was considering an HP and a Canon. I forget which HP it was, since I didn't buy it, but the toner cartridges were $150 for a $399 printer. The Canon toner cartridges were $69.99 (color) and $67.99 (black) for a $349.99 printer. Easy decision.

I used up the starter cartridges the first day. They printed 23 calendars of 26 pages each, 13 of them with extensive full page color. I had bought replacement cartridges with the printer, but as soon as I got home and was listening to the printer print, I ordered replacement cartridges from my regular third-party source, 1ink.com.

At 1ink.com, their stated retail prices are about twice what Best Buy and Fry's Electronics charge, but one never needs to pay attention to those because their prices always are discounted. In this case, the cartridges were $49.99, color & black. One could save even more money by buying the CMYK package for $179.99. For me in San Diego, total cost was $194.84. Shipping was free, and delivery time was two days.

While I was at the store (I bought from Best Buy), I had checked Costco for refilling, and none of the printers I was considering were eliglble for refilling at Costco. That could have been a factor, but it wasn't in this case because of my need for a printer that was fast, did 2-sided printing, and could print up to 110-lb paper.

The 1ink.com cartridges are rated for 2,300 pages. I can tell you that they get much more than that. I'm still on the replacement cartridges and they have printed, so far, 2,600 pages. None of the toner warning lights are on yet, so I'm expecting at least another 1,300 pages, based solely on what those starter cartridges did.

At any event, I always have been quite satisfied with third-party services. The caveat is that I also take care of my printers (and anything else I own).

The pictures are examples of some of my calendars so you can see how much toner is going to those pages.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

I've has Epson OEM cartridges that the printer wouldn't recognize. It kept saying to use OEM cartridges. That said, I usually just use OEM anyway...

garrickw Loc: Wyoming Mn.

I use third party ink in my 8-1/2 inch printer Canon the Canon ink for a complete refill costs as much as getting a new printer the third party ink works well but only print out things from internet and forms etc. I have tried 3d party inks in my photo printer that I sell prints from and big mistake prints where not even close to the regular inks clogged the printer up also learned my lesion

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

My last three printers have all been Canons. Jerry, your second sentence sums it up for me.

Factotum

While working with a tech guy from HP on an unrelated problem I asked him about third party cartridges. He said they were fine to use if you alternated between factory and other or refilled inks. He suggested using one factory cartridge after using three other types. It has something to do with a detergent or solvent or something in the factory ink to keep the print head clean. It worked for me.

WayneL Loc: Baltimore Md

I have been using Jarbo ink in my Canon printer for 2-3 years, still good

pahtspix

I'm using an Epson R2400 pigment printer that was gifted to me, but needed an ink-pad re-set, and an external waste bottle, for a total cost of about 15 USD..Once I was set up I installed color profiles from Red River Paper for the paper I use most..(Matt) . I then contacted http://www.inkjetcarts.US to by their refillable cartridges, along with a kit of 9 colormatched 120ml bottles of ink with syringes for around $120.After several conversations with Russ Hardy at this company, I was up and running with this printer, and producing prints that cannot be told from those made with ink from Epson!..Additional bottles of each color are $14 ea. I cannot understate the tremendous savings and the un-believable technical support I've received, and I'm now into almost 3 years with this settup, and have made a few hundred prints from 5x7 up to 13x19"..I had a couple of snags in my learning curve, but Russ was always ready to jump in and give me guidance! He'll even call you back!!

Rathyatra Loc: Southport, United Kingdom

I have the same experience as you Jerry - the ComputerActive magazine run a series of lab tests some years ago to compare the performance of original inks against compatibles and the result was that the compatibles outperformed, in terms of pages printed per cartridge, by a healthy margin.

I now have a Canon printer and buying compatibles saves me many££s - I also found that Canon, HP and Epson often signal that the cartridge is empty even when there is a usable supply of ink available.

It is no accident that the manufacturers of printers, of all brands, have dramatically reduced their prices and this is because they sell their own cartridges at a ridiculously high price.

donwidger

If you don't mind refilling your cartridges, Precision Inks, makes great kits and you will save a bunch of money. I have the Canon Pro 100, and use Precision Inks and am very happy. They have ICC profiles that do a great job, even without the paper profiles the prints come out great. I have been using this system for about 4 years and have never had any problems with the printer as a result.

I was intimidated at first to go this route, as a previous attempt at cartridge refills 15 years ago was a mess. But I made the leap for the savings and have not looked back since, other than to order a 2nd set of OEM cartidges to use as refills when Canon's website had one of those crazy good deals with free paper with the purchase of the whole ink set. I think I ended up with $149 dollars of ink and received about 600 sheets of 13X19 paper, 1000 sheets of 9x12, in the various Canon sheens for free.

They do have some good videos on their site that show the process to refill the cartridges, make sure you get a chip resetter is you go this route.

Happy shooting and printing.