<p>I’m sick of paying premium prices for my printer ink. It’s a special photo printer (Epson) that requires archival inks but still… So my question is, has anyone tried the off-brand inks that are available online for a third of the price? My warranty makes it sound like if I use them, my printer will blow up. I ordered them and they’re here (5 different colors), but there are three different brands, or at least box designs. I have them in a little stack on my desk and am eyeing them rather warily. They do look kind of bootleg…</p>
<p>Some of them have diferent amounts of ink in them, so even though it is cheaper you might not be getting a full one. But I bet they charge more for the ones you are suposed to use for no reason. So im not really sure. If you dont use the printer alot, you should print something like once a week so the ink doesnt dry up or then you have to buy new ones.</p>
<p>This is my DH’s department to take care of and he orders a non-brand name refill through Amazon. It seems to be MUCH cheaper and our printers work just fine.</p>
<p>I don’t have an Epson any more – but when I did and ordered off brand inks, the colors never came out right. The printer worked ok – its just that the color matching was way off and so it wasn’t a good idea for printing photos or other color graphics. So it might depend a lot on your particular printing needs.</p>
<p>I had the same problem- and it totally messed up my printer- with my new printer I was afraid to get the cheap ink. I just adjust the output and use a draft copy if I don’t need it to be nicer.</p>
<p>I bought an Epson specifically for the inks. My W uses it to sometimes print on fabric. I tested the inks from HP, Canon, and others and Epson was by far the best - they lived up to the claim of their inks not dissolving if it gets wet and they’re supposed to be long lasting as well which most people would want for a photo. </p>
<p>If you don’t care about the ink lasting and don’t care that much about color matching you could try some non-brand ones. My mother had some from Staples for her HP printer but when I changed it into the printer for her it didn’t actually work. I have no idea how long it was sitting around though.</p>
<p>Just try not to do a ‘clean cartridge’ on the Epson because it uses up a ton of ink in doing so.</p>
<p>I have posted this in another post a while back. This a site that I use in Canada for ink to use on HP and epson. I have never had a problem but I do not know if they ship to the US. I have recommended them to so many people that at times I feel like becoming a reseller but am afraid of the financial commitment. Perhaps one of you could contact them and see if they will ship State side. [Blankdvdmedia.com</a> - Ink Cartridges, CD, DVD Media and Accessories](<a href=“http://www.blankdvdmedia.com%5DBlankdvdmedia.com”>http://www.blankdvdmedia.com)</p>
<p>I just dumped my HP printer to the trash can after 3 printhead failures.
I bought a new Canon.</p>
<p>It looks like I can have some cheap and decent refills:
[Canon</a> CLI-221 Inkjet Cartridge, Black, Compatible - 4inkjets](<a href=“http://www.4inkjets.com/CLI221B-Canon-Ink-Cartridge-Black-Compatible?printer=]Canon”>http://www.4inkjets.com/CLI221B-Canon-Ink-Cartridge-Black-Compatible?printer=)</p>
<p>ucsd_dad, Interesting about the varying ink qualities. Ink permanence is important to me since I print photos and artwork – my printer uses special Epson archival ink, which is supposed to last for 98 years or something like that. I think I will just order the Epson inks now. Now to figure out what to do with these 5 off-brand cartridges. Wonder if I can get my money back.</p>
<p>Your wife prints on fabrics? How does she do that?</p>
<p>Maybe you can pop in the off-brand ones when you’re printing docs that you don’t care so much about longevity or accurate color.</p>
<p>My W prepares the fabric with some kind of treatment then simply runs it through the printer like a sheet of paper and has images printed on it. She then will use these images to make quilts - for example a ‘geneology’ quilt or a ‘memory’ quilt. It really comes out pretty well. </p>
<p>We tested various inks by printing on fabric and then running the fabric through the wash a few times. There was a big difference in the inks when subjected to this. This was some years ago though so maybe others have better inks in this regard now.</p>
<p>I actually found the Canon ink to be less expensive- It can be confusing when buying printers, some printers seem like real bargains, until you see how fast they go through ink.
Laser printing is generally less costly in the long run- but I currently have an multi function ink jet Epson that I want to replace- cause I gave my Canon to my D & the Epson has to be hand fed the paper. :p</p>
<p>HP must be making big bucks on their ink. It costs nearly as much to refill our two all-in-one devices as their original cost. Anyone have any ideas for 3rd party ink that works for HP?</p>
<p>HP ink is really expensive. It’s hard to find refills with newer models. Their printers have lot of defects. Their software is annoying.</p>
<p>I always thought HP had the lowest costing inks as far as how long the ink actually lasted… My old HP printer, which I had for about 4 years, cost me 12 dollars for Black ink and like 16 for color… I recently upgraded to a wireless HP and it costs me 11 for black, and 10 for each color (there are 3 individual color choices in there). I get all my Ink at staples and recieve 10 percent back as well as 2 dollars per cartridge as a credit on my account. so really I am paying about 7 dollars per cartridge, which to me is great because you don’t run out of all the same colors at the same time, so why replace the whole color cartridge. So far I have replaced the blue once and the black once (woulda wound up buying a whole new color cartridge under the old printer as opposed to just the blue under this one). I used generic ink in an epson years ago and it did not fair well… clogged up the print heads and wound up having to buy a new printer. bought a lexmark and that was a piece of crap. Bought a canon and that lasted awhile, till their ink cost me more then it did for a whole new printer. Bought the HP. Happy customer.</p>
<p>costco offer ink refills now, has any one used them before?</p>
<p>HP: $24 for black, $48 for 3 colors.</p>
<p>[HP</a> Officejet Pro L7700 All-in-One Printer series - Accessories, supplies & services](<a href=“http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF13a/18972-18972-238444-12019-3328086-3601421.html]HP”>http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF13a/18972-18972-238444-12019-3328086-3601421.html)</p>
<p>The scanner software is slow and I have to manually adjust the images.
A whole bunch of software running in the background, downloading upgrades, and advertising. Really bad marketing.
Loading trays were barely engaged and kept dropping on the floor.</p>
<p>I had 1 free printhead replacement when I had it for 4 months. After 12 months I had to pay almost $80 for a second broken printhead and could not print for 3 days. Last week one of the replaced printhead broke. I had no more patience.</p>
<p>This was the 2nd HP printer I had.</p>
<p>[HP</a> Photosmart Plus All-in-One Printer - B209a | HP® Official Store](<a href=“http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/CD035A%2523ABA]HP”>http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/CD035A%2523ABA)</p>
<p>That’s the one I have currently.</p>
<p>We have a dell printer. Bought off-brand at Office Max, and the color lasted for about three pictures. I think Dell is ridiculously expensive, but OTOH, it lasts much, much longer.</p>
<p>We’ve actually had zero quality or repair problems with either the the HP 6110, which is about five years old, or the two year old HP C6280. The issue is the cost of replacement ink. Costco and Staples seem to offer the best, albeit expensive replacements…</p>
<p>We’ve tried Canon, Epson and Lexmark and they all died after about two years. The Epson was probably the best on ink expenses. We picked up two ultracheap HPs from Walmart a year ago and my guess is that it costs about 8 cents a sheet for printing. It costs our kids a dime a sheet using the printers at their school libraries. Our son might be able to print his CS lab stuff at the CS computer lab for free but I think that their printers have chronic problems. </p>
<p>A laser printer would be the cheapest solution but I don’t like the kids having to deal with Toner or the ozone issue. They don’t print frivolously and I’d guess that they go through about one cartridge per semester. The cartridges aren’t too bad either.</p>