Third party inkjet cartridges

[wasdavetheroad]

I have an Epson Stylus 215 inkjet printer and have been successfully using Wilkinsons ink cartridges. Alas Wilkinsons is no more and it is likely that my local branch will close even if some survive. Any suggestions about alternative ink availability? 

[john new]

Personally I would never use, or recommend, 3rd party inks given many past scare stories so can't help. Glad it has worked for you though so far. Good luck with your hunt.

[stewartingram]

I've only once (with each printer I've bought) ever used the genuine cartridges. I stumped at the prices they asked for them and went elsewhere. For most of the years I've been working in London, often visiting a computer fair, and struck up a 'relationship' with a stallholder at these shows (ie, I kept on buying from him). Nowadays, having retired, I'm not in London, but computer fairs seem to have died anyway. I did initially buy online from the same stallholder, but I've since gone elsewhere. Absolutely no problems with the inks I purchased; excellent quality, no apparent difference to the Epson brand. No problem with the printers either, and the prints are long lasting. I used to print a lot of photos, but nowadays far fewer. The price however is the thing. For the price of one original cartridge, I can get the full set of six colours. I normally buy 2 sets at once to get extra discount.

Edited September 3, 2023 by stewartingram

[RFS]

I've only used 3rd party ink cartridges once. Big mistake! Within a couple of days one of them started leaking and spilt ink everywhere resulting in the printer being a write-off. The new printer didn't cost much more than a full set of genuine cartridges though.

 

These days I only need to print in black and white (ie letters, documents etc.). So when each colour runs out I select the option to disable it. The only cartridge still working now is the large greyscale one which suits me fine. 

[bourneagain]

My printer uses HP 56/57 inkjet cartridges; I have been buying unbranded ones since 2012 with no problems at all, initially from Cartridge People.com, but more recently from Amazon. I can’t really comment if they are any better or worse printing wise, if I was to use the HP branded ones, except of course the price and they don`t have the  facility that the HP ones, giving an indication of how much ink is left in the cartridge, critical if you are using your printer for business purposes.    

[Izzy]

I’ve mostly had Epson printers, just one HP, and when I have tried using non- Epson inks I’ve had poor results. Poorer colour reproduction and the heads constantly needing cleaning and failing in short order and requiring a new printer. Since deciding to stick to just Epson inks all these issues have gone away. Had the same basic MFD (£44) for 5-6 years now. Other inkjet printer makes such as HP are different in using bubble jets in the cartridge pack so they get changed with each ink change. 
 

[chris p bacon]

I have a Canon printer which is used for personal, work and society business so takes quite a hammering. I did a trial a few years ago between 'Genuine' and 'Non genuine' ink counting the sheets printed ( a lot of printing is much the same) there was little difference in the amount of sheets the inks would print and the difference was imperceptible. The non genuine are £5.24 a full set and the genuine is currently £38*.

 

Looking through past purchases for the last 3 years I have used just under £37 in ink rather than £260+. It could be argued that the genuine is ever so slightly better, but I doubt it's that much better.

 

*- £38 is a current offer, other priced quoted are £45-55.

[Philou]

Same here as @chris p bacon. I have a 'If anyone can, Canon can' printer (Pixma 550) and use cheap cartridges from Amazon that come in a box of 20 direct from Germany and cost no more than £1 a cartridge. Quality is perfectly fine for standard printing and for colour photos. I have had the 'B525 error' and a simple cartridge holder that cost about £25 to replace had that soon sorted. I am led to understand that not allowing 3rd party cartridges in printers is illegal - but I'm happy to be corrected.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[BMS]

Used a variety of non-Epson cartridges over the years with no problems on 2-3 different printers.

Next time buy an Ecotank printer!😁Less fiddling and much cheaper per print.

[melmerby]

Never had any problem with third party inks, these days I refill the cartridges* from bulk bottles.

I have used several brands with little difference, if any, between them.

 

*original cartridges.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by melmerby

[micklner]

1 hour ago, chris p bacon said:

I have a Canon printer which is used for personal, work and society business so takes quite a hammering. I did a trial a few years ago between 'Genuine' and 'Non genuine' ink counting the sheets printed ( a lot of printing is much the same) there was little difference in the amount of sheets the inks would print and the difference was imperceptible. The non genuine are £5.24 a full set and the genuine is currently £38*.

 

Looking through past purchases for the last 3 years I have used just under £37 in ink rather than £260+. It could be argued that the genuine is ever so slightly better, but I doubt it's that much better.

 

*- £38 is a current offer, other priced quoted are £45-55.

Give us a clue as to the alternative please. I tried a Tesco own make one, on my Canon, and it wouldnt even reconise it , let alone print !.

[chris p bacon]

There are lots available, the last I purchased came from ebay and I paid just over a fiver. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294024453473 

 

I've also not had the issue of not being recognised. 

 

I mix the printing between 'Draft' to save on ink and 'Fine' for better quality, I've not had a problem with either and the quality on Fine is very good.

 

[ruggedpeak]

Used non- genuine in HP printers for years, mainly from 'Cartridge Save'. Get various "terrifying" messages on my PC from HP when I put them in but apart from that can't see any difference in quality and used for printing buildings and photos.

[ikcdab]

third party inks are OK but they are "watered down" and so the quality is definately not the same. It will be OK for normal printing, but they really are not good enough for my scalescenes printing where i want the best quality. I have used third party in the past, but they fade quckly and are susceptible to damp. when it takes so much effort to make a decent scalescenes building that might be in the layout for years, its worth paying the extra for OEM cartridges.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, ikcdab said:

third party inks are OK but they are "watered down"

And what do you base that statement on?

[ikcdab]

9 hours ago, melmerby said:

And what do you base that statement on?

I rang up the compatible company and asked them. 

[DLT]

I use Stinkyink  as the HP cartridges for my printer cost a fortune.  Can't see any difference, but I'm not doing lots of glossy photo-prints.

[ISW]

On 02/09/2023 at 16:20, wasdavetheroad said:

Any suggestions about alternative ink availability? 

Have you considered the option of re-filling the old cartridge with original (or compatible) inks?

 

For ~10-years I used to refill the ink cartridges on my Canon MX-868 because Canon don't sell the replacement cartridges in this country (the machine was bought in Taiwan). I used Canon's own ink, from large bottles at reasonable cost. I had to buy a 'chip resetter' for the cartridges though, as this is required to make the printer 'think' that the ink cartridge is full again. It wasn't expensive (<£10), but I had to get it from AliExpress.

 

Ian

[melmerby]

6 hours ago, ikcdab said:

I rang up the compatible company and asked them. 

Yes. we make inferior cartridges by watering them down😆

[melmerby]

I use bottled ink to fill my Canon Cartridges.

 

The Epson Stylus Photo R800 that I used to have needed 8 Cartridges which cost more from Epson than many printers andthey didn't last very long.

I always used re-filled cartridges and the cartridges were as good as the original

(That was for hi res glossy photo printing)

Unfortuately that printer went wrong outside of guarantee and a repair was nearly as much as buying a new one.

[Mark Saunders]

7 hours ago, melmerby said:

I use bottled ink to fill my Canon Cartridges.

 

The Epson Stylus Photo R800 that I used to have needed 8 Cartridges which cost more from Epson than many printers andthey didn't last very long.

I always used re-filled cartridges and the cartridges were as good as the original

(That was for hi res glossy photo printing)

Unfortuately that printer went wrong outside of guarantee and a repair was nearly as much as buying a new one.

 

Cheap printers are a way to sell more ink, especially the HP ink scheme!

[Jinty3f]

22 hours ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

Cheap printers are a way to sell more ink, especially the HP ink scheme!

At the start of this year, my wife bought for me an HP printer,  costing £49.00,  which included 3 months of free HP ink, and a code to give to friends / family, which would give them 3 free months worth, and  another 3 free months  for me as long as I was in the HP ink scheme.  In addition, if I quoted an existing users code, both he and I would get an additional 3 months. Having bought it on Amazon, I noticed that many of the reviews quoted their own codes, and so I copied one, and then left a review  with my own code prominent.  For three weeks, I received almost daily multiple notifications of 3 additional months ink added to my account,  as new  buyers used my code, and I do not exaggerate when I say that I will be 98 before I have to buy any ink (72 now).  The only down side is that the printer needs to be  connected to the web all the time, and my usage is tracked. However this results in new cartridges being sent in advance of running out. The deal does not mean that I get inundated with cartridges every month, just when needed. I have a limit of 700  pages  per month - my usual usage is about 20, mainly brick paper. I have had no problems with the heads drying out at all, unlike my previous printers.

 

edit. I notice that the same printer has been reduced to £28.00 on Amazon, but the ongoing free ink deal has now been stopped for new buyers. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09316DC61/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Edited October 2, 2023 by Jinty3f
Updated info

[wasdavetheroad]

I decided to try out inkredible cartridges as they are a Which magazine best buy, not the cheapest but a similar price to the Wilkinson ones I was using. I loaded the first 4 a few days ago and there was no error message on the Epson SX215. I print on A4 labels and ran a test print of red ashlar, the quality looks OK, as for fading my railway room only has light when I am in there, otherwise it is pitch dark.

[ruggedpeak]

On 30/09/2023 at 21:46, ikcdab said:

third party inks are OK but they are "watered down" and so the quality is definately not the same. It will be OK for normal printing, but they really are not good enough for my scalescenes printing where i want the best quality. I have used third party in the past, but they fade quckly and are susceptible to damp. when it takes so much effort to make a decent scalescenes building that might be in the layout for years, its worth paying the extra for OEM cartridges.

Out of interest do you spray varnish on the print to preserve it?

[melmerby]

25 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

Out of interest do you spray varnish on the print to preserve it?

My Epson Photo printer used a "gloss optimiser" cartridge when doing Photo prints, which put a layer of clear gloss over the print as it proceeded.