What is the overall consensus regarding non-genuine inkjet cartridges?

SheldonCooper · 16 Jan 2019 at 04:48

I have a Canon MX895 printer scanner. Had it a few years now. Was couple hundred quid so wasn't an elcheapo. It has CMYK plus the extra "BK" cartridge. Buying the official Canon cartridges runs to about 60 quid for the full set.

I obviously would so so so love to just go with the 3rd party carts that are what, a third the price? But it has been a long time since I have gone down that road and do not really know what the general agreement is between folk as to the quality of these 3rd party carts.

I could probably count just using both hands the number of times I use the printer a year, and yet the time it takes for the dreaded "ink running low" message to appear always seems to get shorter.

So what are people's experiences? I guess the two questions I am most interested in are a) are the inks of comparable quality (i.e. is printing stuff other than text going to come out just as good such as images and graphics) and b) is there a chance that the inks/carts will damage the print head?

As I said it has been a while since using 3rd party carts. When I did there was always people that said it can damage the printer. If it were a cheap 40 quid printer I wouldn't bat an eye lid. I actually quite like this printer though.

Thoughts and opinions appreciated. Thanks.

peterwalkley · 16 Jan 2019 at 15:39

Can't speak about a consensus but my experience in your situation was similar - ink really didn't seem to last very long because the printer was barely used. It burned up so much on the cleaning cycles there was none left to print with.

I ditched the inkjet in the end and bought a cheap colour laser printer. It does the job for most of what we want and for the few occasions we want a photo quality print I could pay an external provider to do it. Online ones are next-day or within a couple of days by post or there are places that do it in store like Costco, Timpsons, Boots etc. In practise we have a friend who uses his inkjet lot more so we generally pay with beer or a reciprocal favour.

Haze · 17 Jan 2019 at 06:21

Never been a fan, would not bother

Bluecube · 17 Jan 2019 at 08:38

I’ve used Epson compatible cartridges for years on my printer. I pay about a tenner for 12 (or so) cartridges from Amazon or eBay. The only problem I’ve had is that on occasion the cartridge doesn’t seem to have as much ink as it should but for the price, I’m not complaining.

Steeps · 17 Jan 2019 at 23:38

I ran my ip7250 on official inks for a few years but it would drink through them doing head cleans on startup. On my second set of compatibles running clear tanks and so far no complaints printing 4x6 photos regularly. Didn't dry out the heads when I didn't use it for 6 months.

OLDPHART · 21 Jan 2019 at 02:49

Why waste money, been using compatibles for years.

Rroff · 21 Jan 2019 at 04:39

You get a huge range of experiences with 3rd party/generic cartridges - there are definitely some good compatible ones out there as well as the ropey ones.

darael · 29 Jan 2019 at 18:15

I don't find the blacks to be very deep in compatibles these days - it's almost grey. But for the price I put up with it.

I'd be interested if anybody can recommend ink sets for the Canon IP7250 in the jungle.

OLDPHART · 5 Mar 2019 at 08:54

Used them from my 1st ever printer years ago, why waste money.

vanandjuanunited · 13 Mar 2019 at 16:33

Bluecube said:
I’ve used Epson compatible cartridges for years on my printer. I pay about a tenner for 12 (or so) cartridges from Amazon or eBay. The only problem I’ve had is that on occasion the cartridge doesn’t seem to have as much ink as it should but for the price, I’m not complaining.

Sums up my experiences. Occasionally bad one but at a fraction of the cost its a no brainer

Phil2008 · 23 Mar 2019 at 03:38

I use https://www.internet-ink.com for my compatibles as there carts seen top notch and shouldn't bugger up printers, plus the fill the carts to the brim.