What are the Differences Between Compatible/Remanufactured Ink Cartridges and Their OEM Equivalents

A hotly debated topic in the inkjet printing world is the relative merits of the compatible and remanufactured ink cartridges when compared to the original (or OEM) ink cartridges.

An original or OEM cartridge is an inkjet cartridge that carries the brand name of the manufacturer on it, usually the same as the printer manufacturer, for example, Epson, Canon, Hewlett Packard, etc are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) They are usually the most expensive option for buying ink cartridges.

Compatible ink cartridges are brand new, but manufactured by third party manufacturers – who have nothing to do with the original printer manufacturers. Remanufactured or refilled cartridges have been used once, and recycled and refilled with third party ink. Compatible ink cartridges are available for Epson, Canon and Brother printers, but only remanufactured cartridges for HP, Lexmark, Dell printers. Obviously both of these types of cartridges are cheaper than their OEM equivalents.

The quality of compatible ink cartridges is, for many people the biggest issue when considering them. From our experience using them the output from them is more than adequate - when bought from a reputable supplier, and they produce prints that are very close or indistinguishable from the originals. The life of these cartridges compare favourably with the originals also.

If you are considering using compatible or remanufactured ink cartridges and worried about your printer warranty- don’t be. Following pressure from the European Union and America fair trade laws, the OEM’s (printer manufacturers) are not allowed to void your printer warranty for using compatible and remanufactured toner or ink cartridges as can be seen in this support document from HP.

Issues that we do see are in most cases actually user generated, but because remanufactured isn’t perceived as the same quality as OEM - the customer assumes that the issue is with the cartridge.

UNeedink.co.uk stock a wide range of high quality compatible and remanufactured ink cartridges along side original branded cartridges.

What Type of InkJet Printer Should I Buy?

One of the most regular questions I get asked at UNeedink is what type of InkJet printers are best? There are loads of different makes and models on the market! So what are the differences between them? What gives the best performance? For home use? For office use? What about associated running costs?

As a retailer selling ALL makes of inkjet cartridges we believe that we are in a good and independent position to advise people of the relative benefits of each make.

Broadly speaking there are 2 separate types of InkJet printer:

1. Inkjet Printers with the print head built into the printer. Popular makes of these are Canon, Epson & Brother.
2. Inkjet printers with the print head built into the ink cartridge. Popular makes of these are HP, Lexmark, Dell & Samsung

Okay so you are thinking why does this matter? It becomes significant when you consider the ongoing cost of ink cartridges!

• Option 1 - each time you buy a replacement ink cartridge you are only paying for the ink itself.
• Option 2 - each time you buy an replacement ink cartridge, you also buy a new print head, therefore adding an additional cost to the cartridge. Take this difference in price over the lifetime of the printer, then running this type of printer becomes very expensive!!

Furthermore, some printers have just 2 cartridges in them, one for black and one for “tri-colour” (blue, yellow, red) others have 1 cartridge per colour so will have 4 or 6 cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, yellow). Generally speaking, printers that have one cartridge per colour are more efficient. As the ink runs out, you only have to replace that 1 colour cartridge, whereas in a “tricolour” cartridge you might have to throw away ink just because 1 out of the 3 colours has run out. Again, this adds to the overall running costs of you printer. To find out more on this subject, read this interesting article on the efficiency of both types of cartridge

Another consideration is how recently the printer was manufactured? What cartridges does it use? How readily available are the required cartridges? You might want to consider the following:
1. Cartridges may not be widely available- online OR offline.
2. Cost effective compatible type ink cartridges may not be available

So now we know a bit about the types of printers out there and the ink cartridges that go in them! The next steps to consider are speed and print quality.

SPEED: If you are buying for home then perhaps speed isn’t a priority, but if you are buying for a business then this might be a consideration, if so then I suggest that you also consider a laser printer as they are not only faster but the cost per page is less also.

PRINT QUALITY: The best quality inkjet printers for printing photos will be models with four or more colours of ink as they generally produce the best quality- also when loaded with special photo inks and paper.

Finally, what do professionals and other customers think of the printer you are buying? Try sites like PC World, or Amazon for reviews on any potential purchase. The only note of caution on this would be that these reviews focus on the hardware- not necessarily the ongoing costs of ink etc.

That’s it! We hope you found this article useful. When you have bought you new printer, visit www.uneedink.co.uk for ink cartridges, we stock both compatible and original branded cartridges for all makes of printer.

Printer Ink Cartridges – The Real Cost!

If you are the owner or user of a printer, and use your machine on a daily business, you no doubt spend a significant amount of money on printer cartridges- regardless whether you have an inkjet printer that uses printer ink cartridges or a laser printer which uses toner cartridges. Over a number of months and years the cost of these printer cartridges can add up to huge amounts of money! Before purchasing a printer or to investigate and to reduce these costs for your existing printer it is useful to firstly calculate how much printing is actually costing each month. Secondly a “cost of ownership” calculation is also important as you will need to purchase printer ink or toner cartridges regularly. This is more important if you own and use an inkjet printer as the cost per page of an inkjet printer is higher than a laser printer- the cartridges need replaced more regularly. Therefore inexpensive printers can end up costing more in the long run because of their high ink cartridge costs. To calculate the printing cost per page by dividing the printer cartridge price by the yield, with the yield being the number of pages that one ink cartridge can print. For example, if the price of a Lexmark ink cartridge is £25 and its yield is 600 pages, then its cost per page will be £25/600 = £0.042 (4.2 pence per page)The monthly copst of ownership can be found by multiplying the no. of prints per month by the cost of the printer cartridge and divide it by the yield of the cartridge. Again, for example if you print 250 black prints per month using an Epson ink cartridge that yields 500 pages and costs £15, the monthly cost of ownership is 250 pages x 15 divided by 500 pages = £7.50 . If, after doing these calculations you find the results rather high, you may wish to consider alternatives to the expensive original cartridges like quality remanufactured or compatible cheap ink cartridges.