Cheap and expensive inks of third parties?

[Red John]

Hi, probably my question turns out to be a bit stupid, but I have seen that between the different inks of third parties there are big price differences.

This way, ConeColor or Lyson ink have a few very high prices in comparison to Hobbycolors, Image Specialist or OCP ink, for putting some examples.

There does not exist scientific information that allow to compare of trustworthy form all these brands and, therefore, difficulty exists to value them of exact form.

Knowing all that, my question is the following one. Indeed there is a notable, palpable and royal difference in comparison with the cheapest inks? ConeColor or Lyson inks base his reputation on the high price?

 

[ghwellsjr]

They're all cheap compared to OEM. I would stick with the known good quality inks from a supplier with a long track record. Even if you find one that is good today, you don't know what they might suppy tomorrow.

 

[Kevinator]

Image specialists are amazing quality when it comes to ink.

 

[irvweiner]

Time to time, I post this response to the 'newbies' and others who are concerned about putting 3rd party inks into their printer and now want to know how and where can I get this 'stuff'. I feel that the wider audience in this forum will benefit from my comments; applies to all printers not just mine.

I have used the Canon s9000,i9900 and now the pro9000. Immediately after buying the first one I purchased refillable BCI-6 carts and now use refillable CLI-8 carts w/wo auto resettable chips and OCP ink. My ink cost per refill: $0.24 and the prints are great.

The cost of the ink contained in OEM carts runs 3-5 times the cost of human blood!! Over the last decade of my printing I've polled the many photo sites and other users to determine whose stuff I can trust sanely and safely.

Among the good inks listed below you can pay over a 3:1 range; $11-32/pint
For the good auto/manual reset chips the range is: $2-13/chip

If you choose manual reset chips or just want reset your OEM carts after refilling expect to pay $12-39 for the resetter. Your original Canon/Epson carts with good care might even last longer than your printer, considering cost of repair!

These are some of the vendors that are most recommended:
rjettek.com OCP ink cartridge plugs and much more
inkjetreset.com ink,carts,chips and more
inkjetcarts.com ink,carts,chips and more
octoink.co.uk/ ink,carts,chips and more
Hobbicolors ink,carts,chips and more
Image Specialists ink,carts,chips and more image-specialists.com/about_us.aspx
Precision Colors inks http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/
Cone Inks color & B&W inks conecolor.com inkjetmall.com

For more info and to build a working knowledge of this subject go to:
dpreview.com good set of forums, especially the inkjet printing forum
Inkjet Printer Forum here is where tuff?'s get handled! http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/index.php
Northlight Images: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/test_images.html
The Canon, Epson, HP Printer forums on Yahoo, Google

For those who would like to add other reliable sources to this list please do. I'm willing to tabulate a 'sticky' that will also include the accessories: needles,bottles,carts,rubber gloves (and sandpaper for those who forget to use them!). To repeat, this is a resource list for serious printers not a 'spamalot'!

Thanks for listening irv weiner

good luck irv weiner

 

[mharris127]

Thank you Irv for your insight. It is very helpful to people like me who don't want to spend the money (mainly on bad inks and printers ruined by crappy inks) to learn on my own. With yours and others assistance I just may start refilling myself when my supply of ink carts runs out. I may not post very often in the long term, but I will still be reading and learning.

 

[nche11]

They're all cheap compared to OEM. I would stick with the known good quality inks from a supplier with a long track record. Even if you find one that is good today, you don't know what they might suppy tomorrow.

Same thing with Canon OEM ink too. You really won't know what they will supply tomorrow. They have officially discontinued all the print heads for printers with no chips. There may be some still available among resellers but Canon don't sell them any more. I am disguised to learn that they discontinued all printers with PGI-5 and CLI8 too. They did it shortly after I bought my ip4300. Sopplies are still available but you will never know when they will be discontinued.

 

[tony22]

Same thing with Canon OEM ink too. You really won't know what they will supply tomorrow. They have officially discontinued all the print heads for printers with no chips. There may be some still available among resellers but Canon don't sell them any more. I am disguised to learn that they discontinued all printers with PGI-5 and CLI8 too. They did it shortly after I bought my ip4300. Sopplies are still available but you will never know when they will be discontinued.

nche11, when did that happen? I just bought my Pro9000 Mark II - it's full of CLI-8 carts!

 

[nche11]

Tony, I am not saying the cartridges are discontinued. I am trying to say Canon rolled out new printers with new inks from time to time too. I remember getting my ip4300 then suddenly they don't sell the printer any more. I had to pick up an ip4700 which has a different set of ink. Basically I am forced to use two different set of ink cartridges.

 

[The Hat]

nche11 I remember getting my ip4300 then suddenly they don't sell the printer any more. I had to pick up an ip4700 which has a different set of ink.

There was the 4500 and then the 4600 on the market long before the 4700 4 years later.
The 4300 is nowhere as good as the 4700 when it comes to quality and speed, yes it has smaller cartridges but both use chipped cartridges and thats the real down side.
I am curious as to why you have two sets of inks for your Canon printers..

 

[nanosec]

nche11 I remember getting my ip4300 then suddenly they don't sell the printer any more. I had to pick up an ip4700 which has a different set of ink.

There was the 4500 and then the 4600 on the market long before the 4700 4 years later.
The 4300 is nowhere as good as the 4700 when it comes to quality and speed, yes it has smaller cartridges but both use chipped cartridges and thats the real down side.
I am curious as to why you have two sets of inks for your Canon printers..

Funny you mention this, using same ink in ip4300/ip4700 (YMMV though).

Just wanted to chime in that IMHO the ip4700 is outperforming my ip4300 in speed. I also find the feed tray for cd printing to be way better.

The smaller cartridges aren't a bother to me as I refill once a week.