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Ezine Ready

Printer Ink Compatibles

Printer manufacturers usually suggest that you use their original brand of printer ink when ink runs out, but is this the best thing to do. Some printer manufacturers even go so far as to advise that consumers may suffer problems if they don’t use genuine printer ink cartridges.

Anyone who has watched the printer market over the last few years will have noticed that the cost of printers have reduced significantly. This has coincided with a large increase in the price of printer ink. The business model used by the majority of the main printer manufacturers has been to decrease the profit margins on printers, whilst raising the cost per gram of the printer ink that they produce.

Whilst this has happened, many printer makers have made it much more complicated for the producers of compatible cartridges to make suitable products, by introducing electronic chips to their ink cartridges. Printer makers claim that the chips on the ink cartridge allow for higher quality printing, by stopping cartridges from operating when they are low on ink. This is of course true, but it is also true that this stops cartridges from using their total supply of printer ink, meaning consumers get less ink for their money. It also means that competition is reduced because it is harder for the makers of ink compatibles to enter the market.

A lot of people have the idea that the compatible ink market is quite small, with low quality manufacturers trying to compete with the big boys. It is true that the businesses of compatible ink cartridge producers are nowhere near on the same scale as the printer manufactures, however there are often sizeable firms in the market. One such example is UK compatible cartridge producer Jet Tec, that manufactures its products from a large purpose-built facility with over three hundred workers.

Some of the manufacturers of compatible ink cartridges have actually produced innovative technology of their own. One of the major problems with Epson’s ink cartridge chips is that they can think the cartridge is empty when it actually has a decent quantity of ink remaining. As the chip prevents the ink cartridge from printing, customers can lose a large amount of prints. The solution is extra life technology which is a system fitted to some compatible cartridges. This system allows the ink cartridge to stop when the chip thinks it’s empty, but additionally gives the customer the option to override. This means that the customer has the choice, and doesn’t have to throw away cartridges that still hold ink.

The quality of compatible ink cartridges does differ very much, but if you select a well known retailer with a high quality reputation the chances are that they will only sell high quality compatible ink cartridges. If in doubt, take the time to explore the web for the manufacturer’s name, as a number of PC and magazine sites have run extensive group tests examining the quality of compatible printer ink cartridge suppliers. As a final thought, with the prices of compatible ink cartridges being considerably cheaper than the original manufacturer ink cartridges, it’s often not a very expensive risk to take, and if you use a lot of printer ink it could be a considerable bonus to you.

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Tom is a writer with an interest in Printer Ink and Epson T009 ink

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