Cheap Discount Ink Cartridges - Do They Really Save You Money?

On purchasing a new inkjet printer for the first time, most people are impressed by what they get for the comparative low cost of this fascinating technology.

All goes well until the need to replace the first ink cartridges for this gleaming new printer. The time till this event seems to go very quickly? Many people soon find out why this happens, because the printer manufacturer has only included a small trial sample of ink cartridges with your new printer which are only filled with one third the capacity of normal ink cartridges.

So having bought your new printer, you first look at purchasing replacement ink cartridges direct from the printer manufacturer such as HP, Dell, Lexmark, or Canon etc; This is when it becomes crystal clear why inkjet printer manufacturers only include small trial samples of ink cartridges with their new printers which, although reducing the initial cost of a new printer, gives you a real shock when you come to replace the ink by buying new replacement original ink cartridges direct from the printer manufacturer. It then becomes crystal clear that printer manufacturers make large amounts of money from their ink cartridges and sales of computer consumables.  

Prices can be extremely high for what you get and if you use a large amounts of ink, you start to realise that the total cost of ownership of your printer is not going to be as great as you first thought it was going to be, and yes, you're now tied yourself into the technology (Which was perhaps the initial aim of the printer manufacturers great price deal).

Of course, buying new original replacement inkjet cartridges should ensure fault free use but you are paying a high premium for this choice and now with the drive for eco-friendly "green" replacements this may not be the best option available to you. So what are your choices ? Well you could stick with original inkjet cartridges but you will need a big “money-bags” bank account for this choice, or you could look at three other sources of cheap inkjet cartridges.

Compatible Ink Cartridges
Compatible inkjet cartridges are new ink cartridges that are manufactured by a third party manufacturer ie; (not the original inkjet printer manufacturer) and are produced using the third parties own design and manufacturing process and sold as compatible products to the original inkjet manufacturer's products. Normally, compatibility is fine but on some occasions this may cause some issues. Which is why you should only look at purchasing third party compatible products from a reputable reseller which will ensure peace of mind in the purchase of these products. If the third party manufacturer is a reputable company any issues would be sorted out very quickly.

Remanufactured Ink Cartridges
This is another cheaper, "green" option. These cartridges are the original printer manufacturer (OEM) cartridges that have been used and have been reclaimed and refilled by a third party company who carefully examines the cartridges and replaces all worn parts with new ones and refills the cartridge with premium grade high quality toner and supplies them back into the market for resale.

Inkjet Refill Kits
The third option is to buy a refill kit and refill your own inkjet cartridges yourself. While this is perhaps the cheapest option, it is also very hit and miss in refilling the cartridges correctly and getting them to work. I would not recommend this option as it can also be very messy.

Discount Ink Cartridges
So are discount inkjet cartridges good value? Well over the cost of new original inkjet cartridges, yes they are great value. However, like everything else in this world, I would not advise just buying the cheapest price product you can get. There is a fine balance to make. But with the right choice major savings can be achieved. This is why Schools and other Educational Establishments, National Health Service Departments, Doctors and other Government Departments buy remanufactured and sometimes compatible products rather than the original new products from printer manufacturers. It achieves two of their goals. 1. purchasing green eco friendly products and 2. reducing their overall printer purchasing costs.

Experience Counts
From our own experience, we carefully select the manufacturers of ink cartridges to ensure that the quality of manufacturer or remanufacture gives the highest standards and that the supplier guarantees the products they developed. So at the end of the day it's a balance. I recommend you not go for the expensive option of new original inkjet cartridges but perhaps go for a high quality remanufactured or compatible product from a reputable manufacturer - Happy Printing