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About printer ink cartridges
Many people are surprised to find that the cost of a new black or colour printer ink cartridge can be more than they paid for the printer. Inkjet cartridges, to be fair, are the bits that drive the printing so itÕs not surprising that the printer itself is often cheaper. Imagine a car without an engine - thatÕs a printer without its ink cartridge.
At justinkandpaper.com we are doing our best to make the difference between the cost of your printer and the subsequent consumables smaller. As a leading independent distributor and retailer, we are on your side.
You have several options when your inkjet printer ink needs replacing.
The first option is to buy new original manufacturer printer ink cartridges. These are the same as the ink cartridges that came with the printer though are invariably a lot fuller. Some printers come with cartridges with very little ink in. OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) printer ink cartridges cost more but do offer peace of mind as these are made by the same manufacturer that made your printer.
Compatible printer ink cartridges are also available for many inkjet printers. justinkandpaper.com ensures that you are presented with the choice. Compatible printer ink cartridges are printer cartridges that are made by a generic manufacturer but still provide high quality results.
If compatible cartridges are not available for your printer, you may wish to consider remanufactured ink cartridges. Remanufactured printer ink cartridges are previously used cartridges that have been cleaned and refilled at the factory. They are thoroughly tested to ensure that they offer the same high quality as new replacement inks.
Your final option for purchasing new ink is to buy inkjet refill kits that allow you to refill almost any empty printer ink cartridge with bottled ink that comes in the kit. Inkjet refill kits are generally quick and easy to use.
Remanufactured Cartridges
These professionally manufactured printer ink cartridges are original manufacturerÕs brand printer ink cartridges, which have been through one cycle of service and have been recharged.
Every printer ink cartridge has been cleaned, as have the print head nozzles. The cartridge is then filled with the same ink formulation, checked if it has the correct internal atmospheric pressure, and inspected for any possible shell leakage. Electrical circuitry is then tested and the cartridge is run through an actual print test.
Remanufactured printer ink cartridges are professionally recycled and designed to meet or even exceed their original specifications. The remanufacturing process involves inspecting, disassembling, cleaning, and refilling the cartridges. The remanufactured printer ink cartridges are then tested and sealed.
Printer ink cartridge recycling offers an excellent economical (and environmentally friendly) way to help protect the planet. Each time you reuse a printer ink cartridge you are helping to limit the millions of printer ink cartridges that are simply discarded every year. If you use a Canon, HP, Lexmark, Samsung or Apple printer the chances are that your cartridge can be successfully recycled through remanufacturing, recycling or reprocessing.
In order to make their cartridges more friendly to the environment these manufacturers make the print heads robust enough to last longer than the life of the ink in the cartridge which means that when the ink is all used up the printer cartridge is still a usable and workable device if it can be reloaded with ink, or re-inked. Most cartridges can last until the third, fourth or fifth recycle before they start to lose quality so remanufacturing can have great benefits to the environment. Recycled cartridges are cheaper to produce and this is reflected in the price. The quality of your prints should not suffer.
Counterfeit ink
Due to their small size, and relative price, cartridges have joined the ranks of items that are attractive to counterfeiters. Canon, Epson, Lexmark, and other leading ink makers are battling a rise in counterfeiters that are selling phoney ink packaged as the real thing. It is important to note that fake cartridges should not be confused with third-party products. Determining what is genuine at the time of purchase it difficult. If you do happen to buy the counterfeit product, the result is often leaky cartridges, poor quality printouts, fewer printouts per cartridge, dried up print heads and potential damage to printers. The best bet to reduce your odds of getting stuck with a bogus cartridge is to buy only from authorised resellers. The largest of these is justinkandpaper.com.
Cartridge duty cycle ratings
Printer manufacturers give their printer ink cartridges Ôduty cycle ratingsÕ to indicate how many pages the user should expect to print on average from that single printer ink cartridge. These ratings can be a good way for consumers to compare the lifespan of ink cartridges across different types of printer models from the same printer manufacturer. They are slightly misleading however.
The printer ink cartridge duty cycle figure is usually displayed in the following way: Ô130 pages at 5% coverageÕ. The figure of 5% should be noted. The manufacturer is referring to the approximate percentage of the page the ink should cover in order to be able to last for the number of pages specified.
It is important to be aware that if you are planning on using the printer to print colour brochures, photos or documents that feature a lot of imagery or heavy black text, your ink usage will be much higher than that suggested by the manufacturer's rating. A brochure page produces nearer 70% coverage so you should not be surprised when you get a smaller number of pages from your printer ink cartridges. If you have an inexpensive printer to produce intensive work then perhaps you should look towards laser or other printers out there. These cost more than most inkjet printers but the initial low cost can be a false economy.
