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Compatible Printer Ink Cartridges in the UK: The True Story
It's a controversy as old as inkjet technology in the UK -- whether to use OEM printer cartridges or compatible printer ink cartridges. Even a cursory Internet search will yield an abundance of information supporting one side or another. The plain fact is that OEM or compatible, the cost of inkjet ink will quickly exceed the cost of the printer. OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer. The ink sold under OEM brands is more expensive because, the manufacturers claim, this ink delivers superior print quality and image life. The makers of compatible ink cartridges argue that their unbranded or no-name brand products work just as well and can cost substantially less. For example, a brand name inkjet cartridge for a popular Hewlett-Packard printer costs about £11.00 while a third-party compatible costs about £5.00.
Testing the Claims
To find out what the real truth is, in 2008 PC World magazine teamed with RIT, a respected US technical university with a top-notch reputation for accurate and unbiased testing procedures, to test popular inkjet printers from manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Lexmark and Canon. RIT ran side-by-side tests of OEM versus compatible printer ink cartridges manufactured by third parties. Criteria for the test included image quality and fade resistance. Researchers also tracked the yield, or number of copies obtained from each ink cartridge.
And the Results...
The testing showed that the third-party printer ink cartridges had a higher yield than the OEMs, but that the OEM ink generally produced superior image quality that was more fade-resistant. So it turns out to be a matter of whether you prefer to save money or have top-quality printed output. Using third-party inkjet cartridges can save anywhere from 3% to 70% over the cost of OEMs. Here's a typical result from the test: An Epson colour inkjet printer printed about 70% more pages using remanufactured cartridges in cyan, magenta and yellow) than branded Epson cartridges of the same colours. The compatible cartridge's cost per copy was about 1/3 the cost of the Epson and the Epson yielded only about 200 colour pages, far short of the 350 specified on the Epson web site. The remanufactured compatible cartridge yielded about 320 pages. Testing of HP cartridges was even more revealing, with the compatible cartridge yielding an amazing 99% more pages than the HP cartridge.
Bottom line for UK inkjet printer owners? Compatible printer ink cartridges are not only less expensive, but also print a significantly larger number of pages than OEMs. |
