General pointers.

• Avoid choosing a printer which takes cartridges which incorporate a printhead in the cartridges design. (inkjet cartridges)
• Avoid choosing a printer with only takes one colour cartridge and choose printers which take individual cartridges for each colour. (Ink tank cartridges)
• Try to steer away from the cheaper £30 -£50 printers because the cartridges are expensive. Replacing a set of cartridges can cost more than the cost of these cheap printers. The more you spend on a printer the better value for money your cartridges will be.
• Avoid Lexmark and Dell. These printers and cartridges represent very poor value for money, with expensive cartridges and poor build quality on consumables such as printheads and ink formulations.
• If your printing is for the home or small office use compatibles as they are much cheaper and produce good printing results.
• Calculate your cost-per-print by diving the pages a cartridge produces by the cost. If it’s a colour printer add up all your inks and divide by the page yield of only one cartridge not them all.

Good Value For Money Ink Cartridges

Good Value For Money InkJet Printers

• Start off by finding the right cartridges first before you choose your printer and then see what printers the cartridges take.

Generally any printer which takes the cartridges mentioned above will give you good quality prints at the right price for home or small office printing. These cartridges are all available as compatible and give you good quality printing at a heavily discounted cost. 

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With this is mind, how long can an inkjet cartridge last for if stored correctly?

There are two types of compatible cartridges; they are called compatible and remanufactured. Generally these two types fall under the same heading on our website – compatible – but for the purpose of this article we must distinguish the two different types as different rules apply to these cartridges.

First lets start with compatible inkjet cartridges.

Compatible cartridges are brand new copies of original cartridges. They were made by a different company other than the original manufacturer. These cartridges, often referred to as ink tanks, feature a simple design which consists of an ink reservoir, computer chip and ink exit hole. Because these cartridges have no print head they can last for at least a year. Some compatible cartridges come with an expiry date of two years. These cartridges last longer than remanufactured cartridges because they do not have a print head which can become blocked over time. The ink stays completely in the reservoir chamber of the cartridge which removes common problems which can be found with remanufactured cartridges.

Normally, compatible cartridges come with a vacuum sealed ink valve at the bottom of the cartridge and sealed vent on the top which you take off when unpacking the cartridge. The cartridge itself is either sealed in a plastic or vacuum polyethylene or anti-static plastic bag for extra longevity.

Remanufactured cartridges

Now lets take a look at remanufactured cartridges which have a shelf life of about three to four months if you’re looking to get good quality prints. Remanufactured cartridges can last longer in storage but it depends on the quality of the cartridge as there are many grades of remanufactured cartridges. Remanufactured cartridges have a more complicated design than compatibles as they have a printhead integrated into the body, sponge and electrical strip. The printhead is normally sealed over with tape and comes with a protective clip for storage and shipping. These cartridges have small vent hole at the top of the cartridge which are necessary to allow a flow of ink. Remanufactured ink cartridges come in a sealed plastic bag to prevent accidental ink contamination during shipping.

Because of the addition of a printhead in remanufactured cartridges, ink which sits near or in the printhead can block the printhead nozzles as it becomes thicker due to water evaporation from the ink. This results in poor print quality and will eventually prevent the cartridge from printing at all.

How to store your compatible and remanufactured cartridges.

• Keep them out of direct sunlight and away from heat. A desk drawer could be ideal depending on temperature.
• Be sure to store your cartridges in the upright position. This keeps remanufactured cartridges in ideal condition.
• Keep them in their original packaging until you need them.
• When at all possible try and avoid storing your cartridges for extended periods of time to get the best results from them.

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Anti recycling Patent

Lexmark’s US patent # 6099101 which they use on their cartridges describes how the cartridge will ‘fry’ the printhead rendering it useless when it senses ink has dried up. This makes their cartridges impossible to remanufacture and they can only be sent to landfill; an incredibly wasteful use of resources. On top of this Lexmark put very little ink in these cartridges making them not an environmentally friendly choice of cartridge.

Wasteful

The Lexmark cartridges which come with new printers contain very little ink and will produce a few pages of A4 printing before they run out.

The cost of replacing Lexmark ink cartridges will come as a shock to many users as they usually cost more than the printer, sometimes even two times as much!

Lexmark’s No:1 cartridge contains cyan, magenta and yellow ink. It mixes them all together to give you black. It’s an incredibly expensive and wasteful way of printing with black. The cartridge is also expensive and contains little ink.

Lexmark attempt to stamp out remanufacturing

Lexmark’s prebate or return program scheme actively discourages recycling by making you promise to return the cartridge back to Lexmark or to throw it away after use. Lexmark give you a cash incentive on the cost of their cartridges to do so. This takes the remanufacturing industry completely out of the window. The seal across their cartridge packing says that by opening it you agree to their terms and will abide by their scheme. This is another way Lexmark have devised to take out the cartridge remanufacturing industry. In the past Lexmark have threatened and taken small companies to court. Clearly they oppose people recycling their cartridges.

In some of their black cartridges, Lexmark use a chemical mixed with their ink which blocks the cartridge printhead near the end of its life making it very difficult to reuse. This is another way in which Lexmark have tried to stamp out cartridge re-manufacturing. The blocking can be seen as it creates a gunge over time as it gets exposed to air.

Price Fixing

Lexmark’s No: 2, 3, 4, 5 and 108XL original cartridges are exclusively supplied to the Dixons group of companies; price fixing by controlling who can sell these cartridges. These cartridges are sold at a premium, contain very little ink and represent poor value for money.

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We came up with this list of 5 pointers to help our customers make the right choice when buying a new printer and get the best value for money with their printing needs.

• 1) What are the minimal requirements and functions you require

With so many features and functions found on modern multifunction inkjet printers, these days choosing a printer can be tough. To help make your decision easier firstly decide on the minimum requirements you need for your new printer. On top of basic functions like copy, scan and print, determine if you need anything else like the ability to send documents via fax or email. We recommend these functions for any office printer. You’ll need a network compatible printer if you want to use your printer on other computers in your house / office and you should also determine if you need colour printing or not. Answering these questions will help narrow down your choices and help you find the right printer and ink cartridges for your needs.

• 2) The initial layout and running costs

Printing costs can run up over time and doing some quick math on ink cartridge page yields and cost of your ink cartridges will help you get a feel for your printers running costs. Once you do the maths you will probably find that the more expensive printers usually have much lower running costs than the cheap ones. You should look at your printer as an investment, this is probably something you are going to be using everyday in an office setting and it can incur expensive running costs if you don’t get it right.

• 3) Performance

One of the most important things to consider after cost is performance. You will be amazed at how quickly you can be frustrated by slow printing speeds and clumsy designs which will make you feel like you have waited an age for a single sheet to be printed. The same goes for scanning and copying speeds, and is especially relevant in office settings where you do not have the luxury of spare time. Print quality is normally very good on modern inkjet printers but we recommend HP, Brother and Epson ink cartridges for anyone who wants to get the best printing results.

• 4) Independent reviews and product information

To get the low down on the model you’re considering buying try looking at reviews published by testing agencies who perform independent and unbiased reviews on products tested. Be careful of some positive online reviews as some are actually commissioned by the manufacturers themselves to give a good impression of their product and make you want to buy it.

• 5) Warranties and service packages available

Consider how often you will be using your printer, how important it will be to your home or office and the amount of years you will require its services for. This should give you a good insight into the level of service required and additional running costs that may arise. Keeping any printer in tip top condition over the course of its lifespan is going to take more than ink cartridges or paper and you should look at manufactures warranties and additional service packages which may come with your printer before purchasing. Consumables like printheads and waste toners can also take time to be ordered from the manufacturer so this should also come into consideration if they are available for your printer.

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One of the best things about reward points is that it gives you more points for choosing a compatible ink or toner cartridge and even more if it’s a refill cartridge. The reason that this is great is because compatible and refill cartridges are more environmentally friendly than original ink or toner cartridges and they’re also cheaper. So by selecting a refill or a compatible ink and toner cartridge, you are helping the environment, saving money, and being given even more Reward Points for choosing these selections. Inkntoneruk also give money to Caring For Kids when they receive a cartridge which has been sent back to us after it has been used. We remanufacture these cartridges and sell them as compatibles, so you see by selecting compatible cartridges you are also helping charity as well.

How it works

We like to keep things simple at inkntoneruk when you’re buying your ink or toner cartridges. So what we’ve done is the following. For every pound you spend on original cartridges we give you one point. For every pound you spend on compatible cartridges we give you two points and for refills we give you three. It’s as easy as 1,2,3! Also, refer a friend and we’ll give you 500 points to get you going! How about that!

Saving in the long run

Over time your printing consumable costs will mount up. One way to combat this and to reduce the overall cost of purchasing your ink or toner cartridges is to shop exclusively at inkntoneruk and take advantage of our reward point’s scheme. By doing this you will lower the overall cost of your printing. Now, we know you’re probably thinking, what if you find it cheaper somewhere else and you’re really not saving any money on your ink or toner cartridges, but we’ve got our Price Promise which ensures you won’t. We’ll double the difference if you do find your ink cartridges or toner cartridges cheaper anywhere else and constantly adjust our prices to make them some of the lowest online, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. So you see, you can be confident in our prices and to fully take advantage of our reward points scheme and lower your overall cost of your ink or toner cartridges you should continue to shop at inkntoneruk. Just remember to select reward points in the payment and confirmation section in our checkout when placing your order to take advantage of some great savings!

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Some printer manufactures try to provide value for money with their consumables whereas others just care about making the maximum amount of money they can from you the consumer.

These examples show how you can save money over time and show how you should use careful consideration to what you’re buying.

You can see that with both Dell and Epson printers, paying a bit more for your printer will give you much better running costs and help you save in the long run. This is a general rule to consider when buying any printer. An increase in the cost of a printer usually results in a lower cost per page, higher page yield (better cost-efficiency) and is much better than buying than a printer as cheaply as possible. The print quality from more expensive machines will also be better as well as its features, functions and connectivity.

Another way of saving with your printing supplies is by buying your ink cartridges from a reputable and reliable retailer such as ourselves. Inkntoneruk stock a massive range of ink and toner cartridges for most printers. Why not click on this link and see how much you can save with your printing needs?

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Lexmark

Some OEM (original) cartridge manufactures don’t like the remanufacturing industry recycling their cartridges and reselling them to customers at a lower rate. The most obvious example would be Lexmark who make their cartridges very difficult to remanufacture. Lexmark don’t won’t the cartridge remanufacturing industry refurbishing their cartridges or you buying a compatible Lexmark cartridge whether it be an ink cartridge or toner cartridge. They have introduced their return program scheme to further eliminate their cartridges being recycled and put it under the guise of recycling. Lexmark return and non return program cartridges are exactly the same except the non-return program cartridge is significantly more expensive. Some retailers have stopped selling the non-return program Lexmark cartridges as there is no point and only serves to confuse and baffle the customer. Lexmark also continue their onslaught by including many different page yields for some of their printer consumable ranges. With up to four different page yield cartridges – standard – high – extra high and extra extra high – combined with the option of having each cartridge as a return or non-return program cartridge the choice can be overwhelming and completely unnecessary. These Lexmark cartridges can all hold the same yield but are filled to different levels and sold at a premium. This is an incredible waste of materials and actually promotes plastics being sent to landfill which take hundreds of years to decompose. The actual cost of toner is minuscule yet Lexmark overcharge massively for something which costs them pennies to do.

HP

HP recognise the remanufacturing industry and take a much more pro-active approach to their cartridges being remanufactured. Their cartridges also offer more value to the customer while promoting the use of recycled materials and products at the same time. To put it in a nutshell HP beat Lexmark every time in terms of quality, cost and remanufacturing.  Even HP’s packaging is more environmentally conscious with the use of cardboard much more prevalent than Lexmark’s. The author understands that this is a biased view point but has based this decision on the experience gained working within the printing consumables industry for four years.

To take a look at our HP ink cartridge and toner cartridge range please use these links.

HP Toner Cartridges

HP Ink Cartridges

To view our Lexmark ink cartridge and toner cartridge range please use these links.

Lexmark Toner Cartridges

Lexmark Ink Cartridges

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On top of the host of remote printing solutions like Google Cloud Print and Apple AirPrint, Epson have now introduced their solution named Connect. Connect is compatible with, surprisingly, Epson printers. Connect is a broader name which encompasses two mobile print services by Epson. They are Epson iPrint and Epson Email Print.

Now you can print remotely with your Epson ink cartridges no matter how far you are away. The quality of printing will remain the same even when printing long distances from your Epson printer. There is a broad range of Epson ink cartridges and printers available to use with Epson Connect. With Epson Connect you can print using your Smart Phone, PC tablet, Imac or laptop. Epson Connect gives you the freedom to use your Epson ink cartridges and printer wherever you are. Now you can take a photograph when you’re out and about and print remotely with your Epson ink cartridges. Epson Connect gives you the power to print from any location which has an internet connection. If your around the house you can use Epson iPrint which uses a wireless localised network and not the internet to print with. This is ideal if you’re sitting on the sofa, in the kitchen, upstairs etc. Epson iPrint lets you connect to your printer wirelessly with your smart phone, tablet pc etc and print using your Epson ink cartridges. In order to use Epson iPrint on your smartphone you must download the free App for it. A link to it can be found here.

Epson iPrint

IPrint is a wireless network connection which will work inside your house and maybe a little bit outside it (if you’re lucky). You can print with your smart phone, tablet pc, mobile computer and still get the best results from your Epson ink cartridges. Just be sure to download the App to make it work!

Epson Email Print

Epson Email print uses a unique email address which is assigned to your printer, very similar to having a dedicated Fax number. It works by sending whatever you want to print to that email address and then it will automatically print from your Epson printer and ink cartridges.

If you’re looking to replace your ink cartridges for your Epson printer why not have a look here and see how much you can save when you take care of your printing needs at inkntoneruk.

Epson Printers Compatible with Epson Connect

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If you thought you were going to be buying HP ink cartridges forever think again. The way forward is HP 3d ink cartridges. If you don’t know what I’m talking about why not take a look at the video in this link

Have you watched star trek the next generation? If you thought the replicator was the work of science fiction, think again. It’s predicted that in about 20 years every home will have a 3d printer, changing the world and consumerism as we know it.

Ink cartridges as we know it will change forever. In fact it raises the question what will you do when run out of ink cartridges to print with? Order some new ink cartridges or make your own ink cartridges with your 3d printer? How about when you need a new printer? Why not design your own or download a schematic straight from HP with the designs for your ink cartridges? I could go on but I think you see where I’m going with this.

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The first thing to do is act with speed; ink cartridge ink is very absorbent and can easily leave heavy staining on clothes and skin if not dealt with immediately. Skin is very porous and will stain easily if it comes into contact with ink cartridge ink.

Removing Ink Cartridge Ink from Skin

Hairspray

Using hairspray will help dissolve any ink cartridge ink embedded in your skin. Simply spray it on, let it sit for a moment and wash it off.

Baby Oil

Baby oil can also be used to help dissolve ink cartridge ink in your skin and leaves your skin feeling baby soft!

Sugar and Soap

A favourite used by mechanics, the abrasive texture of sugar mixed with detergent or hand washing lotion works a treat in removing pesky ink cartridge ink from your hands.

Alcohol / Nail Polish Remover

Alcohol is a powerful way of removing ink cartridge ink from your skin as it helps dissolve and disperse ink. Using an alcohol solution doesn’t leave any stickiness like hairspray.

Toothpaste

Yes it’s true, toothpaste actually does remove ink cartridge ink from skin. Give it a try!

Removing Ink Cartridge Ink from Clothes

Its time to get technical, removing ink cartridge ink from clothes is a tricky thing to do. The longer you leave it the more likely it is to leave a stain. So, bearing all this in mind, tackle any ink stain on your clothing as soon as possible. This should be done by applying an alcohol solution such as hairspray, nail polish remover or white spirit immediately on the affected area. This will help disperse the stain. This step is crucial and for best results must be done before the ink cartridge ink dries!

Step One: Apply cleaning agent to affected area.

Apply alcohol solution – Hairspray, nail polish remover, white spirit, cleaning agent immediately to affected area. Do not use any bleaching agent as this will stain your clothes.

Step Two: Leave to soak

Make a cleaning solution consisting of warm water, half a teaspoon of washing detergent and one table spoon of white vinegar and leave the affected area to soak for half an hour.

Step Three: Rinse and repeat Step Two if necessary

Step Four: Put it in the washing machine

Apply a commercial stain removing agent to affected area if desired and wash using your washing machine.

Doing all this will almost certainly remove any stain left by ink cartridge ink. Repeat steps one to four if necessary. Good luck!

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