Some printers can use up a lot of ink, which can have an effect on your wallet. Buying Original Branded Ink Products can be quite costly. However, a cheaper alternative to these big, recognisable brands are third-party printer ink brands.
Branded Inks vs Third Party Inks
A survey by Which? Magazine asked more than 9,000 inkjet and laser printer owners about their experiences with printer ink brands – both Original brands and third-party brands. Similarly to previous statistics, third-party brands came out on top for value with both ink and toner cartridges, while the big brands were ranked at the bottom of the results. The third-party brands with the highest consumer score was 87%. The bottom four brands out of the 20 brands to choose from in the survey – in descending order – were Brother (66%), Canon (62%), Epson (58%) and HP with the lowest score (56%). These huge brands offer amazing printing quality, however, the high prices of these Branded Ink Products cause customers to rank bigger brands lower down and they feel like they’re not a value for money.
Moreover, third-party printer inks are a good value and contrary to popular belief, won’t break your printer or be of a lesser value. Which? Magazine’s survey found that out of 3,000 Which? Members who use third-party inks, only 4% experienced compatibility problems and only 1% had leaky cartridges. Most third-party brands also offer guarantees if a cartridge doesn’t work. Some may even replace your printer in the unlikely situation that a cartridge causes irreversible damage.
Tank printers can be a good cost-effective solution for many. Tank printers contain built-in ink reservoirs which are filled with bottles instead of cartridges. Bottles are much cheaper and last longer than cartridges. Some tank printer models tested by Which? Cost less than £4 a year, whereas some cartridge printers can cost more than £100 a year!
Branded Ink Companies Under Pressure
Which? has called for action over pricey printer inks and an investigation into “dynamic security”, which especially puts HP under pressure. Some of HP’s printers prevent customers from using third-party inks, which are often blocked by HP’s ‘dynamic security’ (used to lock out better value supplies).
InknTonerUK offers both Original and Non-Original products. Here’s just one comparison of the same product with only 1 difference – one is Original and the other is a Non-Original Product. We encourage our customers to buy the best value product and take time to look around our site for the best offers for them and compare. Here’s the Original and Non-Original HP 304XL Ink Cartridges compared:
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