Has anybody had any luck with non-OEM inkjet cartridges? This time of year (after Christmas) specialized cartridges can be difficult to locate. I had to do a rush-job and could find an Epson cartridge for my Epson Photo 700 locally. I had to settle for a replacement cartridge made by "PRINT-RITE". The results are AWFUL! Regardless of what I do the prints have a strong magenta cast that I cannot get rid of.

I'm off to the store now (somewhere) to find the "real thing". Any comments would be appreciated...

-- MikeB (airnikon@aol.com), January 15, 2000

Answers

You are correct that the Print-Rite cartridges are poor.

I tested many after market cartridges, including Print-Rite, before I started selling a brand that was as good as the Epson brand but much cheaper and I guarantee it.

If you need cartridges for the Epson 700 please contact me.

-- Edward Woods (woods@inkjetdiscounts.com), January 16, 2000.

I've been *very* leery of third-party cartridges after a bad experience 'way back with an Epson Stylus Color II, which started having all sorts of clogged-nozzle problems after I'd used a third-party cartridge. Not clear that the cartridge was the culprit, but the problem sure coincided suspiciously with the different ink. OTOH, that was then, this is now. Maybe (some) third-parties have got their act together on this and offer quality products. I'm reluctant to risk a ~$450 printer (I currently have an Epson 850N model) for the sake of saving a few bucks on a cartridge.

-- Dave Etchells (detchells@imaging-resource.com), January 16, 2000.

One other thing I noticed about the other cartridge was the strong smell of alcohol in the ink. I had a Canon printer (BJC-5000) for about three days last year and I remember them boasting about the alcohol based ink. I returned it because the results were terrible.

I think Epson inks are water based, but don't quote me...

-- MikeB (airnikon@aol.com), January 16, 2000.

I just tried a Nu-Kote brand cartridge in a Stylus 800. With the few tests I've tried, color doesn't seem to be the issue (slight, almost imperciptible magenta cast), it's the strong alcohol smell that I don't care about. Also, I used and uncoated 70# text stock used for commercial printing and it seemed to get much "wetter" with the off-brand cartridge. If anyone else has any recommendations on other brands, please post them. Otherwise, I'll stick with the epson for now.

-- Ringo Santiago (ringos@asheragency.com), January 18, 2000.

Dave: I checked a lot of cartridges before finding the ones that I now use. My primary business is a small jazz record label. I use an Epson 1520 to make posters to promote my recordings. Since the size is 17 x 22 inches, I was sucking up a lot of ink and at the inflated prices that Epson charges, it was costing me a lot of money. Some of the aftermarket cartridges I tried were poor and one did clog my printer but I did find a company that made cartridges that produced superior quality, never clogged and yet the price was reasonable. I used the cartridges for almost a year before deciding to sell them to friends. Never had a clog or problem of any kind and the company guarantees that they will fix any printer that has a ink caused problem -free. Have sold these to a lot of friends and referrals from friends and not one person has had a problem. By the way, we sell the black cartridge for the 850 for $7.95; color for $11.95.

-- Edward Woods (woods@inkjetdiscounts.com), January 19, 2000.

For christmas I bought my step dad some Print - Rite refills for his Epson Stylus C60 printer.

At first the color was aweful, a magenta hue to everything, then I did a few nozel clean/checks and head alignment. The yellow wasn't printing now everything is printing really well with decent color. Mind you, this wasn't a very high quality photograph I was printing .. but none the less, the color improved substancially.

Try the head cleaning/nozel alignment utilities, it should print out a piece of paper with black/cyan/yellow/magenta .. if the blocks come out all solid, your good to go. If the quality still isn't up to your par .. I'd suggest removing all the color profiles in the printer driver setup and then last but not least ... get some epson cartridges :)

-- James B (jamezb420@hotmail.com), December 25, 2002.

I have tried the KO-REC Type and had good luck. Recently I tried a Print-Rite in a newer printer (C42 Epson). It lasted 13 days before it started to leak. The store I bought it from told me I would have to contact Print-Rite to get it looked after. Well there is a excerise in futility. Their email address or contact site does not work, so you can't contact them. So you get junk and far as I am cocerned, dishonest people as well. I'll stay with brand name or KO- REC. Garnet

-- H Garnet Lawson (garn.lawson@sympatico.ca), April 11, 2003.