We have a few ink refilling stations here, and although I've only ever used official printer ink made by the same manufacturers that made the printer, I'm now strongly considering buying the ones from refilling stations because official ink is just too expensive and these replacement ones are way too cheap to pass up. Of course, the manufacturers highly discourage this, according to their manual and warranty, and I really don't want to risk my printer getting broken, but since these ink refilling businesses have been in operation for years now, I'm guessing they are safe or else their customers would have stopped buying from them long ago. Do you guys have any experience with these non-official ink refills? If so, I'd love to hear about your experiences and opinions towards them.
The 'unofficial' ink refills may not last as long as the 'official' ones, but price/performance wise they are way more efficient. Other that that I see no difference between them, manufacturers just want to make money off ink refills. I used those for my Lexmark printer. I even had a set of special syringes, so I could refill the cartridges myself at home. I'd highly recommend using the custom refills as they are just as good and way cheaper.
I'm not one to judge but I say avoid them as much as possible. I once refilled my cartridges in one of these cheap refilling stations, I was so happy because of the price but it turns out that I paid much more for the repairs of my printer. The ink solidified in the cartridge clogging most of the things inside and ever since then I just refused to buy from those cheap sellers.
I have a canon printer and I've been refilling the ink for the cartridge for about 7 years now. I haven't had any issues with them at all. I find that I spend a lot less money on the ink and it lasts pretty long (not as long as the actual inks from the manufacturer, but it lasts long enough). The Staples store by me is even selling ink refills for a good price. Its pretty good.
Using non-official ink voids your warranty but it definitely would be a lot cheaper than buying original ink. You better check around the internet which printers are effective with unofficial ink. I've had experience with unofficial ink before. I used it with my HP printer and Brother Printer and I saved a lot of money. I do think that it shortens the life of a printer though. Also, it really depends upon your needs. If you have a lot of printing activities, I definitely recommend using unofficial ink.
I have never owned a printer. Whenever I want to have anything printed, I just go to a computer shop that offers printing services. What made you say that fake printer ink shortens the life span of the printer?
To be fair, I think that happens with official ink as well. I had that happen to me with official ink once when I left the printer unused for a very long time, though, I'm not that sure if it takes longer for official ink to dry up than fake ones. My brother has been using fake ink for bat 2 years now without much problems so I think the technology for it might have already progressed enough that it's become safe. Though that's just my guess.
I heard that there are printer models that actually support this, something called continuous ink? I'm not sure since I stopped owning a printer since last year (too expensive on my part), but then again, it's an EPSON brand that requires original ink at all times. I heard the Canon brand offers the continuous ink thing, though.
Back when I used a printer regularly, I did it a couple times. I never had any issues with it myself, but I understand that some others have. If your printer isn't a super expensive one, then I wouldn't be too concerned.
Some off brand printer inks are terrible for your printer, especially more high end models. You can get away with this type of ink in lower end printers more often than not. However, you shouldn't be surprised if cheaper inks break your printer with enough use. I'd stick with the actual ink that's designed for your printer to avoid problems.
I've been using those kinds of refilled inks before and so far I haven't' had any problems with those really. And besides they're fairly cheap and if you buy the original cartridges they can cost you a lot of money. But I've read somewhere that it can cause damage but so far I've never experienced any.
That's not a bad idea really but my experience with those fake inks are just bad. Maybe this is more of printer issue since I've rarely used that printer but it broke down and the ink just solidified in the cartridge rendering it useless and printer beyond repair.
