Cheap Ink Probed

Our tests show Third-party ink cartridges for brand-name printers can produce quality prints, but they'll fade fast. Part Two of a series.

"Lowest ink jet prices!" "Three ink jet cartridges for the price of one!" "Save up to 80 percent!" With brand-name ink cartridges running $30 or more, the temptation to buy third-party cartridges at substantial discounts, either online or in stores, is understandable. But how do these inexpensive inks stand up next to their pricey printer- manufacturer counterparts?

To find out, PC World purchased inks for three popular printers--Canon's S900, Epson's Stylus C82, and Hewlett-Packard's DeskJet 3820--from several different sellers and compared their print quality and yield with those of the printer vendor's inks. Additionally, Henry Wilhelm at Wilhelm Imaging Research, a leading authority on photo longevity, tested most of the inks for permanence--the durability of the printed image when it is on display and exposed to light.

We found that third-party inks can save you money, and that some produce prints on a par with the output of printer vendor inks. But we also encountered third-party inks that produced poor-quality prints and clogged up printheads. The impact of generic inks on printer warranties is ambiguous. And if you frequently print photographs, you should steer clear of these inks: The prints might look fine, but Wilhelm reported that none of the clone inks he tested came close to matching the permanence of brand-name inks. He rated the best of the aftermarket inks to last only five years (see the chart).

The Ink Economy

These days, you can get a capable ink jet printer for a mere $50, and a great one for $150. But brand-name inks are expensive, especially if you print in color: A single photo can cost 50 cents or more, not including the price of paper. Jim Forrest, who edits the Hard Copy Supplies Journal at market research firm Lyra Research, says the world's ink jet printers will guzzle $21 billion worth of ink this year.

Third-party vendors have already grabbed more than 16 percent of cartridge sales, Forrest says, and that percentage is growing. Printer vendors contend that third-party inks can cause myriad problems--some of which, they say, may surface only after prolonged use of the generics--ranging from poor print quality and durability to printer damage. Third-party vendors counter that printer companies simply want to scare consumers out of straying from the branded inks, which the third-parties claim are overpriced in order to subsidize the artificially inexpensive printers.

To test the quality of our clone inks, we used them to print images on several grades of paper and then rated each image as either comparable to, somewhat worse than, or significantly worse than images made using the printer manufacturer's ink.

In general, most of the third-party inks printed text on plain paper as decently as the printer manufacturers' cartridges did (see our chart of detailed test results for print quality). Results weren't as good for high-resolution shots on the printer vendors' long-lasting photo papers, but four out of the nine aftermarket brands we tested--Amazon Imaging's ink for the Canon, G&G's ink for the Epson, and Carrot Ink's cartridge and InkTec's cartridge-refill kit for the HP--yielded prints of comparable quality to those made with printer manufacturer inks. Of the clones, only the OA100 inks for the Canon produced photos significantly worse than those made with a brand-name ink.

But some inks, even those that made good-looking pictures, didn't always work well. All three aftermarket black inks for the Epson C82--OA100 (purchased from PrintPal), G&G (from Computer Friends), and the no-name ink whose package had only a rainbow logo (also from Computer Friends)--plugged up the printhead nozzles so quickly and consistently that we had to abort some of our tests. But the color inks from these three companies all worked well in the Epson printer. (We bought a fourth brand of aftermarket ink, Print-Rite, for the C82 but dropped it from our tests, as the printer wouldn't install any of the cartridges.)

Clogs and Messes

Several OA100 cartridges purchased from PrintPal, most notably the black and cyan, frequently plugged the nozzles on the Canon S900's printhead, causing wide blank stripes in documents.

The HP DeskJet 3820's cartridges integrate the printhead and ink supply in one unit that can't be replicated legally, so third-party vendors simply refill used 3820 cartridges. A Printek cartridge we bought from PrintPal had no ink in the magenta tank, but we were able to complete our quality and yield tests with other cartridges. Wilhelm was unable to print all four colors satisfactorily with any of the Printek cartridges from PrintPal, but was able to test the same brand of cartridges from another vendor, Top Inkjet.

We also tried refilling our own HP cartridges with an InkTec kit that we bought from Print Country. What a mess! It dripped ink everywhere, but when we finally refilled our cartridges the ink made decent-quality prints. At Wilhelm Imaging Research, however, the prints produced using the kit were so poor in quality that Wilhelm did not test them for permanence.

And it was in permanence that third-party inks fell short. For example, Wilhelm projected prints made with Epson's C82 inks (colored with pigments instead of less-durable organic dyes) on Epson's most stable (with these inks) paper to last 92 years when displayed, while rating none of the prints with generic inks on the same paper to last more than a year. The HP and Canon inks are dye-based, so their advantage over third-party inks was somewhat less but still substantial. (Newer HP printers use inks that Wilhelm, in other tests, has found to be far more stable than HP's inks for the 3820.)

Money Savers?

Prices for the aftermarket inks we tested varied greatly, and in some cases the clones cost almost as much as the printer-vendor brands. For example, Canon-brand inks for the S900 (which uses six separate ink tanks) sell for a street price of about $12 each, while the OA100-compatible inks that clogged the printhead cost only $5 each from PrintPal. Amazon Imaging (no relation to Amazon.com) black cartridges, however, cost $11 (color, $10) at Buy.com.

In general, third-party inks for the Canon and Epson printers produced about as many color pages as the printer manufacturer's inks (see our chart of detailed test results for print yield), though there were some variances.

The situation was different with HP's 3820, which uses two cartridges (one black, the other with three colors). HP sells 19ml and 38ml versions of the color cartridge (street-priced at $35 and $50, respectively). The low-yield HP color cartridge ran out of cyan after 380 pages (ending the cartridge's useful life); the Carrot Ink and Printek cartridges approached double that yield before running out of magenta.

Do-it-yourself refill kits offer the greatest savings, if you're willing to brave the messy refill process. The InkTec refill kits for HP cartridges contained more than three times as much ink as a cartridge, and they cost only $10 for black and $14 for color.

Behind the Prints

Why did printer makers' products usually deliver better results than their generic counterparts? Printer vendors say they've invested heavily in developing inks, papers, cartridges, and printheads that work together. For example, John Stoffel, HP's ink jet technology manager, says third-party vendors can't fine-tune fluidity so that their inks spray properly onto the paper.

Often, aftermarket retailers buy prepackaged inks from manufacturers--many of them in China--which makes it difficult for the retailers to know exactly what they're getting. But some third-party ink companies do exercise direct control over their products. Gary Miller, Amazon Imaging's sales vice president, says his company makes its inks and uses cartridges made of polypropylene, a high-quality material that printer vendors use, instead of cheaper plastics that can damage the ink if it's stored for several months.

Ink Ambiguities

Buying third-party ink online can be frustrating. Some retailers' Web sites don't identify products by name, only by printer or cartridge compatibility, so getting a steady supply of an ink you like can be a challenge. Computer Friends, whose generic inks are unidentified on its Web site, sent us G&G ink to fill most of our initial order for Epson C82-compatible ink but completed the order later with a different brand. (The company fulfilled our request for a specific ink brand, however.)

Another murky issue relates to warranties. All the manufacturers' warranties for the printers we used state explicitly that they don't cover damage caused by other vendors' ink. But third-party vendors say the federal Magnusson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act forbids companies from dictating customers' choice of aftermarket products.

Ron Katz, a patent attorney with the firm Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips who has litigated on behalf of aftermarket vendors, says that "mere use of a third-party cartridge does not void the warranty if the cartridge does not cause the damage."

Tricia Judge, executive director of the International Imaging Technology Council, an association of aftermarket vendors, says that if a generic cartridge does damage your printer, reputable third-party ink sellers will repair the printer. However, none of the generic-ink sellers' warranties for the products we tested addressed this situation.

The IITC is working with the American Society for Testing and Materials to develop tests of yield, image density, and ink fastness. It has also partnered with the imaging lab operated by the Rochester Institute of Technology's National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery to test and certify products. Judge says she expects the program to result in a certification sticker on boxes for the inks that meet basic standards. Printer vendors seem receptive to the idea of quality-control testing: "We are all for standards," says Pradeep Jotwani, vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group.

Worth the Risks?

In the meantime, judging from our experience, finding a reasonably priced substitute for brand-name ink can be a risky business. If top quality and print longevity aren't of paramount importance, you can save money using no-name inks--but you may have to spend a lot of time cleaning clogged printheads. Still, some users may find the savings justify the hassles.

If print quality--and especially durability--are a top concern, however, you're better off playing it safe by gritting your teeth and shelling out for brand-name inks.

Test Report: Third-Party Inks Save Money but Give Up Permanence (chart)

Output Quality for Third-Party Inks (chart)

Printer: Canon S900 (uses six cartridges)	Ink	Text (black), plain paper	Text (black), coated paper	Black-and-white photo, plain paper	Black-and-white photo, coated paper	Black-and-white photo, manufacturer's glossy photo paper	Color photo, plain paper	Color photo, coated paper	Color photo, manufacturer's glossy photo paper
	Amazon Imaging	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable
	Carrot Ink	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Somewhat worse
	OA100	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Significantly worse	Comparable	Comparable	Significantly worse
Printer: Epson Stylus C82 (uses four cartridges)	Ink	Text (black), plain paper	Text (black), coated paper	Black-and-white photo, plain paper	Black-and-white photo, coated paper	Black-and-white photo, manufacturer's glossy photo paper	Color photo, plain paper	Color photo, coated paper	Color photo, manufacturer's glossy photo paper
	G&G	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Comparable
	OA100	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Significantly worse	Comparable	Comparable	Significantly worse	Comparable	Somewhat worse
	Rainbow logo1	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Significantly worse	Significantly worse	Comparable	Significantly worse	Significantly worse	Somewhat worse
Printer: HP DeskJet 3820 (uses two cartridges)	Ink	Text (black), plain paper	Text (black), coated paper	Black-and-white photo, plain paper	Black-and-white photo, coated paper	Black-and-white photo, manufacturer's glossy photo paper	Color photo, plain paper	Color photo, coated paper	Color photo, manufacturer's glossy photo paper
	Carrot Ink	Comparable	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Somewhat worse/Significantly worse	Comparable
	InkTec (refill kit)	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Comparable	Comparable	Comparable
	PrintTek	Comparable	Comparable	Significantly worse	Comparable	Somewhat worse	Significantly worse	Comparable	Somewhat worse

This chart shows how the output quality of third-party inks compares with that of printer manufacturer's inks.1This ink came in a white box with nothing on it except for a rainbow logo.

Yields for Clone Ink Cartridges (chart)

Printer: Canon S900 (uses six cartridges)1	Ink brand	Number of pages produced per cartridge, black1	Number of pages produced per cartridge, color1	Number of pages produced per cartridge, average for color1
	Amazon Imaging	740	Cyan 1060, magenta 380, yellow 600	680
	Carrot Ink	900	Cyan 1020, magenta 380, yellow 600	667
	OA100 (PrintPal)	800	Cyan 1100, magenta 380, yellow 580	687
	Canon	820	Cyan 1000, magenta 340, yellow 620	653
Printer: Epson Stylus C82 (uses four cartridges)	Ink brand	Number of pages produced per cartridge, black1	Number of pages produced per cartridge, color1	Number of pages produced per cartridge, average for color1
	G&G	800	Cyan 1880, magenta 500, yellow 480	953
	OA100 (PrintPal)	1100	Cyan 2060, magenta 560, yellow 540	1053
	Rainbow logo2	900	Cyan 1840, magenta 500, yellow 480	940
	Epson	1160	Cyan 2000, magenta 540, yellow 800	1113
Printer: HP DeskJet 3820 (uses two cartridges)3	Ink brand	Number of pages produced per cartridge, black1	Number of pages produced per cartridge, color1	Number of pages produced per cartridge, average for color1
	Carrot Ink	1640	760 (magenta depleted)	Not applicable
	PrintTek (PrintPal)	860	700 (magenta depleted)	Not applicable
	HP	480	380 (cyan depleted)	Not applicable

Generics for the HP 3820 print twice as many pages. Canon and Epson clones produce about as many prints as the printer manufacturers' inks.1Calculations based on 5 percent coverage per color per page. For the Canon printer, our test prints used only four of the six ink tanks. 2This ink came in a white box with nothing on it except for a rainbow logo. 3HP color cartridges contain all three colors; yield is the number of pages printed before the first color runs out.