If you own an inkjet printer, you’re probably well aware that the ink for most models (especially the “cheap” ones) is horribly expensive- at least if you stick to the manufacturer’s original cartridges.

You’ve probably also noticed that “compatible” inks are available at much lower prices. In some cases, you can be talking about £1 for a compatible cartridge instead of £8 or more for its official equivalent. Too good to be true? After all, there’s surely no way anyone can sell decent ink that much cheaper and still make a reasonable profit- right? Wrong.

The simple truth isn’t so much that compatibles are “cheap”- it’s that the official cartridges are incredibly expensive for what’s basically just a few teaspoons of ink in a small tank. Particularly those for the least expensive printers- and there’s the secret. The real money isn’t made on the printers; it’s made on the replacement ink cartridges.

Despite their high quality, we suspect that manufacturers’ own ink carts are almost pure profit for them. While it’s understandable that they want you to continue buying them, you’re under no obligation to do so- and that’s where compatibles come in. Because they don’t cost that much to make in the first place, third-party companies can afford to sell ink carts way cheaper than the official ones. No trickery required!

Quality

Generally speaking, compatibles are okay. There are some low-quality ones out there, if you’re buying from obscure sources, but if you stick to decent-quality ones (such as those stocked by us!), you shouldn’t have any problems. Jet Tec’s are particularly well-reputed, although they do cost a bit more than others.

Compatibility

Manufacturers have wised up, and now use measures such as chips and other tricks to stop compatibles working. Fortunately, there are normally legitimate ways around this, and most such carts now come pre-chipped, or with a space for you to insert a chip from an old cart. If this is an issue, we’ll let you know!

Other tricks include releasing a new “family” of cartridges for their latest printers. In such cases it normally takes a while for compatible replacements to appear. This is worth bearing in mind if you’re buying a new printer and want to run it with compatibles.

Occasionally, new printers will come out that work with existing official carts, but which don’t work with their “compatible” counterparts. Fortunately, this is normally worked around quite quickly.

Refurbished and Refilled Carts

Can you always save such large amounts with compatibles? It depends. Some printers- particularly those where the printhead and ink cart are integrated- don’t have compatibles and rely on refurbished cartridges instead. You can still save quite a bit by buying these, although generally not by as much.

Conclusion

Bottom line; if there are any issues with compatibles, we’ll let you know on that cartridge’s page. Otherwise, you can assume that they’ll work fine with the printers listed, and you can happily get on with saving money!