Ink quest – the search for the cheapest printer ink

I have a Canon Pixma MP150 and pay a fortune for ink when i buy from Staples. Where can i buy them cheaper?

“72% of Which members use printer manufacturer’s ink cartridges”. That says a lot about Which members -money to burn and reluctant to try alternatives. I use compatible inks which like the manufacturer’s are all made in PRC. They are 80% cheaper than HP and the quality difference is negligible even for photo prints.

I have twice used spurious ink cartidges to my cost. When a fault developed on both printers the manufacturers refused to repair them because I had not used their brand of cartridge saying it made the guarantee invalid. I dont know if this was the cause of the faults but that is the excuse they were using. I now of course use branded cartridges.

I have an Epson Stylus printer/copier/scanner. Initially I used the substitute inks supplied by the company who sold me the printer. I had quite a few cartridge failures and so, after a battle to recover the cost of the failures (I had to threaten court action), I have since used Epson cartridges without problems – but, of course, at greater expense.

Many charities collect cartridges in whatever condition so you could send these defective ones to them. Childline will send you their freepost bags so you can send batches, I’m sure other charities do the same.

It’s always worth checking out 7dayshop,com for ink cartridges as there are two main cost benefits from this. Firstly, there is usually no VAT on goods shipped out on a single package with a value of £18 or less as they are based in Guernsey and secondly all prices quoted include delivery. (This is where the suppliers usually make their money) Check them out.

I have recently rejoined Which and have just caught up on the correspondence about compatible inkjet printer inks. May I suggest that unless you know the quantity of ink expended, you cannot assess either the life of that cartridge or its ‘cost per copy’ performance? I could not find that information in the Which test of ?February this year.

Having been into computers and printers since 1980, I have had a fair few of them in my time: starting with Apricot’s portable and (also portable) text-only heat-transfer printer, way back then.

Because I have photos etc to print at A4 I now use Canon printers and have done so for a good number of years, though I am not too dogmatic about buying a printer any more than I am about buying ink to use in it. Once the starter set of OEM cartridges have run dry I use compatibles or OEM, whatever.

However, having recently found inks running out more quickly, I weighed empty and full ‘like-for-like’ cartridges against each other to find how much the ‘full’ ones contained. That showed too many (from suppliers I now no longer use) as having been filled short – by up to a third of their capacity in at least one instance.

The only firm I have so far found who clearly tell you, on the boxes and on the invoice, how much ink their cartridges contain is PRINK (prink.co.uk). As to value for money, I have just bought 8 compatible CLI-525 cartridges and a 526 from them for £20.90. The boxes say there is 13.5 ml of ink in each of the 526s and that the ink has been formulated in America. Their delivery service is really good, also.

My most recent Cartridge World buy was an emergency CW ‘own-brand’ PGI-525 (the ‘fat black’ that goes with the 526’s): 16ml of ink bought locally for £7.99.

I hope this is useful

Recently I have found cartridges running out much more quickly so I weigh the like-for-like

Chill out rich ppl with your lawsuits over printers. If your not a company and cost is an issue buy cheap printers with any ink that fit and with care your printer will last. If not buy another 30 quid printer and carry on. What’s the big problem