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Archive 2012 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?

  
 
jrs5fg
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


Companies say that the photo quality is lower, but is that really true? I know ink, paper and printer go together as part of a carefully-calibrated process, but do the refurbished/remanufactured ink companies use the same formula?


Oct 02, 2012 at 08:22 PM
Bernie
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


Just as much as Pepsi has Coke's recipe...


Oct 03, 2012 at 09:53 AM
runamuck
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


On these boards, what you are suggesting is heresy. If all you are printing is typed documents or quick snapshots printed on plain paper, you can probably get away with it.

My Epson R800 has printed perhaps a dozen letters. I have also printed perhaps a few hundred 8x10 glossies suitable for framing. For my purposes, I wouldn't dream of what you are suggesting.



Oct 03, 2012 at 10:34 AM
mmurph
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


Most 3rd party inks are very poor quality compared to the manudfacturers inks.

Others are decent. They all represent a trade-off, but in some cases the trade off is worth it.

For example, I run some OCP dye inks in a large format Espon 7600 24" roll printer for **proofing.** I would never sell those prints, but why use more expensive inks for the 100 or more 24x36 "proof"/test prints that I doo prior to the 2 final prints that I would sell.

That said, I do have my own i1 Pro tool (spectrophotometer) to make my own high quality printer profiles. And I compared my prints side by side to the Espon ink prints to be sure of what I was getting before making a commitment to the OCP inks.

The difference for me is that an Epson 220 ml ink cartridge costs $85, while a 220 ml OCP ink cart costs $5, or about 6% of the cost.

I also am going to run some OCP inks in my Pixma Pro 9000. There the Canon inks run $1 per ML - $16 or more for a 16 ml cartridge. The OCP ink is $20 per liter, or $.02 per ML. In other words, the Canon ink is 50 x as expensive as the OCP; the OCP is 2% of the cost of the Canon.

Is the OCP "just as good"? Very, very doubtful on longevity. The Epson inks are archival, 100 year inks. I would expect the OCP to be OK for 2 years.

I'm not sure yet on "gamut", or overall print quality on teh Canon. It was better on teh Epson, because I substituted dye inks for pigment. (you can compare the color space of a profile for each of the two inks to each other to see how they compare.)

Is it good enough for every day proof prints, when I will send final client prints to another printer with OEM inks, or to a pro lab? No question.

But the OCP inks are also one of the very few 3rd party inks that I would use. Most suck.

Some are worse than others. I would never use "just any no-name ink." Even for documents - they can clog up your printer pretty quickly and make printing a PITA. That happened on two Epson Artisan wifi printers taht I was refilling.

Good luck!

Best,
Michael



Oct 03, 2012 at 03:48 PM
anthonygh
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


OCP is a major German company and is one of the worlds largest ink manufacturers with an extensive research programme. In my experience they are as good as OEM ink....that is based on about ten years of useage......starting with an Epson 2200. My prints from that printer look much the same as I remember them when they were first printed.

The reason their bulk inks are so cheap is because that is what they do......produce ink in bulk...mainly for the print industry. Supplying the inkjet market came later.



Oct 06, 2012 at 06:42 PM
mmurph
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


I would not assume that any ink has the type of longevity of the Epson, HP, or Canon inks without extensive proof.

Even some very good OEM and 3rd party inks can give relatively poor results, or good results on one paper and bad results on another There is very, very little good data on most inks.

You also cannot tell just by looking at a print. You need to directly compare to a print that has been stored in the dark, or just freshly printed. Ore conduct a proper aging test.

That is especially true for dye inks. One of the main reasons the whole industry migrated to pigment inks was the poor performance of many dye inks.

I say this as someone who likes the OCP inks and uses them daily.

One of the few places for real data about non-OEM ink longevity is the Aardenburg Imaging Datbase:

http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/cgi-bin/mrk/_4899c2hvd19kb2NfbGlzdC80

You will need to complete a free registration to see all of teh data.

Even some of the ink makers that claim very good longevity for their inks have had relatively poor performance. You cannot trust any manufacturers unverified claims. Fortunately, the clims of Epson for Ultrachrome (pigment) and Claria (dye) have been substantiated. As have HP and Canon for their pigment inks at least. I don't know the latest data on all of their dye inks.

Best,
Michael



Oct 06, 2012 at 08:29 PM
Kittyk
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


we print a lot so we did lot of effort researching it and even lot of moneys in trying it. our experiences (as of 2010 when we give up) was that once you find decent provider, they change slightly recipe so you have to calibrate it all over again, most of the time even during ink swaps.

then you find out that print you sold for 1000$ faded to magenta within half a year.

so no. ink prices are bright day robbery but once you use big printers with big tanks, it is way less then paper prices are, so screw it.



Oct 07, 2012 at 07:02 AM
anthonygh
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


Kittyk wrote:
we print a lot so we did lot of effort researching it and even lot of moneys in trying it. our experiences (as of 2010 when we give up) was that once you find decent provider, they change slightly recipe so you have to calibrate it all over again, most of the time even during ink swaps.

then you find out that print you sold for 1000$ faded to magenta within half a year.

so no. ink prices are bright day robbery but once you use big printers with big tanks, it is way less then paper prices are, so screw it.


Surprised you are saying this as you have OCP inks in Germany and they have strict quality control...they even publish the constituents of the inks they manufacture.



Oct 09, 2012 at 08:32 PM
Shutterbug2006
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


There are many risks in using third party ink, and fading is not something you want to find out about - two years after printing a photo.




Oct 20, 2012 at 01:12 PM
nolaguy
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · is it worth it to go for remanufactured inks?


Quality printing simply works best, most efficiently and cost effectively in volume with seasoned professionals running liters of ink through each jet weekly if not daily.

I print for fun, rough proof and design evaluation purposes but prefer to leave the print-for-sale headache (and responsibility) to labs.

Printing for-sale or not, nope, I don't even consider using third party ink.



Oct 22, 2012 at 06:23 AM





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