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[feliscatusx2]

Just to be different I have an HP Deskjet 950c.  Ink for these is expensive because the cartridge includes a new printer head.  The high capacity 3 colour cartridge RRP is £50  .  I used to get them from Amazon but they stopped stocking them & directed me to > http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/ .  They are about £1 dearer than Choice Stationery for an original HP cartridge.

They do last a hell of a long time though 

Lovely printer, now 6 years old and nary a problem (touch wood).  Excellent print quality as long as you use the right paper for photos.

[oldfogy]

O NO, not the dreaded family photo album 

(only joking, "of course"

[ralphw]

I don't use the photo album any longer I just strap the relative/friend to a chair infront of the PC and set the slide show going,.     with the threat that if they don't behave I'll increase the time to 20 seconds or more per slide.....

[guest]

We've used Choice Stationery for the best part of a decade. Never ever had a problem.

Compatible ink IS a problem on Epsons that aren't used much but that's mainly to do with Epsons having fixed print heads as much as anything else. In our experience (I bought the original Epson Stylus Colour back around 1995 or so) compatible ink WILL cause you problems earlier than genuine Epson, but a bit of cleaning and/or a new cartridge usually fixes it. There does come a point at which there's little else you can try but cleaning the print head manually. This usually ends in disaster but it is worth a try. Use a cotton bud lightly soaked in isopropyl alcohol (you can get that from Maplin) and VERY gently rub it over the print head. 90% of the time you'll damage one of the print heads but it is worth a try.

The bottom line is that if you use the compatible cartidges from Choice then your printer will break sooner than it would with Epson cartridges. Unless you bought a printer costing £200+ then you will have saved enough from buying the compatibles to buy a new printer anyway.

There is no degredation in print quality although I do suspect that the compatible ink will fade faster. We don't print more than 50 sheets of paper a month usually.

That's in our experience and we've had four Epsons now. Oh and one HP but that's because it's a scanner too. It costs a fortune to run compared to the Epsons.

[oldfogy]

We've used Choice Stationery for the best part of a decade. Never ever had a problem.

The bottom line is that if you use the compatible cartidges from Choice then your printer will break sooner than it would with Epson cartridges. Unless you bought a printer costing £200+ then you will have saved enough from buying the compatibles to buy a new printer anyway.

There is no degredation in print quality although I do suspect that the compatible ink will fade faster. We don't print more than 50 sheets of paper a month usually.

That's in our experience and we've had four Epsons now. Oh and one HP but that's because it's a scanner too. It costs a fortune to run compared to the Epsons.

In that case judging by what you have said, I'm glad I don't buy my Epson R300 "74p" compatibles from Choice Stationery because in the last 3 years (with only one exception) the printer has never let me down.

Although joking aside I do understand what you are trying to say.
But do you honestly believe that Epson make their own ink and not sourced from one of the many bulk ink suppliers?
Okay, maybe or maybe not, the fact is that compatibles work equally as good (for me at least) and NO WAY am I paying Epson £9+ per cartridge when a 74p compatible cartridge does the same job.

As for print-head nozzles becoming blocked, any printer that is not used on a fairly regular basis will suffer from this problem regardless of who's ink is installed.

[guest]

Well yes print head nozzles will become blocked but Epson are about the only manufacturer now who don't have the print head on the cartridges - well there's the ex-IBM company Lexmark, I think they have a few.

Four Epsons in 12 years Edit 1- that's 3 years+ per printer. the latest one still works.

To my sure and certain knowledge Choice have sourced "compatible" cartridges from 7 different manufacturers in that time. Edit 2 - Five of those were branded by the same reseller but in no way were they made by the same company.

All I can say is I bought 8 colour and 8 black cartridges for our current printer 2 years ago for £35. Buying Epson cartridges would have cost over £300. You do the maths

[oldfogy]

No need to do the maths, it's just that your previous post does not make it clear that you are/were in favour of compatibles but basically running them down.

[guest]

Ah sorry. Confusion reigns eh? 

[oldfogy]

NP, just thought it needed clarifying possibly the benefit of any-one else who may come across this thread.

[soms]

I recon we had four epsons in total, though that was owning three simultaneously on different computers at one point. Each one suffered different symptoms of failure, only one of them actually appeared to be related to a problem with the ink/print heads (even after repeated and endless cleaning cycles the printer refused to produce black ink).

In the end we bought a Dell colour laser printer on eBay for around £240 - ex-corporate stock, new but no warranty. We have had it ages (well over a year I would imagine) and the original set of bundled toners are still going though are running low. Whilst the toners will likely cost over £100 they print thousands on thousands of pages and with econmomical printing that can last literally years. We also have an older Samsung ML1710 B&W laser, which cost £70 at new and we have only replaced the toner in that the once for around £60. I like lasers for the speed, economy, the ink doesn't run and it is water proof (ideal for posters without messing around with plastic wallets etc). Downsides are the (occassional) cost of replacement toners and the lower image printing resolution unless you buy a really expensive one.

[oldfogy]

Just as a matter of interest, have you considered using any of the "Laser" refill kits?

Apart from my Epson R300 I also have an old HP Laser-Jet printer which which cost me £25:00 second hand, and is mainly used just to print-out draft copies or letters.
An original toner kit if memory serves me right is/was about £60.00 whereas the refill kit was £16:00, although since buying the kit I have not as yet needed to use it (but I know a man who has used them from this supplier)

http://www.urefill.co.uk/

Some of the instructions depending on which printer you have may seem a little "err" fiddly/brutal for the first occasion, but after reading the instructions a couple of times "with the old unit in-front of me" it made a lot more sense.
All I need is for the perishing printer to run out now so that I can try it my-self.

[roseway]

I've seen them and thought about them. My Samsung ML1510 can be refilled supposedly, and there's a fair bit of money to be saved. But like you, I haven't yet got to the point where it's needed.

[guest]

I tried it once many years ago (6 I think). I probably did something wrong but the mess put me off doing it again - the printer did work afterwards quite well. I'd assume things have got better now?

[kitz]

Best printer I ever bought was a cannon BJ 2000 back in about 1996.  Comparitively it cost a fair bit but it ran on cheapy fill up the cartridge ink for many, many years.  The printer used to get a lot of hammer back them too and always did good quality printing.  In fact it was in kims room and by this time the cartridge heads were blocked.   I remember the time I stood them in water to unblock them thinking - oh well the printers about 6 year old now so if I damage it no harm done.
Not something I would recommend otherwise. The only reason it got binned was cause kim got another.. All in all it had a life time of about 8 years.  I had another couple of printers since then, Epson and HP (which was rubbish)..  still dont think either of them were a patch on the Canon.

[oldfogy]

I probably did something wrong but the mess put me off doing it again

I think thats the main reason I say about reading the instructions 3 times before attempting it.
Until I actually took out my cartridge to preview what they were actually saying it sounded very complicated.

I'd assume things have got better now?

I don't think so.