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The majority of the manufacturers of printers recommend to their consumers that they use the original own brand ink cartridges that they make. Many printer makers state that using compatible printer ink cartridges produced by other firms can lead to problems with printing. Printers were very expensive items a few years ago, but now they are so cheap they are often given away in bundles with new PCs. The dramatic price drops of printers have however not been matched by price falls in printer ink. The price of a number of printer ink cartridges has actually risen when you look at the price per millilitre. Many of the big manufacturers of printers have seen profits on printers drop, whilst the overall profits on ink cartridges have gone up dramatically. As prices of printer ink have gone up, it has become a much more difficult for the makers of compatible ink cartridges to produce appropriate products. Many printer makers have added electronic chips to their printer ink cartridges so that the cartridges can stop printing when they are low on ink. The manufacturers say that this prevents poor quality prints from being produced when cartridges start to run out. This makes it much more difficult for makers of compatible cartridges to compete, and therefore printer manufacturers can charge more for their own brand ink. Another downside for customers is that many cartridges stop working before they have totally run out, reducing the number of pages that can be produced. A lot of people are under the impression that the compatible ink market is quite small, with poor quality manufacturers trying to compete with the big boys. It is true that the businesses of compatible ink cartridge producers are nowhere near on the same scale as the printer manufactures, however there are often sizeable firms in the market. One such example is UK compatible cartridge producer Jet Tec, that manufactures its cartridges from a large purpose-built factory with over three hundred employees. Some of the makers of compatible ink cartridges have actually produced innovative technology of their own. One of the major problems with Epson’s ink cartridge chips is that they can believe the cartridge is empty when it actually has a decent quantity of ink left. As the chip prevents the ink cartridge from printing, users may lose a large amount of prints. The solution has been extra life technology which is a system fitted to some compatible cartridges. This technology allows the ink cartridge to stop when the chip thinks it’s empty, but additionally gives the customer the option to override. This means that the customer has the choice, and doesn’t have to throw away cartridges that still contain ink. The quality of compatible ink cartridges does vary considerably, but if you pick a well known retailer with a good reputation the chances are that they will only sell good quality compatible ink cartridges. If in doubt, take the time to explore the web for the makers’ name, as a number of PC and magazine sites have run extensive group tests examining the quality of compatible printer ink cartridge suppliers. As a final thought, with the prices of compatible ink cartridges being considerably cheaper than the original manufacturer ink cartridges, it’s often not a very expensive risk to take, and if you use a lot of printer ink it could be a considerable bonus to you.
Article Source: http://articles-mart.com
Tom is a writer with an interest in Printer Ink and Epson T0342 ink
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