So you have discovered how expensive the official ink cartridges are for that printer which was such a bargain! No doubt you are now looking for ways to cut your printing costs but have heard the manufacturer's warnings about going for cheaper alternatives.
What should you do, well there are number of options: Remanufactured ink cartridges - are OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) cartridges that have been used once, checked and refilled.
If done to a high standard these cartridges should work as well as new OEM versions.
Compatible cartridges - are new ink cartridges made by third-party companies to fit specific printers.
Again if produced to high standards these should work just fine.
Refill old cartridges - some stores will do this for you or, cheapest of all, you can do it yourself.
Kits are available containing everything you need.
Be aware that this does take some practice and be prepared for your first attempt not being completely successful (and probably messy).
The best kits come with instructions specific to your cartridge and there may also be online videos showing exactly how to do it.
Continuous ink - in these systems ink is continuously fed from bottles outside the printer.
This should be cheapest of all once set-up but the same comments apply as with refilling cartridges.
So do these alternatives work as well as OEM ink cartridges? The problem with this question is that it assumes that all third-party alternatives are the same and they are not.
There are lots of different suppliers and varying quality products so you need to do some research and decide if price is the over-riding factor.
Independent tests have shown that in the majority of cases buyers were happy with third-party ink cartridges but some found the print quality was not as good and there was a small percentage that simply would not print.
Whilst it may not be the absolute cheapest option you are better off buying from a supplier that works to the same standards as the original manufacturer, offers a guarantee and has a good reputation.
So what about the warnings from the printer manufacturers about using third-party consumables? Well doing so will not invalidate your warranty and is unlikely to damage your printer.
However if damage was caused by the third-party ink cartridge that damage would not be covered by the warranty.
To avoid any risk of this only buy quality third-party cartridges.
As for print quality there may be a difference because the ink will not be exactly the same.
Whilst most people will be happy with the results, if you want to guarantee the best possible output you should use OEM cartridges.