Study of ink printers

I have read a summary of a study carried out by Which (it is a WEB publication that analyzes products for consumers) on the inks used by ink printers that I cannot resist commenting on, because it reaches the conclusion that I had reached a long time ago.

And is that the real business of ink printer manufacturers is not the sale of printers, but the sale of ink cartridges, as they do so at disproportionate prices.

Which has verified in its analysis that the non-branded ink cartridges have a quality similar to that of the original manufacturers’ cartridges, but their price is much lower.

Ink sold by printer manufacturers can cost up to 300% more.

The study also indicates that some printer manufacturers “protect themselves” by preventing their printers from accepting ink cartridges that are not their own.

For example, 28 HP printers use a system called “dynamic security” that recognizes non-HP cartridges and causes the printer to reject them and not print.

Which seems to me a real “robbery” because users have the right to use the spare parts that we see fit under our responsibility. According to European standards, this is prohibited, but you can spend years until you win the trial and manufacturers take advantage of that.

The words used by the manufacturers of: original, guaranteed, approved, etc … in my opinion are just words to scare us into paying more for their products. Which a lot of people do.

I am very clear that ink printers have very expensive spare parts, because the ink dries up over time, and that the reasonable thing for personal use is to have a laser printer that is much cheaper, and of course use toner cartridges third-party brands that are compatible with our printer.

Before buying a printer, it’s recommended to check that you can buy cartridges compatible with it on the free market.