Are cheap inkjet cartridges a good deal?

To be perfectly clear

Hewlett Packard recycles their ink cartridges by promoting that HP cartridges be returned for recycling, using a self addressed, stamped envelope. Allowing HP, through their “refurbishing and reselling” effort to conserve resources, using the various recycling facilities of manufacturers around the world contracted by HP. Thus, the mere fact that there also are other recyclers available to refurbish, and recycle ink cartridges, but except for lower cost, and the free choice of the consumer, HP has restricted the consumer the full use, and the operation of HP printers.

Smith and Roberson’s Business Law, ninth edition. West Publishing. Chapter 43; ANTITRUST.
“Characterizing a type of restraint as per se illegal therefore has a significant effect on the prosecution of an antitrust suit. In such a case, the plaintiff need only show that the type of restraint occurred, she does not need to prove that the restraint limited competition.....Tying arrangements. A tying arrangement occurs when the seller of a product, service, or intangible (the "tying" product) conditions its sale on the buyers purchasing a second product, service, or intangible (the "tied" product) from the seller....Because tying arrangements limit buyers' freedom of choice and may exclude competitors, the law closely scrutinizes such agreements.”

Hewlett Packard has, unbeknownst to customers who purchased HP printers (tying product), tied as a condition, the purchase of new HP ink cartridges (tied product), or HP recycled ink cartridges, through the use illegal anti-competitive consumer practices.

Again, I say Hewlett Packard, play your silly games by cheating consumers on ink cost, and supplies. I say go ahead! But don’t stop me from the use of my printer.

Thanks to finding out here that Precision Roller (precisionroller.com) had the least expensive print head around, I did get a new Canon print head (Multipass F30) from them and that was indeed my problem and am totally satisfied. I have since been ordering Canon compatible inkjet cartridges from them - $3.50 apiece as compared to $10-11 in stores - so it's almost cheaper to get them than to refill them myself - and no mess. Their delivery and customer service is awesome, and I'm hard to please. I order half a dozen of each color at a time so get free shipping. Thanks for mentioning this company. I'd have never found it on my own.

I have an HP3745 inkjet...the simple FREE home made solution to clean the cartridge head is.... just dip an old used tooth-brush in..... warm water / car shampoo / soap solution / Brut after shave and just clean the cartridge head 2-3 times....
why old used tooth-brush ???.....it wont hurt the head but at the same time clean it by removing the dry ink and other paper materials clogging the holes of the cartridge head.
I have been using a soap solution / after shave combination....and have refilled the cartridges(black and color) 5 times in the past 2 yrs.....the cost of refill is just 1/25 of the price of new cartridge.....i prefer cleaning them once in 3 months.......
NO ISSUES TILL DATE.....going fine

Stirling at stirlingbunnellblogspot.com, Thank-You for Your insightfull advice. I have been using the Food-Coloring idea and it works fantastically...Great Man!

ps: i use an HP Deskjet D2330 - Yes with Food-Coloring in the original tri-color cartridges. I have not had a problem of any nature, (fingers Crossed) go to Stirling's blog at stirlingbunnellblogspot.com for info.
Great Man Stirling!

Note To "Wave" or "stirling bunnell"... I am looking for Stirling's blog site with ink replacement info. When I go to "stirlingbunnellblogspot.com" address, the only choices are both back here. Did Stirling shut down? If so, did he start up elsewhere? Just bought an HP6310. Uses HP 95/Tri Color & HP 98/Blk. Sure would like to obtain Sterlings instructions.
TKS!

I purchased replacement Epson Picturemate ink cartridges (not original Epson product) on e-bay last year for a very good price. They were made in China, but worked just as good as the Epson (actually lasted longer than the original Epson product) If you own a Epson Picture Mate, you know that it is rare to use all of the ink in the cartridge before the sponges get saturated and it will not print. When the print quality becomes inferior you are asked to do a nozzle check, if it shows a broken ink pattern on any of the colors
you are directed to do a print head cleaning. This works great, until the sponges in the ink cartridge become saturated and it will no longer allow you to clean the print heads. It will say "sponges are saturated, please install a new ink cartridge to complete the ink head cleaning"
It's frustrating when the ink cartridge shows more than 25-30% of the ink remaining, but you can no longer use it. As mentioned, the replacement cartridges made in china worked great,
and the price was remarkable, although when you first installed it, the printer didn't recognize the ink cartridge, so it took a couple of attempts to get it printing (really not a big deal) I recently tried to purchase the same product from the seller on e-bay, but he / she is no longer listed there. Just to let you know that I have tried replacement ink cartridges (not original Epson products) and was very pleased with the products performance. Can't speak for all
manufacturers, I'm sure that there are sub-standard replacements out there, but my experience was a good one. Hope this helps if you are considering purchasing ink cartridges for this printer.

Some of the problems with inks relate directly to the chemicals used in the inks. OEM type inks are specifically designed for the particular type and size nozzle used by a mafr. some inks have very different expansion and drying rates. what this means is that if there is still trace inks from diffrent makers mixing together, you may have problems with inks that dont mix...some inks will just dry too quick and clog nozzles they werent designed to operate with. no, i'm not trying to make excuses for the mfr's, but these are just plain facts. During the 1990's epson printers had huge problems with clogged (and thus stuffed) heads and nozzles, whereas cheaper printers had no problems with replacement inks.
What it boils down to, if you are going to use replacement inks, that is fine. But you may not get the quality or consistency of color you expect. And, if your heads or nozzles do clog, no printer mfr will cover you under warranty. So saying, most replacement inks now are being made to a higher standard than the dodgy stuff we used to get in the 90's, and the print color quality is more than good enough for most stuff, except for maybe high quality photos.
The behaviour of some like HP's antics, are a little off the scale. They are protecting their own product, but should not be shutting the printers down if aftermarket cartridges are used. I'd suggest swapping brands...

I recommend a new brand of remanufactured cartridges that I use. They are called "briteColor" and they are really good

Yes. Cheap ink cartridges are a good deal. Its cheap but no worries because these products offer good quality of ink and environmental friendly too. A wide variety of affordable cartridges at http://www.printercartridgesupplies.co.uk.