"Innovera" brand ink cartridges...

[mrsilv04]

Can anyone comment about experiences with "Innovera" brand ink cartridges?

They sell them through Costco, at a nice price.

I've bought one remanufactured ink cartridge, through Office Depot, three or four years ago, and it was a dud right out of the box. I can only assume they've improved since then.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11151185

 

[Nick R]

No. never, ever, ever use remanufactured ink cartridges. Or refill kits. Always buy the correct cartridge. I can't tell you how many people I talk to who essentially killed their printers (plugged print heads) or print quality was awful, with these things. And some people... I had a guy come in a few weeks ago asking me if he could buy ink for like a fouintain pen, or just plain black ink (out of inkwells) and put it in his ink cartridge and use that.

 

[SrDriver]

I have used re-inks for many many years now and have never had a problem with their cartridges - toner cartridges.

Link To Web Site

While working we use refilled toner cartridges for our laser printers too.

 

[mrsilv04]

It is not like it would be a big loss.... it is an 11 year old HP printer, and a single OEM ink cartridge at retail costs *ten* times more than the printer itself is even worth...

Wal-Mart doesn't even stock the cartridge that I need in stores anymore.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: Nick R
No. never, ever, ever use remanufactured ink cartridges. Or refill kits. Always buy the correct cartridge. I can't tell you how many people I talk to who essentially killed their printers (plugged print heads) or print quality was awful, with these things. And some people... I had a guy come in a few weeks ago asking me if he could buy ink for like a fouintain pen, or just plain black ink (out of inkwells) and put it in his ink cartridge and use that.

Meh!

I've been refilling cartridges for my HP7350 for about 4 years now. I usually get 2 refills on each cartridge before they start working poorly. It costs my less than $2.00 a refill.

On most home printers it only takes a few refills before you have saved enough money that you could throw the printer away and still be money ahead.

 

[Nick R]

If you do documents only, then sure it might not be so bad, but if you do pictures, won't work so well.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
It is not like it would be a big loss.... it is an 11 year old HP printer, and a single OEM ink cartridge at retail costs *ten* times more than the printer itself is even worth...

Wal-Mart doesn't even stock the cartridge that I need in stores anymore.


Go for it, with Costco's return policy, just take it back next trip if it doesn't work.

I think most of the old HP printers had the print heads in the cartridge, if yours does, the "it will ruin your print head" scare tactic is meaningless.

 

[SrDriver]

Originally Posted By: Nick R
If you do documents only, then sure it might not be so bad, but if you do pictures, won't work so well.


I have a Samsung Color Laser and an Epson Photo R220 and have no issues doing photo work with the cartridges I get from re-inks.

 

[Silver]

It depends on the printer whether or not generic or refurbished will work.

At home, I exclusively use recycled from abcink.com on my Canon i560. $3.50 per cartridge.

Where you can run into problems is printers like the HP's that have the circuitboards stamped into them. Generics are likely to cause you error messages and constant "incompatible" warnings. They'll work, you just have to keep clicking on the error messages and closing them.

Innovera is one of the more 'uppety' generic cartridge manufacturers and many offices use their products exclusively.

As with any - brand or generic - you'll get a dud every now and then.