Question Picking generic inkjet cartridges

[Craig234]

I have a cheapo Canon inkjet I rarely use. Worked fine, then stopped printing, they had me do a 'nozzle clean' and it worked, next use not working again, they said 'get new cartridges, they might not last over 6 months'. Sometimes they do last a lot longer not necessarily time, so time to get new ones again.

Canon brand are like $55, genetics are $10-15, so I'm going generic (if I had to spend the Canon price, I'd probably shop for a laser).

But Amazon has a lot of similar choices - some even look identical for different prices from the same seller. $10, $12, $15, some throw around phrases about more ink or 'higher quality ink' or whatever. Basically, hard to pick.

Any suggestions? I could just get the $12 'higher quality higher yield' one. The 'Amazon recommended' is 3 sets for $19, but if they dry out like this, and I use it little, not much point it buying 3.

 

[Paperdoc]

One important thing to watch out for. Many printers, including most by Canon, use little chips mounted in each ink cartridge that are updated as the cart is used until it believes (correctly or not) that the cartidge is empty. Then the printer usually will insist that it will do nothing for you until the empty cart is replaced. When you buy a new genuine cart, its chip is already reset to indicate it is full. But when you buy generic ones, one of three possibilities:
(a) it has no chip and you must find a way to get one, install it, and reset it;
(b) It has a chip, but it has NOT been reset. You can buy separately little devices that can do the chip reset job for you (some, work, some don't) and they can be used for this situation OR for when you refill your own old empty cart; or,
(c) the new generic cart is sold with a chip that HAS been reset already to indicate it is full, and it WILL work in your printer with no further effort.
Obviously the easy way is the last option so look for statements about that.

Buying several cartridges in a bundle can be a good idea for saving costs. Generally they all come with some form of seal over the ink jets AND in a sealed plastic bag. The major reason for cartridge failure is that the actual tiny ink jets get plugged by dried ink. BUT that applies ONLY to systems that have the ink jets head as part of the ink cartridge. My past Canon printers did NOT use this system. Instead the cartridge held ink only, and the actual printer head with jets was a separate component that could bn replaced by itself. So in that printer type, clogged ink jets can NOT be solved by replacing the ink cartridge. But an empty ink cartridge very often CAN be detected just by looking at it IF the cart body is transparent so you can see the ink level. With my old Canon (separate print head type) I bought and used with much success generic ink carts in larger bundles. Each came with a seal over the ink port and air holes, and sealed in its own plastic bag, so it could not dry our before opening. Eventually I had to replace that printer because its internal electronics boards failed, not becasue of ink or print head failure.