I have found a company which sells generic inkjet cartridges for my printer. Are they safe to use? Are they as good as the branded ones?

Suz, February 2004

I use MMC inkjets instead of the Epson ones and never had any trouble - they also give the same quality as well, in fact I think their 441/442/443/444 pigment/waterproof ones are actually better than the originals.

JeDi58, September 2004

You always take a chance with third party ink, on the one hand you can save an absolute fortune, on the other, you can lose out on quality, and in some cases (particularily with printers that have the print head built into the printer, like epsons, you can risk damaging the printer so much it becomes unusable.)

Life span of the prints, colour matching, smell, drying time, quality etc are all usually different, but if you are just knocking out lots of prints, and are not after perfection, or archival then third party ink will save you loads of money. If you are willing to take the risk (I ruined a epson with third party ink), HP printers seem better this way, as the print head is in the cartridge, so if it clogs you just get a new cartridge not a new printer.

http://www.lasermemory.com, August 2004

If you go to a reputable supplier of reman ink cartridges then no prob. The quality may not be pin sharp, also the remanufactured inks have a shorter life span so eventually images will fade but if you are just running off copies for yourself and not for publishing then they are fine.

Black Gecko, June 2004

I've used them in my inkjet printer (Epson) for a long time. I've never had any problems and I have saved a fortune. Go for it!

Julia, April 2004