What is the difference between a Compatible Ink Cartridge and a
Genuine?
There are many differences
between a Compatible Ink Cartridge and a Genuine. This however
does not mean that the quality is hugely different. The term
Compatible implies that the ink cartridge is manufactured by
a third party and is not the original brand name. Thus a Brother
Compatible cartridge is not made by Brother however it is still
able to be used in the same printers.
Almost all Genuine Ink Cartridges use
a specially formulated Oil Based Ink. Every manufacturer claims
that their own ink is "superior" to the next. This
may be one of the reasons for the over inflated prices. Compatible
Ink Cartridges differ in that they all use either Dyes, Pigments
or a combination of both. Compatible Inks are usually water
based as opposed to the oil based genuines.
Will I get the same printing results by using a Compatible
Ink Cartridge ?
This depends on the quality of the compatible cartridge. Their
are 100's of different compatible cartridges available ranging
from a few dollars to almost the same prices as genuine cartridges.
Unfortunately their is a huge amount of low grade ink
cartridges using low grade ink on sale. These often leak, clog your printhead,
produce low grade prints or even not work at all.
This is the reason why many continue to frown on compatible
ink cartridges. At Ink Hub we have tested most of the leading
compatibles with greatly varying results. We now only stock
2 brands and have been for the past 5 years. We are very pleased
with the print quality, page yield and most of all the positive
feedback from our customers. My Epson printer cant recognise
the ink cartridge
Epson printers are purposefully designed to use only their own
ink cartridges. If you install a compatible cartridge and it
gives the "cartridge cannot be recognised" warning then try
the following. Remove the ink cartridge, Unplug the printer
at the wall and leave turned off for 5 mins. Turn the printer
back on and reinstall the cartridge while the printer is turned
on. In most cases this will solve the problem.
My printer wont print one or more colours with a new cartridge
installed
First make sure that the yellow breather tape at the top
of the ink cartridge has been removed. If this has not been
removed then it is impossible for the ink to flow as it creates
a vauum effect and no air is able to get inside of the cartridge
to allow the printer ink to flow out. Secondly if your printer
has been sitting for a long time the printhead may be blocked.
To clear the printhead you may need to run several nozzle
cleans untill the ink flows again. Another way this can occur
is if the last ink cartridge was run untill it was completely
empty. This allows air to flow through to the printhead which
can be quite hard to clear. If you can isolate which colour
is not printing then you can download an image of the same
colour from the internet and print the image untill that
particular colour starts to flow again.
If your Print Head is badly clogged have a look at this video - Cleaning a clogged Print Head |
