The Telegraph would have no hesitation using remanufactured cartridges

This article was selected from the Recyclers email today and makes for some interested reading in these times of austerity. 

The Telegraph’s Technology Advice column notes that alternatives and refills can save money and offer an alternative to OEM products, though sounds a note of caution.

The Telegraph article answers a reader’s query about whether it matter that she uses recycled cartridges in printing from her HP AIO, with the newspaper’s Rick Maybury attempting to answer whether compatible supplies have a “discernible effect on quality”.

Maybury notes that both “recycled or compatible cartridge and ink refills can save you money”, adding that from his point of view he “would have no hesitation in using them on most HP models”, as well as on “other makes where the print head is built into the ink cartridge”, as if “you are unlucky and the print head clogs then you can just throw the cartridge away”.

Whilst this reflects the negative trend of trashing and not recycling the cartridges, Maybury warns that “on printers where the head is an integral part of the printer a blockage caused by a cheap compatible cartridge or refill ink can be fatal”.

A German consumer group and an environmental website have both also endorsed the use of remanufactured cartridges in the past few months.

The penultimate paragraph mentions the use of cheap ink cartridges that can block printer heads. This is a valid point when using cartridges with poor quality inks. You will find the fitted printer heads on Epson printers are the main manufacturer that will be affected with clogged printer heads. If you do use cheap ink cartridges ensure that you run a rigours maintenance program for your printer in order to preserve the life of the printer heads.