FAQs on Cartridges

1. Why do most retailers of compatible cartridges and refills stock 5 or 6 brands, often 8 or 9, but you only have one?

A. Our success has been due to the repeat business from satisfied customers coming back time and time again. Ink Sales Plus sells and recommends InkTec® compatibles because our research and experience shows them to be the best in performance and quality while still allowing us to give you enormous cost savings due to our bulk-buying. It is a fact that some of the many other brands come out of the one factory, but each priced and packaged differently. This may appeal to "price before quality" bargain hunters. We opted for products that are easy to use, no mess, economical and give consistent quality and reliability - brilliant colours, solid, crisp blacks and superb print results every time. We do however stock a few non-InkTec cartridges, EPSON print-head cleaning cartridges, for example, as InkTec do not make those particular products.



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2. Is InkTec a substantial, Quality-Certified company?

A. InkTec was established in 1992 and has gone through the rigorous quality standards certification process, achieving the internationally recognised ISO 9001 Quality Accreditation in 2000. Their products are sold by the millions in over 90 countries each year and InkTec are considered one of the two leaders in compatibles manufacturing world-wide. Apart from home and professional users, many of the large tertiary education institutions in Australia use InkTec products. The research, development, product design and engineering that InkTec employs in their vast manufacturing facility (see below)) is second to none.

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3. What is the EPSON® "smart-chipped" cartridge all about?

A. EPSON have taken the "smart-chip" approach (called "Intellidge™") to safe-guarding their cartridge "cash cow". This is now a standard feature on all late model and future EPSON printers. EPSON claims it is to keep track of the exact amount of ink in the cartridge. It does - so that once empty, the cartridge cannot be re-used. EPSON's thinking is that you are then forced to buy a new cartridge.

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4. Why are your compatible cartridges for recent model EPSON® printers more expensive than older ones?

A. InkTec designed and manufacture a legal, non-patent infringing "smart-chipped" EPSON cartridge. These are recognised as the best quality EPSON compatibles world-wide, which is why we sell them. Developing these costs a huge amount of money (and takes time) but InkTec felt justified in making this huge financial investment. It is worth noting that EPSON has sued a number of companies selling illegal copies of their cartridges.

InkTec's investment has to be recouped over time and unfortunately it is reflected in our prices for all of the EPSON home / personal printer cartridges on the market - except perhaps two. The Stylus® Colour 980 still uses non-chip cartridges and has possibly the lowest operating cost of any inkjet printer. It is also perhaps still the fastest of any EPSON home printer. The Stylus® Colour 600 is still a great unit too. As competition and higher volume usage lowers the cost of "smart-chip cartridges" our prices will be more in line with the non-chip versions. This is particularly desirable as EPSON do make excellent printers. If you have a "non-chipped" EPSON printer, hang on to it.

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5. Do you sell compatible HP and Canon cartridges?

A. YES. There are a few compatible cartridges manufactured for some HP and CANON printers, such as our new InkTec black and colour cartridges for the Canon BJC 2000, 4000 and 5000 Series printers. These are only $11 and $22 each. The prices on some of the re-manufactured HP and Canon cartridges are not anywhere near as competitive as we would wish them to be although they are still cheaper than the "genuine" cartridges. Hewlett Packard holds a 17 year patent on their cartridges, Canon apparently has a similar situation so you do not have the low-cost compatibles as for Epson. However, there are still two (2) other options available to you - Ink Sales Plus does also have remanufactured cartridges for many HP and CANON printers in addition to our easy-to-use InkTec Refill Kits. Again, for those already experienced at refilling their cartridges, we have the economical Bulk Refill Inks (125ml and 250ml bottles) to suit.

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6. What is the difference between EPSON, HP and CANON cartridges?

A. There are quite number of differences between them. Basically EPSON uses a different ink formulation and ink delivery system (to "jet" the ink onto the paper) to the other brands, the EPSON print-heads are in the printer, not part of the disposable cartridge and the newer cartridges use a "smart-chip".

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7. Why are print-heads built into some cartridges?

A. In all honesty, we don't know. We can only guess that years ago it was a design concept from both HP and CANON that ensured good quality printing because the print-heads were always new - you had to buy an expensive new cartridge each time. The same logic applies to laser printer toner cartridges (HP, CANON and many others), where the image transfer drum and main printing components are built into the disposable cartridge. That is why a new toner cartridge for laser printers typically costs $200 - $300 each while there is only perhaps $2 worth of toner powder in it. To us, this is legal commercial extortion. Imagine the public outcry if you had to put a complete new engine in your car every time you took it in for its regular 5000km service !

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