Printer owners could save more than £1,000 over their printer’s lifetime by switching to third-party ink, but a Which? survey shows that more than half of consumers are still reluctant to do so.
This is despite Which? lab tests demonstrating that good third-party inks stand up well to original ink and cost a fraction of the price.
Find out how you can save money, below.
– find out where to buy the cheapest printer inks delivering stellar results, backed by our expert tests.How expensive are original ink cartridges?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a liquid that’s as pricey per millilitre than original printer ink.
For example, a replacement set of XXL-size cartridges for popular brand Canon’s Pixma TS6350 printer (£140) will set you back £86.49.
That’s a staggering difference from simply switching to third-party ink that essentially does the same job.
Many original ink cartridges are similarly priced, and these are easily pricier than top extravagances from luxury brands.
27p per ml: 50p per ml:£1.13 per ml: £1.85 per ml:Mythbusting: Why it’s wrong to avoid third-party ink
When we surveyed more than 9,000 printer owners in April 2023, 51% still used original ink – showing the continued reluctance to switch to third-party ink and save huge amounts of money.
Original ink brands use various tricks to seed doubt about using third-party ink, but none of these myths stack up in reality. Below, we debunk the three most common ink myths:
1. It won’t work in my printer
Almost half of those we surveyed hadn’t switched to third-party ink because they were worried it wouldn’t work in their printer.
However, only 5% of users actually had an issue in the past 12 months with cartridges not working. And most third-party ink brands have guarantees that they’ll send you a replacement or refund in the event of a problem.
2. It will leak
You really do have to have bad luck to suffer cleaning up a leaky cartridge – only 1% had this issue in our survey.
3. It will invalidate my warranty
This is a bit of a grey area – it’s not completely clear if third-party ink invalidates your warranty or not. More importantly, this shouldn’t put you off. By using highly rated compatible ink, it shouldn’t cause an issue.
4. The quality is bad
One of the most common assumptions is that cheap printer ink means low-quality prints.
It’s hardly surprising that original inks are usually top-notch – the manufacturers design them to work hand-in-glove with the printer. But some third-party brands really do give them a run for their money, with great-quality printing at a fraction of the price.
Our research shows that many third-party brands are great for the majority of printing needs. The slightly superior print quality of original-brand ink isn’t worth paying many times the price of third-party ink.
This is backed up by our survey, too. Members are generally impressed with non-branded inks and rated well over half of the third-party brands four stars out of five for print quality – the same score as for original ink brands Epson and HP.
Tech tips you can trust –Original ink costs really rack up – you could save £1,000
Buying a single set of replacement cartridges for £86.49 is bad enough, but the impact of not switching to third-party ink really becomes stark when you consider how much it will cost you over your printer’s lifetime.
We estimate a typical user buys two sets of cartridges a year, and our user surveys estimate that the average printer’s lifespan is 13 years.
£1,631.24£613.34Need a new printer? Our expert lab tests reveal theTop 4 ways you can cut your printer ink costs
1. Switch to third-party ink
Our survey shows that a substantial minority of printer owners have already happily switched to third-party ink and never looked back – they even rate the print quality of the best brands in our survey just as highly as original ink brands Epson and HP, scoring them four stars out of five. Satisfaction is high.
2. Buy a tank printer
3. Go for a monthly ink subscription
It could work out cheaper than buying individual cartridges if you consistently print about the same amount each month, but you will need to monitor how many pages you’ve used to ensure you get the best value for money.
4. Print in black and white
Switch to monochrome printing when you don’t need colour. Do this even when a page looks black-and-white, as it could still be using colour cartridges to get the exact greyish shades for the print.
If you like to print out concert tickets or boarding passes, even though they're often in colour they can still be printed in black and white, so long as the QR code or barcode is clear.
This way, only the black cartridge (which is often larger) will need replacing more often, rather than this plus all three colour cartridges, so you can ensure you’re buying the cheapest printer ink available.
Our tell you exactly how much it will cost you to print, whether you favour text, graphics or photos, and which are the cheapest printers to runWhich? says…
'Printer ink shouldn't cost more than a bottle of high-end champagne, 18-year-old whisky or fancy perfume.
'We've found there are third-party products that give you great-quality printing at a fraction of the cost of their original-brand counterparts, so there's no point spending big bucks unless you want to print really high-quality photos', says Lisa Barber, editor of Which? Tech.
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