If you’ve ever used a printer, you might have come across the terms like inks & toners. To an average consumer, it doesn’t matter what it means. However, if you look at it from a different perspective, inks & toners are an essential part of a printer. They also contribute to the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the printer. Replacing inks and toners is an inevitable job that every printer owner has to do. Fortunately, hundreds of companies offer cheaper and affordable ink & toner replacement, and you can buy them as cheap as 20 bucks. Feels pretty good, right? However, there is something more sinister going on here. Read along to understand why you should always stick to original inks and toners.
A common question that haunts every printer owner is whether to buy original ink and toners or not. As humans, we tend to go with the cheaper options, but cheaper ones are not always better. You might save a few bucks on 3rd-party inks & toners; the cost you have to pay in the long run is much more, and sometimes, you end up paying more for the repairs than the original costs of the printer. Let’s look at some of these reasons and why they are concerning.
Quality of print
A toner/ink might fit your printer, but it reduces the print quality. By using compatible inks, there is a big possibility that you’ll experience smudges or change in contrast to the image. While it’s hard to distinguish the changes in mono printing, you can see a massive difference in color printing, where color contrast changes dramatically. The colors that you had in the original image are gone in the final output. If you are working in a creative field, a third-party ink or toner can damage your work, and you might have to start from ground zero again.
Outlines
Ask any graphic designer about outlines, and he/she will tell how important it is for images and artworks. In a nutshell, outlines depict an object or element’s outer edges without interior details or shading. When printing your subsequent work, you want the print to demonstrate what you’ve made on the computer. However, cheap inks and toners blur the outlines, making your artwork complex and almost unrecognizable. When an image diminishes its outlines, color flows from elements and gets mixed up with the rest of the picture. This particular reason is why established artists prefer original inks that help them visualize their artworks on a piece of printed paper.
Harms your printer
Printers are complex machines, and they require better treatment from their users. Think of them like motorcycles. You have to get the best oil, original parts and get them serviced from authorized service centers. Printer technicians have reported that most of the printers that enter the service centers have faulty parts, and 99% of the time, it is caused by non-genuine ink cartridges. A third-party ink can cause toner leaks, clogging, and ink dissemination. Using these cheap inks sure saves many bucks, but getting your printer serviced at a third-party service center costs more. Talking about service centers, do you know that using counterfeit inks voids your printer warranty?
Voids printer warranty
Almost every electronic peripheral clearly states that using non-authentic parts with the gadgets can void the warranty. Printers are no strangers to this clause. However, we tend to use third-party parts to save a few dollars, which causes us to lose the warranty on the printers. Most printer warranties do not cover damages caused by third-party ink cartridges and toners. This warranty clause exists for smartphone parts, air condition parts, refrigerators, and other electrical appliances.
To make matters worse, users who have voided their warranties have to pay a hefty amount to get their printer fixed. In some exceptional cases, cheap ink damages the printer entirely. With no support from the printer manufacturer, users have to opt for third-party repairs that cost twice as much money as the original repair cost.
Cheap ink & toners can cause cancer
Yes, this is not a gimmick. Cheap inks and toners cause cancer. As no government body regulates imitation ink cartridges, these cartridges emit harmful chemicals in the air, which subtly causes skin problems, breathing problems and sometimes causes cancer. Cheap inks emit chemicals like styrene, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), etc., and are produced in high amounts, which is enough to block lung functioning and, in extreme cases, can cause cancer. Printing document from cheap inks sounds erotic, like you are saving a bunch of money. However, the price you have to pay is way above anything else in the world.
Make sure you use regulated ink cartridges, or it’s better to go with the original inks from the original printer manufacturer. Sure it costs a little more, but you can protect yourself from harmful chemicals that emerge from counterfeit inks.
Final thoughts
Thanks to brands like HP, the number of fake ink cartridges have decreased over the years. However, the remaining number is still huge, and counterfeit ink cartridges hold up a business of up to $3.5 billion in market value. Printer companies, along with government officials, are raiding printer pirates and busting their fake business down. If you select original ink cartridges and toners, you directly help the environment by reducing waste and helping the ecosystem remain clean of harmful chemicals. To sum up, cheap imitating inks are detrimental to you, your business, and your environment.
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