Inkjet Printer Cartridge Pricing
Consumer Reports tested hundreds of off-brand printer cartridges to see if they can compete with the higher-priced name-brand cartridges. You may be surprised, but the off-brands won't save you as much as you might think.
With a set of black and color cartridges from Canon, Epson or HP costing around $50-70, many consumers go for the off-brand thinking it will save big money. Consumer Reports bought more than 500 cartridges to see how the less expensive inks compare to the kind you get from the big three -- Epson, Cannon and HP
"We tested a wide variety of off-brand inks from many different sources, including office depot, staples, some online retailers, as well as specialty ink stores," said Eileen McCooey of Consumer Reports. In general, we found that the name-brand cartridges did the best. The photo quality was excellent, and they faded less than the alternative brands," said McCooey. "They usually produce fewer photos, so you won't save much money, if any. In fact, sometimes the photos can cost you more using the off-brand ink."
