Differences between OEM, Compatible and Remanufactured Printer Cartridges

If you are a smart consumer who is currently looking for a printer, what will be the most important factor that you cared about ? Yes, the cartridges cost! Sometimes when you are surfing on our 123InkCartridges site, you might see the different options under the cartridges categories, and if you are looking deeper enough, you might realize that there are meanly three types of cartridges that we are selling- the compatible cartridges, the remanufactured cartridges and the OEM cartridges. I will explain what are these cartridges are and how are they different to each other in the following content!

oem ink cartridges

OEM Cartrdiges

OEM cartridges are stand for “Original Equipment Manufacture”, which means these type of cartridges are made by the original manufactures. Let’s say if you are buying a HP printer, then the OEM cartridges will be the ink that made by HP, and if you have a Epson printer, then you use the Epson printer etc. Generally, the warranty for these cartridges usually last for a year or sometimes longer, if you have any issues regard to the OEM cartridges, then you can claim directly to the manufacture company, which can be very time consuming since you are dealing with the bigger bureaucratic system.

Compatible ink cartridges

By clicking the follow link for an example of compatible cartridges, these models are the newly designed which usually made by the 3rd factories. Many of consumers love the idea of purchasing this model because you don’t deal with the excessive price, and they shared the similar and sometimes better ink volume, the quality of these type of cartridges have leaving debates over the internet,  of course the quality could be varies since different factories have their own way to produce it, so make sure that you do your own research and choose the company that is more reliable.

In term of the price differences, the compatible cartridges are mostly 3-5 times cheaper than the OEM one, it is designed to be fully compatible to the OEM models, so basically what it means is, every cartridges model will be able to share multiple printers, there is nothing that you need to worry your compatible ink or toner cartridges will not fit with your current devices as long as you are choosing the right model number.

About the warranty, there are many OEM manufacture company tell customers that the use of compatible cartridges will void the machine warranty and damage the device, this is simply not true and not legal, according the law, the consumers will make their own choice for selecting which cartridges that they like to use, this is merely a strategy for the big company to monopolize their own cartridges, which is totally not ethical by not taking customers into perspective.

Remanufactured cartridges

This is a simple concept, as like what the title says, it’s basically a remanufactured model, this type of cartridges has been used and recycled and refilled, the PRO for using remanufacture cartridges is its eco-friendlyness, about 97% of components can be easily re-use and are recyclable, the only thing that the manufacture need to do is simply refilling them, hence, the price for this type of cartridges share similar quality and yield, however, it costs 3-5 times less compared to the OEM one.