ink refills- good or not?

[Osmer_Toby]

i use a canon s9000 to print my photos, and am paying an extraordinary amount for ink replacement cartridges. i see non-canon replacement cartridges, advertised as "compatible" to the s9000, online for much less money. i asked an employee where i buy my supplies why they were so much less expensive online, and he replied that he would not trust anything not made by canon. is this true? is there a difference in quality when using non-brand replacements? is there any danger to my printer?
thanks in advance for your replies.

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[Chase]

I've heard good and bad...and I've seen good and bad, so it is really hard for me to say.

Generally, I believe you'll get the best results with manufacturer branded ink. You are more likely to have lesser quaility ink with "unknown" brands, etc.

That being said, I've seem some great quality prints done with generic ink as well. So, if the money difference is enough to take a little risk with quaility, I would say give it a shot. But if quality is the biggest concern, stick with the "good" stuff.

Of course, that's just my opinion, and I could be wrong

[voodoocat]

I'm with Chaseman on this one. My parents went the refill route and the colors turned out horrible.

[mrsid99]

Hi there,
I'm using a Canon S900 which I believe is identical to yours apart from your S9000 being wide carriage to handle larger paper sizes.
I've experimented with alternate papers and the results have been mediocre at best but I've never had the nerve to try alternate inks.
I've heard that some of the cheaper brands cause problems with the print head and a replacement head for these printers is $80 or so.
One of these days I'm going to try one of the "compatible" cartridges but meanwhile try checking on the net for real Canon ink.
I've found several for around $9 each but shipping can be a problem so it would be best to get a bunch at a time.
If you hear of anyone who's tried the "compatible" ones or if you get brave let us know the results.

[ranchman]

I buy ink for my Epson 1280 and 1520 from PrintPal.com. They deliver within a week or so and the prints are always right on with respect to the much much more expensive Epson inks. Normally I pay about $24. or so for the B/W and color inks together as opposed to about $35 to $40 for Epson brand inks. Try it you'll like as the old saying goes.

[John A]

I too was somewhat wary about using non-genuine ink cartridges for my Canon S400 but I was assured by my local supplier that "Pelikan" cartridges were his choice [yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought to myself]. Anyway I tried them & was quite pleased with the results. I printed a photo that I had already printed with the original ink & the results were identical. Since then I have used two different brands of non-genuine replacements with similar results. A saving of 50% over the genuine prices.