Wide-format cartridge company Fennemania discussed the “differences between” OEM, remanufactured, compatible and refilled cartridges.
The company’s CEO, Sytze Fennema, wrote a piece on LinkedIn about the differences between the different types of cartridges available, starting by noting that OEM products saw the OEM “also made a cartridge to go with” their printer, with the “high quality cartridges […] designed for great durability and undeniable precision” that “translates into good print quality”, but at “a much higher price”.
On compatibles, he likens them to “buying a generic car part”, as a “separate company simply creates their own version of the cartridge to work in your printer”, and though “some compatibles are of an inferior quality […] as you might expect|, there are “plenty of compatible printer cartridges out there that hold their ground next to their OEM counterpart”. He cites Fennemania as “a time-tested provider” of “high quality ink” as the sort of company it is “important” to buy from.
Next, on remanufactured cartridges, Fennama adds that these “started out as new OEM cartridges”, but “instead of throwing a perfectly usable and durable plastic shell away to sit in a landfill”, a remanufacturer has “refurbished it to be used again”. He points out that “a good remanufacturer will disassemble, clean, and test the cartridge before replacing any worn parts and refilling the toner”, noting that “as long as the refurbishing process was thorough, these will often yield similar quality to an OEM cartridge”.
Finally, he discusses refilled cartridges, which are “one of the cheapest options” as they are “simply injected with new toner and resold”, and “if the the cartridge doesn’t work at all you should be able to return it”, but you may also “find that the cartridge stops working before” the consumable runs out.
Here “the risk may be worth it if the cartridge works well, since these are priced far below OEM or remanufactured cartridges”, but users should “be aware that some refilled cartridges can be temperamental or even quit working altogether”. He concludes that it can be “very interesting to experiment” with either remanufactured or compatible cartridges, as “you may discover a third-party company like Fennemania that offers superb ink cartridges at a much cheaper cost”.