Inkworks OEM-Compatible Cartridges product reviews

We have a Canon LBP3100B laser printer. I normally buy my toner cartridges from Warehouse Stationery and gulp at the cost. It is $119 for a genuine Canon cartridge and often I have to drive to one of the other stores because they don't have it in stock. It's very frustrating especially as I usually have my kids tagging along. When I was offered the chance to review an Inkworks toner in my printer I leapt at the chance.

The Inkworks website is very easy to navigate around. You simply enter your printer model or cartridge model into the search and it comes up with the cartridge you need. Freight is free which is was surprised about because often places advertise a cheap product but you end up paying extra in postage. The only thing I didn't like was the prices were G.S.T. exclusive so you had to add what you wanted to the shopping cart to find out how much it would cost.

One thing that had always put me off ordering toner online was the fact that you run out of toner when you need it most and unfortunately our printer doesn't have a meter to warn us. I needn't have worried with Inkworks. I ordered my toner at lunchtime on Friday and thought it would arrive on Tuesday or if I'm really lucky Monday. It arrived first thing Saturday morning. You can't complain about that. I do think that it would be worth me purchasing another toner before this one runs out so that I do have another one handy.

The cartridge I needed was $82.57 for a yield of 1500 pages (5.5c a page). This worked out much cheaper than the Canon branded one I had been buying (although it had a yield of 2000 pages) at 6c a page. So it was not only a cheaper outlay but cheaper per page. In our household we never get as many pages from a toner as it claims because of what we print. My husband purchases a lot of PDF role playing books that contain a lot of pictures. I print off learning stories for my homebased carekids which contain a couple of photos on each page. Both of these things use much more toner than pages of text. The toner we got from Inkworks has lasted longer than we expected so much so that I am writing this review before it has run out.

The cartridge came in a protective wrap similar to bubble wrap, inside a box which was inside another box. There was no way it was going to get damaged in transit. I felt that the outer box was unnecessary especially as Inkworks are about being eco-friendly. I did like the idea for those that were purchasing at the stores that they could return their empty cartridges, unfortunately there is none near me.

It was just the same inserting the Inkworks cartridge as it was for the Canon brand. There were bright orange tab that were easily removed. Both my husband and I were very impressed by the quality of the printing and it certainly isn't a case of you get what you pay for. We actually think it might be better quality than what we got from the the Canon one.

After trying the Inkworks cartridge along with their fast service I can honestly say we won't be buying a manufacturer's toner again. Why would we waste our money when the Inkworks does a great job for much less of our hard earned cash.

ADMIN NOTE: The yield figures noted on the Inkworks website were incorrect. Inkworks have informed us that these toner carts actually yield 2,000 pages on average. This makes the cpp 4.1c/page

I don't do a lot of printing normally. Sometimes the mokopuna pop over to say Hi (as they did this time, coincidentally just minutes after the courier had been to visit too) and 'borrow' the printer for some homework or printing out pictures of some pop star or another, whoever is in fashion that hour. But for this review I took on the job of printing out the monthly newsletter for the Bridge club, along with a pile of new character score sheets, whatever they are, for my eldest Tamariki Tane and his role-playing friends.

Having seen what my printer normally spits out, I can say that what I saw after printing with these cartridges looked just as good as the overpriced "official" brand ones. With my printer well outside of it's warranty, even the extended one I paid extra for when I got this, I felt quite safe using these remanufactured inks. After printing hundreds of pages (I lost count after 200 or so, thanks to everyone grabbing their printing off before I could tally it) there was no sign of the dreaded blocked print head errors, smudged inks, or other boogiemen the manufacturers always give you the doom and gloom about if you dare to use non-official ink.

But, that brings me to the price. Yes, I was gifted these inks for the purposes of doing this review, but I did a bit of checking around. Normally I just ask one of the whanau to go get me ink, and they tell me the cost. It's usually very expensive, especially for a pensioner on a very tight budget, which is why I am very sparing with my printing. I have to save for 6 months to afford the $125-$150 for a full set of the Canon brand ones. But after looking around I can see that these inks, just as good as the fancy ones, are a fair bit cheaper, though still twice the price of the cheapest replacements out there available through another seller. Still, at least with these ones I know they won't harm my printer because even if I only use it sparingly, I still need it to work when I have printing to do.

I am very happy with these Inkworks inks, and based on my experience I would be able to recommend Inkworks products to anyone who asked me for my opinion. Everyone at my Bridge club was pleased that this month's newsletters were printed at no charge, because last month was a bit of a tight one. This way, we can afford to have some of the fancier biscuits with our drinks, so thank you for your generous offer Inkworks and KIWIreviews.

I have a Canon Pixma MG5350 and when I was asked if I wanted to try out Inkworks ink and give it a go, I thought why not. I'm a uni student and a mother of two, I use my printer ALL the time, there isn't really a day that goes by that I'm not printing something for someone. The way to get my review products was to use the website to order them and get them sent out. The website was easy to use, just find my product by typing in my printer model and everything for my printer came up. As I was adding them to my cart I couldn't just click and have it added, I clicked and a box came up to show it was in the cart - that was annoying - but finally after 5 inks I got it all and sent. They were quick to arrive.

When opening the inks I was thinking "they aren't going to fit my printer" - I think because they are see though you can see the colour inside that misguided me because they fit just like my normal ones I buy. Opening them up though was a different story altogether, got the plastic off and then taking off the orange tag that covers over the ink part... it was hard to pull off even following the arrow. My normal ones just slip off quick and easy but sadly these Inkworks ones took a lot of pushing and pulling to get some of them off, even my husband found them hard and we almost snapped one so I pulled it the wrong way and it snapped off so hard that I hurt my hand, it didn't damage the ink which is good, but that needs something sorted.

Once the ink was in my printer I decided to do a copy of a birth cert that I did with my old ink beforehand to compare the shades and it held up staying the same. I couldn't figure out which was my normal ink and which was Inkworks. This gave me some faith in the inks. Comparing the prices I was also happy as I normally pay $29.99 for one ink for my printer and I have to get 5 of them, with Inkworks I will be saving a fair bit as the inks I need are only $17.38 each. For a family that is on a budget and prints a lot this is a great saving.

I sat down and did some printing - 2.5 hours solid printing with 231 printed pages, most were black readings with bold black boarders, some were coloured pages for the kids. I was happy with the amount of time it took before I was getting an "ink getting a low" warning. Even though it was getting low it still printed off my last readings to make up the 231 printed pages and its still showing ink left to go.

I have to say I'm very happy with the quality of the ink on paper, it isn't faded or looking cheap, it looks the same as I have been using and if I do say I got more readings out on this one black ink than I did with my last 'official' one - I had to change the black ink before finishing all my readings last time, this time I got though two courses worth of readings. I have had no problems with ink smudging on my work, the ink has gone smooth and been in the printer for a few days and is not clogging up or having to pull out and start again. I also found once I printed my items I went over and they were mostly dry but felt wet, within a few more minutes they didn't feel wet at all, so made for a happy me to be able to staple and hole punch right away.

Overall I'm very happy with Inkworks and will be going back for my refills for my printer because there are so many more pros than cons, and I like the price.