Saving on Ink Costs
Cheap ink: a smart saving or an expensive mistake?
There are many ways to save on the cost of printing your own labels in color. Some methods are more obvious than others, and not every saving actually leads to lower costs. Part of the cost of printing labels comes from the label material used, and part comes from the cost of the ink.
To properly determine where you can save, you first need to know where the costs are. Do you use a lot of ink? Then you can see whether savings are needed there, for example by adjusting your design or label material.
Printing with an inkjet printer has gained the reputation of being “expensive” for several reasons. This is often because the well-known A4 printers, especially home models, used ink cartridges that quickly emptied your wallet. But did you know that the current generation of business inkjet printers is often already more economical than the familiar laser printers, provided you include electricity costs?
💰 See here what printing a label costs in ink
Saving costs with compatible/private-label ink
We all know there are many companies on the market that supply alternative ink cartridges. Often at a much lower price and sometimes even with more content. Of course, printer manufacturers are not always happy about this, as they earn money from ink cartridges. But is this always a smart saving? Or are there hidden drawbacks?
Non-original ink is, by definition, always different from original ink. Just like the private-label ink from one manufacturer may be slightly better or worse than another. How much impact this can have, and what the consequences are, differs per printer. If you are considering using alternative ink, include the purchase value of the printer in your risk assessment. With a home printer, for example with a purchase value of < € 100.00, the risk versus the saving can quickly become interesting. With a business printer with a purchase value of > € 1,000, the payback time is very different, while the risk of defects remains.
For Epson ColorWorks printers, we recommend NEVER using alternative inks
The risks are significant
An Epson ColorWorks color label printer uses highly advanced printhead technology. This printhead technology enables the printer to detect and clean problems such as clogged nozzles. In addition, Epson uses ICC color profiles in the current generation of color label printers to ensure the correct colors.
When using non-original inks, the system may react differently due to, for example, a different liquid density or conductivity, and colors may appear differently than intended.
Many of our customers have already tried alternative inks at some point. By far most of them experienced problems over time and have since returned to using original inks, after which most issues gradually disappeared. However, there were also printers that had to be written off completely.
The main risk lies in the warranty becoming void on all parts that are or could be affected by the use of other inks. The printheads of Epson ColorWorks printers are designed to be self-maintaining and do not need to be replaced under normal use. But if replacement becomes necessary due to, for example, incorrect inks, it can quickly become a considerable expense. In addition, you should take into account issues such as color deviations, excessive printhead cleaning, loss of BS5609 approval for GHS labels, prints that are not resistant to UV light, and many other influences.
The real saving
You need to weigh the risks against the actual saving. To compare the real saving with the possible costs, there are many factors you need to include in your calculation.
This naturally starts with comparing the price of the ink. For this, we made a comparison between the ink price for the Epson TM-C3500. We compared the price of the original ink in our webshop with a private-label ink. At the moment, that is € 20.66 compared with € 16.12. The fact that the content differs does not say much, because the printer does not use this as a basis. The difference is therefore approximately 20%, which at first glance seems like a considerable saving.
What you cannot see, however, is that the printhead, as mentioned earlier, starts reacting differently to this ink. A common problem is that the self-maintaining “Nozzle Verification Technology” system becomes confused by a different pattern. This has to do with conductivity and liquid density. As a result, the printhead thinks that nozzles are clogged and tries to unclog them by running a cleaning cycle. Because of this excessive cleaning, a lot of ink is often wasted, and although you think you are saving money, in many cases you are not — not to mention the time the printer is out of operation.
In our experience, using these types of ink is not cheaper in the end, but it does cause a lot of frustration.
In summary
Think carefully about how much you really save with cheaper inks and what possible extra costs this may bring. Sometimes it looks better than it really is. With business inkjet label printers, the ink costs are relatively not that high, but the risks and potential costs of using alternatives are considerably high. It would be a shame if, in the end, you save € 200.00 but have to write off a € 3,000.00 printer.
