Compatible and remanufactured cartridges cost at least 30 percent less than those sold by printer makers or store such as OfficeMax, Office Depot, Staples, etc.... Is there any reason not to buy?

There's nothing thirstier than a well-used printer, which can guzzle a $30 cartridge in what seems like a single sip.

These cartridges are good for the environment, and they restrain printer makers from monopolizing the lucrative consumables market.

Whether motivated by profits or print quality, printer makers say the use of refurbished cartridges can result in damaged printheads, ink leaks, and inferior output. "Part of making image quality, permanence, and durability come together is that hardware, ink, and paper are optimized to work with one another

The cartridge wars extend beyond swapping salvos on ink superiority and cost, however. Printer makers implant smart chips in cartridges that can render remanufactured cartridges incompatible with the printer. Typically, smart chips monitor the ink supply in a cartridge and stop the printer when the ink runs dry. But some printers will not work until a new OEM cartridge with the appropriate smart chip is installed. Remanufacturers cannot install a new chip in recycled cartridges, and that results in unusable recycled consumables.

It's a good bet that remanufactured cartridges could cut your consumables costs without affecting output.

Another sneaky way that printer manufacturers try to curtail refurbished consumables is an implicit threat to void warranties if you use these cartridges. But invalidating the warranty would violate the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act. It's also an infraction of antitrust laws.