Too many dishes on the plate make you confused. Isn’t it? Same is the case with printers and Inkjet Cartridges. When you decide to purchase a cartridge, you come across so many options in the market. You just don’t know which one you should purchase.

Well. I also faced the dilemma. Experience taught me which kind of cartridges suit me.

OEM Cartridges are printed by the manufacturer and carry the brand name. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. The cartridges are produced by same manufacturer as the printer, such as HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, and Dell; just to be applied specifically for their printers. OEM cartridges come costly. Many manufacturers recommend using Laser Toner Cartridges with their printers to get the best results. This way, they also get you to buy their product. Usually there is not any big difference in quality between an OEM cartridge and a quality compatible or remanufactured toner cartridge.

Remanufactured ink capsules are recycled from OEM cartridges by companies other than the unique producers. These cartridges, also called compatible cartridges, can be applied in branded printers. Manufacturers of these cartridges collect empty refills either directly from consumers or empty brokers. They test the cartridge functionality, clean, refill, check quality and repackage it.

The percentage of new vs. recycled parts differs from model to model. In some cartridges, the only parts reused are the outside casing. Quality remanufactured inkjet cartridge are generally produced using cartridges that have never been refilled. These are filled to capacity with high quality inks just like the OEM’s. Cartridges are cleaned ultrasonically inside and out, and remaining ink is thoroughly flushed from the cartridge. Thereafter, the cartridges are bathed in a cleaning solvent. A properly refilled cartridge has measurable balance between ink flow, vacuum and pressure. High tech refilling machines are used to do the task efficiently.