Big brands like Epson and Canon have verification chips on their proprietary ink containers and also ‘read ink levels’ that simply stop your printer from functioning even if it has ink if their cartridges drip below a certain level, sometimes as high as 50%. It’s a scammy practice to fraudulently sell you more ink even if you haven’t run out but the ink is now considered out of date or some bullshit.
I assume this is a way to circumvent your printers crap and make it print until the ink runs out. The websites not particularly clear on that.
Funnily enough i hade the opposite problem with my Canon: Ink cartridges getting empty for some reason, reporting the printer that they still had ink, the printer failing to pull in ink and then telling me that my cartridges can’t be original.
I swapped the original cartridges with other original cartridges only to get the same problem a few weeks later. I swapped the printer head and started using refillable cartridges that automatically reset the fill state when disconnected from the printer and so far the printer keeps working.
i recommend the Epson Eco-Tank line of models. they refill using bottles which are not cheap either, but they have no way of disabling your printer arbitrarily.
This isn’t a rent-seeking, wallet rape bullshit “subscription” (like BMW heated seats), it’s a legitimate subscription service where they just order and ship a product automatically for you on a regular schedule (like Amazon) and give you a discount. Also, you’re not forced to purchase a subscription, you can just buy retail cartridges if you prefer.
This actually makes a lot of sense for people who print regularly and frequently.
Edit: it has been pointed out to me that there is, in fact, some tomfuckery involved with this subscription model
Bought it in 2020 the second we got work from home orders and just replaced the toner about 36 months later. About the same price as 19 drops of ink you get from HP or Canon
Before I bought a brother printer, I would just buy and/or refill whatever cartridges I could get for my printers because of HP’s and Canon’s bullshit. Now that I own a Brother, I only buy toner and cartridges directly from them. Vote with your wallets, people.
Yep, Brother is the GOAT. I bought a basic Brother laser printer 10 years ago for a hundred bucks and I’ve replaced the toner, like, twice. Never given me a single problem.
I suppose people are afraid this is the first step towards the awful subscriptions all the other companies milk dry. If brother wanted to be different, you would expect them to be marketing about it right and left.
The thing with printers is that they are very hard to get right. Its not like some startup can just make a printer that printer with the same speed and quality as some of the big brands.
With that being said I still would back any startup that tries
Kodak did this a few years but the big printer companies slashed prices in the printers to next to nothing. Kodaks $200 printer with cheap ink, huge cartridges, and no chips didn’t sell well when Canon would have a similar printer (scan, print, etc) for $49 next to it. Consumers are dumb.
Brother’s eco tank is close… but if they are killing that off in the name of ink selling greed as this meme suggests…
I had a Kodak printer. The first reload I put in it was off brand and it proceeded to immediately brick itself. Refused to recognize any cartridges even the originals.
Also EcoTank is Epson, super duper recommend. I use to sell printers and I would only sell Brother and Epson.
If you’ve got any questions about them I still have my Epson contact in my phone
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