greysquirrel
New Member
3rd party ink is never a good idea...you are compromising color, consistency, head life, print life, your time troubleshooting...bad bad bad bad bad
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Discussion STS inks. Anyone have experience with them?
- Thread starter Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?
- Start date
Dangreenst
New Member
You have one person here with a bad experience with STS Latex ink. Not all 3rd party inks are created equal. Solvent inks UV and Latex inks are very different. You need to have an average of positive or negative reviews to make a reasonable decision. I have been using Boudreaux Eco Solv for more than 10 years with no problem.
Inks
New Member
Marabu makes high quality European manufactured 3rd party inks and produce OEM inks for some printer manufacturers as well. Their eco solvent inks are plug and play, chemically compatible and match the color gamut of the OEM products. Not all third party inks are bad. Bordeaux has had their own issues in the past with black inks. Another thing to keep in mind is many of the equipment manufacturers use some of the companies that produce "third part inks to produce their OEM inks.
Someone made a very good point here and that was "if it is not broken and price is reasonable, why fix it". In the end a little loyalty to a good suppler goes a long way. Price or Value?
Someone made a very good point here and that was "if it is not broken and price is reasonable, why fix it". In the end a little loyalty to a good suppler goes a long way. Price or Value?
I DO NOT RECOMMEND
I purchased STS inks for my HP l26500 Latex and it completely destroyed the print heads. I also bought non-oem ink for my DTG that happened to be rebranded STS inks (Asked the vendor for non STS and they lied). It didn't destroy the DTG print heads but the ink was so thin it leaked out of the print heads and was unusable.
A lot of money went down the drain because of STS inks. Stick to OEM inks, they're designed for your printer and give reliable prints. The money you save is not worth the risk of destroying expensive parts like print heads.
I purchased STS inks for my HP l26500 Latex and it completely destroyed the print heads. I also bought non-oem ink for my DTG that happened to be rebranded STS inks (Asked the vendor for non STS and they lied). It didn't destroy the DTG print heads but the ink was so thin it leaked out of the print heads and was unusable.
A lot of money went down the drain because of STS inks. Stick to OEM inks, they're designed for your printer and give reliable prints. The money you save is not worth the risk of destroying expensive parts like print heads.
Michael-Nola
I print things. It is very exciting.
Bordeaux has some fantastic inks and solutions across the board. Marabu has excellent chemistries. Nazdar is legacy experienced and makes good stuff. INX is OEM and 3rd party supply - don't recommend going 3rd party channel as their sales director/chain will not support end users, STS is also a no for me, I don't like any of their chemistries.
Often 3rd party is not totally plug and play, so you better be into the tech side of the business to handle and make good decisions. If you don't have someone in your company wheelhouse for that, absolutely just buy OEM. Making mistakes here are very easy and will cost you everything.
That said, with some educated tweaking and testing, you can cut ink costs massively down and quality way up. Inks are nowhere close to created equal.
Lastly, rank inks by chemistry complexity - the less complex, the less risky a 3rd party chemistry. Aqueous and Solvents are simplest and longest tested, lots of good ones there. UV Is a highly mixed bag, test carefully and know what you're doing. Latex .... well honestly HP's latex ink is already garbage and hardly holding itself together so I wouldn't dare touch alternative formulas.
Grab a wrench and have fun.
Often 3rd party is not totally plug and play, so you better be into the tech side of the business to handle and make good decisions. If you don't have someone in your company wheelhouse for that, absolutely just buy OEM. Making mistakes here are very easy and will cost you everything.
That said, with some educated tweaking and testing, you can cut ink costs massively down and quality way up. Inks are nowhere close to created equal.
Lastly, rank inks by chemistry complexity - the less complex, the less risky a 3rd party chemistry. Aqueous and Solvents are simplest and longest tested, lots of good ones there. UV Is a highly mixed bag, test carefully and know what you're doing. Latex .... well honestly HP's latex ink is already garbage and hardly holding itself together so I wouldn't dare touch alternative formulas.
Grab a wrench and have fun.
We have used their ink in Canon IPF 8400s and Pro 4000 without problems. I also use their ink in a small Fuji DX100. Ink works fine, but have: after installing cartridge, have to shut off printer, turn on, turn off and on. Works fine after that. Good sales service, never used technical. If you are close you can pick up pretty quick, or if you order early enough, it usually ships out same day.
premiercolour
Merchant Member
Any Jetbest ink users here?