Ron Cohen said:
Thanks for setting all of us straight about the the caps. If you hadn't
given us the final and authoratative word, most of us would have blissfully
gone on our ignorant and uninformed path of successfully reusing the caps
and holding them on with rubber bands. I guess we'll all just have to quit
doing what has worked for years and only buy new OEM cartridges. How could
we have been so stupid?
Your words not mine.
My response was prompted by several statements that you can place the cap
back on achieving the *same* air tight seal. This is simply NOT true. While
you may infact be using a rubber band, tape, nail gun or what ever you
choose to re attach the cap it is NOT as air tight as the original seal.
Now, can you also explain why bulk ink from a known quality source equals
generic? Do you mean generic in the sense that all ink regardless of the
intended printer model comes from the same batch? Or do you mean generic as
in it has the same properties and formulation as OEM, but is manufactured by
a third party? Is that any different than with pharmaceuticals? Is there a
difference between brand name products Advil and Motrin vs. ibuprofen or
Benedryl vs. dyphenhydramine?
I can not explain why bulk ink from a known quality source *equals* generic
because not all inks are equal.
I can tell you that if you purchase an ink that is not contained in the
OEM's cartridge or tank (at least in the case of Canon) then you are buying
generic (also referred to as 3rd Party). This is because they do not sell
their ink in bulk to outside vendors so anything else would be a knock off
and not the original. In many cases YES the generics state they will work in
various models and manufactures printers. This IMO would definitely be one
to avoid as anyone that knows printers knows there are different delivery
methods of the ink from the printhead and therefore no 'one ink fits all'
solution. To answer this part of your question though I was referring to 3rd
party inks that claim to have the same properties and formulations as the
OEM. Each manufacture spends enormous amounts of money in to printhead
design and exacting formulation of an ink to provide optimum results with
that printhead on a given paper. Needless to say these formulas are well
guarded. So while they may be close to the OEM they are no more the SAME
than Coke or Pepsi.
As for your comparison with pharmaceuticals, sometimes there is NO
difference, sometimes there is. This is a totally different area with
different regulations and yes some actually license their formula to others.
Not the case with the Canon ink.