Beware! Using inferior ink in RISO printers will inevitably
lead to these problems sooner or later.

For frequent RISO printer users, "saving costs" is often the primary motivation—after all, original ink is not cheap, so many people choose to use cheaper, lower-quality ink as a substitute. However, many people don't realize that this "saving a little money" approach will ultimately only lead to spending more money and effort, or even completely ruining a printer.

Firstly, Printing quality issues result in wasted effort and embarrassment.

Whether for office printing or small-scale production, print quality is a core requirement. However, low-quality ink can easily fall short of your expectations, bringing endless problems and headaches. The most common issues are “clogged nozzles and abnormal ink flow”: low-quality ink has extremely low filtration accuracy and contains large amounts of tiny impurities. These impurities gradually accumulate in the precise nozzles of RISO printers, causing broken lines, streaks, white borders, and even missing colors. In severe cases, entire pages print blurry or completely blank, wasting all the time and paper used. In addition, “color distortion” is also very obvious. The dyes or pigments in low-quality ink lack purity, and their formulation differs greatly from original ink. Printed colors are either severely off-tone, undersaturated, or have a narrow color gamut, making it impossible to accurately reproduce the colors of the original design. This is especially noticeable in color printing, where the final result is significantly degraded. For commercial printing, this directly damages brand image. Even more troublesome, lowquality ink fails to meet standards for viscosity and surface tension. This leads to uneven ink distribution and dot spread during printing, resulting in fuzzy edges and ink bleeding on paper, creating a very rough appearance. Printed materials also have extremely poor durability: low light resistance, water resistance, and scratch resistance. They fade easily in bright light and smudge or run when exposed to water, making them unsuitable for long-term storage. For important documents or promotional posters that need to be preserved, using low-quality ink is simply a waste of effort. Furthermore, low-quality ink has poor atomization, producing a large amount of "ink mist and flying ink" during printing. This not only contaminates the paper but also soils the interior of the printer and the surrounding area, requiring frequent cleaning and adding extra workload.

Secondly, the equipment hardware is damaged, the repair cost will be higher than that of the original ink.

If poor print quality is merely a “loss of face”, hardware damage is a "blow to your wallet". RISO printers contain many precision components, and the corrosive and destructive effects of lowquality ink on these parts are far more severe than you imagine. First and foremost is the “print head”. As the core component of a RISO printer, the print head is extremely expensive. Low-quality ink has unstable chemical composition and may contain corrosive substances. Long-term use gradually corrodes the print head’s metal parts, nozzle plate and seals, leading to degraded performance and ink leakage. In severe cases, the print head becomes permanently unusable. Many people think they save tens or hundreds of yuan by using cheap ink, only to end up spending thousands on a replacement print head — “a classic case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish". Next is the “ink supply system”. Low-quality ink tends to produce sediment and crystals, which clog ink lines, filters and valves. This causes insufficient ink supply, ink breaks and leakage, further damaging pumps and tubing. Repairs are not only complicated but also costly. More dangerously, “ink mist and leaks” can contaminate the printer’s internal circuits and mechanical parts — such as circuit boards, sensors, gears and guides. Once these precision components are contaminated, they can easily cause short circuits, sensor failures, mechanical jams and paper jams. In extreme cases, they may even burn out the entire machine, resulting in much greater losses. In addition, low-quality ink may be incompatible with RISO cartridge chips, leading to issues such as unrecognized cartridges, incorrect ink level displays, or direct error shutdowns. This disrupts normal operation and delays office and production schedules.

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Thirdly, hidden costs are soaring, efficiency is low, and warranty is lost.

Many people choose inferior ink to save costs, but in reality, using inferior ink only drives up hidden costs, making it less cost-effective and impacting efficiency. Firstly, frequent printhead clogging requires repeated deep cleaning, which consumes a lot of ink and wastes a significant amount of time. Often, even after repeated cleaning, the printhead may not return to normal, resulting in extremely high ink waste. Secondly, frequent equipment malfunctions require downtime for repairs and reprinting defective products, slowing printing speeds and reducing output, severely impacting office and production efficiency. More importantly, RISO officially stipulates that equipment malfunctions caused by the use of non-original or inferior ink are not covered under warranty, and all repair costs must be borne by the user. This means that if a printer is damaged due to inferior ink, you will not only incur high repair costs but also lose the official warranty coverage, meaning you will have to pay for any subsequent problems yourself.

Fourthly, Health and environmental hazards cannot be ignored.

Besides equipment and cost issues, substandard inks also pose serious health and environmental hazards. To reduce costs, many inferior inks add heavy metals and even carcinogens. These substances release irritating odors during printing, and long-term exposure can harm respiratory health and overall well-being, causing harm to operators. Furthermore, these harmful substances pollute the environment and fail to meet environmental protection requirements.

In conclusion, while genuine RISO printer ink is slightly more expensive, it guarantees print quality, protects the equipment, reduces overall operating costs, and avoids potential health risks, making it a more cost-effective choice. Rather than risk equipment damage, reduced efficiency, and health problems to save a little money, choose genuine ink for peace of mind, convenience, and cost savings. Hopefully, this blog post serves as a reminder to those using RISO printers to avoid inferior ink and protect their equipment and health.