Paul W.,
I'm sure there is some variance among the individual printers of the same model, though I've had 3 good 1400 series and no bad ones.
I usually buy MIS carts for desktop printers and STS for wide format. (Empty, refillable carts may not be on the STS web page; contact me off list if you need a contact there.)
I used Jon's 3880 carts and never got around to the beta test of MIS's versions. They appeared to be the same.
Paul