Is there any way to compare inkjet printers based on ink consumption? It seems each model HP inkjet we’ve owned (FYI: we’ve only had HP, mind you) have used ink faster and faster. Or, the little cartridges are holding less and less? (I don’t even think the fluid ounces are marked on the packaging.) What’s the SD on all of this? - Jinx
P.S.: What have non-HP owners have to say about their brands (and which brand is it?)
Buy a printer with external ink tanks an never worry about it again.
http://www.wise88.com/continuous-ink-supply-system-reviewciss.htm
That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen! Like, now, I have to fool with the messy ink almost directly (it appears) instead of having it neatly managed in the ink cartridge?!?!
In other news, I will say I found out the HP website will quote their average “MPG”, or in this case, avg pages per cartridge! Still, it ought to be illegal not to quote the fluid ounces one is purchasing to make a wise consumer decision. Obviously, the f’ing PC industry doesn’t give a crap about the consumer. Just spend, baby, spend! Of course, we have unlimited funds…or, specifically when it comes to printers, they just like sucking us dry!
If you’re concerned about cost per page, why not a laser?
I think the best answer you’re going to get is “it depends”. It depends upon what you’re printing, is it all in color or some black and white? And remember, even if you print in ‘grayscale’, your printer will probably use the color cartridge as well.
I have a Canon photo printer, eight color, and wind up replacing colors seemingly at random. Since getting it two years ago, the one color I’ve changed the least is cyan. (Since I usually buy the ink in eight-packs, I’ve got three cyan carts sitting around.)
I picked up an HP Deskjet 1000 for about $30 a few months ago; after pricing the ink carts I’ll probably just junk the printer and get a new one when the current ones run out, since they’ll cost about twice what the printer was to replace.
In all, it’s like buying razors: sell the handles cheap and the blades dear. How long the blade lasts depends upon how much (and how hard) you use it.
Fluid ounces aren’t focused on because they’re not important. What you’re interested in is page coverage. I that black and white printing gives statistics on number of pages per cartridge, and these assume 5% coverage. Most manufacturers are pretty consistent about that measurement. I forget what the numbers are based on for color, but I’m pretty sure it’s a higher coverage since color printing is often of pictures.
Laser is definitely the way to go if you’re concerned about cost. $0.01 per page is easily achievable in the laser world.
I swore off HP printers years ago. Inkjets too. My printers right now are all Brother lasers (one B/W, one color and one multifunction B/W).
I was going to say that a decent printer review should give you the cost/page, but then I looked around and couldn’t find recent reviews with that figure. It used to be more common, at least when I was shopping for printers several years ago.
Now, though, laser printers are cheap enough for home use, and they’re much much cheaper on a per page basis. One $100ish toner cartridge will print thousands of pages, while you’re lucky to get a few hundred pages out of a $50ish set of ink cartridges.
Well, “the f’ing PC industry” can get away with this because there are people out there who will buy this ink (at a price per ounce higher than caviar or aged whiskey), just because they want the convenience and ‘non-messyance’ of cartridges.
Oh, wait – that’s you, right?
You shouldn’t complain about industry practices, when you are an enabler for them. I’ve worked with several professional horse show photographers, and they all have this type of ink-tank printers. And they don’t seem to have any messy problem with them. Just like most of us can fill the gas tank on our car with no problem.
Either look at the tests done by special computer magazines, like PC World, or from consumer advocate groups (in Germany its Stiftung Warentest, but I don’t know what the US equivalent is). They test new printers regularly with standardized sample pages and then tell you how many pages total per cartridge they could print, and how many cents/ dollars per page in b/w and colour that works out to (quite often, for example, getting your photos done at the drugstore or online is much cheaper than the expensive photo paper and special ink at home to get the same result.) It’s not unusual for example for a cheap home printer of 20 or 40 that each colour page costs 1 in ink, and b/w between 30 and 50 cents - a copy shop is cheaper there.
Since they finally managed to make colour laser printers, I would advise if you are going to do a lot of printing that you need your own printer to invest the initial higher price of 1000 for a laser printer. An ink cartridge is usually measured in the hundreds of pages; a toner cartridge OTOH in the thousands of pages. Considering that an original (not refilled, not re-built under diff. name) ink cartridge costs 50-70 per one colour, the higher initial cost very quickly comes back if you do a lot of printing.
Plus, ink dries, toner doesn’t.
And yes, in recent years, companies have started to fill the cartridges of the new printers only half because people bought a new printer when the old cartridges had run out - one new with full tanks at 40$ was cheaper than three new tanks for 50$ each. So now the first tanks are only full enough for the salesperson to demonstrate how nice and wonderful it looks and then run empty.
If you want to keep using your existing ink printer, look for stores or online where they sell re-filled cartridges or knock-offs (reverse-engineered). That depends on whether your model (can’t remember if it was HP or Lexmark who did this) changes only the cartridge or the whole model - one company changes the whole head, making it more expensive, but also much safe to use non-brand tanks in-between. Others change only the cartridge without the head, making the use of non-brand ink a bit of a risk in clogging the head.
An additional way that newer models can use more ink than before is cleaning and shut-off: software for the new model cleans the head more, or cleans it each time you turn the printer off and on. This wastes a lot of ink. So if you don’t plan on printing today, keep the printer shut off at the socket.
Get a low end laser printer unless you need to do lots of color printing. Hell get a cheap laser printer anyway and keep the inkjet for color work.
Can a laser printer be an all-in-one design for flat bed scanning, copying, and printing? Any feel what price range they start at?
If you just need a monochrome laser printer, you can buy a laser all-in-one (with a flatbed scanner) for around $300.
$300 is pretty common for a multifunction laser, but there are plenty of models that can beat that. Looking at Staples just now (I searched MFC, which is Brother’s product code for these faxy/copy/scan printers), I see two for $250, two for $200 and a refurbished one for $130.