printer ink

[coffeeman]

Any suggestions on what printer will print at a $$ amount that doesn't break the bank? I am growing so tired of being ripped off by the printing companies and high price for ink.

Ink jet is worst. I got a Lexmark that I got a total of 14 copies and the machine says low ink. New ink will cost $65 for 2. The box says that the machine may shut down after so many copies even if there is ink in cartridge. I have two HP laser jets and they are ok, but still don't get enough miles out of ink cartridge. But, if black is out the machine shuts down even if there is other colors left. Sometime it would be nice to be able to print in green or red to get by.

Cheers....Coffeeman

 

[randy41]

my HP inkjet will print until it is really out of ink. I bought ink on ebay for cheaper with good results.

 

[reddog176]

I have an older HP Laserjet 4, big old laser printer. Toner cartridge runs about $80, and lasts several thousand pages. I bought the printer about 8 years ago on ebay for $50.

 

[LMTC]

Ditto on the HP Laserjet 4. The thing is a tank. I bought mine app. 6 years ago, paid app. $50, then about $60 to have a tech replace the very few wear and tear items and adjust it. I also found a couple Laserjet 4L units later for $40 each, one still in a sealed box. They are a little slower than the 4, but half the size. I am paying app. $60 for a toner cartridge. I also use a Canon MP inkjet for copying, faxing, and some color. Inkjets I get from Ink It Up 4 Less on ebay...theirs are the first refilled cartridges I have ever been happy with. Email me if you want a link to their store.

 

[BigE_]

If you want color, go on eBay and search on your printer model and CIS, which stands for Continuous Ink System. I have one of these for my Epson R260. The system costs about $50, takes 5 minutes to install, and you get about 60 ink cartridges worth of ink. I print out photographs with this, and they come out incredible.

Just as a comparison, the Epson cartridges cost about $20 each new (and I need 6 of them) and the generic cartridges cost about $45 for 12.

When I need more ink, it's about $30 for the bulk ink (6 bottles at 100ml each).

I also have an HP LaserJet printer, and while it works well, the Epson looks better and is much faster.

 

[DieselPower]

Personally I'm a laserjet man all the way. I trash canned my last injet printer years ago and have not regreted it yet. It prints so much faster and SOOOOOOOO much cheaper. If you get the toner drums for the laserjet all you have to do is refill the toner drum. Laser is the only way to go for me, however I don't print pictures.

 

[valley]

Greetings, We use: Universal ink to refill the cartridges. We send a church mailing out once a month. The cost is very small and the quality is great. Richard

 

[Egon]

Can you get a kit to refill the old cartridges? We use one and it seems to work well.

 

[ToadHill]

Check you local yellow pages, we have several places in our area that will refill cartridges at about 1/3 the cost of new.

 

[dmccarty]

Its hard to beat the price/performance of a laser for printing. Ink jets are the old marketing plan of sell the razor cheap and make money off the razors.

I have never tried the ink cartridge refills but the companies are all over the place. You can also refill your self.

CIS. There seems to be two groups of people who have used CIS. The ones that love them and the ones that hate them. My take on reading quite a bit about CIS is that success is very dependent on the printer and the ink. For some printers CIS works great. In other printers CIS can be a nightmare. Its just depends. So do you research to see if you printer will be a success or a nightmare.

Using CIS or I suppose the refills can void the printer warranty. This does not matter when you are talking a cheap printer that costs less than a refill or two of cartridges but it can matter for more expensive printers.

I don't think it applies to your case but I'll throw this out anyway. Some inks in CIS/refills will fade. This is a bigger problem for photo printing than for document printing. There are some CIS/refill inks that are high quality. But it really is buyer beware and knowing what you need.

Later,
Dan