Printer ink going waaaaay up

[dgl24087]

I have an HP 1210 all-in-one, uses black 56 and color 57. Walgreen's will refill black for $10 and color for $15. New cartridges are $18 black and $35 color, if I remember correctly. I just bought a new black cartridge, exterior back of package has install by date of January 2009.

 

[cp1969]

If one is in the market for a new printer, which brand has the lowest replacement cartridge cost?

 

[RobJ]

Even color laser printers aren't that expensive anymore, but if you do that much printing, it might be cheaper to send the work to a printing shop.

I just bought a Brother color laser (replacing a Brother B&W laser). The price was less then $400. Does a nice job too. I just looked at the website...it's gone up $100!!!!! I must have seen it during a sale.
Well, watch TigerDirect.com Super Deals - Computer Parts, PC Components, Computers & Electronics for their sales. Here's the one I bought. It was $389 less then a month ago.

Only problem with these is the toner is up there a bit, about $50 each (4 total). Probably best to replace the printer every other time!!

 

[tallyho8]

If one is in the market for a new printer, which brand has the lowest replacement cartridge cost?

I think my Epson had the lowest cost because I could get 5 color and 5 black cartridges on ebay for $13.00 but these low prices will probably end real soon when they stop selling generic cartridges.

 

[RoyJackson]

Only problem with these is the toner is up there a bit, about $50 each (4 total). Probably best to replace the printer every other time!!

The cartridges are good for about 2500 pages, so I'll get at least a year or two out of them. If I had a big printing job, I'd contract out to Print-O-Stat or another company like that.
With the B&W Brother I have, my wife printed out all her class (online school) paperwork (15-30 pages). That toner cartridge lasted a long time.
But you're right about the cost...I bought a spare black cartridge for $45.

 

[thatguy]

If one is in the market for a new printer, which brand has the lowest replacement cartridge cost?

IMHO - This is the best way of buying printers... But before I always looked at the printer cost instead. :-(

brian

 

[tallyho8]

I bought one printer years ago when I saw the cartridges were "special priced" at only $5 each. A month after I bought it they dropped the "special price" and the cartridges sold for $28 each.

 

[jdbower]

It all depends on how you print whether high-priced cartridges are good or bad. I seldom print (but when I do it's usually little scraps like contact info for the restaurant I'm going to - not something worth driving to Staples for). For me a cheap printer subsidized by expensive cartridges would be a great solution - like the $24 printer mentioned in the Black Friday thread (I highly doubt the manufacturer is making much or anything on those). Since I'll buy maybe three cartridges before the printer breaks down a few years later it's no big deal. If, on the other hand, you print a lot you may want to look at the larger capacity printers for office use - you typically get more ink for the dollar there but you spend more upfront. It's a common pricing strategy called "pay-as-you-grow" in my industry where we price out the "commons" (startup equipment) at or below cost and only make money when we sell the consumables. The problem is it breaks down if you buy a discounted printer from Epson but only cartridges from Shanghai Manufacturing Concern and Fishery.

Similarly I don't drive much, it would be interesting if the automotive industry and oil industry teamed up with a similar model. Given a choice between a $20,000 truck at $3/gallon for gas and a $15,000 truck at $5/gallon for gas I'd love to save upfront and pay more for gas since I'm a light user. My wife's got a long commute so she'd be interested in spending extra money upfront to get a discount on the consumables.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Hope everyone knows that inkjet printers are marketed like safety razors, give the hardware away and make your profit on consumables.

The last word I had and it's not that old is, HP printers will continue to print when a cart is empty as long as other color/blk tanks still have ink in them. Regarding the exporation date on HP carts, HP will replace unopened carts with a expired date on the box.

Ink does change its characteristics over time. A common change is viscosity which will affect a printhead's ability to fire an ink droplet.

One way to lower your ink cost is to refill the carts with qlty 3rd party inks. Different printers have their own challenges for refilling. Canon is one of the easiest printers to refill. Takes me <2min a cart to refill including removal and replacing the cart.

There is no generic ink that is suitable for all inkjets. Some printers use pigmented ink and others use dye based ink. Viscosity is also different due to tech use for the printhead. There are different formulations depending upon printer model within a particular brand. I buy a qlty 3rd party ink and most recent purchase was $10/4oz which is about 8 refills. You never know the qlty of the ink in the cheap replacement carts. If color printing is an important issue for you, you might want to think about inks that will faithfully match the OEM inks.

 

[jinman]

If you notice any print problems, pull the toner cartridge(s) out and give 'em a few shakes.

Chocolate or vanilla?

Sorry Roy...couldn't resist.