Lets Talk About Printer Ink

[Northendzone]

yikes, what a scam these days - new printer (in my case an HP Office Jet PRo 8610) with ink cartridges $120, or you can buy new ink cartridges for about $40 each (my printer takes 4) at Best Buy.

I ordered some cartridges from a place on line (myprintershop) they are advertised as HP new for a little over $100 - I hope they work.

I looked at Amazon where there were lots of cartridge sets for around $25 - however most of the comments suggested that they cause errors, the printer does not recognize them etc.

Seems to me that the printer manufactures hired a marketing genius.

[AC]

I get knock off cartridges for my work printer from http://exceltoner.ca/

For the same sized black XL cartridge:
$59.13 from Staples
$17.95 from ExcelToner

[calgarygringo]

They are now putting chips in the new printers to recognize the cartridges and also date them. If you are refilling them and all of a sudden one does not work it may be past the expiry date of the cartridge and the machine will not print even though it has ink.
You can also buy printers now that the ink comes in a tank. The ink is cheap and just refill them every 10k copies or so depending on the model. You pay more for the printer but the ink savings are huge in the long run especially for a larger user.
I remember selling printers to graphic houses etc. years ago and giving them the printers for free and getting a contract to buy the consumables from us for 3 years. Paid for the printer and some and the mfg have been doing the same with the consumers. Get you hooked with a cheap priced printer but catching you at the other end and making a lot more profit. I would rather pay more for my printer 1 time and then have less cost for my ink. The new models will do that for you.

Originally Posted by Northendzone

yikes, what a scam these days - new printer (in my case an HP Office Jet PRo 8610) with ink cartridges $120, or you can buy new ink cartridges for about $40 each (my printer takes 4) at Best Buy.

I ordered some cartridges from a place on line (myprintershop) they are advertised as HP new for a little over $100 - I hope they work.

I looked at Amazon where there were lots of cartridge sets for around $25 - however most of the comments suggested that they cause errors, the printer does not recognize them etc.

Seems to me that the printer manufactures hired a marketing genius.

[Hack&Lube]

Inkjet has always been a scam. Laser will give you more prints for the buck.

[psyang]

At one point I think inkjet printer ink was the most expensive liquid in the world. Might still be.

Our old canon inkjet took chipped cartridges. It took over a year, but a chip resetter was made available, and you were then able to buy 3rd party cartridges for $5 instead of $25 each. It's an arms race.

I've since moved to color laser, and when I need really good quality photos, I go to Costco.

[jeffporfirio]

I've had a Brother 3-1 (mfc j615) for 4 years now, takes knock-off cartridges that I buy from Amazon really cheap, and besides than the ruotine printer-head cleaning that I do with some alcohol and q-tips, it works perfectly.

[Locke]

This is one of my favourite topics because we are coming to a reckoning.

First of all, Printer Ink is priced as though its made out of Unicorn blood, this irks me greatly because the institution that I deal with primarily is still in the stone-age, although, admittedly, catching up fast.

Revenue Canada.

I still cant email them, but most of my filings with them can be done electronically and I can upload documents to them. Their filing system is still an incomprehensible mess to their own staff but hey, gotta crawl before you can walk.

I use a company out of Okotoks that delivers my cartridges to my door at what appears to be no cost. I say it that way because the cost of the cartridge is the same as what Staples advertises for, but they deliver, and on something that low-cost the convenience is worth it to me.

Plus, they're a small business I've dealt with forever so I enjoy supporting them with my measly ~$500/year.

[psyang]

I'm sure we weren't the only one, but when we first bought our inkjet photo printer, we actually bought two because it was cheaper to buy two printers at the sale cost, than one printer and a second set of ink cartridges. We also got a free extra print head out the deal (and other parts, of course).

When we were printing large projects (photo calendars for relatives), I seriously looked at some hacks that I found online that piped ink from bottles directly into the printer. A 1L jug of ink was ridiculously cheap - I think around $75. The markup was crazy.

[You Need a Thneed]

The most frustrating thing is that you can't even print black and white pages when a colour tank is empty.

Such a scam.

[photon]

I find that the cost per page of my OfficeJet 8600 is low enough I didn't bother running a laser at the same time like I used to. Black ink is about $52 and does 2500 pages, I usually get more since I print most of the stuff my kid asks for in draft mode, so that's less than 2 cents per page.

Full colour is more of course, I haven't worked out how many colour pages I can print since I don't print colour frequently, but it's supposed to be 8 to 10 cents. I assume more for me because usually when I print colour it's a map or picture for my kid with a lot of coverage.

Which seems about the same as laser, maybe even lower.

That's assuming non-refurbished or refilled ink/toner, I used to repair printers and had too many problems with using the refilled stuff, I know it's probably better and more reliable nowadays but it's easier for me to just stick with the official stuff, I'm willing to pay more to ensure I don't have any hassle of something not working.

Back when I got my printer there wasn't a good colour laser MFD that had duplexing, so that was part of the decision to stick with ink jet as well, if I was purchasing today I might choose a colour laser MFD.

EDIT: I can print black and white only when a colour tank is empty on the HP 8600, I've done it a couple of times.

[AC]

Originally Posted by photon

I find that the cost per page of my OfficeJet 8600 is low enough I didn't bother running a laser at the same time like I used to. Black ink is about $52 and does 2500 pages, I usually get more since I print most of the stuff my kid asks for in draft mode, so that's less than 2 cents per page.

I chose the same printer for that reason.

You can change a few settings to maximize your ink life as well. Choose draft / custom print quality settings, "print in grayscale: black ink only", and "output quality: draft".

I do a lot of printing and it makes a huge difference I find.

[getbak]

On Boxing Day, I bought a new HP printer, and they now have an ink subscription program. You pay a monthly fee based on how many pages you print each month, and they send you new ink cartridges whenever you're getting low on ink.

https://instantink.hpconnected.com/ca/en

On their site, they show the cheapest plan at $3.99/month for 50 pages/month, but they actually have a free plan which includes up to 15 pages/month. I print so infrequently that the free plan is perfect for me.

In theory, I'll never have to pay for ink ever again. It's still new, so we'll see how well it works in the long-term, but it seems like a good deal now.