PCWorld Forums: Ink-onomics: Can You Save Money By Spending More On Your Printer? - PCWorld Forums

Post your comments for Ink-onomics: Can You Save Money By Spending More on Your Printer? here

Cost per page with inkjet printer if you don't print very much: $1+

Cost per page with laser printer (dry toner), whether you print a lot, or print a little: $0.02

Inkjet printers consume ink whether you use them or not. They will dry out if you unplug them, and that will crud up the heads. Some of them will even then petulantly squirt ink until they're empty. The 'cleaning' cycle consumes ink, too. Even if you only ever print black and white content, the printer will consume other colors (infamously YELLOW for the snitch codes it puts on the paper). It will consume all colors, all the time to keep the heads wet and ready to print.

Laser printers do not. If you 'need' color, once in a blue moon, go to an office store, or go through an online printer who will mail you the results.

Inkjet printers only make sense if you're printing (not just printing, printing COLOR) every day. Most people don't do that. If you are only an occasional user, you will be stuck with a printer that you go out and buy expensive ink for, pretty much every time you try to use it, because it will have peed its self dry waiting for you to print something.

You can spend less than $100 on a convenience laser printer AND save money, long-term. Because you may never finish the 'starter' toner that came with it, if you don't print things routinely.

Evildave, if you print on a regular basis, you're almost certainly going to get a better deal with a laser - the cartridges cost more, and the printer itself costs more, but the cartridges last FAR longer and you pay less in the end.

Aside from photos, I really don't see where a inkjet printer is a good idea.

LiveBrianD, on 02 May 2012 - 06:41 PM, said:

Agreed, but if you don't print much, inkjet is absolutely NOT recommended.

I bought a 'refill' for my brother MFC printer for $30, but after three years, I still haven't used up the one the came with it. I had to pull it out and rock it back and forth once, and haven't been 'low' since.

And even with photos, unless you are a crazy shutterbug who is printing all the time, the printer will STILL dry out between uses. You're much better off going to the drug store with your flash card. They'll only charge for the prints that come out right, and you won't have to deal with the cheap, fickle little @^&*( machine for an hour to get one slightly less streaky printout.

Hello, this is Melissa Riofrio from PCWorld. I get it that you prefer lasers to inkjets, and that's fine; this article is not pro-inkjet or con-laser. We're just trying to get people to think about ink costs. Incidentally, the same principles apply to lasers. The low toner cost you quote is most likely for a higher-end laser printer. The low-cost monochrome lasers that are $100-$200 tend to have higher toner costs of 3 to 4+ cents per page. The low-cost color lasers (under $600) can have exorbitant toner costs. You could use the printer cost calculator to try a few low-end color lasers and see what happens. Thanks for reading!

Evildave, on 02 May 2012 - 06:11 PM, said:

Hello, this is Melissa Riofrio from PCWorld. Thanks for reading the article and sharing your experience. Lasers and inkjets each have their pros and cons, and that's why I own one of each! I encourage you to try out the printer cost calculator--pit a laser against an inkjet if you'd like--and see how the money plays out. Cost per page is cost per page, whether it's ink or toner, and some low-end lasers are very expensive when you cost them out like this. Thanks again for your time.

Evildave, on 02 May 2012 - 07:01 PM, said:

In the end your really better off just going to the store and getting your pictures prited there where they have kodak machines that can print them in the correct color scheme or go to fedex/kinkos because your only going to print at home on 8.5x11 and that really isn't like flyer size or anything.

Buy a continuous ink system, I paid 50 dollars for the TX120 (Epson MPF) and another 50 for the ink system and works like a charm, I´ve been printing photographs for the family (about 100) and haven´t used more than the 15% of the ink, and when it finishes I can buy another pack of ink bottles

Nope. A $250 MFC printer (printer, scanner, fax, copier, coffee maker, back massager, etc.). Pretty cheap, and the toner was $30.

And the 'high capacity' toner cartridges are down to $10 each, so I kinda ripped myself off buying the replacement toner around the same time as the printer.
http://www.google.co...q=mfc7840+toner

A little poking around shows they still cost about the same as when I got it. I don't remember if it was on sale or anything.
http://www.google.co...ucts?q=mfc7840w

The real issue, whether you buy a $90 inkjet printer, or a $900 inkjet printer, if you don't constantly use it, it will run you DOLLARS per page in ink.

An inkjet consumes ink, whether you use it or not. That makes them downright EVIL, compared to laser.

A laser printer doesn't screw you for NOT using it.

Several years back, I replaced my inkjet with a Brother HL 2040 (mono laser)for less than $100.--. I'm on the first refil now. If I need color, there is a Staples, CVS, Walgreens & Walmart in the neighborhood. If you really, really, really need color and can afford that luxury, ok go inkjet. And, ps, color lasers are becoming more affordable also.

Dear mcsedave, this is Melissa Riofrio from PCWorld. Thanks for your comments. I agree with you that for many people, a monochrome laser suffices for most printing, and they can take their photos to a printing service, for which the prices tend to be very low. What we hope to teach people with this feature is how to think about both the purchase price and the ongoing costs in terms of what you print and how much you print. As we note early on, the same principles apply to lasers. Color lasers are becoming available at very low price points, but if you check the toner costs for these machines, they are exorbitant. If you bought a $400-$500 color laser, you'd be spending far more on toner over time: 3.5 to 7 cents per color, per page. You could also spend $200-$400 on a very nice color inkjet with prices of 1.5 to 3.5 cents per color, per page. That's a big difference. The lowest-priced color lasers also tend to be very slow and have mediocre color quality, other reasons why an inkjet in the same price range (or somewhat cheaper) could be a better deal. I am neutral--I own both and use them for different things! Thanks again for writing.

mcsedave, on 04 May 2012 - 06:54 AM, said:

Except, if you rarely use the 'cheap' inkjet printer. Then it's up to dollars per page.

If it collects dust for a year, all four ink cartridges will be empty, the first time you try to print one page with it. One page ends up being equivalent to the cost of a C + Y + M + K cartridge, and of course the paper. In this scenario, it could be $40 per page.

Even worse, you may not print anything at all, look down at it, and the 'feed me ink' indicator is on. And in the case of a multifunction inkjet gadget, being 'out of ink' usually means that NOT ONLY can you not print anything at all, you can neither scan, nor send a fax. The device bricks its self and holds the functions that DO NOT EVEN NEED INK hostage for more ink. Pure evil.

Of course, the economics are kind of out the window if you consider the cost of your 'convenience' printer up-front, and add that in with the ink/toner and paper. So economically speaking, factoring the ENTIRE cost of a printer in, the cheapest possible laser for occasional convenience printing is what you want. Though I wanted the scanner more than the printer, anyway.

For instance, here's a $70~$80 laser printer that gets 2,000 pages for one $10 toner cartridge. That works out to fractions of a penny per page. Though around $0.04 per page for the first 2000 pages, counting the price of the printer, as well.
http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/B00450DVDY
http://www.amazon.co...W/dp/B005HBCLC2

Some of the cheapest lasers do indeed have very expensive refill cartridges, but these usually have the drum integrated into the refill. On the plus side, you're replacing most of the print engine with these 'refills', so those lasers are pretty much foolproof until they fall apart.

TIP: Use a pillowcase or towel to cover your printer, and keep your refill paper 'in' something. The thing that 'kills' printers the quickest is dust contamination in the mechanical parts, which stops them feeding paper right, and these parts are really hard to clean, once they're cruddy.

We don't print much, so we're still using our HP 990cse. I think it's going on 9 or 10 years old. It's not fast by today's standards and the ink isn't cheap, but the output is OK and we only replace cartridges about twice a year. I reckon we've saved hundreds of dollars over the years.

If you had bought a laser nine years ago, you probably never would have refilled it, not even once. And if you had, 'remanufactured' toner cartridges would've been abundantly available after the first year or so.

So, compared to a laser printer, you've wasted hundreds of dollars on ink refills.

Do not forget to price in printheads. I bought a $89 printer a few months ago & now I need a $39 printhead.

Isn't the real story that after 3 years, TCO even for light usage is virtually identical? After all, the OfficeJet has vastly more features than the Pixma:

- Ethernet and WiFi
- Faster photo and text print speeds
- Legal size scanner
- Auto duplexing
- Auto Document Feeder
- Media card slots
- 1 yr warranty vs 90 day

To think that you'd give all of those up to save $20 over 3 years is insane. Not to mention, that at street prices of $210 vs $53 currently - the Pixma probably comes out as an even worse deal.

MarkBrackett, on 26 May 2012 - 05:54 AM, said:

Dear Mr. Brackett, this is Melissa Riofrio from PCWorld. Thank you for reading the article. You bring up an interesting point. It's true that the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus has many, many more features than the Canon Pixma MG3120. But if you don't need the legal-size scanner, if you don't need Wi-Fi, and especially if you don't print much, then why buy these things--especially if the ink cartridge could dry out before you finish it? Just as a single person with no kids, pets, or large-sized possessions would probably buy a Mini Cooper instead of a minivan, someone who buys the Canon Pixma MG3120 should be printing fairly little and scanning now and then, but nothing in high volume.

A Mini Cooper? Have you seen the price on those things? The basest of the base model is $20,000, and they get rotten gas mileage for their size. Maybe a nice Nissan Versa S. Literally costs half as much, brand new, and can seat 5 with leg room and head room, and has some trunk space. Or heck, for about the same price as a Cooper, (still less) maybe a Prius C? 53MPG, makes that 'cooper' look like a filthy little gas hog.

Having any printer/scanner thing is a convenience, though I actually use the scanner more than the printer.

You can pay a pittance more up-front and have all the toys, but if you buy INKJET, you're going to keep paying and paying, whether you use it routinely or not.

And most inkjet multifunction devices won't SCAN when they run out of ink. That's just EVIL.

Evildave, on 02 May 2012 - 07:01 PM, said:

I've found that inkjets tend to waste a whole lot of ink and time cleaning themselves when you turn them on. I'm glad I don't use one... That said, I do have an old one in the attic as a backup, and had to use it once (it hadn't been used at all for a year or so). The first page I printed looked terrible. However, I just had to use a q-tip to clean the contacts on the ink cartridge, and it was ready to go. (That printer is from around 2000 though, and it doesn't automatically clean itself like the newer ones do - an epson photo stylus 870 in case you were wondering. Surprisingly enough, it even works with Win7 x64.)

Personally, I'm on my 5th black toner cartridge or so (Brother MFC-9840CDW), and about 12,000 pages on it. (the whole family uses it) For some stupid reason, I've had 2 magenta toner cartridges leak though - I get little bits of toner spilling on the side of the page and then getting fused on. I'm not entirely sure that I'd buy a Brother again. (or a Canon, for that matter - I had a D680 that wouldn't work with anything past XP, it barely worked on Vista 32-bit, not at all on 64-bit, and no Mac support)

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 29 May 2012 - 03:36 PM

Well, Brother at least usually has good mac and linux support (both use CUPS to print stuff).

A whole family cranking out homework assignments would definitely make a big impact on printer use.

Dropping the color all together would certainly improve matters, whatever you eventually switch to. Less 'stuff' to deal with.