[PCWorld]

Post your comments for How Much Ink Is Left in That Dead Cartridge? here

[Zuke]

Excellent article & investigative reporting!

[Toulinwoek]

I'm not surprised, since the makers make the bulk of their money on ink rather than the printer. But this ought to be simply against the Law (hey, I'm against regulation as much as most conservatives, but gimmie a break). Makers ought to be legally bound to fully disclose how much ink is left, use more accurate low-ink warnings, and establish a standard for the amount of ink used "to ensure quality", etc.
There should also be some way a person can accumulate these "empties" and recycle that ink into another cartridge.

[Knifeblade]

Interesting article. I always thought there was still usable ink left in my HP's3820 cartridges {particularly the color cartridge, though the article only address black}, after I got a low ink warning.

[chowur]

SO,Much for the bargain inkjet cartridges! As the O'l saying goes;You get what you pay for!!

[MATTHEWS]

Hi, You can ignore the warning and print until the color goes blank/white. You can fool the system also by inserting the same cartridge again in the printer if it is not printing after the warning of low ink.

[SDW48]

I have an "EPSON R260" that prints on paper and directly on to cds and dvds. It's a high definition printer, and it takes 6 cartridges. I don't buy epson cartridges because their $20.00 a piece.

I paid $89.00 for the printer , and if you have to buy their cartridges you've spent $120.00 for them. So you might as well just buy another printer when it runs out of ink.

I buy after market cartridges and i buy 6 sets of each color at a time for about $5.00 dollars a cartridge. i print labels on all my dvds, and the labels have every color you can imagine. i print hundreds of dvds in the course of about 6 months.

i think i print about a hundred dvds before i start running out of ink. so i'm not to worried about the level in the cartridge, but i see your point.

The only thing is, the average person probably only prints something about once or twice a week.

[Zuke]

@SDW48: Where do you buy these bargain cartridges and do you notice any color degradation over time? Thanks!

[GreenFoxOne]

LOL< Gee now why am I NOT surprised at this finding?
JIff
www.iurlz.com/datools

[AyeRoxor]

"measured it's true-empty weight. "
Nice work, editor...

[jasonh1234]

And this is just one example of why I don't own and refuse to buy a home printer.

[Valentine]

I have an HP, and I disabled the low ink warning. I always have spare cartridges ready when they really DO run out of ink. I have never had a problem with my HP printers, and they have never shut down or been damaged when the ink did run out.

[ivorycruncher]

I find this information very interesting, but fortunately, I don't have to worry about it much. I have a printer, but so seldom use it that the ink in the tanks actually discolors (yellow turns greenish) and/or dries out on its own long before I use it up. Because of that, shelf life is more important than volume used, and I must say I'm impressed with how long the ink tanks in my Canon last with little use, which is literally months. I and everyone in my family (on my recommendation) is using Canon printers and digital cameras, and we couldn't be happier with them.
On a side note though, I can vouch for the 3-year lifetime of printers. My parents and sister both had old Canon S520 printers, which were purchased very close together, and they also both died within a couple months past the 3 year mark. Basically the print heads stopped working properly. They are now on the Pixma iP4200 units, and I have a slightly older iP3000, none of which have showed any signs of imminent failure as of yet.
And no, I don't work for Canon. I just love it when products "just work" right out of the box without any hassle, and continue doing so throughout their lifetime. Canon is a winner in this department.

[chasrome]

Another surprisingly interesting article. It is a little more complicated than 'the b--'s are ripping us off again. And, helps justify my policy of using only laser printers too!

[Alfer33]

Good article. I would like to know how the OEM cartridges perform when getting them refilled vice buying another brands cartridge. I sometimes take my Dell black cartridge to the local Office Max and have them refill it (not swapping it out for one already done) for like $15 and so far I've had good results printing with refilled ones. I haven't done this with the color one yet however.

[rodhigh]

I bought my wife an Epson 3 in 1 to save her from having to run into town all the time to get papers scanned. She could do it on the Epson. However. in a short time we discovered that although she printed only text, no color and no graphics, that the color cartridges (there were 3 colors) ran out as fast as the black one, This made the machine extremely expensive to operate. so we junked it and bought a scanner and a laser printer....

[ivorycruncher]

Again, you might want to look at a Canon all-in-one, one with the individual color ink tanks. My parents used to have an Epson printers, and it went through ink like crazy. After switching to Canon, we've never looked back, and have no complaints about them at all. And thought it wasn't specifically mentioned, I will say that the included software with Canon devices doesn't try to take over your computer. Any time I see a computer with an HP printer, all-in-one, digital camera, scanner, etc., I look at the programs list and running background processes and find what appears to be a plague slowly taking over the PC. HP really needs to figure out how to write proper software. Printer drivers should not require a dozen or so background processes to function properly, nor should you need 10 different applications to organize and print all your documents and pictures just the right way.

[SCOOPNJ78]

that is why after having 8 epson printers I stopped buying them, I now have a HP printer and epson can go to hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CROOKS!!!!!
BOYCOTT EPSON

[RobLewis]

Epson has already settled a class-action lawsuit on this very issue.

Could that be the reason why their printers appear to be more honest about reporting ink levels than the other manufacturers'?

I guess that "free market" didn't work so well in this case to promote "industry self-regulation", darn it. Though maybe if PC World's report had appeared several years ago, it might have made a difference.

[harley2ride]

Epson was bad before the class action lawsuit. Perhaps we need a class action against Canon now, so they will get their printers to where they use up most of the ink..