[Zuke]

It took 8 printers?!?!?!?! :o

[Mackel]

Anyway you look at it the printer companies are ripping us off!

[Ambular]

So the cartridges are, at best, designed to intentionally waste ink. Page yields aside, what kind of ecological impact is all this unused 'buffer' ink having? Waste is waste, and cannot be written off as justified simply because it doesn't cost the consumer more money than advertised.

[thompa]

Good article.

This really does warrant further investigation!

Several professions have standard 'test card' - like the TV test card, that could be used for comparative printing tests until the cartridge is empty.

PCWorld could take the lead in printing (sic) league tables of value for money v quality. It has long been known that the cost of cartridges can overtake the cost of the printer.. how else can printers be sold so cheaply? It is like giving away cell phones and charging the earth for calls.... now that is another area for investigation!

With a test card, all types of printer could be tested... laser, ink jet, photo etc.

The article is a step further than previous comparisons- but let's not stop there! Let's have some purchasing advice for the consumer! Establish a standard testing regime with the printer manufacturers and publish the results.



regards



Allan Thompson

[rptek]

Surely all of the money is in the cartridge sales, before you buy a printer always check the capacity and price of the replacements, and if they are reaily available from a second source. I mad the mistake of getting a $39 printer, came with two cartridges whcih lasted about 3 weeks! For awhileit was actually cheeper to buy another printer than buy the cartridges. FInally got feed up and threw it out. Have found great deals for cartridges which actually work great at inkforcollege.com, an affiliate site for inksmile.

[valet1]

I have refilled the cartridge on my 960c printer with after market ink seven times with no problems at all.

[peeaytee]

My experience with my HP Officejet All-in-One is that not only is there a low ink warning that shows up every time you print, but it never ceases to pop up until weeks later when print quality forces me to switch to a new cartridge. Previously owned printers have been Lexmark which did not have a pop up reminder so relentless as HP's. Drives me crazy, especially since I do confidential typing in another User Account, and each time I print a document the low ink message only pops up in the Main User Account, so I have to switch users and close that message before my document can print. Aggravating? Yes! But I put up with it because so much ink would be wasted if I didn't - I mean several weeks' worth of ink! grrrrrr

[peeaytee]

Val, would you share how you disabled the low ink warning in your HP? I called HP support in the past to get help to work around the issue, but the tech I spoke with could not find a way to disable it for me (or maybe didn't want to?).... Thanks for any help with this! :)

[roge05156]

Good information in the article.I have a Canon Pixma MP500.The cartridges are clear so I can see how much ink is left whenI get a low ink warning.Usually I print until the cartridge is almost empty.Sometimes I run out of ink and then use a refill kit to fill the empty cartridges.The only problem I have with refilling is that the cartridges have a chip in them to detect the ink level and when refilled,the chip can't be reset and the printer still says low ink.I just print until empty again and ignore the warning.

[SamJr]

I have to disagree with the 3-year lifetime for inkjet printers. I own an Epson Photo 950 with

seven cartridges. Shortly after replacing a couple of the original ink cartridges I purchased

an ink replacement set for all the colors plus black. I also bought the "reset" gadget to reset

the reading on the cartridges to "full". All items cost about $100. I refill using a hypedermic

needle. My printer is now over 5 years old and still works great. I also can and have printed

directly onto specially coated CDs and DVDs. I print letters, pictures, disks, etc, etc. I do what

I consider to be a lot of printing and my Epson runs terrific!!!! It was not cheap but considering

the length of time I have been able to use it I am completely satisfied and have never hesitated to

recommend Epson. Perhaps some of your readers should spend some additional money

and purchase one of the better quality printers. It may turn out to be the most economical

move in the long run!

[reubenontherock]

My HP DeskJet 952C printer was bought in 2001 and keeps humming along. I always ignored the low ink warnings until the pages came out white, replacing the cartridge only then.
When I need a new printer I will buy another HP now that I know that most other brands shut down automatically when the warning comes up, leaving me with no other choice than to insert a new, expensive cartridge without cause.

[hippielady]

Great article!

I've gotton to the point with my Canon MP830 that I ignore the low ink message, because since the CLI-8 cartridge is somewhat clear, I can still see a lot of ink in when the message appears. It's pretty irritating to have that doggone low ink message pop up every time I print a page, though.

I don't do a lot of printing, but for some reason these cartridges seem to evaporate into thin air! Very frustrating, and expensive! I tried the Office Depot brand toners for this copier ONE time, and as soon as I put it in the printer I got a message it was an incompatible cartridge and wouldn't run with it, however I took it back to Office Depot w/receipt and they did let me pay the $ difference and exchange it for a CLI-8.

It's a great machine with just about every bell and whistle I would ever need, but the ink situation sure is irritating!!!

Has anyone had good luck w/other brands working well w/this model?

[hump3dc]

Good article. I have used an HP DeskJet 722c since 1996 without a problem. Many reams of paper and a lot of money spent on ink cartridges. I find that when they run out I can remove them and gently bang them on a table and get at least another 100 to 200 pages.

[actor]

The article is proof of what we all suspected. Most of us do not bother to think about the reasoning so much ink is left behind, let alone what happens when we recycle the cartridges.
All my printers are HP except for an old OkiData 20 which is a laser.
My oldest is an HP cp1700 which I have used for seven years and it still prints great quality. Only one time have I had any problem with it and that was not related to ink cartridges.
I also have an HP 7310 all-in-one, 3 years old and a HP B8850 about four months old. I have never had any print job stopped due to a "low ink" warning from any of these printersl. My OkiData, which was purchased used from a company that was up-dating its equipment, while using a lot of energy, still does a great job. I will soon have to replace the toner cartridge after 5 years of use. True, I do not use the OkiData as much as the others as it is only for letters etc and photos or multifuntion purposes.

I tried a couple of times using after market refills and found I received poorer outputs in quality and pages (from the Monks). When I complained to them about the poor performance of their recycled product I was told in essence, too bad.
No more excursions into recycled cartridges for me. I like my printed material to look as good as possible, especially my photos and posters that I make.

[zepper]

Another issue with 3rd party ink is whether they are the same type as the OEM ink. I had a Canon iP4300 and used G&G ink (chip swap type clone tanks) after the OEM tanks ran out. The Canon ink is pigmented in the text black tank while I've heard that G&G uses dye based black in both the text and photo black tanks. I have yet to do the bleach test (bleach will fade dye ink but not pigment) to find out for sure. Text printing is noticeably crisper with pigmented ink. .bh.

[bobwh]

I also use an Epson R260 but with a Niagra IV ink tank from Media Street .com. I am still on the original ink set after a year and a half. It works fine. I use Staples Photo Supreme matte paper for photos, a great paper with the media street ink

[danlovejoy]

I don't think the sensor actually reads the amount of ink used / left.
I think it is only a page counter, if you use more ink per page than normal, you will have less ink left in the cartridge. If you use less ink than normal per page, you will have more ink left.
Laser printers are the same way.
Most printers have a way of turning off the ink monitoring system.

[jfmcrazy]

Not sure where the other poster buys his bargain ink, but a long time ago I found this one vendor at a computer show. Not only is his ink a very high quality ink, but he also offers many "refillable" cartridges for several different printers. I've used him for years, saved alot of money, and highly recommend him. I no longer buy any other ink. I do too much printing to be ripped off by any company for ink. Email me at [jfmcrazy@gmail.com] if you want this vendor's name.

[peeaytee]

Now you make perfectly good sense about the # of pages printed. I print a lot of pages but for the most part use the economical printing setting which uses less ink per printing.

Even through HP support, I have found no way to turn off the ink monitoring system, though. Sure wish it were possible to do!

[boblockler]

I use my Canon MP600 very often and have good results with the individual color cartridges which have ink level indicator chips from after market supplier for $6 each (FREE shipping). When empty is indicated, they are EMPTY!