printer ink

coffeeman · May 13, 2009

Any suggestions on what printer will print at a $$ amount that doesn't break the bank? I am growing so tired of being ripped off by the printing companies and high price for ink.

Ink jet is worst. I got a Lexmark that I got a total of 14 copies and the machine says low ink. New ink will cost $65 for 2. The box says that the machine may shut down after so many copies even if there is ink in cartridge. I have two HP laser jets and they are ok, but still don't get enough miles out of ink cartridge. But, if black is out the machine shuts down even if there is other colors left. Sometime it would be nice to be able to print in green or red to get by.

Cheers....Coffeeman

randy41 · May 13, 2009

my HP inkjet will print until it is really out of ink. I bought ink on ebay for cheaper with good results.

reddog176 · May 13, 2009

I have an older HP Laserjet 4, big old laser printer. Toner cartridge runs about $80, and lasts several thousand pages. I bought the printer about 8 years ago on ebay for $50.

LMTC · May 13, 2009

Ditto on the HP Laserjet 4. The thing is a tank. I bought mine app. 6 years ago, paid app. $50, then about $60 to have a tech replace the very few wear and tear items and adjust it. I also found a couple Laserjet 4L units later for $40 each, one still in a sealed box. They are a little slower than the 4, but half the size. I am paying app. $60 for a toner cartridge. I also use a Canon MP inkjet for copying, faxing, and some color. Inkjets I get from Ink It Up 4 Less on ebay...theirs are the first refilled cartridges I have ever been happy with. Email me if you want a link to their store.

BigE_ · May 13, 2009

If you want color, go on eBay and search on your printer model and CIS, which stands for Continuous Ink System. I have one of these for my Epson R260. The system costs about $50, takes 5 minutes to install, and you get about 60 ink cartridges worth of ink. I print out photographs with this, and they come out incredible.

Just as a comparison, the Epson cartridges cost about $20 each new (and I need 6 of them) and the generic cartridges cost about $45 for 12.

When I need more ink, it's about $30 for the bulk ink (6 bottles at 100ml each).

I also have an HP LaserJet printer, and while it works well, the Epson looks better and is much faster.

DieselPower · May 13, 2009

Personally I'm a laserjet man all the way. I trash canned my last injet printer years ago and have not regreted it yet. It prints so much faster and SOOOOOOOO much cheaper. If you get the toner drums for the laserjet all you have to do is refill the toner drum. Laser is the only way to go for me, however I don't print pictures.

valley · May 14, 2009

Greetings, We use: Universal ink to refill the cartridges. We send a church mailing out once a month. The cost is very small and the quality is great. Richard

Egon · May 14, 2009

Can you get a kit to refill the old cartridges? We use one and it seems to work well.

ToadHill · May 14, 2009

Check you local yellow pages, we have several places in our area that will refill cartridges at about 1/3 the cost of new.

dmccarty · May 14, 2009

Its hard to beat the price/performance of a laser for printing. Ink jets are the old marketing plan of sell the razor cheap and make money off the razors.

I have never tried the ink cartridge refills but the companies are all over the place. You can also refill your self.

CIS. There seems to be two groups of people who have used CIS. The ones that love them and the ones that hate them.

My take on reading quite a bit about CIS is that success is very dependent on the printer and the ink. For some printers CIS works great. In other printers CIS can be a nightmare. Its just depends. So do you research to see if you printer will be a success or a nightmare.

Using CIS or I suppose the refills can void the printer warranty. This does not matter when you are talking a cheap printer that costs less than a refill or two of cartridges but it can matter for more expensive printers.

I don't think it applies to your case but I'll throw this out anyway. Some inks in CIS/refills will fade. This is a bigger problem for photo printing than for document printing. There are some CIS/refill inks that are high quality. But it really is buyer beware and knowing what you need.

Later,
Dan

radioman · May 14, 2009

Let me give you a tip as a computer tech that I give to my freinds. If a printer is cheap or free=expensive ink. Don't use those printers. If you are sticking with inkjets, be sure you get the kind with 4 ink cartridges. one black and 3 seperate colors. they last longer, cheaper to replace the color you use the most and the replacement are much cheaper. Also before buying a printer, do a google search or look in store for how much are the replacements. If the replacement colors are 10 bucks, then you are in a good shape as online ink suppliers tends to be 2-5 dollars less. Ordering online ahead of time saves you ,money, but if needed, it won't hurt the bank to buy in store locally. I have used the refill kits myself and found that they do work, but its much more hassle then its worth. Also the color refills, they tend not to be exact same color as you remember in shades. Black ink refills are fine, but If you refill too many times, the cartridge tends to "wear out" and cause a mess in the printers. Like I said stay away from refill kits- for the price to buy online and refill kits you will end up the same pricewise/hassles.

So the moral to story is get color printers with more then 2 cartridges and buy online ahead of time, they are cheap.

tallyho8 · May 14, 2009

I love my Epson Stylus color 880 and get hundreds of prints on one cartridge. I buy 5 Black and 5 color replacement cartridges on ebay for $13 and this lasts for years.

Epson makes so many different models each year that you could probably not find one of these new anymore but might find a good used one on ebay.

A couple of years ago Epson won a lawsuit to stop others from selling ink for Epsons but for some reason the sales never stopped.

I don't use Epson ink in my Epson and I don't use Kubota oil in my Kubota as I find other brands work just as well.

jdbower · May 14, 2009

Actually those cheap printers are pretty good for my uses. I'm a light printer - the vast majority of stuff I read online so I only typically print out things like plane tickets. Put into tractor-speak, if Deere offered me a tractor for $10,000 off but made me buy Deere-brand gas at an extra $10/hour of usage it would take me 1000 hours to make up the difference. With a rate of usage of about 50 hours a year I would hit 1000 hours in about 20 years and that would make the deal well worth it. If I spent 250 hours a year on a tractor it would only take 4 years for me to start losing money and it wouldn't make as much sense. Similarly buying a $50 printer every two years and putting a $40 cartridge in it once or twice is still cheaper than a $250 printer that lasts three or four years with $20 refills.

But your fundamental advice is good. Look at the complete cost of ownership on a printer rather than just the printer cost. Try to research the number of pages per cartridge (remember, the cartridges that come with the printer are starter cartridges and don't last long). If you take the cost of the printer, the price per page times the number of pages you print in a year, and then guess at to the longevity of the printer you can estimate the total cost. I do like those old Laserjets and they last forever, but when they were new dropping $1000+ on one is a huge startup cost for the volume of printing I do.

dmccarty · May 14, 2009

I have also read of people buying refurbished printers. The printers are dirt cheap. They buy them because the dirt cheap printers have expensive ink carts inside the box.

They buy the printer, toss it, and keep the carts.

I have been researching photo printers again. Seem like I do this every 18-24 months for the last decade. Still don't have a printer.

Epson has two very good printers. For all intents and purposes the photo quality is the same between these two printers but one is $200-300 more expensive. The more expensive printer is the better long term buy because the ink cartridges are much bigger and cheaper per volume. The $200-300 difference will be used up quickly in ink costs and make the cheaper printer more expensive in a very short period of time.

Buying an older printer that is known to work with CIS is not a bad idea. But research it. I have heard people praise CIS and curse it.

Some fo the newer printers have chipped cartridges to prevent non OEM cartridges from working. In theory. I have seen empty chipped carts for sale ready to be filled with your ink of choice either by hand or by CIS.

Later,
Dan

Uncle Doug · May 14, 2009

I bought a used HP Laserjet 6P a few years ago. It is a smaller model and just right for home use. We have had one at work that we have used for years without problems. I go through about 1 toner a year and I buy a off brand replacement toner on-line for about $30.

I do have a color inkjet but I set the printer default to the B&W laserjet. It it one with the seperate colors. I last ordered in bulk buy looking on line at a site called pricegrabber.com

coffeeman · May 14, 2009

dmccarty said:
I have also read of people buying refurbished printers. The printers are dirt cheap. They buy them because the dirt cheap printers have expensive ink carts inside the box. They buy the printer, toss it, and keep the carts.

Buying an older printer that is known to work with CIS is not a bad idea. But research it. I have heard people praise CIS and curse it.

Some fo the newer printers have chipped cartridges to prevent non OEM cartridges from working. In theory. I have seen empty chipped carts for sale ready to be filled with your ink of choice either by hand or by CIS.

Later,
Dan

Thanks to all for info. After reading I wonder if I might want to dust off an old track printer with the holes on side of paper . I have a couple of those. They are great for invoices. However, the printer worked fine, but paper expensive. If you have to print a nicer invoice then what do you save? If ya just want a printed invoice that might be the way to go. Hmmm...............Where did I put those printers???

Cheers....Coffeeman

coffeeman · May 14, 2009

tallyho8 said:
I love my Epson Stylus color 880 and get hundreds of prints on one cartridge. I buy 5 Black and 5 color replacement cartridges on ebay for $13 and this lasts for years.

Epson makes so many different models each year that you could probably not find one of these new anymore but might find a good used one on ebay.

A couple of years ago Epson won a lawsuit to stop others from selling ink for Epsons but for some reason the sales never stopped.

I don't use Epson ink in my Epson and I don't use Kubota oil in my Kubota as I find other brands work just as well.

I like your horse , "Happy Trails". On my last day of high school our home room all joined in singing Happy Trails. I seem to remember the first lines: Happy trails to you, untill we meet again. Happy tails to you, keep smiling untill then. Haven't though about that in many years. Funny how a little cartoon can shake out some cob webs and spark an old memory. If I remember right Roy sang the song and the title was Happy Trails To You. Does your happy refer to same song or is it something different?

By the way, I don't remember seeing Epsons in the Best Buys etc. But, I think the old printer I had for invoices might have been one. I think it used an ink ribbon; like a typewriter. Hey, what's a typewriter?

Cheers...Coffeeman

J_J · May 14, 2009

No one has mentioned anything about the system that I use. It is an HP Photosmart D-5160. It has six ink tank on the side of the printer with tubes going to the cartridges. When the ink get low, you fill the tanks back up from a bulk supply. They make these kits for many different printers. I will see if I can find the website.

http://www.inkproducts.com/

BigE_ · May 15, 2009

J_J, that's what is known as CIS or continuous ink system.

The key to making these work is to cap them off when not using them. Also, for Epson, shut off your printer when it's not in use. On the Epson, when you shut off your printer, it caps the ends of the ink cartridge.

Oh, and I put the plugs back in the big bottle on the side when I'm done printing to keep them from drying out.

We have some really nice laserjet printers at work, and my Epson inkjet is way faster than any of them in draft mode, which is what I use unless I'm printing photos. If I need to print something that needs to be colorfast, or I'm printing just one or two pages, I'll go with the laserjet because I don't want to deal with uncapping the cartridges on the CIS on the Epson.

The main reason I purchased the Epson, though, is its ability to print on CDs and DVDs - a very nice feature to have. Oh, and the photos are fantastic with the 6 color ink system.

-Steve

heehaw · May 15, 2009

don't be hornswaggled by the kodak advertisements about cheap ink cartridges: like i was: i haven't printed but "maybe" a half dozen pictures, and the color cart says its low. the one i got is the loudest printer i have ever seen.
heehaw