Is printer ink worth $20,000 a gallon?
There is no way printer ink is worth this kind of figure, but it could well be that this is how much you paid last time you purchased an inkjet cartridge for your printer. It is probably the most expensive liquid you have ever bought and it is probably almost finished already.
There is no doubt that the price of ink cartridges is high, but that has always been true, the reason the cost of the ink has risen to the above frankly ridiculous price is that less and less of it is being put in the cartridge by the manufacturers.
As an example, a three-colour HP
inkjet cartridge used to contain a minimum of 18ml of ink, 6ml cyan, 6ml magenta and 6ml yellow. HP currently supply a cartridge as used in many of their Photosmart printers contain only 5ml of ink in total, that is less than 2ml of each colour, print a few photos and low and behold you need a new cartridge.
Hp are not the only manufacturer to be offering less ink in their cartridges, Lexmark and Epson cartridges today also hold less ink than those manufactured in the past. Canon alone among the major manufacturers has stayed consistent in the amount of ink contained in a cartridge. The old Bci3 cartridges contained 13ml of ink each and their modern equivalent, the Cli8, also have 13ml.
As printer manufacturers make most of their profit from selling cartridges and not printers, it is easy to understand this trend. Fortunately there is a way to dramatically reduce this cost and maintain your printer in first class working order. When you buy your printer as new, it will come supplied with a low capacity cartridge which will quickly run out, do not be tempted to replace it with the same version, instead check for the largest capacity cartridge suitable for your model. This could save you over 50% and you will not be constantly replacing cartridges.
In the past manufacturers did not make it easy to identify which cartridge represented the best value, with model numbers bearing little relationship to each other. Fortunately this is now changing and both HP and Lexmark are now attaching the XL suffix to the high yield, better value cartridges.
You can also find the volume of ink in Canon and HP cartridges printed on the boxes and this used also to be true of Epson but this information was deleted from their latest packaging, surely not a good sign. Lexmark have never published the volume of printer ink contained in their cartridges and it perhaps comes as no surprise that in test and reviews their printers are often the most expensive to run.
There is no doubt that the price of ink cartridges is high, but that has always been true, the reason the cost of the ink has risen to the above frankly ridiculous price is that less and less of it is being put in the cartridge by the manufacturers.
As an example, a three-colour HP
inkjet cartridge used to contain a minimum of 18ml of ink, 6ml cyan, 6ml magenta and 6ml yellow. HP currently supply a cartridge as used in many of their Photosmart printers contain only 5ml of ink in total, that is less than 2ml of each colour, print a few photos and low and behold you need a new cartridge.
Hp are not the only manufacturer to be offering less ink in their cartridges, Lexmark and Epson cartridges today also hold less ink than those manufactured in the past. Canon alone among the major manufacturers has stayed consistent in the amount of ink contained in a cartridge. The old Bci3 cartridges contained 13ml of ink each and their modern equivalent, the Cli8, also have 13ml.
As printer manufacturers make most of their profit from selling cartridges and not printers, it is easy to understand this trend. Fortunately there is a way to dramatically reduce this cost and maintain your printer in first class working order. When you buy your printer as new, it will come supplied with a low capacity cartridge which will quickly run out, do not be tempted to replace it with the same version, instead check for the largest capacity cartridge suitable for your model. This could save you over 50% and you will not be constantly replacing cartridges.
In the past manufacturers did not make it easy to identify which cartridge represented the best value, with model numbers bearing little relationship to each other. Fortunately this is now changing and both HP and Lexmark are now attaching the XL suffix to the high yield, better value cartridges.
You can also find the volume of ink in Canon and HP cartridges printed on the boxes and this used also to be true of Epson but this information was deleted from their latest packaging, surely not a good sign. Lexmark have never published the volume of printer ink contained in their cartridges and it perhaps comes as no surprise that in test and reviews their printers are often the most expensive to run.
PRINTER INK
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byCanon Pixma iP2600
The CanonPixma iP2600 is a budget, no frills inkjet photo printer. Retailing for under £30 and replacing the Pixma iP1800, this is an entry level, basic printer with few features.
Design
Printer manufacturers have been working hard to get away from the plastic grey look that has been mandatory for all printers in the past and the Pixma iP2600 follows this trend. The sleek exterior is 5.6x17.4x10 inches and has a mirrored glossy black finish, more reminisant of a furniture accessory rather than an inkjet printer. It certainly doesn't take up a lot of desk space and will blend in nicely with your iPod or other desk peripherals.
Cartridge supplies
There are two capacities of each available, the standard black cartridge, PG37 has 11ml of ink and the higher capacity PG40 has 16ml. The standard colour cartridge, CL38 contains a total of 9ml of ink, 3ml of each cyan, magenta and yellow, whilst the higher capacity CL41 contains a total 12ml of ink, 4ml of each colour.
Performance
In speed tests the Pixma iP2600 performed very well. It managed to produce 5.68 pages per minute of black text. It also performed well in quality tests, the characters formed were precise with crisp edges and created no blurred areas, in colour graphics tests most documents came out with solid colours and nice even distribution of colour. 4x6 photos printed on Canons semi-gloss paper were also impressive. They were not perfect but were well balanced and even, a difficult job for a budget printer.
So with solid printing performance at relatively quick output speeds and acceptable photo prints, the Pixma iP2600 is an affordable choice and is a printer that performs well above its weight, making it probably the best budget buy under £50.
Reader Feedback
submit
-
Reply
- Chitownmortgage Chitownmortgage Jun 15, 2008 @ 4:27 am
- Wow, perhaps an ink still out back might be the way to go. A little HP or Lexmark moonshine ;-)
-
Reply
- meg728 meg728 Jun 15, 2008 @ 2:56 am
- This rings true indeed. From where I am, we contend ourselves with refills but its not the original thing for they cost twice as much. For not so important documents, I still use ribbon cartridge. Great lense you got there.
-
Reply
- dsims dsims Jun 14, 2008 @ 2:05 am
- This lens rings true in showing you the value for the money of ink cartridges and printers. I have always had good experiences with canon and hp. The Epsons that I bought in the past would use too much ink and the ink would often clog the printers. Canon and Hp lasted me years. Epsons a year tops. This is just confirmation of what I always thought. Canon or Hp is the way to go.
Helpful lens with great info!
-
Reply
- Bitz141 Bitz141 Jun 14, 2008 @ 12:54 am
- Very helpful and a great way of looking at it.
-
Reply
- GreatGoji GreatGoji Jun 13, 2008 @ 11:01 am
- Come to think of it, you are definitely right with your analysis on this matter. I mean if that is the matter, then it would mean that printer ink would be far more important as it costs way more expensive. It just makes no sense... Great Lens I must say!
- Load More
HP Laserjet P1505 Review
TheHP Laserjet P1505 is clearly aimed at the entry-level end of the Laser Printer market and can be found for under £90. At this price you cannot expect many extras and the P1505 is indeed a very basic model only suitable as a standalone device for the home office or personal desktop use.
Design
The P1505 will certainly not take up too much room on your desktop. At 8.9x14.9x9.6 inches, it is smaller than many inkjet printers and weighing only 12.9 pounds it is not difficult to move single-handed. Without an LCD screen, the control panel consists of an array of lights labelled with icons that are so confusing, you often have to refer to the on screen documentation to figure out what the light sequence is telling you. HP has obviously cut corners to get down to this price and the paper guides that are located deep within the input tray are small and hard to move.
Cartridges
The printer is supplied with a starter cartridge with a limited capacity of 1,000 pages, so it will not be long before you are forced to buy a replacement. The only cartridge suitable for this printer is the HP CB436a with a capacity of 2,000 pages and is not intended for heavy-duty use.
Performance
Unfortunately there was also evidence of cost cutting in the print tests. Plain text is handled fairly well given the likely workload, HP's new spherical toner delivering crisp characters, however graphic performance isn't up to par.
If you are just after a fast affordable mono laser printer for your home office, at less than £90 the HP Laserjet P1505 may just fit the bill. But if you require a little more in the way of usable features or better quality output, you would be well advised to increase the budget slightly and look one division up, at the likes of the Brother HL-5240.
by printerinkcartridge
I've been messing about with printers for years and hope to share some of my info with you all. (more)
Explore related pages
Recycle Empty Ink Cartridges- Each year, millions of empty toner and inkjet cartridges are thrown into the tra...
Ink Cartridge Refill- Buying and replacing ink cartridges for your printer is something that can cause...
Refill Not Landfill- Recharging inkjet cartridges, instead of throwing them in the trash and buying b...
Buy Printer Ink Online- When it's time to buy printer ink, many people naturally head back to their neig...
