Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

I'm sick of ink-sucking printers, buying advice needed

Mar 25, 2011 7:17AM PDT
Question:

I'm sick of ink-sucking printers, buying advice needed


I am so frustrated with printers and the amount of ink they now use, not to mention the cost of the ink. I don't do much scanning or printing in color and no faxing, so I don't need a high-end printer. I do a fair amount of grayscale printing each day. My problem is that the printers I have had in the past couple of years guzzle ink and use almost as much color ink as black ink, even though I am not printing pages in color. That was not the case in the past with my older printers. My color ink seemed to last forever. Not true, these days. Now that I have Windows 7, I haven't found a compatible printer that is efficient without costing an arm and a leg to operate. Can anyone give me any suggestions on what kind of printer I should purchase? Thanks.

-- Submitted by: Allison H.

Paper sucking ink --Submitted by: blmonster
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-7590_102-5106391.html

Money robbing printers--Submitted by: flrhcarr
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-7590_102-5106311.html

Inkaholic printers --Submitted by: Sidewinder34
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-7590_102-5106321.html

Why color ink runs out as fast as the B/W ink. --Submitted by: blmonster
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-7590_102-5106401.html

Laser, really?? NOT so fast. --Submitted by: jonsantacroce
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-7590_102-5106429.html

Thanks to all who contributed!

If you have any additional advice or recommendations for Allison, click the "reply" link below and submit away. If referring to product, providing a link to the product will be very helpful. Please be detailed as possible when providing a solution. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Ink Suckers
Mar 25, 2011 11:39PM PDT

I am using HP PSC F4280 with Windows 7 ,don`t do a lot
of printing, but have installed INKSAVER 2.0 (FIND ON NET) found it does cut down on ink use. does work on all printers. Canadian software company but has many recommendations from here in UK.price was

- Collapse -
Reduce ink useage
Mar 26, 2011 12:20AM PDT

I am using a HP Photosmart and do 95% of my everyday black printing on the "fast draft" setting. Use HP paper, that is what the printer is set up for. Works for me.

Colour, well most of my printing I set to Black but if you want good colour reproduction for photographs there is no point in cutting corners.

- Collapse -
Costco to the rescue!
Mar 26, 2011 12:29AM PDT

I have had the same problem, so after some research I found an HP 4500 wireless for under $100. The best part is that Costco has a program that allows you to bring in the cartridges and get them refilled for $7.00-$9.00! They only do this for certain cartridge types (HP, Epson ect..) and they have a booklet telling you exactly which ones they refill, so once you are armed with your booklet you can search for your printer. Just look at what type of ink cartridge it uses and reference your costco booklet. The HP 4500 is working great for me, I even bought one to use at work!

- Collapse -
Forget Inkjet Printer
Mar 26, 2011 12:43AM PDT

Switch to a monochrome laser printer. This solved my problem. A toner cartridge purchased on line from Amazon on Ebay will print lots and lots of pages for around $20. Yes I said $20.

Probably not technical enough for most but has worked well for me. Save color printer for when you need color

- Collapse -
USE THIS PROGRAM
Mar 26, 2011 12:46AM PDT

THERE IS A PROGRAM CALLED INKGARD. WWW.INKGARD.COM WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO CONTROL THE AMOUNT OF INK USED BY YOUR PRINTER. THE PROGRAM IS FREE IF YOU BUY THEIR CARTRIDGES. I PAID $16 EACH FOR A BLACK AND 3 COLOR CARTRIDGE FOR MY HP INKJET PRINTER. I REPLACE THEM ONCE A YEAR.

- Collapse -
print in black only
Mar 26, 2011 12:54AM PDT

Either your printer or the application that you are printing from should give you the option to print in color or grayscale (black and white).
If your document is is all black, it still uses color to create the black. If you tell it to use grayscale printing, it won't use the color.
My last three printers have been Canon. I like the option of sepeate tanks for each color. And I refill my own cartridges. I won't touch HP or Lexmark printers.

- Collapse -
Ink-Sucking printer
Mar 26, 2011 1:07AM PDT

I have never been happier about my printing since I got an older HP LaserJet and tossed my inkjet.
The Laserjet is rock-solid, albeit not as fast as current printers.
Whenever I need a colour print job, I send it online to Staples or local drug store chain for a far superior print (and simpler) job than I've ever experienced at home.

- Collapse -
re printer
Mar 26, 2011 1:21AM PDT

Hey Allison

first off when printing you should configure your printer to use only black that way you wont use the color. As for a printer whu dont you look into Canon 240 series Naturally when you first buy one the cartridges that goes with it are not full like any other company...Oh and one more thing I always have mine refilled wich is lest costly like
40.00$ less
Hope this Helps

- Collapse -
Lexmark Pro 900 series
Mar 26, 2011 1:38AM PDT

I recently purchased a Lexmark Pro 900 series inkjet all-in-one. I understand wireless networks on an average consumer level. With this in mind I had the whole unit set up in just under an hour and the wireless works great. Even when the printer is in sleep mode I get prints easily and the quality is pretty good. The best part is the mono ink is only $4.99 for a refill. Less than $5. I would strongly recommend this printer for families and small to medium business customers. Good luck!

- Collapse -
Go With The Majority Here
Mar 26, 2011 1:51AM PDT

Laser B&W printers are the best. They are less costly per page, never smear, and you can buy off-brand cartidges for a fraction of the price of the manufacturer's brand. Some off-brand cartridges cost 80% less with a guaranty that it will not affect quality or your printer. Ever notice how cheap ink jet printers are? It's the cost of the ink that will send you to the poor house. If you need an occasional color print, go to Office Max or some other store and get it done.

- Collapse -
Use Laser for B&W and Inkjet for Color
Mar 26, 2011 1:55AM PDT

I switched to a laser for my printing years ago and never will go back to a inkjet.I recommend HP.If you need color then use another inkjet for color.The advantages of laser are more pages with having to refill toner vs ink.No smearing of print for laser vs inkjet.Usually faster and quieter operation.Lower cost if you refill laser cartridges.You should be able to refill your laser cartridge several times before needing to replace the cartridge.There are tons of sellers of laser toner on Ebay.They include instructions on refilling.Try refilltonerqueen on Ebay.Very good quality toner for a low price.

- Collapse -
Ink-sucking printer purchasing
Mar 26, 2011 2:08AM PDT

I have found HP printer cartridges, especially in ink jet technology, are the most economical printers. A person should always look at the price of toner cartridges when considering a printer purchase. Calculating the cost of the printer and anticipated supply of cartridges will give a clear picture of the real cost of any printer.

- Collapse -
fyi- Dell is having a sale
Mar 26, 2011 2:13AM PDT
- Collapse -
Cheap Kodak
Mar 26, 2011 2:43AM PDT

I went to WalMart and bought the cheap kodak ESP-3 scanner printer. It uses very cheap ink cartridges, even color and they last. I set mine to draft, except when printing color photos, which it does a great job doing as well. I do a lot of printing in black because I do a lot of public speaking. Also, you can set it to print only in blak and not use the color ink at all. I know some of these have gotten knocked by others, but after using an Appolo (HP cheap generic) printer for years and now no one sells their ink, I went to the Kodak.

- Collapse -
Print-sucking printers
Mar 26, 2011 3:08AM PDT

When buying a printer, most of us fall for the "cheapest" printer price, forgetting that it is the long-term relationship that counts. However, for both I would recommend the AIO Kodak - cheap, good quality printer, scanner, copier, fax - and, here is the proverbial cherry on top of the cake - the printer cartridges are cheap and long-lasting ($10 B&W to $25 for color). There are a couple of 'official' reviews that you may want to read but I am not certain if I am permitted to post them. Soooo - I will post them but ask they be deleted it is a no-no. First, Consumer Reports (November 2009 and subsequent updates), and PC World's article entitled "Costco Ink Refills: Superlow Price, So-So Quality" published on Feb 1, 2011 - read the part about Kodak printer cartridges.

Kyle

- Collapse -
Ink Sucking Printers
Mar 26, 2011 3:45AM PDT

My solution to the ink sucking printers is that I have a Brother HL-1435 Laser Printer to do all my black and white printing and an HP C4780 printer for all colour printing which is mainly photos. My black & white photos however are printed on the HP printer as you will find that the laser toner doesn't adhere well to the photo paper and will rub off on your hands.

I hope this reply helps.

- Collapse -
Epson printer
Mar 26, 2011 5:00AM PDT

I reccommend Epson Stylus sx215 or similar. They have individual ink cartidges and can be obtained cheaply from places like www.w2w.com Vidneg.

- Collapse -
Printer supply costs
Mar 26, 2011 5:42AM PDT

Low end printers are loss leaders. Manufacturers sell them cheap in the hope you will buy expensive ink or toner. Refillers buy ink at about $100/gallon and toner at a few dollars per pound. When you buy, try comparing bottom and top of the line printers from the same manufacturer and same feature set. The more expensive will often have less expensive ink or toner. Get the high yield cartridge. For instance, I just bought a Brother MFC-9460CDN for $600 and toner from OEM suppliers runs about $60 for 6000 copies (3500 for color). The lower end MFC-9120CN lists for about $400, but the cartridges run 2200/1400 copies and sell for about the same; about 2.5 times as expensive per copy. Remanufactured units may be a little less or you can experiment with buying bulk toner and refilling yourself, but refilling can be ticklish both as to methodology and quality. If you refill yourself, be sure to read the MSDSs on the supplies before you buy!

- Collapse -
Buy a little more expensive and save a lot of money...
Mar 26, 2011 7:09AM PDT

Hi Alison and everybody,

I use two printers:

I have an old HP LaserJet 1200 that I bought several years ago when I had to submit a 400 page manuscript in 35 copies. It turned out the cheapest to buy a printer, 28 packages of A4 paper and two extra toner cartridges to print a total 14,000 pages (The binding I did at Office Depot. The total cost was cheaper than a printing house and it left me with a working printer). The printer still serves me right.

I also bought recently a new HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 printer. The new Inkjet technology comprised of separate print heads and ink tanks, which HP claim is cheaper to use than a laser printer. The ink tanks last a long time, especially if you use the XL tanks which contains double the ink quantity at less than 50% extra cost.

I have seen the advice here and some claim to buy a small entry level laser printer, but guys did any of you spend the time reading what Alison writes are here needs and uses? She claims to be printing a fair amount of B+W documents per day. That's over the entry level printer's head. I would think a small business starting printer is more like it, but if she uses an office machine like the HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 I believe she would get the best deal of all. Another advantage of the HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 is the duplex printing option, which saves on paper and together with its power saving option makes it environmentally friendly.

1. Now to compare costs:
1.1. OfficeJet Pro 8000 costs about $90
1.2. OfficeJet Pro 8000 XL black cartridge prints 2,200 pages and costs about $36 = 1.6

- Collapse -
Swicth to black only
Mar 26, 2011 7:22AM PDT

You said that you do some grayscale printing, so the problem is in the 'grayscale'. Gryscale does not mean less black. What happens is when you choose to print in gryscale, the printer uses the three primary colors from the color cartridge to mix and produce a grayscale.
Now what you need to do is go to the printer's properties and select 'use black ink only'. You can do that every time you print or set it permanently to so you don't have to open the printer's properties box each time you print.
And when you need to do the occasional color print, you can always go back to properties and select the color option.
From personal experience, I have saved a lot from buying color cartridges(usually a lot more expensive), by using the print in black-only option.
You do not need to invest more money in a new black only printer if you do not want to.

- Collapse -
RE : I'm sick of ink-sucking printers, buying advice needed
Mar 26, 2011 7:22AM PDT

Research is the answer . Better yet , let somebody else do it for you ! Check out "consumerreports.org" ; reports on printers etc are updated on a regular basis .Over the years I have purchased several good quality , yet economical units for home use and University use for my kids . Read the various breakdowns on costs per page etc ...

JS

- Collapse -
Ink sucking Printers
Mar 26, 2011 9:24AM PDT

Have you checked your printer settings? If you don't need high quality, just something readable, set your printer app to DRAFT COPY or it's equivalent.

- Collapse -
use combination of answers
Mar 26, 2011 10:25AM PDT

I would advise setting the printer to use black ink only, fast draft when you don't need presentation quality, NEVER use recycled paper-it isn't thick enough and causes problems. I stick with the original HP cartridges-I have used the refill companies before and found out my printer had a premature death! I have used many different brands; but I have found that generally speaking HP inkjets have held up the best. Many have maintenance settings that are helpful such as print feed cleaner, and back of page smudge cleaning besides the normal inkjet cartridge cleaners. My HP Photosmart C4680 also prints out an alignment page when replacing the cartridges, you place it on the scanner and it automatically lines things up instead of wasting ink doing it manually.
Good luck and remember the old saying "you get what you pay for"! HP also always has promotions and discounts for cartridges on line plus free next day shipping, sometimes free paper, etc. don't get the XL though as I and others have not seen the increase of pages printed as they are supposed too!Plus CVS pharmacy has decent prices and every few months has buy 2 cartridges over $20 and get $10 extra bucks which spend like real cash on your next purchase of anything there!

- Collapse -
Buy a B&W laser printer instead
Mar 26, 2011 10:51AM PDT

I have same problem 3 years ago. I buy a very cheap Brothers B&W laser printer for $99 and have no problem since. The starter toner cartridge give 1000 pages of printing and the normal ones give 5000 pages. I buy a normal, refill cartridge for only $35. Throw out your inkjet printer. They are no good.

- Collapse -
acceptable cost per page
Mar 26, 2011 11:15AM PDT

surely that has to be your question in the first page. I see loads and loads of answers to your original question but I don,t see you answering my question. Now, the reason I say this is quite simple. My wife would not allow me get any form of printer, because of ongoing costs, but eventually relented to enable me fax my 90 yr. old Father in Scotland whilst my home is on the wonderful Island of Tenerife, off the North Coast of Africa! I spent a month trying to work it all out and eventually decided on finding the cheapest possible machine to fax whilst of course most acted as a printer/copier/scanner/fax. Day on Day, night after night searching all the vendors who would deliver here (prices on the Island are astronomical compared to Northern Europe or the USA. As lady luck would have it Amazon made a 24 hour offer on an HP4500 for 37USD and on calculating the cost per page on buying the ink cartridges in the same way my costs per page are under 3 cents B&W and under 4 cents on colour. The cost of the original machine is so cheap they are more like buy one each year and write them off and when you see special offers for the ink buy a load at the same time. Now I am a novice in computer terms but even I could work out that given the quality is excellent, its right next to the computer, it goes into low cost electricity when not in use, does not need to reload the ink on start-up (many do and therefore waste considerable amounts of ink)and the thing does what it is intended for. Cannot ask for more than that. Nothing too technical in my answer. Just common sense. But again some will say that my costs are too high. Brings me back to my question to you.
What IS the acceptable cost per page?

- Collapse -
Get a Continuous Ink Sysytem...
Mar 26, 2011 11:32AM PDT

...and never buy another cartridge. Available for many makes and models.

- Collapse -
Continual Flow System
Mar 26, 2011 12:24PM PDT

Here in Central America various companies offer a Continual Flow system with various cheap printers. The printers have attached to them a small container with four dividers for the four main colors which have small tubes conected to the four ink containers in the printer. They come complete with ink and you can buy the ink in quantity at any time in the future.
I have used this system for about 2 years now in an Internet Cafe with very few problems, and super cheap.

- Collapse -
Forget Inkjets for grayscale
Mar 26, 2011 1:07PM PDT

I wish all the weekly questions were this easy ... forget inkjets for grayscale ... nothing beats a high-resolution laser printer.

And, you would find it hard to go past a laser printer with a Canon engine ... either Canon or HP.

Do the sums , you will find that even with the higher capital cost, the operating costs of Canon-engined laser printers are a fraction of an inkjet and, with the Canon-engined laser printers, there are literally thousands of suppliers of aftermarket or refilled cartridges that reduce the cost per copy even further without sacrificing either quality or the safety of your printer.

- Collapse -
Ink sucking printers
Mar 26, 2011 1:38PM PDT

Buy an Epson. out of all the printers I have owned Epson printer won't suck all your money in ink. When you need to purchase in it's not all the much. Once you go Epson you'll never but anything else.

- Collapse -
Ink-sucking printers
Mar 26, 2011 2:05PM PDT

I too have had the same frustrations with my printer. I just bought a Lexmark Interpret S405. It faxes, scans, and prints. It has a separate ink well for each color so you only replace the color that you need. So far, I like it fine. Cost $99.