Domestic and small office environments usually operate at least one inkjet printer. This market is dominated by a handful of key players – namely HP, Epson, Lexmark, Canon, Brother and Dell. Other manufacturers like Olivetti and Philips also sell inkjet printers, but on a smaller scale. Ink cartridges (also known as inkjet cartridges) come in many different shapes and sizes and vary enormously. It is essential to have exactly the correct cartridges for your own printer model - many look pretty much identical but have different micro-electronics which is often the danger when trying to save money by using a compatible ink cartridge. Some printers only take one or two ink cartridges, whereas some take up to ten individual ones. Choosing which printer you should invest in based on ink consumables can be very tricky, although there are many good websites that allow you to navigate easily to your printer model so you can only order correctly matched cartridges. Make sure you click on the right printer model though! Different types of ink cartridges; INK TANKS As the name suggests these are simply plastic tanks filled with ink. There is often a sponge inside to stop the ink slopping around as the carriage moves left to right at great speed. The print head (the bit that marks the paper) is an integral part of the printer. The ink drops into the print head, which regulates flow, mixes and sprays it on to the paper in the very tiniest droplets imaginable. Older printers may take one black ink cartridge alongside one tri-colour (or 5-colour) cartridge. More recent models have the black ink cartridge (sometimes more than one) alongside a number of individual colour cartridges - the obvious advantage being when one colour runs out, you don't have to throw away a cartridge containing residual ink of the other two or 4 colours. This system is preferred by Epson and Brother. Also many Canon, a few HP and some more recent Lexmark inkjet printers use the ink tank method of delivery. The main advantage of a printer using ink tanks is that they can be fairly cheap to run. Very reliable compatible ink cartridges are widely available for most Epson, Canon and Brother models for a fraction of the cost of manufacturers original branded (OEM) goods. Provided the generic ones are built to at least ISO9001 quality assurance standards you can expect good print quality, and page-life at least as long. Horror stories of them ruining printers are largely unfounded. If a printer is used regularly it will usually give reliable performance whether running original branded or compatible cartridges. If left switched off for weeks at a time it is sometimes necessary to run the "print head cleaning cycle" built in for that very reason. Manufacturers are very keen to sell you their own branded (and very profitable) products, and will jump at any chance to scare people away from using lower cost alternatives. Cheap ink cartridges are not necessarily cheap and nasty! PRINTHEAD INK CARTRIDGES Unlike ink tanks, when you change a print head cartridge you are installing a completely new print-head every time you replenish the ink supply. As you can imagine, there are complex micro-electronics involved in the accurate delivery of heated ink to paper, and as a result printhead cartridges are generally more expensive to buy than simple ink tanks. The argument for printhead cartridges is that the highest level of print quality is maintained, irrespective of the age of the printer. There is certainly logic in that argument, but it's fair to say modern ink-tank printers (as described in the paragraph above) do maintain a high level of print quality for a long time at a lower cost. Manufacturers insist that printhead cartridges are designed for single use only (typically delivering between 150 and 450 pages) and should then be replaced by a new one. In fact many once-used cartridges are either simply refilled or professionally recycled. Remanufactured cartridges (as the professionally recycled ones are known) are thoroughly cleaned, emptied, refilled in a vacuum chamber with system-matched inks, and then print tested to ensure fine quality. Many contain more ink than new ones from the factory - up to three times as much, so they cost less and produce more pages. Reliability is good as long as you buy from an established reputable cartridge dealer with a track record of good customer service. In the event of any problem arising you need to know it can be sorted out without fuss or expense. |
Thursday, 21 January 2010
What you need to know
How much ?
1) When domestic and small office inkjet printers started gaining huge popularity in the 1990’s, you could buy a replacement black cartridge that would contain 42ml of ink. You’d pay your £18 or so then, stick it in the machine and forget about it for 6 or 9 months, until it needed replacing again.
2) The big printer manufacturers like HP, Epson and Lexmark realised there was a brand new gigantic market to be exploited. Ching ching!! The whole world and his brother were buying digital cameras to print their own photo’s, kids started printing homework, then even the most humble mobile phone became a camera….. everybody’s suddenly in need of ink cartridges! (show numerous ink cart’s)
3) So how were they going to make even bigger piles of cash from this new market? Simple – put a lot less ink in the cartridges, then the hapless end-user has to buy them far more frequently, and then sell the printers for next-to-nothing (showing a basic printer model if poss) to rope them in…. Ching ching!
4) So back in the 1990’s your typical black cartridge contained maybe 30ml to 42ml
The biggest selling HP black cartridge in the UK today sells for about £15 and contains…. (showing HP21) a teaspoonful of ink. 5ml. Less than one eighth. If you decide to buy the “high yield” version – they call them “XL” (showing a HP21XL) – it’s about £23 and contains a paltry 12.5ml of ink – still less than a third of what you used to get. And it’s a little unfair to pinpoint HP models – Epson and Lexmark are particularly good at generating income from “allegedly” poor value ink cartridges too. And it’s just as bad for colour cartridges. Less ink. More cash.5) So poor old Joe Punter saw the shiny new printer in his local supermarket at £25 and snapped it up, then found out it would cost him £50 for a couple of ink cartridges to keep it going!
6) It’s not all bad news though… As long as you’re very careful and get some independent advice before choosing your printer. There are still certain printer models available that you can keep fed at a really sensible cost. An example is one of the many Brother inkjet machines on the market. If you buy copy cartridges (known as compatibles) from a good supplier of reliable ones you can get a package (showing a bundle of 6 compatibles) containing 90ml of black inks (3 x 30ml cartridges) together with 60ml of colour inks (3 @ 20ml) all for under £16. You might pay a tenner (showing a tenner) or so more for the printer, but if you’re going to run it for – say – 5 years, the savings are impressive.
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