High Cost of HP Printer Ink

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Leesbro63
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High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Leesbro63 »

I have an HP 8600 color printer. A few years ago, I bought a cheap Brother B&W laser printer so that I’d only have to use the HP occasionally for color. But even at that, it seems that the ink either had serious shrinkflation, or maybe the cartridges “time out”. And the prices are crazy high for a set of 3 color and 1 black.

Am I missing something? Is there a cheaper way? Off-brand cartridges didn’t work for me in the past (runny, sometimes the machine wouldn’t recognize them, etc).
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by jebmke »

I have used E-Z Ink for my Canon. So far, so good.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by quantAndHold »

Printer ink is one of the most expensive substances on earth.

What is probably happening is since you don’t use it often, the ink dries, and your printer has to go through a self cleaning cycle pretty much every time you print. What self cleaning means is that it squirts a huge amount of ink through the print heads to clean them out. Since HP makes its money on the ink, not on the printer, there’s no attempt to be economical with your ink.

I solved the problem years ago by going to the FedEx store and paying by the page the rare times I needed anything in color.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by doobiedoo »

I gave up on inkjet printers.
I use a Brother color laser printer now.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by 02nz »

Look into HP Instant Ink, a subscription model that lets you print a set number of pages per month, with several tiers. It usually comes out cheaper than buying regular cartridges. Cleaning cycles do not count against your number of pages, and color counts same as black.

Or, get a laser.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by 2pedals »

Yeah, I have been looking at buying a color laser printer. Something like the brother HL-L3270CDW. I want Wi-Fi and Ethernet. I currently have a very old Brother B&W Laser HL-1440 and a Brother MFC-J4800DW inkjet (that was very cheap at that time). Both models are very economical. The multifunctional inkjet accepts inexpensive LC201/LC203 ink cartridges that I purchase from Amazon. What I have noticed is that the B&W and Color printer laser costs have converged somewhat, but the toner costs can be ridiculously expensive if buying OEM toner (four cartridges with chips).
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Leesbro63
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Leesbro63 »

quantAndHold wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:30 pm Printer ink is one of the most expensive substances on earth.

What is probably happening is since you don’t use it often, the ink dries, and your printer has to go through a self cleaning cycle pretty much every time you print. What self cleaning means is that it squirts a huge amount of ink through the print heads to clean them out. Since HP makes its money on the ink, not on the printer, there’s no attempt to be economical with your ink.

I solved the problem years ago by going to the FedEx store and paying by the page the rare times I needed anything in color.
This makes sense. I may have to give up color printing totally. Just to crazy costly.
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crinkles2
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by crinkles2 »

Depending on your work setup (I am a co-owner of our business) you could stick to B&W laser at home, anything colour at the office.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Bikes4life »

We use toner in the larger printers and the smaller home office style printers, we use ones that can accept ink refill jugs like the ecotank / supertanks
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Frigging laser

Post by Bogle7 »

Brother color laser duplex wireless for every day printing.

If I need a high quality photo, then the local camera store. This happens about once a year.
Last edited by Bogle7 on Sun Mar 26, 2023 6:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Frigging laser

Post by uaeebs86 »

Bogle7 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 9:21 pm Brother color laser duplex wireless
Same here.

I just ordered off brand toner (all 4) for $37 on Amazon. Only popped the yellow one in for now but so far so good!
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by bhwabeck3533 »

02nz wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:35 pm Look into HP Instant Ink, a subscription model that lets you print a set number of pages per month, with several tiers. It usually comes out cheaper than buying regular cartridges. Cleaning cycles do not count against your number of pages, and color counts same as black.
I've had a subscription for almost a year. So far, so good.
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enad
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by enad »

Leesbro63 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:22 pm I have an HP 8600 color printer. A few years ago, I bought a cheap Brother B&W laser printer so that I’d only have to use the HP occasionally for color. But even at that, it seems that the ink either had serious shrinkflation, or maybe the cartridges “time out”. And the prices are crazy high for a set of 3 color and 1 black.

Am I missing something? Is there a cheaper way? Off-brand cartridges didn’t work for me in the past (runny, sometimes the machine wouldn’t recognize them, etc).
We have the same printer and at the time we bought it we also purchased a shelf with a drawer that had 4 1-Liter bags of ink that fed into a special cartridge that fit into the printer in-lieu of the HP ink cartridges and I just checked the drawer and we have a lot of ink left. Costco used to refill the cartridges fairly cheap but the ones in our area no longer provide that service. Have you checked with Office Max or 3rd parties on Amazon? The good thing about HP printers is that when you replace the cartridge you get a whole new print head as it's built into the cartridge
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Leesbro63
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Leesbro63 »

bhwabeck3533 wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 7:44 am
02nz wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:35 pm Look into HP Instant Ink, a subscription model that lets you print a set number of pages per month, with several tiers. It usually comes out cheaper than buying regular cartridges. Cleaning cycles do not count against your number of pages, and color counts same as black.
I've had a subscription for almost a year. So far, so good.
This might be my solution. For $12/year. I only print a handful of color pages per year. Thanks. I didn’t know it was a thing.
Last edited by Leesbro63 on Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Mr. Buzzkill »

I use a cheap HP B&W laserjet printer at home. Toner cartridges last a long time, and price per page is quite good. And much faster print speeds.

On the rare occasions that I need color, I email or upload the file to be printed to Fedex Kinkos, and run over and pick up the output.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by cyclist »

It’s always a good idea to do the math when considering buying printers. I’ve had extensive experience with HP, and across their inkjet and laser printer lines they have consistently offered choices between inexpensive machines with ink or toner cartridges that are extremely pricey on a per-page basis, and more expensive machines with lower running costs per page.

Estimate your printing needs and you may be shocked at the results. I’ve discarded at least one printer that worked perfectly because switching to a more expensive model saved me money.

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nedsaid
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by nedsaid »

quantAndHold wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:30 pm Printer ink is one of the most expensive substances on earth.

What is probably happening is since you don’t use it often, the ink dries, and your printer has to go through a self cleaning cycle pretty much every time you print. What self cleaning means is that it squirts a huge amount of ink through the print heads to clean them out. Since HP makes its money on the ink, not on the printer, there’s no attempt to be economical with your ink.

I solved the problem years ago by going to the FedEx store and paying by the page the rare times I needed anything in color.
Yes, that has been my experience too.

I like HP as a company but they are getting too greedy. They are making it harder to use anything but HP ink and they have the annoying habit of disabling your perfectly good hardware with a "software update." They did this to me with a perfectly good scanner and with a perfectly good printer. Fortunately printers are cheap. My current printer costs less than the ink!
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Sandtrap »

We have 2 fully equipped home offices.
In both: HP laser printers, simple black and white, the oldest is a 1020 HP that has been going for decades. The toner cartridges go forever. We purchase based on the price of the toner cartidges and cents per page.

For color printing, HP photo printers, high quality. We use HP Glossy II paper. But, only use the color printers specifically for photo printing. Otherwise, it's the laser b n w's.

This might be a way to control the high costs of HP Printer Ink?

dis laimer:
It works for us but will likely not for others with different printer needs.
We've tried non HP OEM color ink cartridges in the past, sometimes with disastrous results. So, now, we just stick to the HP OEM inks, though, yes, very very pricey. And, prices seem to be going up faster than jumbo Charmin toilet paper at Walmart.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by TexasPE »

nedsaid wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:54 am they have the annoying habit of disabling your perfectly good hardware with a "software update." They did this to me with a perfectly good scanner and with a perfectly good printer.
I never accept printer software/ firmware 'updates' - as you say, these are frequently malicious and will eliminate the use of non-OEM cartridges (ask me how I know!) . As far as I know, there is no way for the user to undo the damage.

I google how to turn this automate update feature "off" for my printer and apply the fix.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by student »

Leesbro63 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:22 pm I have an HP 8600 color printer. A few years ago, I bought a cheap Brother B&W laser printer so that I’d only have to use the HP occasionally for color. But even at that, it seems that the ink either had serious shrinkflation, or maybe the cartridges “time out”. And the prices are crazy high for a set of 3 color and 1 black.

Am I missing something? Is there a cheaper way? Off-brand cartridges didn’t work for me in the past (runny, sometimes the machine wouldn’t recognize them, etc).
Sorry. No recommendation. But it fits what you said in another thread, you buy a new Lexus every 3 years but will spend time to save money elsewhere.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by lthenderson »

Leesbro63 wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 8:33 am
bhwabeck3533 wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 7:44 am
02nz wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:35 pm Look into HP Instant Ink, a subscription model that lets you print a set number of pages per month, with several tiers. It usually comes out cheaper than buying regular cartridges. Cleaning cycles do not count against your number of pages, and color counts same as black.
I've had a subscription for almost a year. So far, so good.
This might be my solution. For $12/year. I only print a handful of color pages per year. Thanks. I didn’t know it was a thing.
Depends on how big your hand is I guess but I have a much cheaper way than $12/year and doesn't require a subscription. My local drugstore will print a color 8.5 x 11 page for $0.25. I just upload the file from my desk over the internet and pick it up the next time I'm in the area. It is there waiting for me and since I pay ahead with a credit card, I just pick it up and go.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Leesbro63 »

student wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:12 pm
Leesbro63 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:22 pm I have an HP 8600 color printer. A few years ago, I bought a cheap Brother B&W laser printer so that I’d only have to use the HP occasionally for color. But even at that, it seems that the ink either had serious shrinkflation, or maybe the cartridges “time out”. And the prices are crazy high for a set of 3 color and 1 black.

Am I missing something? Is there a cheaper way? Off-brand cartridges didn’t work for me in the past (runny, sometimes the machine wouldn’t recognize them, etc).
Sorry. No recommendation. But it fits what you said in another thread, you buy a new Lexus every 3 years but will spend time to save money elsewhere.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by eddot98 »

I had a HP Office Jet 6300 that used the 98 black and the 95 color ink cartridges. I finally got rid of it when it wouldn’t print in color no matter how I tried to repair it. I needed the scan and fax capabilities. I would buy expired cartridges off eBay, etc. and they almost always worked fine. And they were much less than retail. A few of the sellers would replace cartridges that failed. I didn’t have good luck with after market cartridges.
I replaced the HP with a $100 Brother all in one and I’m trying their ink refresh plan. I’m still feeling my way through it.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Sage16 »

I have an HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus. A few weeks ago I gave the remanufactured cartridges from ink4less.com a try after a recommendation from my SIL. I haven't printed much with it yet but so far so good.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by nedsaid »

TexasPE wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:02 pm
nedsaid wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:54 am they have the annoying habit of disabling your perfectly good hardware with a "software update." They did this to me with a perfectly good scanner and with a perfectly good printer.
I never accept printer software/ firmware 'updates' - as you say, these are frequently malicious and will eliminate the use of non-OEM cartridges (ask me how I know!) . As far as I know, there is no way for the user to undo the damage.

I google how to turn this automate update feature "off" for my printer and apply the fix.
I have been a loyal HP customer and this type of stuff is making me want to switch with the next printer. Also disgusted that expensive ink cartridges just don't last very long. Great printers though.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Lou Sevens »

I switched from HP 's to a Canon GX7021 that uses ink bottles, I wasn't printing as much in color and the ink dried up in the cartridge/print head. Granted the printer was more, but the ink bottles will last longer and not dry out nor will I encounter the clogged printhead problem i had
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by Northern Flicker »

Compared to ink jet printers, B&W laser printers are cheaper to use, print at significantly higher speed, and jam far less frequently.
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by michaelingp »

I consider color printing a luxury that I'm fortunate enough to afford. I have an inexpensive HP inkjet and over time, it has cost about 25 cents a page in ink. To simplify the calculation, I just add up all the money I've spent on cartridges and divide by the number of pages the printer says it's printed. In 9 years I've printed 1,313 pages and spent $331 on cartridges. I don't think my printer (HP 1010) has a cycle that wastes ink, it just tries to keep cartridges from drying out by moving them to a closed box when not printing. So, every couple of weeks if I haven't used the printer I print a test page to keep the cartridges from drying out. If I'm away on vacation for months they dry out anyway, which of course adds to the total cost per page for printing. So my real cost is more like 35 cents a page. Most of my printing is on my inexpensive B&W laser, which runs between 2 and 3 cents a page for toner.

It would be nice to know similar numbers for color laser printers, but it would be hard to compare with my setup if you're printing all your pages (B&W or color) on a single printer. But if any BH's use a B&W laser for B&W printing, and only use their color laser for color printing, I would really like to see the per page toner costs for the color laser (when always printing color pages).
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Re: High Cost of HP Printer Ink

Post by bluegill »

HP, Epson and probably others manufacturers have you update printer software which prevents use of generic ink cartridges. I use EZ Ink also. I reckon EZ Ink is about 1/2 the price of Epson's ink. My computer repairman says HP is in the ink business, not printer business. They could give away the printer and make a profit my selling you the ink. EZ Ink knows this happens and they have replaced/exchanged cartridges free. Don't update printer software.
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