Where does the ink go?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

gavroche

Getting old but not past it
Location
North Wales
I have a Lexmark printer and it is used 99% for black and white work, yet the levels of the colour cartridges goes down quickly for the very little times I use them. When they are nearly empty, I need to replace them otherwise the printer won't work, even for black only work. So where do the colour inks go? :angry:
Got a bargain from Currys today: 6 colour cartridges and 4 black ones for £5.96 in total!! Just one colour Staples is £13.49. Happy chap. :smile:
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Buy inks on line.
The rule of thumb is the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the ink
The manufactures sell the printers at (less than) cost and make the money from the ink
The extreme case of this is one of the £80 no name printers where it is cheaper to buy a new printer with a full set of inks than it is to buy the replacment inks
All the cheaper printers are disigned to use the colour ink "to keep the jetts working" (and ensure you run out of ink)
 

Turbo Rider

Just can't reMember
Beware Tesco own brand as well. Ran out of ink the other day and other half went to Tesco. £53 for their own brand, or £59 for the real deal. She decided on the more expensive brand because £6 for full compatibility and a usually longer lasting cartridge sounded ok to her. When she got it back home, she found she had 2 cartridges instead of the 1 she would have had from the own brand. Good deal makers like to pull the wool, it seems.
 

annedonnelly

Girl from the North Country
I have a Lexmark printer and it is used 99% for black and white work, yet the levels of the colour cartridges goes down quickly for the very little times I use them. When they are nearly empty, I need to replace them otherwise the printer won't work, even for black only work. So where do the colour inks go? :angry:
Got a bargain from Currys today: 6 colour cartridges and 4 black ones for £5.96 in total!! Just one colour Staples is £13.49. Happy chap. :smile:
Sometimes they combine the coloured inks to make the black. Depends on the settings. You may get a message asking if you want to do that when the black runs low. If you say yes it'll probably continue to do that in future.

At one time there was a model of Lexmark available where it was cheaper to replace the entire printer than to buy new cartridges!
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
Get a printer where all the colours are separate so you don't have to replace it if one colour goes. In my experience all home printers are shîte and all branded ink is over-priced. I've never had a printer which I'd recommend. The work HP one I've got is OK-ish.
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
Yup I just paid 29,99 for 4 refill's on my HP printer,they were all dried out as not used for a month or so.
I do everything on line or txt for work so although printer says cartridges full they just wont do a colour letterhead etc..I must remember to print something every few days...pita

I can only buy black seperately but that always works...
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
I have a Lexmark printer and it is used 99% for black and white work, yet the levels of the colour cartridges goes down quickly for the very little times I use them. When they are nearly empty, I need to replace them otherwise the printer won't work, even for black only work. So where do the colour inks go? :angry:
Got a bargain from Currys today: 6 colour cartridges and 4 black ones for £5.96 in total!! Just one colour Staples is £13.49. Happy chap. :smile:
Check in the printing properties - it may be, as @annedonnelly suggested, that in order to print black it's using all 3 colours to get there.
 
Anyone using a laser printer?

I wonder if they really are cheaper to run.
From using the ones on the ship, yes.
Inkjet was gobbling up cartridges at a 1/week rate (lots of printing here). £40 a shot
Colour laser can last a year. Full set of refills something like £600 (black + 3 colours). Plus once its eventually decided to actually print something it spits pages out like its going out of fashion. Colleague printed out a 100 page A4 booklet other day - hate to think how much it would have cost with inkjet cartridges.
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
My printing is '99% b/w' too, which is why I use a b/w laser printer for almost everything. Incomparably cheaper, especially if like me you buy toner cartridges off ebay for a penny in the pound. I do have a colour printer, used only when I actually want something in colour. (I got the printer off ebay too - an HP1020. Basic desktop laser. Great quality & totally reliable. I think I paid £6 for it two years ago, since when it's cost me about a fiver in cartridges. Probably prints a hundred+ sheets a week.)
 

Turbo Rider

Just can't reMember
Red is added to the black to make it blacker, as strange as that may seem. Back in the day I used to be an ink mixer and you'd be surprised at how colours are sometimes made up. If ever you want a more brilliant finish to white add a tiny drop of blue.

Ahaaa...that may have just answered a useless information type thing for me. I've noticed on games, where you get to choose colours for things, that the darkest black there is, is always in the red section. Either that or a freaky coincidence!
 
I have a Brother Laser Printer. Cost was about £90. I work from home and probably print about 250 pages a month in Black and White. The laser cartridge copes with that fine and lasts about a year for £16.00 non brand reformed or new one on ebay.
As with most laser cartidges the warning thing goes on when not even half full but you can take the side off the cart and re set it and it lasts about three times the set limit. (it goes by number of copies rather than by ink level.

That seems the best option with then using the self service copier in staples for any colour printing. Their printer is better than home colour ones and it dose not seem worth the cost to buy or run colour printing for the few needed.
 
Top Bottom