Printer cartridges, doh
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I've joked with my friends how it's cheaper and easier to just buy a new printer than new cartridges but I've just found myself in a situation where it seems completely out of proportion. Since we have several hp m553's I bought a new one when an older 551 broke. Cost roughly 300 euros. Cartridges with 9500 prints cost about 250 euros a pop so 3x250 for the colors and another 200 euro for black for 12500 prints. Another 553 is beginning to run out of a few colors but for the sake of it I printed out the status of the new printer. The cartridges that came with it says that it still got 4700+ of each color. So it seems it came with about 5000prints worth of colors. So 300 euro for a new printer + 5000 prints or 950 euro to completely restock the cartridges. Even if we go through with a deal to get new cartridges for 30% cheaper it seems almost economical to just keep buying new printers... I thought printer companies had started to change this because of all the flack I've seen thrown at them, serves me right. :java:
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I've joked with my friends how it's cheaper and easier to just buy a new printer than new cartridges but I've just found myself in a situation where it seems completely out of proportion. Since we have several hp m553's I bought a new one when an older 551 broke. Cost roughly 300 euros. Cartridges with 9500 prints cost about 250 euros a pop so 3x250 for the colors and another 200 euro for black for 12500 prints. Another 553 is beginning to run out of a few colors but for the sake of it I printed out the status of the new printer. The cartridges that came with it says that it still got 4700+ of each color. So it seems it came with about 5000prints worth of colors. So 300 euro for a new printer + 5000 prints or 950 euro to completely restock the cartridges. Even if we go through with a deal to get new cartridges for 30% cheaper it seems almost economical to just keep buying new printers... I thought printer companies had started to change this because of all the flack I've seen thrown at them, serves me right. :java:
Buy an Epson: you change the ink only not the print head as with HP, and each color is in a separate "tank" so you only throw empties, not half full Cyan and Magenta because the yellow ran out... Even buying genuine Epson ink it's a heck of a lot cheaper than HP.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I've joked with my friends how it's cheaper and easier to just buy a new printer than new cartridges but I've just found myself in a situation where it seems completely out of proportion. Since we have several hp m553's I bought a new one when an older 551 broke. Cost roughly 300 euros. Cartridges with 9500 prints cost about 250 euros a pop so 3x250 for the colors and another 200 euro for black for 12500 prints. Another 553 is beginning to run out of a few colors but for the sake of it I printed out the status of the new printer. The cartridges that came with it says that it still got 4700+ of each color. So it seems it came with about 5000prints worth of colors. So 300 euro for a new printer + 5000 prints or 950 euro to completely restock the cartridges. Even if we go through with a deal to get new cartridges for 30% cheaper it seems almost economical to just keep buying new printers... I thought printer companies had started to change this because of all the flack I've seen thrown at them, serves me right. :java:
Well yes and no; this kind of thing has been pretty rife in the printer industry for a few years from what I understood and alot of the time, due to my home printing habits I really did find it easier to just buy a cheapo one every time (we're talking I need a print job maybe once a year if that) or even just go to an internet cafe to do so. There was a trend about 2 years back I thought that had certain makes deliberately marketing themselves as cheap cartridge usage but I had a hell of a time trying to find them recently. There's one company I worked with that trialed renting them. Seemed to work well economically as they did a hell of alot of printing but had a flat fee to the rental company that included free cartridge replacement.
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Buy an Epson: you change the ink only not the print head as with HP, and each color is in a separate "tank" so you only throw empties, not half full Cyan and Magenta because the yellow ran out... Even buying genuine Epson ink it's a heck of a lot cheaper than HP.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Or buy the new Epson's with EcoTank and do away with the catridges as well! Think I'll have one of them next time round.....
Dave Find Me On:Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
Expensive to buy, but if you print a lot (I don't) it's a bargain at that ink price! :thumbsup:
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Buy an Epson: you change the ink only not the print head as with HP, and each color is in a separate "tank" so you only throw empties, not half full Cyan and Magenta because the yellow ran out... Even buying genuine Epson ink it's a heck of a lot cheaper than HP.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
We are using laser printers and looking at those Epson prices for refills seems to be the same. For several reasons it's not viable for us to use inkjet. I'd also like to keep buying printers of the same family because it makes it easier to repair and maintain as well as butcher for spare parts. At least nice to see manufacturers trying to cash on smarter solutions.
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I've joked with my friends how it's cheaper and easier to just buy a new printer than new cartridges but I've just found myself in a situation where it seems completely out of proportion. Since we have several hp m553's I bought a new one when an older 551 broke. Cost roughly 300 euros. Cartridges with 9500 prints cost about 250 euros a pop so 3x250 for the colors and another 200 euro for black for 12500 prints. Another 553 is beginning to run out of a few colors but for the sake of it I printed out the status of the new printer. The cartridges that came with it says that it still got 4700+ of each color. So it seems it came with about 5000prints worth of colors. So 300 euro for a new printer + 5000 prints or 950 euro to completely restock the cartridges. Even if we go through with a deal to get new cartridges for 30% cheaper it seems almost economical to just keep buying new printers... I thought printer companies had started to change this because of all the flack I've seen thrown at them, serves me right. :java:
