Randi Rhodes Forums

so am out of ink and for the price of a new copier/printer, i am paying for refills. why are the ink refills so expensive? what is the cheap way to get out of the ink refill price? maybe go to your local library, but even then you pay for gas to get there.

They sell you printers at a non- or low-profit price so they can make a bundle on ink. They even void your warrantee if you use non-brand-name ink.

Because that's the business model of HP and most of the printer companies at this point; sell ink jets for dirt cheap, make most of their profit on ink cartridges. Refilling the cartridges is a bit cheaper than replacing them, but make sure you check this doesn't void your warranty, and make sure the refiller is reliable or you can ruin your printer.

Laser printers have a higher upfront cost (but not as much as used to be just 5 years ago), but the laser toner cartridges last much longer. So you don't pay as much for supplies.

With ink/bubblejet printers part of how they eliminated the cost of producing a durable print head was to produce a cheap and easily replaceable print head and integrate it into the ink cartridge. So essentially that is what you are paying for.

Ink refill is getting better and many chain stores such as Staples and OfficeMax now have a refill center in their stores for that reason.

instead of shopping for a printer shop for a cheap ink cartridge and when you find it follow it back to the printer its for and get that printer.

The other cute thing they seem to do is make the printer software report that the ink is almost empty way before it actually is, so that you buy new cartridges even more often!

Not to mention that if you don't print that often the ink clogs up. I maybe print 50 to 100 pages a month.

I have a Brother color laser printer at home and I had to replace the black cartridge once in 18 months ($50 bucks on amazon) and haven't replaced the color at all. My default is B&W and rarely print color.

My understanding is that if you print your photos then ink jet is the way to go. To me, I just bring the memory card into Walgreens if I need to print pictures for cheap.

I really don't see the need for ink jet printers at all.

I do artwork and need a higher-end ink-jet printer. The higher-end units are more maintenance-free and use non-consumer cartridges with better life and overall less cost. Most commercial/serious artists use Epson's photo and art printers-- not really pricey over the long term, just larger initial investment. Aqueous ink-jet printers are de rigeur for fine art/photography.

Laser printers are good, but the toner/fuser process results in a final surface that cannot take conventional artists' media like india ink and aqueous inks/paints/dyes. Even acrylic airbrush often beads up on the laser print. Lasers can't use all forms of paper-- can't run tabloid 400 Bristol (sequential art standard) through most laser printers.

and better for the environment in the long run. love the laser printer.