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| Thread ID: 40859 | 2003-12-20 23:33:00 | Ink Jet Running Costs - Tests ! | Digby (677) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 202007 | 2003-12-20 23:33:00 | Has any one, say PCWorld or Consumer Magazine done a really good test of Inkjet printer running costs ? (See Geoff Palmer's editorial in a recent PC World) Most of the articles on running costs blithley quote the manufacturers figures for cost per page. But these are based on their own assumption of what a page is and they are usually something like 5% coverage which is a very small business letter ! What I would like to see is for some organisation (PCWorld ?) to buy or borrow 3 printers one form each of the major manuafctuers (HP, Canon and Epson) and buy 1 of their off the shelf cartridges and then print the a test document (any one) (buytt the same one for all tests) repeatedly on each printer until the cartridge runs outs. Then you could provide accurate costings for each brand by saying that this cartridge costs x amount and printed so many copeis of the test document. The same could be done with several brands of replacement cartridge. Then we would all know which brand to buy and which one not to buy. Digby |
Digby (677) | ||
| 202008 | 2003-12-22 06:05:00 | I used to be in the OP industry and found that the 5% coverage was a fairly reasonable benchmark to go by. I also have found (as a consummer) that HP's quoted figures appear accurate, after about 6 year's use of one of their inkjet models. | Greg S (201) | ||
| 202009 | 2003-12-22 06:23:00 | I think you may find that 5% is about right for a letter. We are talking here about the amount of ink that actually goes on the page. If I fill an A4 page with writing then very little of what you see is actually ink. Most of what is there is actually white space. Different with an A4 picture of course. | Elephant (599) | ||
| 202010 | 2003-12-22 17:49:00 | 5% goes out the window for digital photos, of course. I think the tests would be great, but would require that we print something repeatedly until the ink ran out. would have to be with proper cartridges, not mini cartridges as supplied in some printers. To be honest, I think the cost of the cartridge is not a bad guide, and the quoted number of pages from the vendors isn't too bad (we could just test that, I suppose). robo. |
robo (205) | ||
| 202011 | 2003-12-22 20:05:00 | Hey guys ! Do you work for HP or a stationary shop ? A fiend of mine printed 20 full page speradsheets with a bit of bold type here and there and it cleaned out over half of one of my Epson printer cartridges. If you print lists, reports , or spreadsheets you are using much more than 5% coverage. Digby |
Digby (677) | ||
| 202012 | 2003-12-22 20:26:00 | If the spreadsheet printed gridlines and/or had shaded cells it would suck ink. Also tends to be much more coverage on a large table of data like you would see in a spreadsheet. It's horses for courses. I would never use an inkjet for printing letters, would use a laser. Got my latest one for like $350 and you could use that in ink pretty quickly. Brother are practically giving one away at the moment, probably not a fancy model but dead cheap. My fax is inkjet and I replace the black cartridge about once every two years. robo. |
robo (205) | ||
| 202013 | 2003-12-22 22:26:00 | Yes, due to the high cost of buying cartridges, even reflll ones at $ 35 a time (mine only lasts me a month and even then I do a lot of printing on economy mode which sucks) I am think of getting a cheap laser. As you say the Brother one is very affordable at $ 399.00 But how much are the laser cartidges/drums etc etc for the Brother ?Because when you come to buy one of those it will hurt a bit I imagine. It is eays to russle up $ 35 for an ink-jet cartridge, but if they were in the hundreds ..... Digby |
Digby (677) | ||
| 202014 | 2003-12-22 23:57:00 | I print a bit for work, and I reckon I would use about 500 pages per two months, and I replace toner about once every two years at the most. I can live with that. robo. |
robo (205) | ||
| 202015 | 2003-12-23 00:09:00 | The toner cartridges are certainly expensive, but when you work out the cost per page it seems much nicer. A unit which gives 6000 pages is worth more than one which does 100 pages. :D A toner cartridge for the laser I am using at the moment is $60. That compares well with an inkjet cartridge, even though I have refilled the toner cartridge myself --- I paid $5 for the printer, so I felt mean. ;-) |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 202016 | 2003-12-23 21:28:00 | I used a HP inkjet for about five years and it averaged about six months which I reckon was nowhere near long enough. The last cartridges that I DIDN'T buy were priced at $130 total. I threw the printer out and bought an Epsom for under $200 complete with cartridges. THEY LASTED SIX WEEKS. That printer is now in the local rubbish tip. I now have a Panasonic Laser printer whish cost under $500. It's still running nicely on it's delivery toner. I didn't miss the lack of colour one little bit....UNTIL I wanted to print a few colour photos. I took them into a so called photo lab. They cost me $70. X-( I am now thinking of getting a colour laser. I see there are some at under $1000. Does anyone have one of these. Are they any good? And what are the running costs? Last time I looked at a colour laser the price was about $15,000. I am a bit dubious about one at $1,000. ?:| Jack |
JJJJJ (528) | ||
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