Peripherals forum: inkjet printers efficient use of ink

so my choices are to waste electricity or waste ink.
I dont want ot print only black but if the color is out I would still like the machine to print in black

Would not print unless the color carts were installed and had some ink.

There are a few members that want a printer that will print without the color cart installed or when the color cart is bone dry.

Try that?

Bob

after about ten minutes. It's a real pain in the neck and no matter what I've tried to get it back to normal, including sys-restore, nothing seems to work. Someone out there ever had this problem? I have an e-machine w/ Altheon64, 384mb ram that I mostly use for web surfing and e-mails.
My HP all-in-one has a key on the interface to copy/print in black only. Also had a cheapo Lexmark (the ink cost more that the printer) and it had that feature. Gotta look around or research some specs. Good luck.

My Lexmark at home and HP (ugh)at work both have the option to print color in black. But your color cartriges need to be in there with ink or the out of ink instructions in the printer override the setting until a good cart is installed.
But hey, if U keep driving at how cheap ink is then where's the beef?

The big rub is that the cartridges are reporting out of ink well before they are out of ink. I have a box of empties I save up and send to Easter Seals. I went and weighed them and they all weigh different - a lot different. So I started using them until they printed no longer and those carts weighed a lot less.
But for convienence it is just easier to switch when told.
After all - we get these printers cheap because their profit is in the ink not the printer.
So why not reward them with the ink profit for doing a decent job with the printers, L0L

I keep reading that laser printers are so much cheaper. I am still trying to figure out how. for the toner I see charges of at least $60/toner cartridge and up to print maybe 2000-3000 pages. For the inkjets I see 5000-7000 pages and inkjets of $25/cartridge. How then do we end up with cheaper printing user laser printers. Looks to me like lasers are about 2-3 times more expensive than inkjets. The inkjets don't print quite as well but then for most people printing the laser quality is not that important.

Then I must say that without the analysis, the commentary makes no sense at all.

If I print 7500 pages and my inkjet cartridges are good for 5000 pages and it costs me $100/fillup, then my 7500 pages cost me $150 total.

If my laser toner cartridges are $250 for the 4 cartridges and they are good for 2500 pages (which is what most of them are that I see reported), then lasers cost me $750 total.

What analysis can you give to refute that?

HP 88 Large Black Ink Cartridge 2580 standard pages
HP 88 Large Magenta Ink Cartridge 2190 standard pages
HP 88 Large Cyan Ink Cartridge 1840 standard pages
HP 88 Large Yellow Ink Cartridge 1650 standard pages

That is for an HP OfficeJet Pro K550


Black cartridges are $34.99 and the others are $24.99 from HP online and can be bought for about half that in OEM.

HP 1600 Color Laser Jet is:

Cartridge Average yield1 Page Example

HP Color LaserJet Q6000A Black Print Cartridge 2500 standard pages
HP Color LaserJet Q6001A Cyan Print Cartridge 2000 standard pages
HP Color LaserJet Q6002A Yellow Print Cartridge 2000 standard pages
HP Color LaserJet Q6003A Magenta Print Cartridge 2000 standard pages


Black laserjet is 74.99 and the colors are 82.99. Big difference in pricing for about the same yield.

Again these are the prices from HP online store. You may be able to do better with an OEM product.

Right now I am using OEM cartridges that cost me a total of $65 for the 4 inkjet cartridges and they are working out well. I am on the 3rd ream of paper and no lessening of quality. I am using regular print, not draft, or I would get more pages still.

Part of the reason for printing is the colors. I am comparing like with like. I am also reporting the cost both as HP hsa it and as I have found with my OEM refills.

If I have a printer that does colors, then I should be comparing it with the laser that also does colors, else why would I be using colors in the first place. Then add the cost of the toner up and you have $300+. Add the inkjets from HP and you have $110. The number of pages per each is approximately the same.

If I stick to a monochrome laser, then of course the limited capability would allow the laser to win. However, if I use the capability of the printer to do colors, then there is absolutely no comparison that the inkjet is far less expensive - and that is comparing the costs at the HP store itself - not refills.

1. It still eats a little color as it starts up.

2. It still won't work when the color carts are empty and you have plenty of black.

I understand what the OP wanted but I haven't found a inkjet that does this. As such the nod is to get the right printer or cheat and fill them all with black.

Bob

I have sold printers before, and I don't know of a single inkjet that will get 7500 pages on a cartridge. There have been a few HP models that have claimed to get close on cost per page. Yet they have some sort of problem normally (un-replaceable head or what not). Therefore they are a 3 year or so printer.

I DON'T KNOW IF THE FOLLOWING WILL WORK ON AN EPSON BUT IT'S WORTH A TRY.
IN THE COLOR SELECTION FILE SELECT "PRINT IN BLACK ONLY" OR "GRAY"..

OCCASIONALLY I RUN OUT OF COLOR AND EVERYTHING GOES SOUTH BUT WHEN DOING AS I SUGGESTED ABOVE I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET DECENT RESULTS WITH BLACK/GRAY ONLY, IF NEEDING TO PRINT TEXT ONLY..
GOOD LUCK

I did endless research when my HP1000 wouldn't work with any of the new computers (HP won't provide a driver for it, and it just happens to keep printing forever in black even if the color is dried up, and has a huge #45 black cartridge holding 42 ml for $30 that lasted me 6 months) and the Kodak wins hands down in the pages per dollar of ink used. I tried HP4240, it only made it to 125 pages in black draft before it ran out, their statistics say 170 pages for one cartridge of black, the 4.5 ml size for $17 at Office Depot. The Kodak has already printed a couple hundred pages of text (using draft) and it hardly made a dent in the black ink. I had trouble the first time I tried to print photos from a card, because I didn't know how to remove the printhead and reinstall when I would get an error message that it was misaligned or missing. Once I got the reply from Kodak and did it, it worked like a dream and no glitches since. After the 4240 fiasco I bought a HP 5180 (before I knew the Kodak existed) because it at least had a 16ml black cartridge showing on the box. Alas when I got home and started checking on the price of replacements, they only make a 10 ml to fit it. The 16 ml that comes with it is to keep you going past the time you have to return it to the store. So I returned it without even cutting the tape on the box. :o))

Go to Kodak website and look for their usage chart - I think they are being conservative. And even better - they use pigment ink instead of dyes. You know how water or dampness on an inkjet page melts the ink and it runs off in puddles of color? Kodak ink is water resistant and doesn't melt. I just stuck a page under the water faucet and wet it good, I can tell when it's completely dry the ink will still be in place. Your photos won't start fading in the sun either.

I had an epson and an hp injet. I bought a color lazer and a mono lazer and tossed both inkjets in the garbage. The mono is a konica minolta page pro 1350w and the colour is a konica minolta 2500 w. These are both bottom end printers but produce excellent results. With the mono printer, i can order a toner refill kit (6000 pages)for around $20.00 plus shipping on ebay. The color printer refill kits are more expensive and you need 4 (black plus the 3 basic colors). Cost for all 4 refill kits is about $120 on ebay. (good for around 3000 sheets). The cost difference for the refills is why I have the 2 printers. Also note that the drums are only good for 16,000 to 20,000 prints (for most home use the printer should be obsolete by the time you reach this number). I have had these printers going on 2 years now and refilled the mono one once. - no problems and easy - also note that the cartriges that come with the printer are only filled to give 1000 or so prints - then you have to replace or refill. I find refill easier than for an ink jet and you should be able to refill a cartridge about 3 times before you need to replace it. Then the choice is to replace it or buy a new printer (depending on cost).
What ever brand of printer you may decide to buy if operating costs are important to you, my advice would be to first check the cost of supplies on ebay.