Peripherals forum: Need low TCO inkjet printer recommendation

It seems like TCO was a concern before 2003 and now its faded away again. I have searched for several hours, looking for a replacement for our Canon iP3000 printers on the production floor of a business.

What we want is a relatively inexpensive inkjet printer (not all-in-one) that we can get cheap replacement cartridges and printheads for. The print quality is not that important, it just has to produce readable documents at a reasonable speed. Color is not that important, we generally just run a black cartridge. (Must be able to function without the other colors.) The Canon iP3000 was a ~$100-$150 printer, and we can still get non-OEM inks for $0.39 each.

I bought some Canon iP3500s, thinking they might use the same inks, but the 3500s have a microchip on the cartridge, making replacements extremely expensive. I thought about returning them, but I've been unable to find a new inkjet printer of ANY brand/model with inexpensive cartridges.

We go through a black cartridge about every 2 weeks, so $15+ each is outrageous and unacceptable. The iP3000 printers generally lasted 2-3 years on the floor, but they are now starting to die in large numbers.

Can anyone help?