Considering buying a new printer... Some things you should know.

So considering buying a new printer.   Think it should be easy, just buy whatever is on special at the local store ?  That decision could cost you hundreds extra over the life of your printer.

These days printer companies have made their latest model printers cheap to buy.  I have seen locally inkjet multifunction printers for as little as $45.00.  You say what a bargain, a brand new printer for $45.00.

When a printer ships to the store they have first run ink cartridges these are typically less than 50% full.  So you don't get a full set of ink when the printer is new.  The companies do this to get you to buy new ink as soon as possible.  Now this is when you see the full cost of owning the new printer.  Cartridges vary in price, but you can be sure that a black ink could set you back $50.00 (example).  Hang on you say that's more than the cost of the printer.  Yes it is.  Now if you have a single color cartridges these can typically set you back $20.00 or more for each color most have CMYK color system so your up for 3 inks (example).  Even more insidious is that more and more  printers require you to have ink in each slot so should you run out of say yellow, you cant just print a black and white document.

Similar applies to laser printers, and the more complex the laser the more the cost.  Things like drums can also be added to their cost to run.  Color again is more expensive. Imagine the shock you get when you go to your local store to get a set of cartridges and you walk out with no change from $200.00.

So whats the solution what do you do to try and reduce the overall costs of running printers.  There are a couple of solutions.

Firstly buying an after market ink or toner replacement.  These are often far cheaper than the OEM replacement from the manufacturer.  Quality and how long the refills last does tend to vary depending on the supplier.  I have had two different brands of replacement cartridges for a canon pixma, one did nearly twice the amount of printing they were both around the same price. On the laser front I have tried replacements and have found it impossible to tell the difference between the OEM and the replacement.

The other option is to do your own refill.  Now I havent done one of these in a long time, but its not to difficult to do and with a little patience you can refill.  The cost is significantly lower.  The only draw back I have had with this system has been on a laser refill the inbuilt drum in the cartridge became scratched and I had to replace the whole unit and lost the toner I had used.

Finally the cheapest method I have seen is for inkjets.  If your going to do a reasonable volume of printing you should look into CISS (Continuous Ink Supply System).  They in effect add an external tank to your printer.  You then fill those tanks with ink.  Ink is cheap in comparison to the refills.  One company here is offering 1ltr bottles for around $58.00.  When you consider a cartridge holds around 10ml that's a lot of ink for your troubles.  The CISS system varies in price dependent on the printer and model, but start around $100.00 and go up from there.  Also with some models you can get a choice of the type of ink you buy.  An example of that would be a high quality photo ink.

So next time your in the market for a printer, take a good look around see what you can get to make the machine cheaper to run.  If your only doing a couple prints a year then its probably not worth your effort.  However should you be a student or have a family all using the one printer these solutions could save you plenty of money.

NB. All pricing and links are used for example only. All images belong to the copyright holders.