which inkjet with lowest cost ink?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Talal Itani
  • Start date Start date
Talal said:
Which new inkjet printer has the lowest cost ink, per coverage?

Probably my Canons refilled with aftermarket ink (HobbiColors).

I just paid $26 US for enough photo ink (the 4 dye colors) to fill 15
(fifteen!) sets of cartridges. If I had bought genuine Canon cartridges
my cost would have been over $1,000.

Lowest cost ink per coverage?... per page?... per letter?.... Forget it,
at the price I pay for ink I don't ever have to calculate how much
something will cost to print. It's totally irrelevant. It's a shame OEM
printer makers with their expensive inks have reduced some of us to
counting droplets of their precious ink to see if they can afford to
print something. There's something very, very wrong with that. I think
simple one color OEM cartridges should cost no more than $3 each ($15
for a set of 5 in a typical Canon printer). Yeah, that's right, $3!

-Taliesyn
 
Get the Kodak. Read this.........


Why I endorsed the Kodak 5100, 5300, & 5500 printer that everybody
hates!!!

FACT: Kodak will be selling their OEM ink fo $10.00 for black and
white, $15.00 for tri-color. They will also have a combo (color/
black&white) for $21.99 (bestbuy.com). These ridiculously low prices
is for Kodak OEM ink. Of coarse you will need to buy a new printer
such as the Kodak 5000 series, starting at $149.00.

WHY PRINTER COMPANIES HATE KODAK (FACT): The major printer companies
(Canon, Epson, HP) hate this printer because it's going to cause a
price war on the ink. Printer companies in general don't make much
money on printers, and sometime lose money when they sell printers.
However, they make a lot of money on the ink. An article in CNET NEWS
stated, "Printing is HP's most profitable business and it relies
heavily on customer purchases of its ink cartridges, which offer much
better profit margin than the actual printing hardware." (http://
news.com.com/8300-10784_3-7-0.html?keyword=ink+cartridges) Epson even
did a very negative article about the Kodak printer and accused them
of having poor tank efficiency. The ironic thing is Epson is
notorious known for poor ink tank efficiency. (http://
www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/5706).

WHY AFTER-MARKET INK COMPANIES HATE KODAK (FACT): If Kodak sells this
ink for so cheap $21.99 for the tri-color and black&white, the after
market ink companies are going to have a hard time competing. The
price that Kodak is selling their 2 pack for $21.99 is cheaper then
most after-market ink. The last time I paid for an 'after-market
combo HP 56 and 57' was about $25.00.

WHY PEOPLE ON THE BULLETIN BOARDS HATE THIS PRINTER (THEORY): I have
come to believe that this bulletin board is run by people that have a
financial interest in either the 'printer companies that charge a lot
for OEM ink' or the 'after-market ink companies'. Therefore, you
will find a lot of post that hate me in general, because I'm endorsing
an item that will cause both companies to lose money: the major
printer companies and the after market ink companies. This thread
will not be moderated, and you will see people bashing me on the
following post. However, watch how they bash me. Can they back up
their Opinions with Facts?

OPINION: I totally endorse this printer since you will be saving a
lot of money on ink. However, this is still not the cheapest way to
go. If you actually refill your ink cartridges yourself (I'm not
talking about buying after market ink cartridges) then you will still
be saving more money then this Kodak printer. However, if you are
sick and tired of refilling, then you got to take a look at this
printer.

Here's are some link to do some research on yourself.....

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/resources/streaming/KodakEasyShare...

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=9/1441/10580/111...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2090449,00.asp

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/06/kodak-enters-the-desktop-printer-m...

http://reviews.cnet.com/multifunction-devices/kodak-easyshare-5300-al...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2121643,00.asp

http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2007/06/08/Kodak-EasySh...

http://www.printerspot.com/reviews/kodak/es5300-review/index.php

(No, I don't work for Kodak. I don't even own this printer yet.
However, I do hope that Kodak might consider giving me this printer
for free since I wrote such a positive article about them. Kodak, if
you are interested in donating a 5000 series printer to me, please
send me a email to my mailing address.)
 
It depends what cost really is. If the ink clogs your printhead then it
is very costly. If you print only your best photos and you do not have
a heavy printload then the money you save will not be great. And in
that case why not get the longest lasting highest quality prints.

Now if you are a kid or a high school student then quality and longevity
are not considerations and $$$ is the only thing that matters.
 
Taliesyn said:
Probably my Canons refilled with aftermarket ink (HobbiColors).

I just paid $26 US for enough photo ink (the 4 dye colors) to fill 15
(fifteen!) sets of cartridges. If I had bought genuine Canon cartridges
my cost would have been over $1,000.

Lowest cost ink per coverage?... per page?... per letter?.... Forget it,
at the price I pay for ink I don't ever have to calculate how much
something will cost to print. It's totally irrelevant. It's a shame OEM
printer makers with their expensive inks have reduced some of us to
counting droplets of their precious ink to see if they can afford to
print something. There's something very, very wrong with that. I think
simple one color OEM cartridges should cost no more than $3 each ($15
for a set of 5 in a typical Canon printer). Yeah, that's right, $3!

I'm a little lazier than you. I buy BCI-6 carts filled with after
market ink for less than $1.70 shipped to my door. It will be a sad day
when our BCI-6 based printers die. I thoroughly enjoy the luxury of
inexpensive, quality ink that are available for them from a number of
suppliers. We have saved thousands of dollars in ink purchases over the
years.

To the original poster, get a Canon printer with the BCI-8 cartridges.
They seem to be easy to refill. You could also scour ebay for a BCI-6
based printer if you want the option of buying inexpensive cartridges
like I do.
 
measekite said:
It depends what cost really is. If the ink clogs your printhead then it
is very costly. If you print only your best photos and you do not have
a heavy printload then the money you save will not be great.

Lie #1

And in
that case why not get the longest lasting highest quality prints.

Lie #2
Now if you are a kid or a high school student then quality and longevity
are not considerations and $$$ is the only thing that matters.

Only an idiot like you would mislead people on purpose.
Frank
 
Which brand cartridges do you use?


Michael Johnson said:
I'm a little lazier than you. I buy BCI-6 carts filled with after market
ink for less than $1.70 shipped to my door. It will be a sad day when our
BCI-6 based printers die. I thoroughly enjoy the luxury of inexpensive,
quality ink that are available for them from a number of suppliers. We
have saved thousands of dollars in ink purchases over the years.

To the original poster, get a Canon printer with the BCI-8 cartridges.
They seem to be easy to refill. You could also scour ebay for a BCI-6
based printer if you want the option of buying inexpensive cartridges like
I do.
 
In the past, I bought pre-filled cartridges for my series 3 Canon. The
printer failed, and I do not know what caused it to fail. I bought a BCI-8
printer, and I now fear using after-market cartridges. If you are aware of
good BCI-8 aftermarket cartridges, please let me know.
 
I used to use Tyler Martin but they increased their price awhile back so
I tried Neximaging. I bought cartridges for my Canon N2000 from them
and they are inexpensive and work flawlessly in that printer so that is
why I tried them. Their BCI-6 cartridges have also worked flawlessly in
our iP4000, MP780, i9100 and i960 printers and at $1.59 per cartridge
with very reasonable shipping ($10 for around 50 cartridges) they are a
screaming deal for us. My wife doesn't like refilling and I don't care
to have to come running when she runs out of ink so these inexpensive
cartridges are perfect for us. As with you, ink cost is never a concern
in our house. :)

Here's a link:

https://www.neximaging.com/
 
Talal said:
In the past, I bought pre-filled cartridges for my series 3 Canon. The
printer failed, and I do not know what caused it to fail. I bought a BCI-8
printer, and I now fear using after-market cartridges. If you are aware of
good BCI-8 aftermarket cartridges, please let me know.

Since these cartridges are chipped there are little options that are
better than refilling, IMO. This is why I treasure our non-chipped,
BCI-6 based printers. There is no penalty to using after market
cartridges in these printers and the corresponding cost savings, and
convenience, is addictive.

Have you considered looking on ebay for a Canon iP4000, iP5000, MP780 or
an "i" series printer? You might pay a little more for a new or
refurbished one but, IMO, the cost/convenience regarding ink use is
worth it over the newer chipped printers.
 
Sorry, I thought I was responding to Taliesyn.

Michael said:
I used to use Tyler Martin but they increased their price awhile back so
I tried Neximaging. I bought cartridges for my Canon N2000 from them
and they are inexpensive and work flawlessly in that printer so that is
why I tried them. Their BCI-6 cartridges have also worked flawlessly in
our iP4000, MP780, i9100 and i960 printers and at $1.59 per cartridge
with very reasonable shipping ($10 for around 50 cartridges) they are a
screaming deal for us. My wife doesn't like refilling and I don't care
to have to come running when she runs out of ink so these inexpensive
cartridges are perfect for us. As with you, ink cost is never a concern
in our house. :)

Here's a link:

https://www.neximaging.com/
 
Have you considered looking on ebay for a Canon iP4000, iP5000, MP780 or
an "i" series printer? You might pay a little more for a new or
refurbished one but, IMO, the cost/convenience regarding ink use is worth
it over the newer chipped printers.

I was told that the series 8 ink cartridges can be refilled, yet the
ink-level indicator would not function. If this is true, why would a series
6 ink be preferable?
 
Talal said:
I was told that the series 8 ink cartridges can be refilled, yet the
ink-level indicator would not function. If this is true, why would a series
6 ink be preferable?

The cartridges are more plentiful, cheaper and you retain full
functionality of the printer. If you don't mind refilling and
non-functional ink indicators then the CLI-8 based printers will work
fine. From a print quality standpoint I don't think there is much
difference, if any, between them. You can buy prefilled after market
CLI-8 cartridges but you need to remove the chip from the OEM cartridge
and stick it on the after market cartridge for them to work at all.
Then you still won't have ink monitoring capability.

Maybe someone will come up with a chip reseter but that hasn't happened
yet and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for one. I would take a new
or refurbished iP5000 over any of the newer Canon printers. Even if I
had to pay well over $150 for it. Others may have a different opinion.
Look at these ebay auctions to see how desirable new or refurbished
BCI-6 based printer have become.

http://tinyurl.com/2bb9ub
http://tinyurl.com/yq74t7
http://tinyurl.com/2fajsw
 
In general, the four color printers are cheapest run (CMYK), especially
if you will use 3rd party cartridges or refill inks.

Look for 4 color printers with a very small dot to get good image
quality and low ink use. That's 1 or 2 picolitre size drops.

Dye inks are usually cheaper and easier to work with and have a longer
shelf life.

Art
 
Arthur said:
In general, the four color printers are cheapest run (CMYK), especially
if you will use 3rd party cartridges or refill inks.

Look for 4 color printers with a very small dot to get good image
quality and low ink use. That's 1 or 2 picolitre size drops.

Dye inks are usually cheaper and easier to work with and have a longer
shelf life.

Art
Hmmm. Shelf life... Art, do you have any figures on the average shelf
life of bulk inks? I'm wondering about pigmented black and dye-based CMY
inks in particular. Of course, I'm sure it depends on storage
conditions, but what's a good average?

TJ
 
TJ said:
Hmmm. Shelf life... Art, do you have any figures on the average shelf
life of bulk inks? I'm wondering about pigmented black and dye-based CMY
inks in particular. Of course, I'm sure it depends on storage
conditions, but what's a good average?

TJ


I have an 8 oz bottle of pure pigment (for Canon) from Atlanticinkjet. I
should be through it in about 2 years.

I just bought 4 x 4 oz bottles of color dye (for Canon) from
HobbiColors. I should be through them in, maximum, 2 years. If you don't
print that often, stick with smaller bottles - 2 and 4 oz. I wouldn't
buy 8 oz dye unless I split the order with my neighbour or I printed an
awful lot.

I'm in the basement so the temperature rarely goes over 70 degrees F /
21 C. Ink storage for the longer term isn't a big issue for me. I think
a dark place for ink bottles would be recommended.

-Taliesyn
 
Brand New Ink Cartridges are 99 cents on eBay with free shipping.

Just in case you are in the market for new ink cartridges, they are
the cheapest on eBay. An example is if you own the Canon i960
printer. Go to eBay and type in keyword, "18 ink cartridge for Canon
i960". The total price will be less then $18.00 shipped, that's about
99 cents each.

It doesn't matter what quantity, what brand(Canon, Epson, HP,
Lexmark), they are still the cheapest on eBay. Shop around for the
best price, there is so much competition on eBay that the only real
winner is the consumer.

Sincerely,
Cheaper On eBay
 
You do know that by spamming this newsgroup you are costing yourself
business and not increasing it? I NEVER buy from spammers that post
here no matter how much I might save. I'm not alone here with that view
point.
 
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