Cheaper To Buy A New Printer Than Replacement Toners

Lovingitifitsabargain

My mum has a Dell printer checking out 'cheap web sites' for replacement inks for it has shown that none are that cheap - I am thinking maybe better to buy a new printer as sure we could get one for around 40 that comes with the toners !!
I am sure I fournd a website before and I got the toners for my Epsom for about a quid each does anyone know the site - I never dreamt it I was so impressed I bought a couple !

Jnelhams

https://www.choicestationery.com

not the cheapest, but good long standing reputation.

blackwid0w

I bought ones for my Epsom from https://www.7dayshop.com, I got the printer FOC via Freecycle after a plea for help when my all-in-one went boom! and found cartridges for it on 7dayshop for 99p each or 10 for £8.99, bought 10 each colour/black and a month or so further on I am still using the cartridgesthat it came with so I'm looking to get a year's worth of print for the same price I was paying for 6-8 weeks on my now defunct HP.

AMO

Some general advice for when you get your new printer.....

There are two main considerations when buying a new printer:
1) Do you need a high resolution printer or will an all-in-one printer do?
2) How often do you print?

Companies make money either:
a) From the printer
b) From the printer cartridges
c) Somewhere in between.
Epson tend to fall into a).
HP and Lex tend to fall into b).
The Dell £10 printers for example fall into b). The printer is heavily subsidised and the cartridges are expensive. Their less-subsidised all-in-one printers give better value on the cartridges.

Printers and their cartridges are usually developed with one of the following stategies:
i) The printer head is on the printer. This allows for a high investment in the printer head giving a very high resolution. The printer cartridges are simply tubs for holding ink. Good for those that print fairly often.
ii) The printer head is on the printer cartridge. The advantage with this technique is that if someone does not use their printer often, if the print head clogs up, you get a new print head with your next cartridge. Whilst this causes problems with refilling a cartridge, it means that you don't have users spending a fortune on a new printer just to have the printer clog and have to pay for an expensive head replacement or a new printer.
iii) Somewhere in between. The print head is seperate to both the printer and the print cartridge giving the best of both worlds.
Epson tend to fall into i).
HP tend to fall into ii).
Canon recently tend to fall into iii).


In summary, if you tend to print very infrequently, buying a cheap printer with expensive cartridges is the best way forward. If you tend to print a lot, investing in a more expensive printer that is less subsidised with the printer head on the printer (or at least not on the cartridges) is the best way forward.

To give an example of a subsidised printer vs a not-so-subsidised printer, compare the £10 Dell 720 printer with the Dell 922 All-In-One Printer. Dell printers are made by Lex.

A black ink cartridge is almost twice the cost £13.50 vs £24.33.
A colour ink cartridge isn't much better £16.50 vs £27.34.

Dell 922 Photo All-in-One Inkjet Printer
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna...rsku=210-13902
Standard Capacity Black Ink Cartridge - for Dell All-in-One Printer 922 (Series 5) £13.50
High Capacity Black Ink Cartridge - for Dell All-in-One Printer 922 (Series 5) £16.50

Standard Capacity Colour Ink Cartridge - for Dell All-in-One Printer 922 (Series 5) £16.00
High Capacity Colour Ink Cartridge - for Dell All-in-One Printer 922 (Series 5) £28.00

Dell 720 Inkjet Printer
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna...rsku=210-13493
Single Black Ink Cartridge for Dell Printers 720/A920 (Series 1) £24.33
Single Colour Ink Cartridge for Dell Printers 720/A920 (Series 1) £27.34

It really depends on what you want to do. HP ink is superior when printing photos that you want to last for years. Epson print heads used to be of the highest resolution. Canon recently became the cheapest to run. Lex at one time had the most ease-of-use printers and were the ones sold through the shopping channels. This is also the reason why Dell use Lex. In general, they were the most easiest of printers to use especially when you get into all-in-one printers and integration with cameras etc.

I know people that spent £300 on very good Epson printers and didn't use them very often. Over time the print head drys up, whether it be sitting in a warm room because of winter and the central heating being on, or whatever other reason, the print head was not as good as it was new. Even those that did print, had grainy lines on the printed images where the print head had clogged to a minimal effect.

I also know people that mainly print out letters and only really change the printer cartridge once a year or even less. For those people, going for something like a HP Printer is the best. Even though carts are expensive, the printers are cheap for what you get and replacing a black ink cartridge every year or so isn't really that big a deal and you are safe knowing that even if the print head clogs up, so what?

AMO

NickMidgley

I am thinking maybe better to buy a new printer as sure we could get one for around 40 that comes with the toners !!

Bear in mind that with many printers when you buy them new the toner/ink cartridges supplied with them aren't full. In these cases, what you're suggesting above doesn't really make financial sense!

I would agree, 7DayShop is as good a place as any to get compatible cartridges. I've bought them from ebay in the past but quality is...errrr... variable, to say the least!

ManAtHome

Great round-up from AMO, only thing I'd add is to consider a cheap mono laser if you print reasonable volumes and don't need colour. Maybe a colour laser if you don't want to print glossy photos - they work quite well as poster-type prints though.