Cheapest ink costs for a school

devonpie

Hi
I wrote a thread about this last week, but didn't really explain my problem that well, so I'm starting a new thread.

I work in a primary school. We have a Laser jet printer (HP color laserjet CP3505n) Its an excellent printer, but our ink costs are astronomical despite buying remanufactured toner cartridges. This is the only printer in the school and is used by all classes (11 classes). Last year we spent £2500 on ink.

I must get the printing costs down. One way is to re-educate people about their printing habits, which are wasteful, and I am going to do this.

But I think I want to get 4 or 5 different printers, 1 for each department in the school. I've looked at Kodak's print and prosper and, whilst initially impressed, have read reviews suggesting the cheap ink cartridges tend to run out rather quickly, negating that saving.

Other questions that spring to mind are:
- Are conventional cartridge ink printers more expensive to run than our laser printer?
- How can I get individual teachers/departments to be more responsible for their printing costs? Some departments naturally need to print more and some are more wasteful than others.
A friend has talked of software that can provide printing accounts, where I can monitor who is using what or magnetic cards that need to be entered into a slot to enable printing. This is why I've thought of buying more printers, people can then order their own ink out of their departmental budgets.

One more thing, any new printer would need to have an ethernet port to connect up to our network.

This is a real headache for me and any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Owain_Moneysaver

You can get networked colour photocopiers, they work as laser printers off the network and you can also scan to / print from USB stick, have PIN access code for copies.

Depending on rental agreement you would probably pay under 2p/page for black and under 5p/page for colour.

Forget inkkjets unless you use a continuous ink supply system. (Other systems available)

zee_2

HP is about the worst for ink costs [ that is why so many up for sale]
for ink try..https://www.inkemporium.co.uk have sed 5 years no trouble and free postage
ps next time you buy a printer , any model you fancy , please price ink first...good are epson and brother...but check model as 1 or 2 models are pricy for ink....zee

Ink_Guru

Agree with the above post. Epson and Canon's are the some of the cheapest inks around whilst still having good prints. Most decent online retailers offer competetive prices and if you are a school they generally offer school accounts offering savings or 30day intrest free accounts. Software for the printer problem would be the best way to check up on where you use the most ink, as magentic cards can be costly and with the amount you'll need them there's not much point.

Bollotom

Once worked for TfL (Underground) and we allowed anyone to use the copier but there was a facility for each department to be on a password and then each individual in each department to have their own password. This allowed us to monitor printing. Doubt you're going to reduce waste as this comes with educating people to print only the amount of copies they need. But a copier may be better than a "Printer":cool:

wrumble

Id recommend Brother laser jet printers for a couple reasons. The main one being that you can buy reliable compatible toner cartridges that have really high page yields for a tiny price. Secondly they seem to target businesses so you shouldnt have to much trouble networking them all together. Check the prices of the brother toner on this website whilst looking at the page yield. The cheaper cartridges really boast a good a argument themselves.

http://www.compatible-inkjet-cartridges.co.uk/brother-dcp8025ddn_2440.htm

Its definately a good make each department responsible for paying for their printer use, its the only way you can guarantee they will try to minimise their use, as it wil only benefit them. It also passes the buck on from you to someone else. Obviously though this should mean that your budget will go down as your not buying the ink/toner anymore. And they should see an increase in theirs, which they will like untill they understand the full implications.

rrf494g

My suggestion for consideration would be . . .

to use a cheap inkjet printer in each department and to use re-fillable ink cartridges (refilled by yourself from bulk ink). You could charge per sheet of paper and per cartrige refill. I have been doing this for 2 years now without problem on two printers. Re-fillable cartridges can be bought as such, or you can make your own by drilling a hole in an existing cartridge and fitting a plug. Both options are available on-line as either purpose made refillable cartridges or "kits to convert". A further option (which I do not recommend) is to convert the printers to "bulk flow" ink tanks, and again kits are available to do this (but it's fiddley- and an engineering project).

I find canon printers are best as they have re-movable print heads that can be cleaned if a major blockage occurs (no use over summer hols?). I have found no difference in reliability using re-filled cartridges, from "original". In this way the cost of inks nearly dissapears. Yes, check out prices on-line.

NB I recently read an article that showed that printer ink (when bought in conventional "original" cartridges) is about the most expensive liquid in the world that is commercially available in retail form.

zee_2

for printers ,I have found that to price refills before buying printers makes sense ,also run model through google to find performance ,I have a brother multifunction and a epson inkjet. The epson and brother can be set to print in black only , it helps to reduce ink costs.I have used inkemporium.co.uk for 5 years , free delivers and keen prices with no complaint , HP and others heavy on ink also all inkjet auto check jets and use ink.

closed

Buy a duplex black and white laser, and look around the web for cost per page comparisons, keep the colour one in sight, so you can see who's wasting the ink.

diable

Networked laser printer is the way to go you could also go down the route of users entering a code as then it can be charged per print to each department. Follow me printers are the way to go but that means investment.

slummymummyof3

You could also use bag2school who pay you for recycling printer cartridges as well as paying for collections of 2nd hand clothing/footwear/cuddly toys etc - fundraiser for school!!!!