Printer ink - how much???

PaulJM

Hi all,

I recently bought a multifunction Canon Printer - it's been great for scanning in documents, it will scan negatives, and the quality for printing is brilliant.
I've had Canons before, and always found them really good.

I've just noticed though, that after about 2 months usage (and very low printing, just documents mainly in low quality, and NO photos) that I'm nearly out of ink - pretty much all 6 (!) chambers are empty.
I have followed the instructions and not turned the machine off (it runs on a very low standby, and this stops it from retesting the ink when you switch on), and been very careful with the quality settings, but it seems to be drinking the ink still!

I did my research before buying, and looked at the ink yealds, and it all seemed reasonably competetive (I've pasted below), I even worked on the theory that cheaper printers tend to use more/have more expensive ink, to discount the actual machine - but this is not a cheap machine. I was also told that the Kodaks, where the ink is cheaper to buy, only have a couple of chambers, so they need replacing more, but it doesn't seem to stand up here, like I say, this one has 6.
At £70 for all of them, if this happens every month to two on low usage, I can't afford to print!
I've tried cheaper cartridges, and some actually clogged up my old Canon, so I don't want to go down that path. I have found Cartridge World stuff fine, but even they want £8 a tank - which isn't enough of a saving to not use the official ones.

Anyone got any thoughts on this? Are these official yealds always right, or are they like the MPG figures on a car - calculated in very controlled conditions.
I've already made the these points to Canon, and they just refer me back to the official yeald figures, but I'm almost positive I'm doing far, far less.
PIXMA MG8150
Mixed text and graphics
Ink tank Average yield (pages)
PGI-525BK Pigment black 328
CLI-526BK Black 2185*
CLI-526C Cyan 462
CLI-526M Magenta 437
CLI-526Y Yellow 450
CLI-526GY Grey 1515*
Colour photo (10x15cm)
Ink tank Average yield (photos)
PGI-525BK Pigment black 4170*
CLI-526BK Black 670*
CLI-526C Cyan 345
CLI-526M Magenta 345
CLI-526Y Yellow 290
CLI-526GY Grey 171

squirrelz

if it's the original inks you got with the printer, they're quite often "part-filled" cartridges, rather than full ones.

PaulJM

squirrelz wrote: »

if it's the original inks you got with the printer, they're quite often "part-filled" cartridges, rather than full ones.

You could well be right - it doesn't refer to them as such, but they probably don't need to.
Interestingly, these unboxed packs are sold on EBAY quite cheaply. I wonder if they are selling them part full too..I nearly bought some myself!

Lifeforms

What model is your printer?
Carts supplied with new printers are reduced capacity carts. They have far less than a full brand new cart bought off the shelf will have. You wont get truly accurate readings until you switch over to new carts.

Also it helps to try and maximise settings to be more efficient. For example, most letters or black text documents do not need to be printed in "best" quality. Always make sure your default settings are set to normal quality, and print in greyscale (black only), commonly set through printer settings, under default.
Then as you need to print out in colour, or for best, change them when you print through the standard printer dialog box. That way you never "forget" Do webpages really need images printed out with them? Same as invoices. Instead of printing out invoices, print to PDF and save them (especially if you get an email copy too, then places like gmail that allow massive storage, search, and no deletion of old emails come into their own)
Photos, print poor quality, greyscale till you're happy the image is in right place/size, then switch to colour/photo, good/best quality.

Ultimately there is someone there who just does printing. It is never guaranteed to get the same yield of whatever manufacturer says, it's averaged out etc, and too hard to follow the exact process.

Ink is dear. It's a commodity, that many people need, so it will never be dirt cheap, but the majority of stuff doesn't always need to be printed out, or can be select printed. ie a paragraph of a certain site through "print selection" rather than print the whole page out.
Generally shop and buy when there are offers on official carts is my best opinion. So BOGOF, BOGOHP (half price), two for £15, or use vouchers to reduce them. If you go down the route of replacements (ie not originally filled carts) then expect varying results, and amounts per cart, same as refilling.

PaulJM

Thanks - really helpful answer.

I'm really careful with my printing, and the kids are in the same habit.
I always use low quality greyscale for everything but work or assignments.
I've used this printer very very little since i got it.

But as I said above, you're quite right, they could be a low capicity. The containers they're in look like the 'real' ones, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are.
Also as I said before, these 'set up' cartridges are sold on EBAY with no mention of them being reduced - something to look out for I guess.

InsideInsurance

Cant say with Canon but with my latest Epson printer Epson claimed the supplied cartridges are actually larger capacity than the standard not less (and in fact when they were missing and I tried to first turn it on with standard inks it rejected them saying I must use the higher capacity ones for the first time)


The one thing that certainly is true is that the first time you use a printer it has to charge the system. With some printers in particular that alone can take a massive amount of ink, esp if (like my printer) the inks dont actually move during printing and so have fairly long tubes going to the print head.

Printers are fairly close to being a loss leader, in fact my old printer was sold at only £5 more than the RRP for a set of inks, as it is the inks that they make their money on either in direct sales or fees to the licensed 3rd party manufacturers.

You can get both unauthorised 3rd party versions and also continuous ink systems and some of these can be ok. My problem was always that whilst 90% of them were good and you got consistent colour reproduction etc you would occasionally get some that were just way off and I had a disturbing correlation between those bad cartridges and the printer stopping working properly (most the time solvable).

PaulJM

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Printers are fairly close to being a loss leader, in fact my old printer was sold at only £5 more than the RRP for a set of inks, as it is the inks that they make their money on either in direct sales or fees to the licensed 3rd party manufacturers.

Yes, I thought this, but I paid £170 for mine (which was a good deal on this model) I've had £40 ones before, and understood why the inks were do expensive. it's like buying a wet shave for a fiver and paying a fortune for the blades.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

You can get both unauthorised 3rd party versions and also continuous ink systems and some of these can be ok. My problem was always that whilst 90% of them were good and you got consistent colour reproduction etc you would occasionally get some that were just way off and I had a disturbing correlation between those bad cartridges and the printer stopping working properly (most the time solvable).

I agree. There was an unfortunate correlation between me getting some very cheap inks for my last Canon and it breaking. It was always fine on the Cartridge World ones, but they are hardly any cheaper than the official ones.

esuhl

I've always used unbranded chipless cartridges -- in the last 15 years or so, at least. I've never had any problems with cheap ink, and besides, a set of compatible inks costs me about £3. The proper Canon chipped ones cost around £50 a set. So, just buying one set has saved me almost as much as the printer cost...

Gloomendoom

I've just had a low ink warning on my canon printer. This is the best value source for unbranded chipped cartridges that I have found...

http://www.inkredible.co.uk

andy2004

ouch. just checked out the link above. what a rip. for my sx200 epson £4.99 a cartridge and only 7.4ml of ink in each. better of using ebay and paying 50p for 21ml cartridges.

i'm assuming your printer is the PIXMA MG8150 as you mentioned it in your post which seems to be a 5 set of cartridges

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-TOP-QUALITY-ink-cartridges-Canon-Pixma-Printers-PGI-525BK-CLI-526BKCMY-/120826187626?pt=UK_BOI_Office_Office_Supplies_Stationery_ET&var=&hash=item61cd2fdd12

5 set of cartridges chipped
PGI-525BK Pigment black 328 20ml
CLI-526BK Black 2185* 12ml
CLI-526C Cyan 462 12ml
CLI-526M Magenta 437 12ml
CLI-526Y Yellow 450 12ml

or http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-Ink-Cartridge-Pixma-MG6250-MG8250-MG6150-MG8150-PGI525-CLI526-Inc-Grey-/160766335378?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_Printing_PrinterInkCatridges_JN&hash=item256e6b9992

all 6 including the grey, all chipped. £8.95
PGI-525BK Pigment black 328 18ml
CLI-526BK Black 2185* 10.5ml
CLI-526C Cyan 462
CLI-526M Magenta 437
CLI-526Y Yellow 450
CLI-526GY Grey 1515*

note: i do not own any of the business's these are to give the OP an idea

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/REXTRAS-LTD just another shop that sells them.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/rexccs/Canon-Ink-Cartridge-/_i.html?_nkw=mg8150&submit=Search&_fsub=1424494010&_sid=723997490 and another one.

clangnuts

Consider a cheap mono laser printer. I bought a HP 1018 (don't think they make that particular one any more, but they still do cheap ones) about 5 years ago and it's still working on the original supplied toner. The printer cost £49 in a sale!