Printer ink minefield

Mikey17

It's always been a massive annoyance to me the cost of buying ink cartridges. It cannot be that 3ml of ink can cost £10 +.
Over recent years I've used quite a few online suppliers of compatible inks with varying results. Cartridges rejected, bad printing results, and dubious ink levels. Because some of these cartridges are not genuine the ink levels will not show. I've had XL ones run out very soon.
I am utterly determined not to give HP any of my money or install any ' updates ' on my printer.
My last black ink was purchased from Tesco ( there brand ) , a lot of printing was done and I was amazed the long time this standard size cartridge lasted .
Today I bought a Wilko brand twin pack ( black/colour ) of HP 301 inks for £ 17 , upon insertion a message said " re manufactured HP cartridges, the inks work perfectly and the ink levels show full to the brim. They contain 6 ml black and 7.5 ml tri-colour.
Wilko also sell HP brand twin pack for £ 27 and they only contain 3 ml.
So the Wilko brand are £ 10 cheaper with double the amount of ink.
:T
What I don't understand is on Tesco and Wilko reviews some people state these cartridges didn't work
My conclusion is HP reps are writing these negative comments to put people off.
Well done Wilko's

poppellerant

My main gripe with third party inks is that the blacks don't seem to be very black, more of a dark grey. I've tried different manufacturers and all the blacks look washed out.

Carrot007

Well you main problem is going to be buying cheap horrible printers.


Always get a decent printyer with at least 5 cartridges.


On my canon I can get repalcements off amazon for under a quid for each of them. Tri-colour carts are an affront to the the environment.


Also remember to print a page every couple of weeks to keep things from drying up. (no I do not want a laser, ymmv).

poppasmurf_bewdley

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned HP's Instant Ink scheme.

I only use my printer very sporadically, and having bought it on a deal from Amazon (a Deskjet 2600) for the amazing price of £15, I first got the first three months of ink for free, and now I pay the grand total of £1.99 a month via my credit card.

For this I get to print up to 20 sheets of A4 a month. New ink cartridges are sent to me before they are needed, so unlike before I never run out of ink.

All this for less than £25 a year! I really don't think it can be beaten.

There are other scheme for those who need to print more.

Mikey17

poppellerant wrote: »

My main gripe with third party inks is that the blacks don't seem to be very black, more of a dark grey. I've tried different manufacturers and all the blacks look washed out.

I see, I suppose it depends what you are printing, ours is mainly word docs, so not so much of a problem

Carrot007 wrote: »

Always get a decent printyer with at least 5 cartridges.

I wish I had got a single colour type printer instead of the tri-colour

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned HP's Instant Ink scheme.

We have a amateur writer in the family, who can print literally dozens of sheets . So that might work out a bit expensive,, very convenient though

tgon

I am lazy and always buy original ink specified by my printer.

Frozen_up_north

Mikey17 wrote: »

We have a amateur writer in the family, who can print literally dozens of sheets . So that might work out a bit expensive,, very convenient though

I have both a HP colour inkjet and a Samsung mono laser. The laser was quite cheap (circa £50) and costs very little per page with 3rd party toner/drum units, it churns out pages like they are going out of fashion and doesn't "dry up".

99% of the time we use the laser, the ink in the HP has dried up and I'm reluctant to buy any more cartridges. The Samsung (and Brother) mono laser printers just "work", and for basic document printing are hard to beat for a home user.

JohnB47

poppellerant wrote: »

My main gripe with third party inks is that the blacks don't seem to be very black, more of a dark grey. I've tried different manufacturers and all the blacks look washed out.

I have a Brother printer and I found the same as you - when I choose 'black and white' printing the blacks appear grey.

Then I read the online manual, where it says that if you choose 'black and white' and print single sided, it uses only the black cartridge ink but if you print double sided, it uses a combination of colours to produce black - which produces the dark grey result.

How weird is that?

stripeyfox

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned HP's Instant Ink scheme.

I only use my printer very sporadically, and having bought it on a deal from Amazon (a Deskjet 2600) for the amazing price of £15, I first got the first three months of ink for free, and now I pay the grand total of £1.99 a month via my credit card.

For this I get to print up to 20 sheets of A4 a month. New ink cartridges are sent to me before they are needed, so unlike before I never run out of ink.

All this for less than £25 a year! I really don't think it can be beaten.

There are other scheme for those who need to print more.

Yeah, I use HP Instant Ink too. I don't do loads of prinitng (or if I do need to I do at work!) but it's handy to have at home for occasional use. I think my plan is £2.99/month for 100 pages and you can roll some of them over if not used. As you say, they send new ink as and when needed and an envelope to freepost the old ones back for recycling.

I have no real idea if it is "cheaper" or "cheapest" but £3 a month is fine by me - don't have to worry about running out, buying the right cartridges etc

tempus_fugit

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned HP's Instant Ink scheme.

I only use my printer very sporadically, and having bought it on a deal from Amazon (a Deskjet 2600) for the amazing price of £15, I first got the first three months of ink for free, and now I pay the grand total of £1.99 a month via my credit card.

For this I get to print up to 20 sheets of A4 a month. New ink cartridges are sent to me before they are needed, so unlike before I never run out of ink.

All this for less than £25 a year! I really don't think it can be beaten.

There are other scheme for those who need to print more.

20 sheets? I pay £1.99 as well but I get 50 sheets a month plus a maximum carry-over of 50 sheets, so a possible 100 sheets in some months. It's good value IMO as I got the cartridges last year and the shop bought ones would have run out by now and cost me £40-£50 to replace, so it's another vote for Instant Ink from me.

abibee

As mentioned in a reply above, if you don't need colour prints, then a laser printer is the way to go. For a little more than a cheap inkjet (around £50) you can get one of these. Printing is so fast, and no problems of replacing ink frequently, or ink drying up if it's used infrequently. They're like a hidden secret, most people buy an inkjet without thinking, ruling out anything else as costing a fortune, but cheap laser printers are available now.