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Printers & cartridges
Feb. 13th, 2010 06:38 pmI have been monitoring the ink usage of my printer to see how efficient it is(n't). Some time ago hibernia (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alitalf will need to point her at this) expressed an interest in what the actual costs of using printers was, so I resolved to keep a count of the number of pages that I was able to print. As it is connected to this computer only, apademek can't sneak extra copies without using my laptop, and as the laptop has had Micro$oft Orifice scraped off its disk and replaced with Open Office, she doesn't want to use it either. This will change when I get around to sorting the printer's wireless connectivity.
The printer is a Lexmark X6690 printer/scanner/copier all-in-one contraption that can (allegedly) print photo quality, even from various memory cards directly. It takes Lexmark's 4 series catridges (black) and 5 series (colour). The cartridges come in various capacities: 4, 4X, 4XL and I had fitted a 4XL as it was supposed to be the longest lasting. According to www.lexmarkonline.co.uk/product_info.php/tab/Technical_details/info/p2583_4XL-Black-High-Yield-Return-Program-Print-Cartridge.html#tabs the ISO yield value is 410 pages for this cartridge. The printer was "on special offer" for £59.99 at Fleece-me World when I found I couldn't get any replacement inks for my ancient Canon printer and the best price I found on the web was more than the price of a brand new basic printer.
The cartridges that came with the printer expired on 5th. October 2009 and I fitted a 4XL and 5XL at the same time. I try not to print at all but sometimes it isn't possible to avoid it. 99% of what I print is text documents, in black, and I print pictures so rarely that the colour usage is minimal - generally it's things like web pages with frilly edges and multicoloured fonts.
From that date onwards, I noted down when and how many prints I made until the black cartridge ran out. On the 4th. of February the printer software flagged up that it couldn't print from the black cartridge and I counted that I had managed 122 pages - a considerable difference from the 410 that the above web page reckons I should be able to acchieve.
A 4XL cartridge costs £35.13 when purchased as a twin pack from www.lexmarkonline.co.uk, or £17.57 each. That's the best price I could find (Dixons sell one for £27.99). This gives a cost per page of 14.4 pence. That's 3 shillings in old money.
I checked out www.cartridgeuk.com/ as it is possible to park at Fleece-me World and walk to their shop. The can refill a Lexmark cartridge for about £12, giving a cost per page of 9.8p. They did mention that the 4XL cartridge cannot be refilled, only a 4XLA (available only from Lexmark directly) and that they can be filled 3 or 4 times maximum as the cartridge wears out and leaks. There are some issues on how the cartridge ink level is transmitted to the printer and that it might need to be "cajoled" into working with a refill.
Does anyone know what the ISO yield value specification or test parameters are? I'm curious to know why I only get 27% of the specified number of pages.
alitalf will need to point her at this) expressed an interest in what the actual costs of using printers was, so I resolved to keep a count of the number of pages that I was able to print. As it is connected to this computer only, apademek can't sneak extra copies without using my laptop, and as the laptop has had Micro$oft Orifice scraped off its disk and replaced with Open Office, she doesn't want to use it either. This will change when I get around to sorting the printer's wireless connectivity.The printer is a Lexmark X6690 printer/scanner/copier all-in-one contraption that can (allegedly) print photo quality, even from various memory cards directly. It takes Lexmark's 4 series catridges (black) and 5 series (colour). The cartridges come in various capacities: 4, 4X, 4XL and I had fitted a 4XL as it was supposed to be the longest lasting. According to www.lexmarkonline.co.uk/product_info.php/tab/Technical_details/info/p2583_4XL-Black-High-Yield-Return-Program-Print-Cartridge.html#tabs the ISO yield value is 410 pages for this cartridge. The printer was "on special offer" for £59.99 at Fleece-me World when I found I couldn't get any replacement inks for my ancient Canon printer and the best price I found on the web was more than the price of a brand new basic printer.
The cartridges that came with the printer expired on 5th. October 2009 and I fitted a 4XL and 5XL at the same time. I try not to print at all but sometimes it isn't possible to avoid it. 99% of what I print is text documents, in black, and I print pictures so rarely that the colour usage is minimal - generally it's things like web pages with frilly edges and multicoloured fonts.
From that date onwards, I noted down when and how many prints I made until the black cartridge ran out. On the 4th. of February the printer software flagged up that it couldn't print from the black cartridge and I counted that I had managed 122 pages - a considerable difference from the 410 that the above web page reckons I should be able to acchieve.
A 4XL cartridge costs £35.13 when purchased as a twin pack from www.lexmarkonline.co.uk, or £17.57 each. That's the best price I could find (Dixons sell one for £27.99). This gives a cost per page of 14.4 pence. That's 3 shillings in old money.
I checked out www.cartridgeuk.com/ as it is possible to park at Fleece-me World and walk to their shop. The can refill a Lexmark cartridge for about £12, giving a cost per page of 9.8p. They did mention that the 4XL cartridge cannot be refilled, only a 4XLA (available only from Lexmark directly) and that they can be filled 3 or 4 times maximum as the cartridge wears out and leaks. There are some issues on how the cartridge ink level is transmitted to the printer and that it might need to be "cajoled" into working with a refill.
Does anyone know what the ISO yield value specification or test parameters are? I'm curious to know why I only get 27% of the specified number of pages.
