Printers and cartridges, part 3.

[gurthaew]

On July 8th. 2010, I posted about my ongoing quest for economical printing using a dirt cheap inkjet printer. When I posted that time, I had just fitted a refilled black ink cartridge. Three days ago, it ran out completely.

The cartridge as purchased originally cost £23.42, managed 130 pages so the cost perpage was £0.18.
The refilled cartridge cost £12.00, managed 182 pages, so the cost per page was £0.066. In other words, nigh on one third of the price.

Sadly, I haven't had time to order any ink from Lexmark or get to Cartridge World for a second refill [1], so I had to pay PC World prices. Ouch! A combined B&W/colour pack, of the type that isn't refillable, cost £52. I note from Lexmark that the same item costs £41.86. The refillable cartridges don't come as combined packs so the B&W costs £25.68 and the colour £32.36

When this printer gives up the ghost, I'm going to have to be very careful in selecting its replacement.

[1] The CW man did say that they could only do a small number of refills and that after three or four the cartridge would fail.

Comments

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

I moved to a colour laser a few years ago, noticing that the per-page cost was significantly better than inkjets. Now, having been slightly bitten by the false economy of a no-name refurb cartridge, I am wondering whether it the capex was really worth it (even at £300) :-/

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

I think that the consumables for the Kodak printer cost much less per page - you could ask silver doe.

I too use a colour laser for most of the printing, and that does cost less per page, unless the printer goes wrong, of course.