What Is the Real cost of Owning a Printer ?

[flip city]

Here is an informative pdf on the real cost of owning a printer from the American Consumer Institute.

http://www.theamericanconsumer.org/2008/11/07/what-is-the-real-cost-of-owning-a-printer-2/

[retired1af]

HAH! I haven't purchased refill cartridges for inkjet printers in years. By the time you're done paying for the bloody thing, you could have bought a cheap printer on sale for less money. So for me, if the cartridge run out of ink, I just keep an eye out for a good printer sale. LOL

[toothandnail]

I long ago found that the cost ink for inkjet printers was ridiculous. I now use a laser. Cost a bit more to buy, but its printing costs are a fraction of the costs associated with inkjets. Not to mention that a Postscript laser stands a much better chance of being supported under Linux out of the box.

Paul.

[GrannyGeek]

I have three inkjets and one laser. A monochrome laser is more economical if you never print in color, but can be more expensive per page than some inkjets if you do color printing.

Two of the inkjets were free. Of course, running them is not.<g>
--GrannyGeek

[Lyn]

Some years ago Which magazine in the UK did a total cost of ownership on some printers.  A £28 Lexmark was the worst, costing (at printing 30 pages of average density print a week) £1,444 a year!  Essentially the ink cartridges were outrageously expensive and did less than 30 pages before needing changing.

[Pita]

Nothing still beats my Epson LQ 300 impact printer. About 2 million characters
for $3.- and if refill ribbon is used just $1.-. For our inkjet printer we buy ink in large
bottles for a penny so to speak and refill using a syringe. Have not yet figured the
cost for this.

[Andy Price]

HAH! I haven't purchased refill cartridges for inkjet printers in years. By the time you're done paying for the bloody thing, you could have bought a cheap printer on sale for less money. So for me, if the cartridge run out of ink, I just keep an eye out for a good printer sale. LOL

The price of cheap laser jets and cartridges is heading the same way too. This ridiculous state of affairs is clearly artificial and should be legislated against if common sense cannnot prevail. The first inkjet I bought many moons ago (a Canon BJ130 I think) cost over 100 pounds and the cartridges, whilst expensive at 15 pounds, at least bore a sensible relation to the original purchase cost of the machine. They contained a decent amount of ink too, and would print many pages, unlike today's cartridges!

[jessejazza]

My HP Deskjet 400 did about 20 syringe refills before needing replacing i found. Haven't known another like it. I just use an Epson LX300 these days and cut down on printing