Using Printer Ink too fast

[Mnfisher]

I have a Cannon printer approximately 5 years old.  I haven't written it down, but it seems that I am using ink much faster than I should.  Ink is costly.   Is it time just to buy another printer?  Do they use more ink as they get older?  Any suggestions on printers that are more economical?  Thanks

[delcecchi]

If you are just printing letters and stuff, buy a brother laser printer.  Don't look back.  Black and white but fast and inexpensive.  I got the multifunction wireless or wired version. 

[Mnfisher]

Good idea but I do like to print in color once in awhile.  Does a printer use more ink as it gets older?

Delcecchi,

What if you are printing something with a lot of colored print? Does everything print out black?  I'm guessing probably does.

[delcecchi]

I don't think a printer uses more ink as it gets older. 

You can always get a printer reserved for the special occasions when you want to print color.  Or buy a color laser.  Me, I have two printers. 

This is my fave.

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Printer-MFC7860DW-Wireless-Monochrome/dp/B004QM99JG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1439935392&sr=1-1&keywords=brother+7860dw

or this one also looks good. 

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFCL2740DW-Wireless-Monochrome-Printer/dp/B00MRAU8OE/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1439935392&sr=1-2&keywords=brother+7860dw

( new model equivalent)

Prints 2600 pages per 50 buck cartridge.  (in accordance with ISO/IEC 19752 blah blah)

 

[RebelSS]

I have a 5 yr old Canon, too....and it SUCKS ink, has from day one. Canon's seem to be known for that. But, it was a gift, and I don't use it much, so it still sits here. Remember too, that letting them sit will evap the toner in them...tells ya so right in the manual. I usually buy the Staples brand "refilled" ones....they work OK for me. Color is not quite as good, but B&W printing is fine.

Edited August 19, 2015 by RebelSS

[outdoors247]

I agree with Del and do the same thing. I pretty sure I have the same Brother as Del and B&W toner base is the only way to go. Your price for print is second to none with this printer. It also has scanning capabilities and a document feeder so you can scan multi-page documents and it also does duplex (2 sided) copies. You can download the software from Brother so you can scan and edit from your desktop or laptop. It's a pretty slick set-up.

To answer your question above, yes the Brother prints color files just fine with everything there, the image will just be grayscale (black & white). Nothing will be missing in the image.

One more thing to consider is how many color prints do you print? If it's not too much you can always download files onto a thumb drive (now about $8 for a 16GB) and bring it to a Kinkos or copy center and print them out there for a fee. You can print a heck of a lot of color prints for the cost of a new color printer and ink cartridges for it after the initial small cartridges run out. If I did't need a color printer for work this would be my route, Brother B&W and just pay the copy center when I needed to print color prints. 

 

[delcecchi]

I just looked and one office supply store gets 59 cents a page. 

I then looked at consumer reports.  the brother prints text for 3 cents per page.  This seems typical based on the listings for a couple of other printers. 

According to CR, the inkjet printers print text for about that same price or even a little less, which I find hard to believe but that is what they say.  Going to color costs way more with a 4x6 photo running in the 30 to 50 cent area from a couple I looked at. 

Apparently however the use of ink for maintenance purposes varies considerably. 

Epson is coming out with a new "eco tank" printer this fall. 

But a new line of printers is promising to provide an alternative. Epson EcoTank printers, which are due to go on sale this September, have large, refillable ink tanks instead of cartridges. The five models will come with enough bottled ink to last for about two years, according to Epson. Once the bottles are empty, you can buy replacements for $13, or $52 for a set of all four colors that you need—cyan, yellow, magenta, and black. (Ink for the priciest models will be more expensive.) Those bottles should last for another two years, according to Epson.

Fifty bucks for two years of ink sounds like a great deal, and it is. There is one catch, though. These products, which Epson calls supertank printers, will cost a lot upfront compared to other inkjets: Prices will range from about $380 to $500 (with one business model costing $1,200).

Epson has presented some of its own arithmetic on how much users will save. According to the company, four ink bottles are sufficient to print 4,000 black pages and 6,500 color pages on the new consumer-oriented models. Printing the same number of pages using one of Epson's standard inkjet printers would require 20 sets of cartridges. At $40 each, the total price for cartridges would be $800—about $750 more than what you’re expected to spend on ink for an EcoTank model.

Edited August 19, 2015 by delcecchi

[Sandmannd]

Ink is very expensive and printers burn through it. Ink jet printers are the worst. It's almost cheaper to buy a new printer each time you run out of ink than to buy the dang ink. I run two printers, laserjet for most of my printer that is just letters and forms and such. Then an injet for color printing and I don't do much of that. 

[outdoors247]

 

Yeah, that's why I asked how many color prints he does. If it's under a hundred or so a year then he's probably better off going to the copy center for $59.00 or less versus Black & CMY cartridges that probably run over $100 for the set.

I've heard of that Epson product and that looks like the way of the future. They will really hit the cartridge companies hard when it is released.

For you tech geeks, we have a large format Epson at our shop right now. It runs about 500 feet per minutes with dye ink. I attached a few pictures below showing the "document feeder", the dye ink bays, and the small workstation required to run the printer.  It's definitely a technology marvel.

 

 

[Sandmannd]

Now that's a machine. Can you print me a river map with it? 

[delcecchi]

Reminds me of the IBM 3800.  The used a big reel of paper, used to see the forklifts with the rolls going down the hall from the loading dock to the computer room. 

It could print up to 20,000 lines per minute, which at 8 lines per inch is 2500 pages per minute. 

[outdoors247]

The IBM 3800 was not that fast. They ran at less than 100 feet per minute if my memory is correct. Heck, the latest and greatest IBM 4100 toner based machine only runs at 380 feet per minute which produces about 1450 8.5x11 Portrait pages per minute. There was the 3835, 3900, 3900-001, and 4000 in between the 3800 and the latest 4100 too.

The speed of ink jet and the cost of ink coming down is making ink jets more attractive in the printing world. The ink jet press we have here runs at about 500 feet per minute and Kodak has one out approaching 1,000 feet per minute. The electrophotography process will not allow toner based machines to run that fast so we will see toner based machines dwindle in the future and ink jets will be surging in the marketplace.

 

 

Now that's a machine. Can you print me a river map with it?

HAHA - Depending on it's size we can print a whole crapload for you in just a few seconds.

[Mnfisher]

You guys have convinced me to go with the Brothers.  You have done all of my research!  Thanks much.

Surprisingly, the newer Brother sells for $189 on Amazon and the older one sells for $326. I wonder why that is?

[outdoors247]

Yep, that's a pretty good deal. That is the same one I have if you are looking at the MFC-L2740DW.

OfficeMax just had toner cartridges on sale last month for $39.99 and they are good for approximately 1,200 pages.

IMO you can't go wrong with this printer.

[Mnfisher]

The $189 Brothers printer on Amazon is the MFCL2740DW and with the toner bundle it is $220.70 so the toner cost would be about $30.

Another question.   There are color laser printers for sale for less than $100.  Not sure what the color toner cost is though.  Would these be cheaper and better than the ink jet?

 

Oops...might be wrong about the color laser printer for less than $100. I think I was looking at an ink jet printer.

There are Brothers b&w laser printers though for under $100 with good ratings on Amazon.  Anyone have any experience with them?

 

[delcecchi]

The $189 Brothers printer on Amazon is the MFCL2740DW and with the toner bundle it is $220.70 so the toner cost would be about $30.

Another question.   There are color laser printers for sale for less than $100.  Not sure what the color toner cost is though.  Would these be cheaper and better than the ink jet?

 

Oops...might be wrong about the color laser printer for less than $100. I think I was looking at an ink jet printer.

There are Brothers b&w laser printers though for under $100 with good ratings on Amazon.  Anyone have any experience with them?

 

The thing you are looking at, the 2740DW includes a scanner and fax.  You can make copies with it too.  So just the printer part for 100, especially without some of the bells and whistles would be likely. 

[Mnfisher]

Thanks for all the good advice.   I will go with the Brothers in the future, but for now, I figured out how to turn off the color ink and just use black and white which seems to work well.