HP Tries to Explain Why Printer Ink is So Expensive
It's a lot of money for a little liquid.
You've been able to buy an ink jet printer for close to a song these days, especially when they go on sale. But when the inexpensively priced printer stops printing things with the same sort of graphical fidelity as it did out of the box, things can get expensive from there.
That's the thing with ink jet printers – the hardware itself is cheap, but the ink refills will get you in the end. But have you ever asked yourself why the ink is so expensive? Sure, it may be the razor and blade model, but it's still an awful lot to pay for just 10 to 20 milliliters of liquid. In comparison, a Heinz ketchup dipping pack contains 27 ml of ketchup, while the older single packets held 9 ml.
The difference between ketchup in printer ink, however, is vast. HP claims that it spends $1 billion a year on ink research and development – that's some high-tech ink.
"These liquids are completely different from a technology standpoint," said Thom Brown, marketing manager at HP, in a Computerworld story.
HP's first ink jet printer in 1985 had 12 nozzles in the print head and fired droplets at a rate of 10,000 per second, which doesn't even compare to today's Photosmart ink jet that uses 3,900 nozzles that fire 122 million drops per second.
Still, that won't help consumers feel better about paying lots for a little ink cartridge. Computerworld suggests that it may help consumers decipher ink jet cartridge replacement value to list the liquid volume inside each cartridge.
Brown, however, said that doing so would just confuse the customer. "Each system has a different way it uses ink or the drop size is different. If you looked strictly at volume you wouldn't see those differences and it would be confusing to the customers."
To HP's credit, it does list the maximum page yield, but that's only for black and white text and it's from a non-standardized measurement.
For now, it seems that consumers will either have to look at more economical, aftermarket, but perhaps less satisfactory ink replacements. There's always laser too.
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Everything is too expensive, not just printer ink.
tip to save ink: change printing options to fast draft. (I personally can't even tell the difference)
the problem lies not in how much you get, but in how much is left after it is "empty". Has anyone ever cracked one open? Over half the ink is left, its unbelievable.
It really is kind of sad when buying a new printer is cheaper than purchasing new ink for that printer. Of course it's ridiculous that print manufacturers put "Start Cartridges" in to begin with. To the average customer it looks like a great deal but in reality you'll get 20+ pages before you're going to the store spending more on ink than you did for the printer.
I like my Inkjet printer, its reliable and iv'e had it since 2006, still runs like new and prints the same as it used to.
I think the price justifies the quality.
I simply do not buy this explanation. This reminds me of my son who is a diabetic. His glucose testing meter was actually given to us by his doctor, but the test strips cost $80 for a month supply. The doc says they make little off selling the machine, but make tons more on the test strips.. Its the same with printers. The machine is expected to last a while, but the ink "will" need replacing.
Don't you refill the used cartridges in USA? Refilled cartridges cost 1/4 the price of a new one in Brazil. Almost everybody do it here and it works well.
R&D includes how to restrict using refills on their printers.
i think its all marketing strategies to increase revenue, since once u are enticed to purchase a cheap printer your stuck with the obligatory expensive ink cartridges.
i'd like to think of it as a free dose of heroine without the side effects.
The worst part is when you can't print in black and white if the color cartridge runs out. And now, with the integration of the 3 primary colors, if any ONE color runs out, you need to replace the color cartridge even if the other two colors are at higher levels.
What would I like? Separate cartridges for each color (and not more expensive) and the ability to print if even one cartridge runs out.
Interesting. Here we buy the refilled cartdriges at shops. There's refilled cartridges for almost all printers at very low prices and not only HP printers. There's also Epson and Canon that sell their ink cartridges with costs very lower than HP. Those who don't like to use refilled cartridges usually buy their printers. We have also kits to mod the printers to add bigger cartridges that are refilled by hand that are even cheaper for those who print a lot. And that for allmost printers too.
6 years a go I bought a Kyocera 1010 laser printer. I'm still using the toner cartridge that came with the printer.
Paperless office.
I'm not sure why they spend $1 billion a year in ink research and development when the existing ink technology works great. What really is a problem though is different types of ink toners that are required for hundreds of different models of printers.
Why can't ink toners for laserjet printers be standardized so that the market is not flooded with hundreds of models? Same goes for deskjets. I'm sure that would save a lot of money for HP (from a manufacturing standpoint) and make toner purchasing for businesses easier and less painful.
Ink jets aren't worth it. They create way too much e-waste, as most people see that a new printer is less expensive than a replacement (or whole replacement set) of ink jet cartridges, so they get rid of their old printer a buy a whole new unit. The old printer is "recycled" by being shipped overseas and dumped in a foreign landfill.
If you want cheap ink for inkjet printers, you can fit a continuous ink system. Just look up "CISS" on ebay. The CISS ink for my Canon Pixma iP1800 costs about €22 per 400 ml. In other words, a volume equal to one black cartridge's worth of ink costs about 75 cents (instead of the €18 it costs in the shop).
Inkjets are total scams for people too dumb to spend the upfront cost of a laser printer. I get 3000+ black and white pages out of my $80 laser for $30 a cartridge (generic)...no way any inkjet can compete with that.
FYI to some saying "refill your cartridges". It's not worth the effort. They design their cartridges on purpose such that they won't spray down any more ink once you get past X pages printed, regardless of the amount of ink left.
Another thing that almost everyone overlooks, and I can't ever remember seeing an article about, is that cheaper printers often use more expensive inks. But it doesn't look that way at first glance.
For example, a $30 printer will probably use the cheapest cartidges on the shelf. Look like a great deal... cheap printer AND cheap ink. But the reality is, those cheapers cartidges are about half the price for less than half the ink. So they are ultimately more expensive.
A $200 printer uses the more expensive cartridges but the cartridges cost only about twice as much but have nearly 3 times the ink.
In the end the more expensive printer with the more expensive cartridges ends up being the better deal assuming you keep the printer for a few years and print a moderate volume.
Its all a scam the same as the razor blade company's have been doing for years.
I'd rather see HP drastically cut their research and price for the ink because of it. It's not like existing inks are so bad, nor that we've seen big advances in ink technology.
The money seems poorly spent, and a cost consumers aren't benefiting from.
I got a big aftermarket tank attachment for my Epson Artisan 810. So far I can't tell the difference between the ink it has in it to the original epson ink. Glossy photos, professional documents, printed cd's, even iron-on stuff. It's indistinguishable. I think HP and Epson are both blowing more than a little smoke up folks' buttocks here. Ink cartridges a money making scam, plain and simple.
Not surprised know that HP ink cost more by volume than human blood which says a lot, like gas this to is a scam!
Anyone not using a laser printer for everyday black and white printing is rather stupid. The cartridges might be expensive but they have ridiculously large yields.
I actually picked up a Samsung Color dual sided laser for $250 AU (after cash back). Now that was an awesome deal.
Same here Wraith556. Got my laser printer back in 2003-2004. Using the same toner. Problem with laser (at least at the time I bought mine) was that the printers were expensive as hell. The plus is that the toner is cheap and lasts forever.
Need photos printed? Go to Walmart.
For $38 my laser printer will print 2,600 pages in black and white. I don't understand why people even use inkjet any more.
I don't even understand why people buy inkjet any more. For $38 I can buy a new high yield OEM Brother toner that'll print 2,600 pages for $38.
no HP this is why it costs so much.... From Top Gear
Jeremy: And it's a good job your car doesn't run on bull semen.
Richard: Well it is, yes. But why?
Jeremy: Because you know how much bull semen is?
James: Do you know? I can't remember off the top of my head.
Jeremy: 24,000 pounds a litre.
Richard: No way!
Jeremy: I filled my car up with petrol a couple of months ago, do you know how much that cost?
Richard: Well no...
James: 90 pounds.
Richard: ... big car, 85 pounds.
Jeremy: No! 35,000 pounds.
James: You filled it up with bull sperm you idiot!
James: I reckoned you spent it on bull sperm.
Richard: Did you not notice the pump was different?
Jeremy: [laughing, with the audience laughing as well]
Richard: [imitates a bull noise]. It keeps moving! Now it's chasing me! I don't want it any more.
[audience laughs]
One other thing ppl havnt commented on. Not sure about other companies, but my semi new hp printer actually gives me warnings if i dont change the printer ink by SAID date or that using refilled or generic ink will also VOID my warranty, which is BS.
What's worse about HP is that now they're marketing their business inkjet printers as "cheaper than laser". What does that say about their existing laser printers though? I have an HP Laserjet 2605dn (duplexer and ethernet), and it works great. Problem is, should I stick with laser, or replace it with an inkjet when it gives up? I know the toner cartridges cost a lot, but I've only replaced the toners twice in the 3+ years I've had the thing, and I've gone through several thousand pages. It doesn't have a user-replacement drum unit, so I'm wondering what's going to happen when I reach 10,000 - 25,000 pages on it (which is usually the cutoff for drum units on printers that need to have them replaced).
I love the printer. I've been looking at other models in case I need to replace it, but I got it for a good price too. I don't see any current models with the same specs that are as cheap. I don't want an all-in-one (I have a flatbed scanner that gets turned on maybe once a year), but I'd rather have network printing, and the duplexer.
gillette
hp should look for other ways to minimized cost for their ink. I have a lots of bad experience with hp printers, since then I never thought of buying one but maybe in the future hp can change that.