Ink is expensive. It's easy to spend far more on ink over your printer's lifetime than you spent on the printer itself. And printer companies like it that way. Their business model is to sell their printers for a low price, then make up the profits on sales of ink. It works out better for them, since once you've bought your printer you're locked into their ink—or at least they make you think so—and you have to keep spending more.
But in general, consumers aren't so happy with this arrangement. Most people try to conserve their ink due to the expense, but there are many ways printers and manufacturer cartridges are designed to make you use more. Here are six ways printer companies try to foil your ink conservation attempts—and how to get around it.
Setting a default other than Economy. When you just hit the "Print" button without going into your printer settings first, what happens? Your printer probably doesn't print in Economy or Draft. For most printers, you have to physically go into the print settings and change to Economy before printing. And some drivers don't let you set it as a default, so you have to remember to do this every time. This can be frustrating for those who try to conserve ink by printing in Economy as often as possible. To save on ink, make sure you don't forget to change your print settings to Economy before printing.
Printing in colour automatically. Colour ink is more expensive than black. And even if you're printing a page of black text, many Inkjet printers will automatically use the Colour setting—unless you remember to change it manually each time. Other printers use colour ink for grey-scale printing automatically—this is something you can also change by going into your print settings and making the change to black ink. Even if you think you're just printing a black-and-white document, go into your print settings every time and make sure you're using black ink.
Selling printers with all-in-one cartridges. All-in-one cartridges are basically one cartridge with multiple compartments for each different colour ink. The problem with these cartridges is that you can't replace different ink colours separately. If you run out of one colour ink, you have to replace the entire cartridge—even if none of the other compartments are empty. To save on ink, try to choose printers that have separate cartridges so you can replace them one at a time as needed.
Warning you the printer is "nearly out of ink" too soon. Some printers give you a warning message when your cartridges are running low. Don't let this inspire you to replace those cartridges right away, though; in some cases, you still have plenty of ink left. Most printers will physically stop or refuse to start printing when the cartridge is actually out, and people who want to conserve ink are advised to ignore those warnings and just keep printing until they can't anymore.
Smart Chips. Watch out for printers with Smart Chip technology. These tiny computer chips are installed in some printer cartridges. They're there to stop the printer from printing after a certain amount of time has elapsed, forcing you to buy a new cartridge whether the old one is empty or not. The printer companies claim that their ink degrades naturally over time, and the chips are there to stop people from printing with ink that's past its expiry date. However, consumer advocates think otherwise, and several lawsuits have been filed against companies like HP and Epson claiming that the chips force consumers to buy ink more often than needed.
The chips are also there to limit people from using third-party cartridges and refilling services. They are designed to sense when a non-brand cartridge is installed, and to give a warning that using these cartridges is dangerous and might harm the printer. They also make it difficult to refill cartridges— Smart Chip cartridges generally won't print if refilled.
When buying a printer, ask whether the chips are installed in the ink cartridges. If you already have a Smart Chip printer, you can still buy third-party ink. Look for 100% compatible cartridges that have a microchip of their own installed, or use a chip resetter to reset the chip after refilling your ink.
Convincing you that third-party ink might harm your printer. Printer companies will tell you that only their own ink is safe to use in their printers, and that third-party ink might ruin the machinery. But bear in mind that they have a financial incentive to convince you of this—if they do, more people will buy their expensive brand-name cartridges. The well-known third-party cartridge manufacturers are generally quite safe to use, and produce comparable-quality prints.
Printer companies will try to get even the most careful ink-conservers to spend more on ink. But you don't have to fall for it. Know what the pitfalls are, and you'll be better able to save on ink despite the best efforts of printer manufacturers.
About the author
John Sollars in managing director of Stinky Ink a UK based online ink cartridge and toner retailer. For more information on a wide range of ink products and to read the Stinky Ink blog visit http://blog.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/
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