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[urgannagru]

printers are pretty much disposable, and it is often cheaper to buy a new one than it is to buy new cartridges. HOWEVER, that is up front cost, not long term cost per printed page. those starter ink cartridges the printer came with? they only hold maybe half as much as the standard replacement cartridges. those cheap printers? they use up ink at least twice as quickly as the more expensive ones, and print half as quickly, etc. you catch my drift. they'll try to screw our wallets any way they can.

[snow veil]

Everyone knows that ink is expensive...so that's nothing new.

However, the throw-away machines that you'll find all over nowadays are ridiculous.  Old HP 45 cartridges held over 40ml of ink wheras newer cartridges are clocking in at under 10ml in some circumstances.  Sure they're a little cheaper, but not one fourth the price.

Always check cartridge page yields before buying.  If you do a moderate amount of printing, you'll make up the cost of the machine in no time.  Chances are if you're buying a $50 machine you're going to get raped in ink costs....it's how they make the money back.

I expected the ip4200 print head to be expensive...but $150 is unreal...that's more than the machine retailed for!  I've always been partial to Canon, but I guess everyone has some facets that aren't so great.

[griffin23]

I have this problem on my Canon ip4200. It's given good service, but I think it's time to change to a B&W laser printer. And for colour use a photo processing place. It's difficult to get correct colours on an inkjet anyway. Read Ken Rockwell on this ...    Cheers

[Styles]

Update:  I finally caved and bought a an HP Deskjet F4280 All in one.

The scanner and copier has come in handy, and I only bought it for 30 bucks at Business Depot.

I don't use my printer enough to warrant buying a super duper printer.

Sounds like someone dumped a load of sand inside the HP though.  When it spools up, it sure does make some godawful noises.

I try to print at least 3 pages a week to keep the ink heads wet.

[griffin23]

Well, my news is that I bought a Samsung mono laser printer, and I have kept the Canon inkjet which still can print on photo paper, even black (since it's only the normal black that has conked out). So I can use up the remaining colour supplies and photo paper for my amusement.

Cheers
G

[griffin23]

Or you can tell the Canon printer that you are printing in Glossy Photo Paper, which will prompt it to use the BK cartridge, but feed in your ordinary paper. This worked fine for text, but it was a bit slow. It can be speeded up by changing the quality setting to a lower value, which resulted in the same result in this instance.  ** Prolong the life of our equipment, reduce emissions!

Cheers