July 31, 2007
Imagine... Paying Less For Printer Ink
CBS' Larry Magid On Ways To Stop Paying Thousands Of Dollars Per Gallon
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Play CBS Video Video Money-Saving Printers Gas prices may be high, but ink for you printer can cost roughly $13,000 per gallon. Larry Magid takes a look at the new Kodak Easy Share all-in-one ink jet printer, which promises to save you cash.
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The Kodak Easyshare 5100 All-in-One printer (Kodak)
That's not a typo. A Hewlett Packard 22 Tricolor Ink Cartridge holds only 5 milliliter of ink – one 757th of a gallon. Multiply that $17.99 price tag by 757 and you're paying $13,619.91 a gallon for ink.
That particular cartridge, according to HP, yields 140 color graphic pages at a cost of nearly 13 cents a page, which actually isn't that bad by printer industry standards. Some cartridges from HP and other companies cost less per page and some more, but the cartridge you get to buy and the cost per page depends on what printer you own.
For years, printer manufacturers have been offering low cost printers only to make it up on ink but that's starting to change now that consumers are becoming a bit savvier about how much printers actually cost to use. Finally, the industry is starting to listen.
Kodak has recently introduced a line of multi-function printers that they claim "save up to 50% on everything you print compared to similar consumer ink jet printers." For example, a black ink cartridge for its new 5000 series of multi-function printers costs $9.99 and, according to Kodak, yields 490 pages at a cost of just over 2 cents a page.
Kodak says that its $14.95 color cartridges will print 145 high quality 4 by 6 photos which comes to about 10 cents per photo plus the cost of paper. Kodak also has a pretty good deal on paper – starting at $9.49 for 100 sheets (9.5 cents a page) for its least expensive 4 by 6 glossy paper.
So, when you add the cost of ink and paper, it costs about 20 cents to print a 4 by 6 photo, which is generally less than or comparable to what you'd pay at major chain drugstores and other retailers with photo printing kiosks.
Just like miles per gallon figures for cars, estimates of ink cartridge yields are also approximate and subject to all sorts of variables including the density of your documents and photos, the type of paper you use and the quality settings for your printer.
For example, with almost any printer, you can save ink by using the "draft" or "fast/economical" setting in your printer driver dialog box. That's a good idea if you're just printing documents for yourself. For text documents draft mode is usually quite readable.
Kodak's new line of "all-in-one" printers start with the $149 EasyShare 5100 that prints, copies and scans. Next comes the $199.99 5300 that offers the same features, including a 3-inch color display and the capacity to print directly from memory cards.
The machine Kodak loaned me to test is the $299.99 model 5500, which also handles faxes and comes with a 35 page automatic document feeder. Each printer prints black text at up to 32 pages a minute and 4 by 6 color photos in about 30 seconds. As with ink use, speeds can vary depending on conditions and settings.
Kodak isn't the only printer company with economical ink. I recently tested one of Hewlett Packard's Officejet Pro 7000 line of multi-function devices, which start at $299.99 and yield 2,350 black pages on one $35 ink cartridge.
That's about 1.5 cents a page which is actually cheaper than most laser printers. These HP printers are incredibly good for both black and color business documents. They can print glossy photos, but this line of printers aren't optimized for this purpose and don't have a special tray for 4 by 6 photo paper.
As you'd expect from Kodak, which is trying to survive the transition from film to digital, the printers do a great job with photos. I was very impressed with the quality of the 4 by 6 prints I made and the black text documents were comparable to other high-end ink jets I've tested.
I was also impressed with the device's ease of use and the user interface on Kodak's drivers. For example, the printers have a 100 sheet main paper tray for 8 ½ by 11 or legal sized paper plus a special for 4 by 6 photo stock. To print a photo, you put the paper in the tray and push it in. That's pretty typical but unlike other photo printers I've used, the process worked every time and I never had a paper jam when printing photos.
The other thing I liked is the user interface on the printer driver software. When you select printer "properties" as you're about to print, your options are presented to you in large easy to understand graphics and text, making it quick and easy to select draft, normal or high quality mode or to take advantage of other features like automatic two sided printing (on the high-end model) or switching between portrait and landscape mode. Of course all printers have these options but Kodak makes them easy to find.
The scanner functions pretty much like all scanners with one extra feature – the ability to put a bunch of photos on the tray at once and have the software automatically create separate files for each photo.
Thanks to printers like the ones I tested from Kodak and Hewlett Packard, it's possible to use an ink jet printer for about the same cost per black page as a laser printer and still have the advantage of being able to print in color.
A syndicated technology columnist for over two decades, Larry Magid serves as on air Technology Analyst for CBS Radio News. His technology reports can be heard several times a week on the CBS Radio Network. Magid is the author of several books including "The Little PC Book."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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The secrets of tennis legend 
Google "Lexmark printer counter reset", you can find a solution, then you have 5 working printers! donate to schools, or community service centers, and take the full deduction.
Oh, and stay away from Lex, they are number one on my s*it list.
What you describe is one of the "kill switch" techniques the printer boyz use, there are some whose counters are as low as 12,000 copies, and one I saw two years ago, stops at 5,000. Of course, after resetting the counter, they were both as good as new.
to Kaiyo4u, I'm really sorry to tell you this, but they all do it, the worst offenders, IMHO, being lexmark, epson, hp, and canon, in that order.
Never tried a Kodak printer, but I don't believe they would willingly buck the trend by offering something that is well made, without planned death sequences built in.
Like I said before, can I have Larry Magid's job?
Try this one, actually there are thousands of pages, nearly all inkjet manufacturers do this, they insert a memory chip onto their cartridge that counts pages. At a certain number (different for each) they say "out of ink", even if the cartridge still contains a good anount (up to 20%) of ink.
The nastier companies' chips simply shut down your printer, and won't allow it to sense the cartridge, even if you refill it, this is where the count reset programs can save your printer.
Of course, the printer boyz are trying to sue you for refilling the cartridge rather than buy a new printer (which in many cases is less expensive than buying replacement cartridges)
www.techdirt.com/articles/20070619/101003.shtml
This just one page, I assure you there are thousands, many run by respected techs in the business. Also, I could, if I wished, admit to using the programs to "repair" printers for people.
I tried the Kodak printer, at Best Buy-er's Remorse, their exclusive distributor. It's output looked terrible. I'm willing to assume it was due to poor maintenance by the store, but I wasn't going to bet my money on that.
Wrong, $17.95 is not JUST the ink, there is a cartridge, and on HP those come with new print head nozzels.
So you buy BULK ink, refill kits and save.
My Canon Pixma is great and I get good prices on inks at re-inks.com 866-512-7162
including complete color kits for a special discount.
Please let me know the brands that have the "kill switch" so that I am aware of what to avoid when I shop for a new one. The printer I have now is a HP and it's almost ten years old. The only bad thing about it is the cost of ink cartridges....
Sounds like another urban legend, but my opinion can be changed by showing me truly factual information.
Nah, I'm sure they know it, I just figure its about time for a little schit stirring, it does help sell papers, and ever since the kissup job to the iPod, I was really trying for Magid's job, Because I think I can get more readers. ;)
You think they do not know those things? The media is another commercial, not an expose.
- by brianbwb-2009 July 31, 2007 10:57 AM EDT
- You forgot to mention the "kill switch" built into printers, that disable your printer after a certain number of pages is printed. Even after replacing the cartridge, your printer refuses to recognize the new cartridge, and basically shuts down.
- Reply to this comment
See all 15 CommentsThere are hacker programs that will override the kill switch and reset the counters, but they are not for the average consumer. If you don't use them, your expensive printer becomes more plastic at the dump site, while actually still perfectly functional.
You also forgot to mention that the average printer wastes 40% of your ink in cleaning routines, so the price per gallon of usable ink is roughly 40% higher than your figure.
CBS, again I ask, can I have Larry Magid's job?
The consumer protection agency has been amazingly silent on these issues...