"Separate inks save you money"

[Cadenza]

Yeah, right. This is such BS marketing scam,
someone should sue printer manufacturers for
saying that.

In Epson's case, I feel like I'm paying three
times as much as before, for having separate
inks. And I bet te cost of the actual ink,
dispensed as if were liquid gold, is probably
what costs percentually the least.

[blinking8s]

ink is a retarded markup...i dont own a very nice printer, but when its run low, i might as well buy a new one cause they cost as much as my printer...its not cool

[maderito]

Yeah, right. This is such BS marketing scam,
someone should sue printer manufacturers for
saying that.

In Epson's case, I feel like I'm paying three
times as much as before, for having separate
inks. And I bet te cost of the actual ink,
dispensed as if were liquid gold, is probably
what costs percentually the least.
Just like a refrigerator, the cost of ownership has more to do with what you add and replace inside.

Putting aside startup costs, a 6 color injet printer would have to have a "six pack" sell for the price of one tank (about $10) for there to be no difference in price between separate vs. single refill systems. And then there's all the wasted ink that contaminates the environment.

I guess I'm not following your argument. :shock:

[FJC]

My Canon printer has 6 tanks. It costs around $60 to replace all 6 tanks.

My previous printer was an HP that had a black ink tank, and a combined 3-color color ink tank. To replace those two tanks cost $55 (buying the high-capacity tanks).

On the surface, it appears the HP was cheaper to replace cartridges.

HOWEVER - the combined amount of ink in the 6 Canon tanks is well over, and nearly double, that of the HP tanks.

Additionally, we were often throwing away HP tanks where one color had run out, and the other two were still more than half full.

I'm sold on separate tanks.

[CyberDyneSystems]

If you don't beleive this will save you money,. than you have not used one yet.

The first Ink tank that went dry on my i950 was a fotomagenta ... at that point 4 of the remaining five inka tanks were OVER 3/4 full.. and the 5th was over half full.

If I had been using an HP with all inks in one basket I would have thrown out nearly 3/4 of all the ink in the tank bacaue of one color ..

In other words.. I would have had to spend another $55.00 right then and there to get another handfull of large prints.. as opposed to spending the $10.00 required to replace the songel empty tank.

You HAVE to be able to see that is is more economical NOT to throw away 75% of the ink you purchase??? :P

[Belmondo]

I agree with CDS. In fact, I just replaced the photomagenta cartridge in my 950i yesterday. People who shoot a lot of certain types of photos are going to use a preponderance of one ink over another while barely touching the other colors.

People that shoot a lot of water and/or sky shots will use a lot more cyan than magenta or yellow. Why just throw the unused ink away?

[Digital Prophet]

I have been thinking about getting a Canon i9100 (http://www.usa.canon.com/html/conCprProductDetail.jsp?modelid=8738&section=10214 ) to get larger print sizes and also largely because I like having seperate tanks. While I do not have a desktop size printer with individual tanks I do run 3 HP 800PS (https://www.designjet.hp.com/pdp/render.html?new_product=800PS&page_name=supplies+a nd+accessories) plotters. And these plotters do have seperate tanks.

We do a high volume of engineering and architectural sized prints that are both color and blackline. And let me tell you something. In the two years of running thousands of feet of paper through these plotters I have replaced the Black cartridges on a weekly basis. The Magenta cartridges about twice a years and the Yellow and Cyan cartridges once a year. If the 800PS had a system like it's desktop cousins of single color cartridges and black cartridges then I would be replacing the colors at least once a month. Probably more than that since the amount of magenta held would be less than the dedicated cartridges.

Sure I would be going through the same amount of each ink per month, but I would be replacing Yellow and Cyan for no reason. I think that surely has a bottom line effect. Not to mention that it is more convienent to have a ratio of cartridges on hand that is represntative of the amounts they are used in.

But hey, thats jsut me.

[Cadenza]

Maybe the experience with Canon printers is different.

I have been spending way more on ink now than
before, using Epson printers that used to have
multi-color cartridges rather than individual tanks.
I used an Epson 1280 for a couple years, using
better quality 3rd party inks [a very occasional
clog, but no complaints otherwise] at approximately
$9 each when purchased a set of six at atime.

Now, I just bought an RX500 (separate inks), which
produces better quality letter sized photos than the
1280, but ink costs have soared. With the 1280; a
set of color & black would last me for about 25
8x10 sized prints.

With the RX500; I've changed seven separate tanks
so far, at $10 apiece (these are not even OEM, the
cost for OEMs would be even higher), and the
remaining ink shows that I still have about 50% Cyan
and Magenta; 25% lite C and lite M and yellow, and
80% black.

So after 7 inks cartridges completely gone, and less
than half remaining on the inks now installed, I know
I've only printed about 60 or so Letter sized prints
since I got this. I'ts about $100 worth of ink for 60
prints on the RX500 [and the first set of inks on the
RX500 were all OEMs; if the replacements were OEMs
as well the cost would be closer to $130-140]; vs.
$18 for 25 prints on the 1280.

At least in Epson's case, I really suspect the cost of
the actual liquid in the cartridges is an insignificant
expense as part of the manufacturing process; most
of the costs are in the packaging, smart-chipping,
extortionate profiteering, etc.


Maybe I should get a Canon printer.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I agree on your points of ink extortion...

This is clearly one of the lucrative profit margin businesses in the industry.. they can essentially give away the printers if they can lock you into there ink raquet!

[Duke107]

I was refilling my HP tri-colour ink cartridge with amazing results, in fact I'm not certain the refill ink wasn't better than original HP but anyways I was very happy with the photo results. I just bought a Canon i960 and love the printer and I'm already trying to find high quality ink to refill these tanks, anyone have a supplier to contact for ink for these printers, I am hoping I will get the same results I did with the HP refills I did. I want the raw ink not a refill service as I trust only myself to perform a proper refill not some possibly new trainee. I found it to be the way around the retail money grab at ink.

[CyberDyneSystems]

One of the "issues" with these Canon's in particular.. is that most generic inks can not be "squirted" into the tiny droplet sizes that these printers use.. resulting in printer heads being clogged... :( which in turn essentially may result in buying a new printer.. sure you can get a new tank caddy with new heads.. but have you ever seen one ofr sale? Know how much they cost from Canon? ... time to get a new printer :roll:

[Duke107]

Really that will suck, well I bought it very well knowing these printers use very small drops of ink and I may not be able to refill hense the 6 individual tanks that will allow cost effective OEM Canon individual replacement tanks. BUT I will continue to look for i960 Canon compatible ink as Canon had to get or make it and I,m sure ink companies will reverse engineer it as everything else is. I'll wait for others success before I destroy my new printer though. LOL

[dn7elson]

I'll wait for others success before I destroy my new printer though. LOL

With the HP printers (other than some of the business models) the printhead is part of the cartridge, so with it, all you loose if the printhead jams/clogs is that you have to buy a new cartridge. With printers that have ink tanks and a separate printhead, it is a much more costly option.

[Duke107]

Yes I can see that but for a printer that only cost 250 canadian new how much could that head be? I am reserved for the time being to buy OEM inks, ebay sells generic and OEM Canon ink for very decent prices. I will buy only the Canon from eBay.

[dn7elson]

Yes I can see that but for a printer that only cost 250 canadian new how much could that head be?

For the Canon S9000 I have heard that the printhead is around $200, although I have yet to see it listed in inventory with a price anywhere.

[Duke107]

Hmmm, If they are going to be crooks than I would have to buy a new printer take the print head, put my old one in the box, return it to lets say Future shop, tell them she no work and had to quickly buy elswhere, get full refund.

$200 for a printhead from a $250 printer, Crooks I tell you!!

Sleep like a baby!