High cost of print cartridges? (take II)

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Samuel Beard, responding to my comment about "not being sure how the printer
company would make the voided warranty thing stick", observed: <<... one way
that they can make it stick is because most of them, I believe, use a
proprietary ink formulation. Thus, if they were to receive a warranty claim
on a printer that used out-of-spec ink in generic cartrridges, then they'd
be able to tell by that and would choose not to honor the warranty, most
likely.>>

Most printers are based on the HP model's approach, and embed the printing
head in the cartridge itself. Because the cartridges are disposable, the
manufacturer typically doesn't warranty the head, and for that reason, fear
of voiding the warranty isn't relevant for these models; the only possible
problem that would void the warranty would be if the cartridge leaked,
flooded the printer with ink, shorted out (or otherwise ruined) the
electronics, and so on. Could happen, but not likely if you stick with a
reliable manufacturer. I believe that Epson and some other printers (mostly
for photos?) still use a design based on a built-in print head fed by a
separate cartridge, and here the manufacturer would have a good case:
substandard ink could easily clog the print head, and it really wouldn't be
fair to blame the manufacturer for that problem.

Gary Callison, responding to my suggestion that "a laser quickly pays for
itself", noted <<I dunno from 'quickly', I would say that the cost of the
printer plus the cost-per-page of consumables (which will vary depending on
individual usage as well as the toner cartridges) is something to think
about.>>

Think of it this way: Paper costs would be the same in both cases
(comparable print runs). Ink cartridges cost ca. U.S.$40 each at retail
pricing (black ink). A cheap home laser such as those produced by Oki can
run you less than US$200--much less if you buy a used model in good
condition, a discontinued model, or a refurbished model. If you run through
only 5 ink cartridges per year, roughly equivalent to the number of
printouts you'll get from a typical laser cartridge, it's cheaper to buy the
laser and sell it at the end of the year. That's an awfully crude
calculation, obviously, but it makes my point. In fact, a couple years back,
I remember seeing one low-end model selling for less than the cost of its
replacement toner cartridges; at those prices, it almost made sense to buy
the printer, then replace it as soon as you ran out of toner. <g>

<<Something else to consider: used or remanufactured lasers.>>

Yup. I've picked up two for less than $200 over the years, and both worked
reasonably well.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my
telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my
telephone."--Bjarne Stronstrup (originator of C++ programming language)

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