A couple of years ago, a friend gave me an Epson inkjet printer that had come free with his new Dell system. I had been using an old HP DeskJet, and happily adopted the new printer, figuring that the new device would have better print quality. It did -- but at a price. The Epson ran through ink as if it were a sponge. Whereas I had been buying ink cartridges for the HP every four months or so, I found myself replacing ink cartridges for the Epson once a month. The free printer was turning into an economic liability.
The result? I went back to my old printer.
(By the way, this is not to say that all Epson printers are more ink-hungry than all HP printers. Your mileage can vary widely on individual models.)
So if you want to keep your hard-earned pennies from slowly drifting down the drain, here's a tip:
Monitor your printer's ink consumption.
- Keep track of how often you have to replace the ink cartridge in your printer, and how much it costs. At the end of the year, add it all up. If the cost of buying ink at the end of one year is more than you paid for the printer in the first place, then you may want to think about replacing the device.
- When you're doing your pre-purchase research, pay attention to ink consumption. Some printer manufacturers will publish the approximate number of pages that an ink cartridge is expected to handle (under ideal conditions).
- If you plan to do a lot of text printing, and little color printing, make sure you have a separate black ink cartridge -- black ink is usually considerably less expensive than color.
- Most printers have a draft, or ink-saving, mode, which produces text that is not appropriate for formal letters, but may be fine for everyday use. If you print a lot, this could extend your ink cartridge considerably. Look for draft mode in your printer driver, or check your manual.
