3 ms·

Its all our fault: when buying a printer, we usually just go for the cheapest one, no matter what it might cost in the future. Just like when buying an airline

Its all our fault: when buying a printer, we usually just go for the cheapest one, no matter what it might cost in the future. Just like when buying an airline ticket we (usually) buy the cheapest one, not taking in account future expenses. A company offering an actual-priced printer, with actual-priced ink would go out of business fast: almost nobody would buy the expensive, unsubsidized printers.

67726e 11y ago
The reason I buy a cheap piece of shit is because there is little difference between it and the expensive piece of shit. I currently have a $60 printer which does just fine. Previously I had a >$200 fancy HP printer, but I got rid of it when I found out it would "expire" my ink. As someone that prints maybe a handful of concert tickets a year, that is bullshit.
- ucaetano 11y ago
  The $200 isn't the expensive PoS, it's already subsidized. Would you pay, let's say, $600, for the non-expiring version?
  - 67726e 11y ago
    That's bullshit and you know it. I've had about a half dozen printers my entire life and HP is the only one to pull that shit. It's a shitty tactic, not subsidization.
- tdkl 11y ago
  $60 inkjets are still expensive if you consider you have to pay $50 for both cartridges quite fast. I got a B/W Samsung laser for 80€, which printed for 3 years despite default toner that comes with the printer isn't even full capacity. After that I got a renewed toner for 28€, still prints. Cousin bought a Xerox B/W laser for about 55€ last month and it comes with Wi-fi built-in. Renewed toner is also in the 30€ area. That's how cheap they are now. But I don't agree with the article completely though, nowadays if you need colour printing (for documents, I wouldn't print photographs on a laser, it's still cheaper to print them in a shop) as well regularly, get a colour laser. It's 50-80$€ more then B/W (from 150 up) and you're also set for years.
- bryanlarsen 11y ago
  All inkjet printers "expire" their ink. Either you leave it plugged in, and it occasionally does a nozzle cleaning operation, using up ink each time, or you leave it unplugged, and it gets clogged if you don't use it regularly. Granted, it does take longer than 6 months to empty an ink jet cartridge just through cleaning, but for an infrequently used printer, cleaning will use up a significant portion of your ink.
  - 67726e 11y ago
    Everything I've ever read put it in the realm of around one to two years, not 6 months. In my case, I didn't even own the printer for a year before it pulled that one on me, and I purchased additional ink for it. That's just shady practice on HP's part.
johnnyforeigner 11y ago
I was really pleased to see that Epson have now done this. They sell a range of printers with the ink in tanks. Instead of the homeopathic quantities of ink you get in normal disposable cartridges, you buy the new ink in bottles and refill the tanks. 40 bucks buys you a complete set of CMYK inks that print 8000 pages (or so they say). Either way the per ml price of ink is several orders of magnitude below even refilled cartridges, and since it's legit Epson ink, (hopefully) it won't screw up the print head. Of course, the printer purchase price reflects the actual cost of making the printer as there is no cross subsidy but I am happy to pay 250 euros for the printer, in the knowledge that I won't be paying extortionate amounts for cartridges every month or two. I also like not throwing out the used cartridges which always seems a huge waste.

67726e 11y ago

The reason I buy a cheap piece of shit is because there is little difference between it and the expensive piece of shit. I currently have a $60 printer which does just fine. Previously I had a >$200 fancy HP printer, but I got rid of it when I found out it would "expire" my ink. As someone that prints maybe a handful of concert tickets a year, that is bullshit.

ucaetano 11y ago
The $200 isn't the expensive PoS, it's already subsidized. Would you pay, let's say, $600, for the non-expiring version?
- 67726e 11y ago
  That's bullshit and you know it. I've had about a half dozen printers my entire life and HP is the only one to pull that shit. It's a shitty tactic, not subsidization.
tdkl 11y ago
$60 inkjets are still expensive if you consider you have to pay $50 for both cartridges quite fast. I got a B/W Samsung laser for 80€, which printed for 3 years despite default toner that comes with the printer isn't even full capacity. After that I got a renewed toner for 28€, still prints. Cousin bought a Xerox B/W laser for about 55€ last month and it comes with Wi-fi built-in. Renewed toner is also in the 30€ area. That's how cheap they are now. But I don't agree with the article completely though, nowadays if you need colour printing (for documents, I wouldn't print photographs on a laser, it's still cheaper to print them in a shop) as well regularly, get a colour laser. It's 50-80$€ more then B/W (from 150 up) and you're also set for years.
bryanlarsen 11y ago
All inkjet printers "expire" their ink. Either you leave it plugged in, and it occasionally does a nozzle cleaning operation, using up ink each time, or you leave it unplugged, and it gets clogged if you don't use it regularly. Granted, it does take longer than 6 months to empty an ink jet cartridge just through cleaning, but for an infrequently used printer, cleaning will use up a significant portion of your ink.
- 67726e 11y ago
  Everything I've ever read put it in the realm of around one to two years, not 6 months. In my case, I didn't even own the printer for a year before it pulled that one on me, and I purchased additional ink for it. That's just shady practice on HP's part.

johnnyforeigner 11y ago

I was really pleased to see that Epson have now done this. They sell a range of printers with the ink in tanks. Instead of the homeopathic quantities of ink you get in normal disposable cartridges, you buy the new ink in bottles and refill the tanks. 40 bucks buys you a complete set of CMYK inks that print 8000 pages (or so they say). Either way the per ml price of ink is several orders of magnitude below even refilled cartridges, and since it's legit Epson ink, (hopefully) it won't screw up the print head. Of course, the printer purchase price reflects the actual cost of making the printer as there is no cross subsidy but I am happy to pay 250 euros for the printer, in the knowledge that I won't be paying extortionate amounts for cartridges every month or two. I also like not throwing out the used cartridges which always seems a huge waste.