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I haven’t done the math to see if they’re right, but they’re likely talking about the various ink tank printers that exist, such as the Epson EcoTank series. Re

I haven’t done the math to see if they’re right, but they’re likely talking about the various ink tank printers that exist, such as the Epson EcoTank series. Refilling the ink is supposed to be quite cheap, especially if you don’t care about the ink being name brand. Personally, I print like 5 pages a year, so unless I get into photo printing… the cheapest AirPrint-enabled Brother laser printer has served me well for like the last 5 years.

Retric 3y ago
The nominal cost per page on those edge out many home office laser printers, but the printers themselves don’t last very long which then bumps up the cost per page. It’s like the razor blade model of inkjets use high ink costs and the unsubsidized bulk ink versions use planned obsolescence. Though it could just be the basic mechanics of inkjets as moving around the ink + print heads involves significant mechanical stress per page and EcoTank style inkjets prints lots of pages.
- coder543 3y ago
  > the printers themselves don’t last very long A high quality citation is seriously needed for a claim like that. That’s not a complaint I’ve ever heard about the EcoTank printers, and googling it didn’t turn up anything. I strongly doubt this is a characteristic of EcoTank printers. That unsourced claim sounds suspiciously convenient for your side of the discussion. Epson also makes a dedicated line of business EcoTank printers ("EcoTank Pro") which are clearly intended to print very large numbers of pages. But again, even the very basic ones seem to do a great job, with very high reviews across the board when I look at retailers.
  - Retric 3y ago
    By not lasting very long I mean I’ve seen 3 die between 2-3 years of heavy use. I have heard they last longer with moderate use, but that suggests a lifetime page limit. Honestly, I don’t have high quality sources which is why I was interested in the first place.
    - coder543 3y ago
      If you've seen it first hand, then fair enough. It just doesn't agree with the consensus I have seen online, so I find that confusing. As I've said previously, I have the most basic laser printer at home, and rarely use it. I just happen to have done a ton of research into printers lately because I've thought about getting a photo printer, and I really like what the ET-8550 has to offer. But, for the time being, I've decided I probably wouldn't use it enough.
      - Retric 3y ago
        Cool, I don’t have a large sample size so I could easily be wrong here. Something I just came across is various models have different monthly page expectations for their 2 year of ink promotion: “Based on average monthly document print volumes of about 150 pages (ST-C2100), 200 pages (ST-C4100), 300 pages (ST-M1000/ST-M3000/ST-C5000/ST-C5500/ST-C8000/ST-C8090) and 750 pages (WF-M5799 Supertank). Promo applies to ink only. Printer covered by Epson 2-year limited warranty.” https://epson.com/supertank-ink-tank-printers-for-business https://epson.com/supertank-ink-tank-printers-for-business I don’t remember the model numbers but those where way past 750 pages per month if that’s helpful.
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        coder543 3y ago
        I would assume a free ink promotion would explicitly choose not to cover heavy users, but it's not necessarily an indication of what they think the printers are capable of. But, it is an interesting set of numbers, and could indicate something.
      - vel0city 3y ago
        Yeah, I'd highly recommend doing a comparison to even getting online prints mailed. When I did the math on a number of prints including all material costs the savings per print from a lot of local printing services was only a few pennies per page. A few pennies per page versus a several hundred dollar upfront cost to get the same quality meant tons of prints before I broke even and even experienced any savings.

Retric 3y ago

The nominal cost per page on those edge out many home office laser printers, but the printers themselves don’t last very long which then bumps up the cost per page. It’s like the razor blade model of inkjets use high ink costs and the unsubsidized bulk ink versions use planned obsolescence. Though it could just be the basic mechanics of inkjets as moving around the ink + print heads involves significant mechanical stress per page and EcoTank style inkjets prints lots of pages.

coder543 3y ago
> the printers themselves don’t last very long A high quality citation is seriously needed for a claim like that. That’s not a complaint I’ve ever heard about the EcoTank printers, and googling it didn’t turn up anything. I strongly doubt this is a characteristic of EcoTank printers. That unsourced claim sounds suspiciously convenient for your side of the discussion. Epson also makes a dedicated line of business EcoTank printers ("EcoTank Pro") which are clearly intended to print very large numbers of pages. But again, even the very basic ones seem to do a great job, with very high reviews across the board when I look at retailers.
- Retric 3y ago
  By not lasting very long I mean I’ve seen 3 die between 2-3 years of heavy use. I have heard they last longer with moderate use, but that suggests a lifetime page limit. Honestly, I don’t have high quality sources which is why I was interested in the first place.
  - coder543 3y ago
    If you've seen it first hand, then fair enough. It just doesn't agree with the consensus I have seen online, so I find that confusing. As I've said previously, I have the most basic laser printer at home, and rarely use it. I just happen to have done a ton of research into printers lately because I've thought about getting a photo printer, and I really like what the ET-8550 has to offer. But, for the time being, I've decided I probably wouldn't use it enough.
    - Retric 3y ago
      Cool, I don’t have a large sample size so I could easily be wrong here. Something I just came across is various models have different monthly page expectations for their 2 year of ink promotion: “Based on average monthly document print volumes of about 150 pages (ST-C2100), 200 pages (ST-C4100), 300 pages (ST-M1000/ST-M3000/ST-C5000/ST-C5500/ST-C8000/ST-C8090) and 750 pages (WF-M5799 Supertank). Promo applies to ink only. Printer covered by Epson 2-year limited warranty.” https://epson.com/supertank-ink-tank-printers-for-business https://epson.com/supertank-ink-tank-printers-for-business I don’t remember the model numbers but those where way past 750 pages per month if that’s helpful.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - coder543 3y ago
        I would assume a free ink promotion would explicitly choose not to cover heavy users, but it's not necessarily an indication of what they think the printers are capable of. But, it is an interesting set of numbers, and could indicate something.
    - vel0city 3y ago
      Yeah, I'd highly recommend doing a comparison to even getting online prints mailed. When I did the math on a number of prints including all material costs the savings per print from a lot of local printing services was only a few pennies per page. A few pennies per page versus a several hundred dollar upfront cost to get the same quality meant tons of prints before I broke even and even experienced any savings.