Evil Sid Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 my trusty printer finally gave up the ghost this week, which with my typical luck was three days after I had replaced the ink cartridges. So off I went on-line to have a look at what was currently available with my limited budget. Now all I wanted was a printer for general use that would give me a fairly decent photo print if possible. In the end I went to a certain well known store to have a look, as seeing the actual thing gives me a better idea as to what I would be getting. I was a bit surprised as the printer I had seen on the web was next to an all in one printer that was ?10.00 cheaper than the model I had selected. so even though I have a good scanner i ended up buying the all in one. Now then whilst I was there I decided to price the ink for when the supplied cartridges ran out. I was even more surprised to work out that it would be cheaper by about ?10.00 to buy a new all in one printer than it would to replace the cartridges. Talk about a shock, nearly had another heart attack Will have to have a look in my favourite shop for ink to see if they have a compatible cartridge that is cheaper. (And yes I know that there can be problems but my old printer worked fine with the cheaper compatible ones and only failed due to an electrical fault) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 Sid, I know the world loves a smart arse! but I found out by searching that in general, cheap printer - expensive inks, middle range printers - reasonaby priced inks however it does not follow that expensive printers give cheap inks. I suppose the manufacturers depend on recouping money from low profits on cheap printers by selling expensive cartridges. I know we ar not allowed to promote products and shops on here but I get mine from a chap whos the cheapest I have come across on the Winwick Quay Industrial Estate right down Calver Rd and at the junction with Mill Lane there is a little estate on right its on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 Errrm you bought the all-in-one printer and then checked out the price of the inks ? Rather odd way round of doing things if you ask me I used to use compatibles in my Epson but they were a bit hit and miss sometimes as quite often the colors on photo's were not great or I'd have trouble getting te printer to accept them in the first place so got a bit fed up of having to go back and change them or replace when they were still half full. Maybe worth you asking the places that refil them as they are supposed to be pretty good although they can't do Lexmark I believe. No suprise really considering they virtually give the printers away and make the money back on cartridges. I got a new Kodak one in one in the end even though I already had a really good scanner and although the ink prices have gone up slightly it cost me ?19.00 a few weeks ago in the local 'well known store' for the combo pack containing the colour one AND the black one. Much cheaper from some online stores but I always forget to order in advance of running out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingnut Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 A shop in S/Heath do their own version of Lexmark cartridges at half the price of the original ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfie Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 I just buy bottled ink and top the old cartridges up. Simples Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 A shop in S/Heath do their own version of Lexmark cartridges at half the price of the original ones. Good on them as if it's the same shop that I think you mean they didn't do Lexy ones a while ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 I just buy bottled ink and top the old cartridges up. Simples Is that royal blue, navy blue or black and permanent or non permanent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 i have an epson and always buy genuine inks off ebay.... 1/2 price and less than even asda and tescos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfie Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 I just buy bottled ink and top the old cartridges up. Simples Is that royal blue, navy blue or black and permanent or non permanent Eh No Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted March 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 I have tried going down the route of refilling but epson cartridges are a bit fiddly and you need to have one of those chip setter things to get then to work properly. The one thing that really prompted me to get this one is that it has separate ink cartridges so that I can just replace the one that is empty rather than having to buy a tri ink one and waste whatever ink is left in the other colours. I do shop around for cartridges and know that I can probably get them at at least half the price of some places.( in the case of compatible ones for my previous printer the cost of all four was cheaper than what I would have paid for just one in certain stores) The refill companies would have cost me almost as much to refill them as they cost for original ones so no real saving there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfie Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 Sid, the refill ink can be got for about ?4.99. That gives one bottle of each colour plus a black, that can be used between 2-3 times. The trick is, to prepare the ink cartridges before you put them in the printer, with little plugs that can be removed at any time while in use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 I find the idea of the separate ink cartridges a bit of a waste of time. They all tend to go in about the same amount of time so you may as well replace the lot rather than mess about having one colour a time fail. If anybody?s interested I have two fairly modern printers just sitting here doing nothing. One?s a HP 940c DeskJet while the other?s an Epson Stylus R200. Both fully working and just surplus to my needs but they might need some ink. Asking price is one pint each. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 I find the idea of the separate ink cartridges a bit of a waste of time. They all tend to go in about the same amount of time no they don't..... it depends what you print. My company logo has a lot of blue and grey so I tend not to use up yellows etc. I can get through two blue cartridges for every pink or yellow ones and black ones run out every other week.... at ?55.00 a set (retail) I'm hardly likey to throw away good ones Bill! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 Well of course it does depend what your doing. I used to use the Epson for printing CDs and there must have been no predominant colour because they would all fail with a week or so of each other. The individual cartridges are quite cheap especially from the place on Winwick Quay (Clarendon Court) but I didn't like the frequent bugger about factor. I use a laser these days and although the cassettes are quite expensive, they tend to last a whole lot longer. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Kodak printers are good and the inks cheap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 and the inks cheap thought budgies did that?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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