Tagged: inkjet or laser printing

We are all interested in saving money during this time of austerity so perhaps it is time to look at how much printing images and documents at home is costing you?

In this blog post I look at 3 common complaints when it comes to home printing:

#1 – Inkjet Printer Ink is Too Expensive

Entry level inkjet printers can be very cheap to purchase in the UK, for instance the HP Deskjet HP1050A is selling for as little as £35.00 inc.VAT and shipping and even comes with copy and scan functions too.

In recent years advances in inkjet technology means less ink is actually used when printing your images and documents. However the ink can still be seen as expensive when compared to the one off purchase price of your printer.

You do have some options:

1) Look at the printer cartridges the model requires BEFORE you purchase your new inkjet printer, see how many pages they will print on average.

2) Try and purchase a printer with separate colour cartridges and not a single tri colour cartridge.

3) Consider purchasing compatible/recycled ink jet cartridges as these can often save you money. For instance you can purchase ink jet cartridges that are designed to fit your new inkjet printer, but are made by a 3rd party company like Jettec.

4) If you plan to do a lot of colour printing consider purchasing a cheap colour laser printer, or if you are a business then one of the new range of HP Officejet Pro X Series.

5) Consider purchasing cheap ink cartridge bundles to save money and drive down the costs of your printing!

#2 – Laserjet Printers are Too Expensive

This used to be the case, but not in 2013. You can pickup a cheap mono laser printer from HP for as little as £69.99 with free shipping from Amazon.co.uk This model even has a built in wireless (802.11B, 802.11G, 802.11n) feature, so you should be able to print from anywhere in the house.

Ask yourself, do you really need a colour printer at home? If not then this might be a suitable option for you…

HP Laserjet Pro P1102

In #1 we looked at alternative ink cartridges for inject printers. Well the same option is open to Laser printers too. The following prices were correct today (10th Jan 2013), you can see that a quality alternative to the HP original could save you as much as £24.00

HP85A original cartridge from HP eStore costs: £69.00 inc. VAT and Shipping

HP85A original cartridge from InkFactory.com costs: £59.29 inc. VAT and Shipping

HP85A recycled/compatible cartridge from InkFactory.com costs £45.00 inc. VAT and Shipping

…if you require a colour laser then the HP Colour LaserJet Pro CP1525nw £190 inc. VAT and shipping, may be a good option, and of course you can still purchase lower cost laser cartridges from us.

You might find the long term cost of running a laser printer is more cost effective than that of running an inkjet printer. This is because a laser ink cartridge typically prints several thousand pages and inkjet cartridges print in the very low hundreds.

#3 – Using a Generic Cartridge Will Invalidate My Warranty

Using a generic cartridge will not invalidate the warranty, this is a myth. If however you install one incorrectly or purchase a very cheap alternative cartridge and it leaks etc. Then this could invalidate your warranty. However always check your printers warranty information card to make sure of any restriction the manufacturer has placed on your model.

My advice? If you are worried then wait until you are out of warranty (usually 12 months but you will need to check) before using a generic ink cartridge. In addition stick to a quality manufacturer of generic/compatible/recycled ink cartridge for Inkjets and Lasers – JetTech are a great example and they are a British company too!

You Might Also Like To Read:

Introducing HP ePrint
Printing With Fire Instead Of Ink
What Does the Weight of Paper Mean?
Ink Cartridges: Original, Compatible or Recycled?
HP PageWide Technology
Printer Maintenance Tips