Printer Ink cartridges

[interest]

I have a Canon MG5460 printer, bought new at a very good price,
but now it needs ink.

Canon ink is from $96.00 up to $114.00 that's for five cartridges
Generic ink is from $28.00 up to $35.00 for five cartridges.

The generic's do not say "High Yield" is this the difference,
 the amount of ink in each cartridge?

Or is it something else?

That's a huge price difference there.

[Ozcoins]

AFAIK.
The ink itself is dirt cheap.
The "high yield" cartridges are just properly filled as opposed to partially filled (like there is any excuse to NOT actually fill the ~10ml cartridges).
It is likely that the cheap cartridges are completely filled - even if they are not they are likely still much better value for money than original cartridges.
 I resell "rihac" brand continuous ink supply systems which are basically a tank of ink outside the printer to feed ink to the printer as required.
If you find feeding your printer with cartridges is expensive these (or generic cartridges) are much cheaper.
Before deciding to resell rihac CISS I bought one to use myself to test. I tested that colours were close to the original ones and I have now printed way over 20000 pages on my HP printer, so it works well.
Given how cheap printers are to buy and how expensive original cartridges are to buy I would recommend using non-original cartridges or CISS.

[Fulvio]

I resell "rihac" brand continuous ink supply systems which are basically a tank of ink outside the printer to feed ink to the printer as required.

Absolutely the way to go. A mate of mine threw a kit into his Epson about 5 or 6 years ago, and has saved an absolute fortune buying ink by the pint. Plus the individual colours can be topped up, whereas the original cartridge for his printer had to be tossed when any colour (usually yellow) ran out.

Failing that, generic cartridges are good value compared to originals. Just beware of one small detail. Both printers and cartridges carry chips, which talk to each other and basically prevent the printer from printing once the ink level drops below a certain level, even if you refill it or replace it with a non-genuine cartridge. While the generic manufacturers do circumvent this, it takes time for the workaround to eventuate, so any brand new printer may be problematic.

The moral is don't ever buy the latest and greatest, and don't ever get ripped off buying genuine ink.

[czark]

I'm looking to buy a new printer since old one keeps self cleaning and I'm replacing ink way too often. Its 4 years old too.
You spend anywhere from $50 - $300 for the printer and over 2 - 3 year its another $500 at least in ink!

Using HP atm all-in-one... Any brand recommendations?

[Ozcoins]

Brand does not matter too much.
Decide on the features you want, then look for something that has those features.
I would recommend getting a Continuous Ink Supply System if you are planning on printing any more than a few pages a week.
It is also good to use the printer regularly, so the ink does not dry out in the head and clog the head up.
If you want to get a CISS, make sure there is one available for the model of printer you are getting.
Also fitting a CISS can be fiddly - the models of printer where the ink cartridges are fixed in the printer (ie not moving with the print head) are generally easier to fit.

[Fulvio]

Any brand recommendations?

Go buy a laser printer. Monochrome unless you need colour.

Running costs are much lower than inkjets, quality is better, and they don't self-destruct if you forget to use them.

For most people, 99% of what they commit to paper is black and white. For the rare occasion you want a colour photo, its cheaper to go print it at K-Mart or wherever, once you factor in the printer, photo paper and ink.

And don't bother with multifunction. A dedicated scanner does a better job, and if you already have an MFP, you can keep it for the scanner function.

Oh, and go for a Network printer, preferrably one which also does WiFi.

[Ozcoins]

Also, printing photos can be done with any inkjet printer. Printing really good photos, generally requires original inks AND paper from the printer manufacturer (expensive) - otherwise you need to do a fair bit of working out what will work well.
My HP printer was not very good 'straight out of the box'. I did a fair amount of comparison between the original inks and the rihac inks on different papers and the inks behaved very similarly to each other. So the not very good photos was just how the printer was set up from HP.

[Goldseeker]

I have a Canon Pixma and it costs quite a bit for new/replacement ink cartridges.

Will that "Ink Tank" system fit my printer please?

[Australian coin]

ive seen it cheaper to buy a new printer for $30
http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Printers/Laser-Printers-and-Multifunctions/Mono-Laser-Printers/FXDPP115B

[JeffH]

Will that "Ink Tank" system fit my printer please?

Hey Goldie, have a look here Supported models
Cheers,
Jeff
PS. I used to have a good A3 format inkjet printer with a fixed black cartridge (colour cartridges on the head unit).
Black cartridge was a bladder -bit like a wine cask- and took 120ml ink. I could fill it with generic ink with a syringe.
Unfortunately the print heads died and the quoted cost of repair was higher tham the original purchase price!

[Ozcoins]

AC,
Often new printers come with 'starter' cartridges, which just means 'only partially filled, so you have to go out and buy new cartridges ASAP', so they are not as good value as they first appear.
The manufacturers are in the business of selling ink, not selling cheap printers.

[Triggersmob]

Be aware too, that if you collect banknotes, some new scanners won't allow copying of some banknotes.

[Fulvio]

cost of repair was higher tham the original purchase price!

We had an Epson inkjet die because the ink salvage tank reported it was full.

20¢ felt pad needed to be replaced.
Software reset required a program only available to authorised repairers.
Repairers wanted over $100 for the 20¢ part and 30 sec of work. For a $50 printer!

So we ditched it and brought a Brother laser instead.

I hate rogues and thieves.

Oh, and inkjet photo printing demands expensive clay-based photo paper for decent results. Definitely cheaper to outsource unless you do lots and lots, and even then its probably not economical to do them yourself.

Be aware too, that if you collect banknotes, some new scanners won't allow copying of some banknotes.

Cover the EURion constellation with a piece of paper, and it will scan.

[Triggersmob]

Thanks Fulvio, I'll pass that info on to a friend who was having problems scanning.

[Ozcoins]

Cheap laser printers can be not so cheap to run as well.
We have a canon which has pretty low capacity toner cartridges that are fairly expensive to buy.
As an 'I have nothing to lose' experiment, I extracted toner from some unwanted HP toner cartridges and put it into an empty canon toner cartridge.
The printing results were perfectly acceptable - I think just slightly lighter than using the original canon toner.
Doing this just required drilling a hole in each cartridge to extract/fill.
Fulvio, I don't remember for sure, but I think some of the brother laser cartridges have a plug to refill. Even if you have to drill a hole, you might like to try refilling (if you do not already).