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AnonymousInactivehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8231062.stm
BBC INVESTIGATED THE HIDDEN COST OF HP INK CARTRIDGES
CLICK ON THIS LINK BELOW TO SEE THE LIVE VIDEO
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8231062.stm
Of
all the extras that can be bought to make more of a PC, the humble
printer is probably the most popular.But that humility might conceal a
house guest that costs much more to run than most people realise.While
the device may be very cheap to buy initially, especially if bought at
the same time as its companion PC, the running costs can, and do, mount
up. Particularly if a printer is used to produce a lot of high-quality
colour copies.It is well known that printer ink costs more per
millilitre than the finest champagne. And it is in the costs of the ink
that manufacturers claw back what they lose every time a printer is
sold.Long-term costs
Lizzy Russles, a computer expert
at consumer organisation Which? counsels people to look at a printer’s
long-term running costs.The cheaper a printer, she warns, the sooner
its cartridges were likely to need replacing and the higher the ongoing
costs.The problem most people face when trying to gauge how economical
their printer is with that very expensive ink is that the machine is
not very good at working out when all the ink is gone.An investigation
by the BBC found that some inkjet cartridges have their ink contained
in a sponge rather than free flowing – as a result the machine has to
estimate when the ink is drying up rather than use a defined level like
in a car fuel tank.”It’s not our intention to have any sort of scam
involved with this,” says Martin Hurren, business development manager
for HP Supplies.”A lot of it is down to technology – different
technology is used with different cartridges.”Many printers err on the
side of caution and warn when the cartridge is getting empty. There are
good technical reasons for this because printer heads can be damaged if
they run completely dry.”Some of the technology we use requires ink to
remain in the cartridge so that the printer head can have a fluid
motion and allow ink to pass through the printer when you change the
cartridge,” says Mr Hurren.Warnings ignored
However,
the internet is dotted with stories about people who have ignored the
warnings from their printer and gone on to print many, many more pages
before the cartridge gives up the ghost.Printer ink costs more per
millilitre than the finest champagne But, says Mr Hurren, it was hard
to compare one person’s experience with another because of the range of
things printers can turn out.”The number of pages varies depending on
the way you print, photos are different to business documents,” he
says. “With our cartridges you can get anything from 200 – 2000
pages.”What also complicates matters is that some makes of printers
have cartridges that are tagged with ID chips. The printer notes which
ones are in use as it is printing.When one runs out and an owner tries
to trick the machine by slipping the same one back in to get more
pages, the printer will refuse because it thinks that cartridge is
empty.These identification systems are also used in larger office
printers.However, it is possible to trick the printer in thinking an older cartridge is new.
In
some models the memory reserved for the tags can only hold a couple of
ID numbers so swapping in totally empty ones will clear out the cache
so the one with ink remaining can be replaced.It is also possible to
buy chip resetters for some makes of cartridge so the printer is
totally fooled into thinking that an old one is new.Ms Russles from
Which says it is definitely worthwhile investigating the running costs
of a printer before buying one.She said it was probably worth avoiding
cartridges that combine all colours in one package. This is because
when one colour runs out, perhaps cyan after printing out holiday
snaps, the whole thing has to be replaced.Wasteful?
A
study by Epson carried out in 2007 found that up to 60% of ink in a
cartridge goes to waste.Up to 60% of ink in a cartridge may go to
wasteThe tests, carried out by the TUV Rheinland research group, tested
printers that use multi-ink cartridges and found there was a lot of
waste when one colour runs dry.The fact that many desktop inkjet
printers hold their ink in a sponge means that they are eminently
refillable. In most cases peeling off the label on the top of the
cartridge reveals handy holes where fresh ink can be squeezed in.But,
warns Ms Russles, this is not for everyone. The results can vary, not
all models of printer allow their cartridges to be refilled and it can
be very messy if something goes wrong.One alternative is a continuous
ink system that, as its name implies, constantly pipes ink to the
cartridge so it never runs out.This, says Ms Russles, has a following
online but is not for the fainthearted or technical novice. -
AuthorSeptember 4, 2009 at 2:25 PM
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