DIYbanter - View Single Post - What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home fromnon OEM toner?

SMS

On 8/20/2012 1:25 PM, wrote:

The reason HP inks are so expensive is because you're getting a new printhead as part of the ink cartridge on most of their models. Kodak's are cheap because the printhead is part of the printer. You might get 2-3 cartridges worth of ink through a printhead before output quality starts to degrade noticeably on the Kodaks.

HP does have a few models now with separately replaceable printheads. I have a 7000 series wide carriage printer with the separate head and a full set of double-life inks is only about $50. My previous HP's black cartridge was easily $50 by itself.

Personally I don't know anyone with a Kodak inkjet printer so I can't
comment on Kodak's print heads, but I do know people with Canon inkjet
printers and every one has had to either replace the print head or toss
the printer. It's an expensive proposition to replace the print head,
but some people do it because they have so many ink cartridges that they
don't want to change printers.

But the reason that HP inkjet cartridges are so expensive is really
because the price is set to what the market will bear, it's not the cost
of manufacturing. This may change as demand falls and consumers become
more savvy as to the cost of consumables. The popularity of tablets is
driving down demand for ink (and other printing consumables) because
finally there's a convenient portable way to take your content with you.

The falling prices of laser printers may also be a cause of reduced
demand for ink. I recently purchased a laser printer for the
daughter-unit to take off to college. $80 for a laser printer that does
double-sided, has wireless, and that has easily refillable toner
cartridges. It's not to the build quality of one of the older HP
Laserjets, but none of the consumer quality laser printers are built to
that level.