Dear All,
Anyone out there disturbed by the prices charged for originals?
Take a look at abix.fr
I've been using their cartridges for some time now and am completely satisfied. Two black and two colour cartridges for an Epson Stylus Colour 760, including postage, cost less than one Epson original black cartridge from Auchan. Ordering and payment is on-line and normal delivery is three days.
Fluffy
Printer Ink Cartridges
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Alan Knighting
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Alan Knighting
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- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
I'm not sure that Abix has a presence in Spain but I would have thought there might be something similar.Crystal wrote:Thanks for the link Alan. Ink cartridges for my HPDeskjet cost a fortune down here...and they don't seem to last very long either!
To give exact figures, the Epson compatible black cartridges are 2,25€ each and the colour cartridges are 3,90€ each. To be pedantic I might say they don't last as long as the originals and the colours are maybe a little less vibrant. But at those prices why should I be pedantic?
I think you will find that everything for the HPDeskjet is expensive except perhaps the ink refill kits. With Epson printers the print head is built into the printer; with HP printers the print head is part of the cartridge, thus the huge difference in price.
Before anyone tells me that the HP route is the more reliable one let me say that my Epson printer is now eight years old and is still running without any problems whatever. It is quick in both black and colour, the paper transport system works with plain and glossy paper anywhere between 60g and 200g, and with envelopes, without fault and the quality is good. It's even USB 2 at 480Mbps.
Fluffy
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Hells Bells
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Alan Knighting
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Hells Bells
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I needed a replacement printer* and was recommended a Canon Pixma 4200 by John Lewis. It was around £70. I didn't realise it had so many features on for that price. It does double sided printing, prints on CD's if you desire (the white ones) and gives fantastic photo quality. Maybe you may not need all the features but since I make handmade cards and do scrapbook stuff it is idea. The cartridges (separate colours, a black one and a text one) seem to have a good life span and I'm very heavy on output.
*Last one had a good useful happy life of about 5 years then started doing a Bob Marley (jammin')
*Last one had a good useful happy life of about 5 years then started doing a Bob Marley (jammin')
Trouble with inkjets is that you need to use good expensive paper and ink to get good colour prints. If you don't use it often enough then you need to go through a cleaning process due to the ink drying. It all works out to be a pain.
A decent Brother B&W laser will cost from as little as €110 and the €40 toner cartridge will last for 4000 pages. Add to that the fact that you can chuck any old paper in it, it works out very well.
The colour was a little bit more expensive, around €270, but again is very cheap to run. A full page photo print on normal paper is very high quality and takes 10 seconds to print. With mine they quote 4000 to 7000 pages to a set of toners, so I won't need any for 3 or 4 years.
The other bonus is that if I don't print anything for 3 weeks, I know that the next time I do print it will be perfect first time.
A decent Brother B&W laser will cost from as little as €110 and the €40 toner cartridge will last for 4000 pages. Add to that the fact that you can chuck any old paper in it, it works out very well.
The colour was a little bit more expensive, around €270, but again is very cheap to run. A full page photo print on normal paper is very high quality and takes 10 seconds to print. With mine they quote 4000 to 7000 pages to a set of toners, so I won't need any for 3 or 4 years.
The other bonus is that if I don't print anything for 3 weeks, I know that the next time I do print it will be perfect first time.
Bob T wrote:
Inkjets are troublesome if you don't have a regular throughput of work to keep them healthy and they're not cheap to run. And they need expensive colour profiling for the best results. But - horses for courses - if you need the finest quality in photo prints, an inkjet is still the boss dog in the sled.
Jim
Trouble with lasers is that they don't deliver the best quality in colour prints. Even a cheap inkjet will better an expensive laser in this respect. You can install bottles of ink to replace the outrageously expensive cartridges in better inkjet printers - called CIS (Continuous Ink System) - which will, in the long run, save you money.Trouble with inkjets is that you need to use good expensive paper and ink to get good colour prints. If you don't use it often enough then you need to go through a cleaning process due to the ink drying.
Inkjets are troublesome if you don't have a regular throughput of work to keep them healthy and they're not cheap to run. And they need expensive colour profiling for the best results. But - horses for courses - if you need the finest quality in photo prints, an inkjet is still the boss dog in the sled.
Jim
I had no problems for years with eBay compatible cartridges for my Epson Photo X, then upgraded to a Canon i9100, since when I had nothing but trouble with them........ compatibles just don't seem to work with this particular printer unfortunately ..... and the refill thing with syringes, forget it, I looked like those kids who got into the white paint pot......
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Hells Bells
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Mountain Goat
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For years we've used Brother monochrome lasers, and got our toner from:
http://www.refilltoner.com/index.htm
Pretty straightforward to refill, needs a boy of course, plus turkey-flu-combat-kit for protection.
Costs for 3,500 - 4,000 copies are around £40 Brother original toner, £25 commercial refill, £10 DIY (inc. funnel, unusual sealant, toner, gloves).
When the drum goes, it's cheaper to chuck the printer (i.e. toner/drum is more than printer/drum/toner) if you stick to Brother originals. We find that HP have sewn up their machines to reject compatibles so we use originals.
For low-volume colour work we use a HP DeskJet, and get original cartridges from Amazon for a fraction of anywhere else. We find that HP have sewn up their machines to reject compatibles so we use originals.
MG
http://www.refilltoner.com/index.htm
Pretty straightforward to refill, needs a boy of course, plus turkey-flu-combat-kit for protection.
Costs for 3,500 - 4,000 copies are around £40 Brother original toner, £25 commercial refill, £10 DIY (inc. funnel, unusual sealant, toner, gloves).
When the drum goes, it's cheaper to chuck the printer (i.e. toner/drum is more than printer/drum/toner) if you stick to Brother originals. We find that HP have sewn up their machines to reject compatibles so we use originals.
For low-volume colour work we use a HP DeskJet, and get original cartridges from Amazon for a fraction of anywhere else. We find that HP have sewn up their machines to reject compatibles so we use originals.
MG
I'd always used HP printers and been very happy with them. I changed to an Epson Stylus Photo RX500 a couple of years ago now, and I'm a tad disappointed. When it runs low on ink there 'feels' to be quite alot more ink left in the cartridge. I've even squeezed a carteridge when I'm told by the printer there's no ink left. The amount of ink that came out was unbelievable! The other MAJOR niggle is that when there's no ink in a particular cartridge (there are 5 or 6 of them) the scanner facility won't work! Infuriating. The cartridges are expensive, and seem not to last that long.
Anyway, as part of the deal to sign up with Alice adsl, I received in the post yesterday a brand new Olivetti Multi-fonction colour printer! If nothing else it'll be a good back up for when the Epson spits the dummy out!
Anyway, as part of the deal to sign up with Alice adsl, I received in the post yesterday a brand new Olivetti Multi-fonction colour printer! If nothing else it'll be a good back up for when the Epson spits the dummy out!
...
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Alan Knighting
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Stu & Syb,
My Epson, a Stylus Color 760, is a lot simpler than yours in that it only has two cartridges, a black and a colour but it reacts in just the same way. If either runs out it stops. My answer is a simple one, I keep a small stock of cartridges which I get on-line from Abix – the black is 2.25€, the colour is 3.9€ and they are delivered within 48 hours by courier for 5.02€ plus an admin charge of 4.18€. My latest bill for 2 black and 2 colour cartridges totalled 25.71€.
Surely, Abix is worth a try?
Fluffy
My Epson, a Stylus Color 760, is a lot simpler than yours in that it only has two cartridges, a black and a colour but it reacts in just the same way. If either runs out it stops. My answer is a simple one, I keep a small stock of cartridges which I get on-line from Abix – the black is 2.25€, the colour is 3.9€ and they are delivered within 48 hours by courier for 5.02€ plus an admin charge of 4.18€. My latest bill for 2 black and 2 colour cartridges totalled 25.71€.
Surely, Abix is worth a try?
Fluffy