Printing in B/W but color cartridges being depleted

[arogers2]

Hello! 

We have a HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw that we bought last January. We are having an issue with the ink cartridges and am wondering if our situation is typical or unusual and should get extra help. We already spoke with a HP technician. 

The printer uses 4 cartridges, black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Since we use the printer primarily for black and white prints, we adjusted the default setting to print in B/W  and select color only when necessary.

Seven months later, as of today, our Black cartridge is half full, cyan and magenta 1/4 full, and yellow is almost empty. We didn’t notice the levels until I started getting warnings that the yellow cartridge was nearly empty. This was strange to us because we had been using B/W nearly all the time. At best, we could think of only 2 or 3 occasions when we printed in color and that was 1 or 2 pages long.

We talked to the HP technician who told us “…the printer would still use all the colors to make a black color.” Which makes no sense, since there is a separate B/W cartridge in the printer. 

To replace the yellow cartridge it would cost $109.00, and we hardly used it.  Is this a normal process for this HP printer? Or is there something wrong with the printer? 

Amy

[Valsimot]

From the front panel in the reports menu print supplies status page and usage page scan and post here.

All 4 toners are used, every time the printer is turned ON to calibrate, or during the print process for cleaning and calibration.

[arogers2]

Here's a screenshot of the supply status. Does it calibrate only when after printer is turned off then on, or every time it wakes up before it starts a print job? Our printing jobs is more like once a week rather than daily (our jobs are primarily virtual). We never turn off the printer unless it needs to be reset, which isn't often.  What about scanning jobs? When I scan to my desktop, I generally create PDFs. Does it use ink, anyway?

[Valsimot]

There was a good reason why I asked both the supplies status page and usage page.

[arogers2]

I am sorry if I am being dense here, but what is the "good reason?"

[Valsimot]

The usage page reports exactly how many colour pager printer have printed, how many b&w pages printed, how many copies, scans and information about the printer usage.