Cost Effective?? How??

[cplavell]

How is any of this cost effective when I am spending nearly $200 every 2 months on ink??? Ive had 3 printers because of your prices. The next printer will NOT be an HP, unless you will drop your ink prices...

[Bob_Headrick]

What printer model? What cartrdiges are you using (standard or XL)?  What country are you in?  About how many pages do you print per month? What type of documents do you print - text, graphics, photo's?

[cplavell]

Model is an Officejet 6500A Plus, ink 920XL in black and the color standard. Im in the USA. I print practically nothing now cause I can not afford to keep replacing the ink cartridges. This is not about quality or performance. The printer works fine. I have not printed a color page in almost 3 years. Most of my printed documents are text. It is now $40 for a xl black ink cartridge, ridiculous!

[Bob_Headrick]

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@cplavell wrote:

Model is an Officejet 6500A Plus, ink 920XL in black and the color standard. Im in the USA. I print practically nothing now cause I can not afford to keep replacing the ink cartridges. This is not about quality or performance. The printer works fine. I have not printed a color page in almost 3 years. Most of my printed documents are text. It is now $40 for a xl black ink cartridge, ridiculous!

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If you are spending $200 in 2 months while printing text, no color and not much volume there is something wrong.  The 920XL cartridge is rated at 1200 pages, and should deliver twice that for econofast pages.  There are some things to consider that can cause excessive ink usage:

• If the printer is not kept plugged in to a live outlet more ink will be used at startup.  An external switch such as a power strip should not be used to turn off the printer, it should always be plugged into a live outlet.
• The printer will use more ink if it is shut down.  The printer will automatically go into a very low Energy Star rated mode when idle, it is generally better to leave the printer turned on and let it idle at low power.
• Cleaning cycles are generally not necessary, and can use significant ink.  Avoid using cleaning cycles from the front panel or toolbox unless necessary.

If you only print B&W a low cost laser printer may be a better choice.  You might also consider the Instant Ink program, in the US there is a 300 pages/month program offered for $9.99/month.  "Pages" for the Instant Ink program can be simple text or full page color photo's.