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- HP Community
- Printers
- Printing Errors or Lights & Stuck Print Jobs
- Problems with 301 and 301XL ink cartridge yields

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06-10-2020 09:05 AM
Hi,
I'm getting in touch on here as this seems to be the only way to contact HP support without paying for it which has already quite frankly ticked me off. The chat is a joke - with most other companies you at least get a proper person on the chat rather than an automated system.
Anyway onto my problem...
I bought an HP ENVY 4501 printer some years ago to use for my artwork. Initially I only used it occasionally as I was working in an office and so could use the printer there. At this time I had signed up for the HP instant ink ink which I had for about a year and during this time I don't think the ink cartridges ran out at all despite printing photos etc. After cancelling HP instant ink I bought my own HP cartridges at around £15 per standard cartridge (£30 for a duo pack). I quickly noticed that the amount of pages per ink cartridge dropped significantly and so to be honest stopped using it for my artwork and only used it occasionally for paperwork. Since having to work from home due to COVID-19 I have had to start using it again for collage projects related to my degree.
The page yield on a standard HP 301 ink cartridge is supposed to be around 165 pages for colour prints, I think I get about 10 prints max per cartridge. I do generally print photographs and so would expect the yield to be lower but not that low! I cannot find any information about photo yields for the 301 cartridges. As it currently stands I am paying about £1.50 for each print/photocopy which is ridiculous compared to what I would pay at a store or library. I print at c. A4 size on normal plain paper with the default settings i.e. normal print quality (I realise that I could change the print quality to draft). This has been the case for multiple cartridges and I don't think I experienced much difference with the XL cartridges.
Please can someone advise me:
a) What the expected photo yield as discussed on your website (i.e. 10 x 15cm with a white border) should be for a standard HP 301 colour and black and white ink cartridge?
b) Whether the number of prints I am getting is considered satisfactory by HP
c) What I can do other than changing the print quality to 'draft' to increase my print yields (bearing in mind that I need moderate quality photographs for collage work)
d) Is there a way to monitor my print yields as evidence of what I am saying other than me making a note
e) Who I can write to to make an official complaint?
Many thanks
06-10-2020 12:20 PM
Page yield is a number of pages you can print on an A4 plain sheet at 5% coverage.
If the page yield is 165 pages if you print with higher coverage lets say 50% you can print 10 times less around 16 sheets, if you print the full black page that is 100% coverage you can print around 8 sheets.
There is no ink yield for printing photos because it is hard to calculate with 100% accuracy how much ink is consumed on photo printed on 10x15, each photo uses a different amount of ink and printing on photo paper user more ink than printing on plain paper.
If you decrease print quality the photo you printed will probably not satisfy your needs.
In your case, Instant ink would be a cheaper solution because you pay per sheet, and you pay the same amount if you print a single black dot on a sheet or 100% full black page.
Also, some ink is used on maintaining cartridge health every time you turn the printer ON or start a cleaning cycle.
You can monitor your printing needs if you print yourself a configuration page from the printers menu, you can find total page count and you can save it to compare next time you replace the ink cartridge.
If you even consider buying a new printer check on the HP Ink Tank printers where you buy individual ink in a bottle and one black bottle can print 6000 pages and cost around 8-10 GBP that is way cheaper.
06-11-2020 01:50 AM
Thank you so much, that was a really helpful reply. It sounds like the number of pages I am getting is probably about right given that the prints I make cover 50-100% of the page area. I will look into the instant ink option for now and perhaps consider getting a different printer in the future as you suggest. I was advised in the shop that this would suit my needs but the sales person obviously didn't know very much about printers. I do think that HP should put more information about yields on their products in order to avoid disappointment and so customers can find the right product for their needs.
Thanks again.