Ink Cartridges and Printer Advice

Ever bought a bag of chips, opened them and realised that you’ve just paid for a bag which contains about 60% air ? Well apparently the big guns from Epson, Brother, HP and Canon have had a meeting with the CEO from Smiths Chips and have decided to do the same with their cartridges !

OK maybe thats not the full truth however the basic concept is the same. That is Ink Cartridges are getting smaller, containing less ink and the retail price is increasing. Lets take a look at some of the worst culprits. The picture above is a typical HP Black cartridge which although physically large often only contains as little as 5ml or so of ink. They usually have 2 different options per printer – The XL which is a high yield and contains more ink or the standard cartridge which is very low yield.

Both cartridges look identical however one has  around 2.5 times more ink and costs twice the price. A rip off you say. Of course it is but hey they’ll tell you that if you use a compatible ink your printer will self destruct or else your warranty will be void or some other baloney.

All of the major companies are doing this and really the only way to avoid the ever increasing costs of printer consumables is to do your homework and buy a printer which contains SEPERATE tanks for each colour. Also check that compatible cartridges are available to suit the printer you purchase.

We get calls constantly from people who have gone into their local store and seeing the beautiful, gleaming printer on display for only $39 cant resist taking it home. When the introductory inks which come with the printer run out 3 days later they’re on the blower looking for inks to get their new machine up and printing again.

When they find out they’re up for maybe $60 to as much as $150 for the replacement inks suddenly this once adored new printer is now a rotten mongrel of a thing. The person then logs onto Facebook or Youtube and starts telling everyone not to buy a $#@)*& printer or whatever brand it may be.

If you want to avoid the above scenario and are completely baffled by the great number of choices simply call us at Ink Hub and we can advise you on the most economical printer to suit your printing needs.

Have you ever been refilling or messing with an ink cartridge and ended up with hands like these in the picture ? All is not lost as there are ways to easily remove the stains so you can look like a normal human being once more.

The most effective way is the following:

Spray Windex (window cleaner) onto your hands and then rub them profusely with a pumice stone. The Windex breaks down the ink while the Pumice Stone is abrasive enough to remove the ink without ripping into your skin.

If you dont like the idea of spraying Windex on your hands then you can also try hair spray, Rubbing Alchahol or Soft Scrub.

Bleach will also work to remove the ink however only use it watered down and be warned it can burn if used too heavily.

Prevention is often the best cure so maybe before you mess with ink put on some latex gloves first !

Inkjet Printers are such a handy item to have around the home or office, that is untill they start to play up. The following tips will help you to keep your inkjet printer in tip top shape !

Inkjet Printers by nature are relatively trouble free however if abused they can become a real headache. Your printer needs to be used regularly and a few simple rules need to be followed.

1. Try to use your printer at least two or three times a week. By doing so the print head will remain clear and there will be little chance of ink drying inside the print head resulting in poor print outs.

2. Use a good quality ink. This can be either a Genuine product or a good quality compatible ink. If you try using a cheap, low grade compatible then you are sure to encounter ongoing problems with the print head clogging.

 3. Never run your ink cartridges untill they are dry. This eventually will lead to your print head dying or at the least air being introduced into the print head resulting in low grade print outs.

4. Never remove an ink cartridge and rapidly shake it to check if it has ink inside. This is a common mistake which people make when their printer isnt printing correctly. By shaking an ink cartridge it simply aerates the ink and introduces air into the print head or the line which feeds the print head. This can be very difficult to remove.

5. Never do more than 5 print head cleans at the most. If your printer is not showing signs of improvement after this many cleans then you may need to resort to a print head cleaning kit.

6. Avoid printing only in black and white. Although inkjet printers still use the colours when printing in black and white it is highly recommended to print a colour page every so often to keep the ink flowing freely from the print head.

7. Clean your printer out every so often with a vacuum or low pressure air gun. This may help prolong the life of the drive gear and the paper rollers. Also try cleaning the paper rollers every so often as this helps to prevent them becoming shiny and resulting in paper jam.

8. It’s a good practice in Canon printers to maybe once a year remove the print head from the printer and flush it under hot water. This simply removes any dried ink that may be floating around in the print head. (be very gentle with the actual print head surface as these are very easily damaged if treated harshly).

9. Keep your printer away from windows where temperatures tend to fluctuate quite drastically. The more consistent the temperature is the better. This is the same for most electronic devices.

10. Use a quality paper as some cheap, course papers may eventually damge your print head or even the paper rollers. Also cheaper papers can often cause paper jams (this seems to be more common in Brother printers).

If you are serious about cutting your printing costs then the following tips can help you do just that ! If you do a lot of printing you will find that by using some or all of the following techniques you may reduce your printing costs by up to 50%

So lets take a look at some of the techniques we can use.

• Chosing the right printer - This is the obvious starting point. You need to chose a printer which is capable of using a Quality “compatible” ink cartridge which will perform trouble free and at the same time be cheap. Our list of the top 10 most economical printers is a great guide to get you started. Make sure that whatever you do “DONT” buy a printer which uses cartridges with a built in printhead ! These are generally the printers which use only 2 cartridges. Avoid these like the plague as they are designed purely as a money making machine for the printer manufacturers. The replacement cartridges usually end up costing you more than the printer did.
• Change your font – It has been proven that Century Gothic and Times New Roman fonts use around about 20% less ink  than do Arial and Sans Serif. This alone represents a large saving. Another tip is to reduce the font size and reduce the amount of Bold print used.
• Change you “print” mode – changing your print quality mode to a lower setting will also signifigantly reduce the amount of ink used. If you are only printing pages of text then try using the “Draft” mode.
• Use the “Print Preview” -  by using the print preview you can avoid accidently printing stuff which you dont want. This also gives you the chance to delete URL info and page numbers etc which all help chew up your valueable ink.
• Avoid printing in colour – try to avoid printing documents in colour if they dont need to be. Often we waste loads of ink printing things which really would be fine in black and white.
• Use both sides of the paper -  we can also save on paper costs by printing in “Duplex” mode which utilises both sides of the paper. You may also consider using no longer needed documents for printing on the reverse. (just a thought).

So there you have it, a few ways to cut down on printing costs which are very simple and will help save you money.