Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for February 13, 2025

Ironically printer ink cartridges are more expensive than the printer itself.

In the long run, you save more buying the more expensive cartridge.

I’ve found that cheap or expensive they all run out quickly.

My Epson print heads clogged, but there are inexpensive, easy to use kits to clear them. I was also able to reset the “lifetime print counter” and change out the maintenance box for the overflow ink, so in essence I’ve doubled the life of my printer!

Jumping overs Dollars to save Pennies Mr. Rod!

Spoken like a true miser!

Cost half as much, last less than half as long, poor print quality. Where’s the savings? Oh, and they can wreck your printer.

You might want to do the math and see whether, per page, those cheap cartridges really are cheaper.

As I constantly tell my wife, who is always looking for a bargain … ¡Barato es barato! Lo económico no suele ser bueno ni duradero.

But the good ones last longer and give better quality!

I worked software dev for Lexmark for a decade before they sold out to China. Believe me, in most cases unless you’re a large business user, it’s cheaper to just buy a new printer.

Kid needs a new job, preferably in a place with more humorous possibilities.

Common story of office supply purchases.

They have a printer that’ll let them use off-brand ink—rather than bricking itself?

Back in the ’90s, my dad bought some off-brand printer cartridges for our inkjet. The black came out more of a brown color. We never did that again.

One way I stretch the ink as far as I can is by ignoring my Canon printer when it tells me a cartridge is out of ink. Instead I wait until I see it for myself on the printed page. I’d rather waste a sheet of paper (even photo paper, which I’ve stockpiled cheaply from thrift stores and yard sales anyway) than waste ink that’s still there.

I really never printed that much stuff at home, so eventually I gave up trying to have a printer. When I needed something, I’d put it on flash drive and stop by a Fedex store while out. No the Fancy New Apartment building has a business center, so I print there.

Like P.T Barnum said “There’s one born every minute”…..

And he was quoting an ancient Greek philosopher….

That looks like a toner cartridge, which contains toner and not ink. Ink cartridges are much smaller.

That’s where they get you, spend a 100 on a printer once and then 50 a piece for every cartridge and that’s for a home printer. My work printer blows through an ink cartridge at least once a month and those cartridges are 200 a piece. For the end result, they should be giving the printers away for free.

Good answer, Baldo! Because you’re talking to the boss who decided that’s a good deal.

I bought a laser jet printer for my needs. I can buy the extended cartridges which last for up to 6000+ pages (depending on the amount of toner used to print on each page) It’s still cheaper than buying a so-called inexpensive ink jet printer which is good for about 500 to 1000+ pages again depending on the amount of printing used on each page. The manufacturers base the usage on 6% toner/ink per page which is about the size of a 1 inch square postage stamp per page!

Just like laptops. I was going through cheap laptops ($300 or so) every 1.5 to 2 years. My husband finally had enough and bought me a nice $1,000 one and it’s still working 6 years later! Now let’s hope it lasts longer to prove he was right. The cheap come out expensive!