It’s just a bottle of ink that you pour into the tank. You can find generic ones for $7-8.
My wife prints 1-2 boxes of paper per year in color. About 10% of those are photograph quality. A laser printer wouldn’t cut it for the photographs so I got her an ecotank.
The tanks hold 130ml of ink so they last a long time. The largest HP cartridge held like 49ml of ink of I recall correctly. Most of them had under 10ml.
If you print infrequently or an absolute ton (like an office) a laser printer is better. If you print a case or two of paper per year and photographs, the inkjet is better.
Oh, I know how they work - we have an ET-8550. I just didn’t realise generic ink could be so cheap. My wife sells prints of her photographs and artwork so is a bit “cautious” about her ink and only uses genuine Epson at $25 per 70ml. I just looked on Amazon and found that generic ink can be had for around $6-7 per 70ml ($40 for a 6-pack) - wow!
What I heard is that Epson is even better than Brother and the ink is even cheaper, but the printers are much more expensive and repairs are slow, so Brother is probably better for casual individual user.
People should also consider no printer and just use a local place, like FedEx stores or a local library, for the handful of times you need to print per year. Maybe it won’t work for you, but consider how much you would dump into any printer compared to the cost per page at a shop. You’re going to be spending a lot more for the convenience of printing at home.
I don’t have any recent experience with them but they used to be. I haven’t used their laser offerings but it looks like they’re about on par with Brother from a quick Google search.
I’m guessing they signed up for HP Instant Ink, a monthly subscription service that monitors the ink levels in the printer and automatically mails you refills.
If you buy an HP printer, they HEAVILY promote this and offer discounts/free trials. I declined, because fuck that, but I could see someone agreeing and forgetting about it.
When I was in college, I would go to micro center and buy the cheapest printer there, getting the warranty for $2.99. Run out of ink? Return it as defective and get a new printer with the gift card, paying $2.99 for the warranty again. So I paid $2.99 for ink for all 4 years of college.
Enshittification is driven by consumers who don’t bother to get informed. I think everyone has a responsibility to make choices that don’t actively make society worse.
No, YOU’RE Steven by consumers who stunt burner! 😛
Edit in case anyone’s wondering what I’m babbling about: this was the comment I was responding to before what I assume was a series of autocorrect errors were fixed:
By that same logic, everyone has a responsibility to educate uninformed people about enshitification. Everyone is uninformed until they aren’t, and you can help.
The fuck?
That’s a real thing. Buy Brother, brother.
Has Epson also gone downhill? The first one I bought lasted 11 years, so about 3 years ago I replaced it with another Epson.
Epson with the eco tank. It’s like 12 bucks for several years of ink and the thing just works.
What ink are you getting for $12?? Even allowing for quite a bit of poetic licence, this seems ridiculously cheap.
It’s just a bottle of ink that you pour into the tank. You can find generic ones for $7-8.
My wife prints 1-2 boxes of paper per year in color. About 10% of those are photograph quality. A laser printer wouldn’t cut it for the photographs so I got her an ecotank.
The tanks hold 130ml of ink so they last a long time. The largest HP cartridge held like 49ml of ink of I recall correctly. Most of them had under 10ml.
If you print infrequently or an absolute ton (like an office) a laser printer is better. If you print a case or two of paper per year and photographs, the inkjet is better.
Oh, I know how they work - we have an ET-8550. I just didn’t realise generic ink could be so cheap. My wife sells prints of her photographs and artwork so is a bit “cautious” about her ink and only uses genuine Epson at $25 per 70ml. I just looked on Amazon and found that generic ink can be had for around $6-7 per 70ml ($40 for a 6-pack) - wow!
That investment in a squid and giant aquarium is paying for itself, I tells ya! 😛
I threw mine from the balcony when it stopped me from scanning documents because one of the cartridges was empty.
Been with Brother ever since.
I’ve never had that issue with either Epson I’ve owned. Scans just fine without ink.
What I heard is that Epson is even better than Brother and the ink is even cheaper, but the printers are much more expensive and repairs are slow, so Brother is probably better for casual individual user.
For ink jet you buy Epson, for laser buy Brother
People should also consider no printer and just use a local place, like FedEx stores or a local library, for the handful of times you need to print per year. Maybe it won’t work for you, but consider how much you would dump into any printer compared to the cost per page at a shop. You’re going to be spending a lot more for the convenience of printing at home.
I’ve still been having good experiences with new Epson printers. Epson and brother good, hp needs to be sued to the stone age.
Is Canon half-decent?
I don’t have any recent experience with them but they used to be. I haven’t used their laser offerings but it looks like they’re about on par with Brother from a quick Google search.
I have a cannon at home. It was super cheap and super reliable, and no possibility for an internet connection.
Same with me. I had trouble getting that anti-pale-yellow-dot program to work with it though. Still can’t do it :(
We’ve had trouble with Brother products as well unfortunately
Did it include the manufacturer trying to lock everyone in to a pay-to-print racket?
I’m guessing they signed up for HP Instant Ink, a monthly subscription service that monitors the ink levels in the printer and automatically mails you refills.
If you buy an HP printer, they HEAVILY promote this and offer discounts/free trials. I declined, because fuck that, but I could see someone agreeing and forgetting about it.
They make the money on the ink, not the printer. Laserlet for win
When I was in college, I would go to micro center and buy the cheapest printer there, getting the warranty for $2.99. Run out of ink? Return it as defective and get a new printer with the gift card, paying $2.99 for the warranty again. So I paid $2.99 for ink for all 4 years of college.
$10,000 per gallon
If you buy HP, you deserve everything you get.
No. Making a mistake doesn’t mean you deserve unfair treatment.
Enshittification is driven by consumers who don’t bother to get informed. I think everyone has a responsibility to make choices that don’t actively make society worse.
No, YOU’RE Steven by consumers who stunt burner! 😛
Edit in case anyone’s wondering what I’m babbling about: this was the comment I was responding to before what I assume was a series of autocorrect errors were fixed:
Guilty as charged 🤣🤣🤣🤣
By that same logic, everyone has a responsibility to educate uninformed people about enshitification. Everyone is uninformed until they aren’t, and you can help.
Of course. Every night, I go door to door asking people if they have some time to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Linus Torvalds.
May Arch be with you…
That’s very hard to do in practice when you make a thousand little choices a day - the time spent researching everything would be astronomical.
The solutions we offer should take rational ignorance into account; shaming victims won’t make it go away. Where do your food and clothes come from?
I used HP4015s for years. I loved those things. So easy to work on. I could rip one apart in under a minute. The company just seemed to go to hell.
No, the printer