Issue #0528/2 - There are a number of advantages to printers with separate and individual ink tank configurations. But, the general perception is that they will save the user money. Is this true and how can users save on their inkjet printing costs?
I have always taken the view that individual ink tanks in a printer is a good thing!
I haven’t changed my mind but watching the industry progressively move towards the individual tank configuration, the more it is obvious that most manufacturers do not price their ink tanks/cartridges according to the volume of ink contained in them but according to the number of pages it is expected that the user will achieve from the tank.
Focusing first on the ink wastage issue, the exact amount of ink that is actually used from an independent ink tank depends very much on a disturbance factor and a usage factor. By this I meant that a tank that is being used constantly and is left completely undisturbed in the printer will tend to give up more of its ink than one that is used periodically, removed from the machine and then replaced and, for instance, where the printer is picked up and moved.
This is a curious phenomenon and, moving back to a motoring analogy, is very similar to the reading acquired from the fuel gauge in a car. You will notice that on a long, steady motorway journey, the gauge will move steadily from top to bottom of the scale. If the journey ends with just a little fuel still showing in the tank, the next time the driver returns to the car and starts a short journey, they may be panicked by the gauge showing a reading almost off the bottom of the scale.
This is because the sensor is suddenly disturbed by the end of the journey and start of a new journey (the phenomenon may also be triggered by stopping at a set of traffic lights once off the motorway) and settles into a different position in the tank for the new journey. So with some ink tanks.
There is no doubt that the most drastic reappraisal by the printer of ink remaining in the tank occurs if the tank is removed from the printer and then replaced. Under these circumstances, the printer activates a cleaning cycle, which uses some ink from all the ink tanks, and may result in the printer determining that there is insufficient ink in the disturbed tank (or others) to continue printing.
Therefore, a user should never, ever, remove a tank from the machine simply to make a visual check on how much ink remains! On many occasions the user will find that the replaced tank is then useless and much more ink is wasted than was necessary.
Similarly, when a user replaces just one tank that has been exhausted, the printer undertakes a cleaning cycle – which affects all tanks – and may result in the printer determining that there is insufficient ink in one of the other tanks to continue. If this happens, the user then has to replace a second tank – prompting another cleaning cycle, which could trigger the same response on one of the other tanks.
In this way, rather a lot of ink can be wasted.
Canon Single Ink tanksCanon claims that all ink in its Single Ink system is used and Hewlett-Packard’s SPT system matches that claim. By contrast, Epson’s Micro Piezo system definitely does not use all ink from the tank, nor do Brother’s LC900 series tanks used in the DCP series and MFC series AiOs.
Hewlett-Packard’s ScalablePrinting Technology configuration
Moving on the concept of reducing the cost of inkjet printing, by far the best way to save money on a general purpose printer is to buy one that is cheap enough to be considered to be a consumable in its own right.
Why? Because if the manufacturer’s claims that using third party inks can damage your printer are correct, then the damage really doesn’t matter if the printer is merely a commodity. If the printer fails after a year or two, you will probably be quite happy to upgrade to a new printer, with higher performance, anyway.
Remember that some printers can even be bought for less than the cost of their replacement ink cartridges. One proviso is that the chosen machine really should be one that has cartridges that can be refilled easily, preferably having individual ink tanks.
In point of fact though, if it is a printer with integrated cartridges, then the potential for needing to replace the machine through third party ink damage is actually reduced because any head that fails is easily replaced by purchasing a new cartridge. This is not the case with printers that contain built-in print heads and separate ink tanks. Here, if the head fails it means a new machine.
Having bought a really cheap device, you can proceed to purchase cheap third party ink and refill the cartridges. Here, the key to the operation is to refill ALL colours at the same time regardless of how full or empty they may be.
Because printers go through their cleaning cycle every time a new cartridge is inserted, you do not want to be putting any one cartridge through three cleaning cycles just because you are changing one tank at a time. It is far better to refill all tanks at the same time so that one cleaning cycle handles all four tanks and only when they are all full.
This approach maximises the time that the cartridges are in the printer and minimises the number of interventions.
Flag system on BrotherLC900 series ink tank
To date, by far the most refill friendly cartridge that I have experienced is the Brother LC900 series mentioned in "Epson refreshes general purpose inkjets"
These cartridges are not only transparent so that it is easy to see the ink inside but there is a mechanical flag system that directs the printer to stop printing at the appropriate time (see TCPglobal issue #0514 - "Brother DCP-310CN put to the test" for a more detailed appraisal) and there is no on-tank chip. Not only is the system designed so that a significant amount of ink is left in the tank to prevent air entering the ink tubes but it is exceptionally easy to drill a hole in the top of the tank through which ink can be added with no danger of overfilling because the level can clearly be seen.
Brother does not make such as issue of using third part inks in its machines as companies like Hewlett-Packard in particular, from which we could surmise that there is less danger of ruining the print head by using good quality third party inks.
Epson individual ink cartridgesare opaque and have chips
So, to summarise, in reality there is probably very little difference between the cost of running a machine with tricolour cartridges against one running individual cartridges because of the marketing strategy used in the pricing of the tanks/cartridges. However, if the user is sufficiently knowledgeable to buy a machine that can use all of the ink in the tanks – i.e. Canon or Hewlett-Packard SPT – then it is certainly much more satisfying to know that all the ink is being used as opposed to knowing that some is left standing inaccessible in the used tank.
At this point, it is wholly reliant on the pricing policy of the manufacturer as to whether there is a cost advantage or not. The manufacturer has the power to create a cost advantage or to price for an even playing field.
Brother LC900 ink tank configuration~End~
