The use and cost of inkjet ink never ceases to amaze me. I’m glad the the HP Photosmart C6250 (which has given me a lot of problems to solve) uses individual color cartridges. I really don’t understand how each color is used by my specific usage pattern. But, I am surprised that it looks like it is cheaper to buy indivdual HP 02 cartridges rather than the entire color pack (black ink is no longer included in that pack). I think someone estimated that inkjet cartridges costs something like $8,000 per gallon. So, I wish I could get a better handle on how it is actually used in my printer (given the kinds of things I print).
Tags: hp ink
I have a Photosmart C6150, probably the exact same printer… and I am amazed by the costs of ink for this printer. What gets me the most is that my printer seems to go through the Cyan and Magenta colors, as well as the Black, but doesn’t touch the Light Cyan and Light Magenta.
The cost for the ink is astounding, as you point out, but I’ve thought that its much cheaper to buy the HP Photo Value Pack, which still has all six colors and 150 sheets of paper.
However, I’ve been trying to see if that is the case – since I currently have about 8 extra Light Cyan and Light Magenta cartridges, and always run out of the Black, Cyan and Magenta cartridges.
Let’s use the HP Website pricing for the cartridges – we all know that we can get some limited discounts at local office stores (Max/Depot/Staples) but everything is relative here, so lets use the HP prices.
If I need one Cyan cartridge, I can buy one for $10.99 or a twinpack for $18.99. Or I can buy the Value Pack, for $39.99.
So, if I need one Cyan, one Magenta, and one Black cartridge, I can buy individual cartridges for $10.99, $10.99, and $19.99 (total $32.97) and get the yellow ($9.99), Lt. My. ($10.99), and Lt. Mg. ($10.99) and 150 sheets of paper, for $7.02.
This doesn’t seem “right.” But that’s how they price it. So, I’ve been buying the value pack, and building a warehouse of Lt. Cy and Lt. Mg. cartridges.
Well, I was wondering why the ink flow is so different in the various colors, and sure, the primaries might be used more, but it didn’t make a lot of sense.
So, yesterday, at Staples, I started investigating more. It turns out that with the 5 non-black colors, there are different amounts of ink in each cartridge (at least those that are sold individually.) For example, the black cartridge has 10ML of ink (.33 fluid oz.) But the Cyan has only 4ML, and the Magenta has 3.5ML, while the Lt. Magenta has 5.5ML. (The Lt. Cyan didn’t even have the volume of ink listed on either the individual packaging or the twinpack.)
So, let’s see. HP sells me a Magenta cartridge with 3.5ML for the same price as a Lt. Magenta which has 5.5ML, and I run out of the Magenta cartridge about 4x as often as the Lt. Magenta???
I like the economics of this from the HP perspective – good business. But it sure seems like bad deal from the customer’s perspective.
This gets more complex. HP doesn’t want people asking these questions. So they obscure the issue by measuring page yield rather than the quantity of ink that they sell. Here’s a link to their page that describes, in absolute detail, how they measure page yield.
http://tinyurl.com/3xx9yb
But when they sell the packages of ink cartridges, there’s really no mention that 1) the cartridges have different amounts of ink in them 2) that the ink is used in different amounts on average pages 3) that some ink cartridges will be used up in significantly different amounts of time/pages.
I am getting very upset by the growing warehouse of light colors, and the increasing expense of the primary colors – cyan, magenta, and yellow.
I am wondering if others have similar concerns about this, and what we might be able to do to collectively complain about this absurd situtuation.
Feel free to contact me with your thoughts or add them here…
Thanks,
Eric
[...] HP Ink Use & Cost Mystery [...]
I also own a C6150 all in one. I bought it at Costco a couple years ago and thought it was a good deal because all of the ink chambers were separate. It’s amazing that I never change the light color cartridges. I have a collection of 20 (10 of each) light color cartridges that are probably going to be donated to our schools empty cartridge program even though they’re full. The light colors are completely useless. I just bought the cheaper bundled packs at Costco as well. It’s very misleading!
Rob: I started building a small collection of unused HP 02 inkjet cartridges myself until I started looking at it a bit closer. I now only buy individual cartridges on an as-needed basis.
I have a C6180 that takes the HP 02 ink. I also agree with everyone above… HOWEVER, don’t waste your time with the HP”Photo Pack” that gives you all the colors and a smidgen of ink – around an avg. of 4 ml. I too have a collection of the light colors and about 1500 sheets of photo paper. Anyway, last time I bought ink, about a month ago, I bought the Office Depot brand package with all the colors. Their brand actually gives the customer about 10 ml of each color for approx $40. Instead of replacing ink cartridges every week, I just ran out of the dark cyan. I’m sick of this and shopping for my next printer – a laser. Same game there. All the laser cartridges run about $70 but give anywhere from 500 – 3500 sheets. I have to find a good laser that takes the high yield cartridges. Hope this helps.