A recent survey conducted by Consumer Reports has revealed that the price of printer ink is the most prominent bugbear among printer owners.
Consumer Reports has been explaining the reasons behind this phenomenon, as KOTA TV reports.
“There’s a lot of science and engineering behind printing; and it all has to work together seamlessly,” a Consumer Reports printer expert, said. “Consumers expect a push button experience and that’s what they try to deliver.”
Consumer Reports went on to explain that printer manufacturers “sell the printer cheaply, but can charge more for the ink and toner”. However, once purchased, “most consumers aren’t even getting what they paid for” as “more than half of the ink you buy never winds up on the page!”
Inkjet printers are a prime culprit it seems, with CR explaining that these models “tend to use up more ink than other types of printers because they have to do a maintenance cycle.”
As a result, CR advises looking into reservoir inkjet printers as their refills “can last up to two years”. Consumer Reports also advises not focusing on low prices when printer shopping as it is more important to take into consideration “the price of a printer over time”.
