Felix.

When you buy a new printer - is the fact that these cartridges are only half full a myth...?

I can't imagine the company going to all the trouble to have some cartridges only half full for the new printers. I know of a few cases now where these cartridges seem to last as long as the ones bought off the shelf as a replacements.

Any views or insider knowledge?

CharlesTuna

iTrader: (2)

I have heard of this and experienced it myself with a HP175N, all toner, KCYM were low yield cartridges.

It's a colour laser printer and scanner it only cost £199 . . .a replacement set of 4 genuine toner cartridges £85

In 4 years I've bought 2 full sets and an extra black toner. In the past I've tried non genuine ink cartridges and toner and had mixed results, so always go genuine now.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Our Epson cx11 printers had almost empty toner when new....all four of them.
After the prices hiked up to £80 per toner we switched to compatibles for £20-25. Some good, some leaked, some didn't last long.

Our new HP x476dw printers seems to have normal capacity cartridges; the black lasted quite some time and both printers are still on their original colour cartridges. So I think they were normal capacity cartridges supplied

The canon pixma on our Bosch BEA/KTS bench guzzled its supplied black cartridge inside a month, I'm guessing this wasn't a full cartridge as the black ink on my pixma at home lasts ages.

hodgy0_2

a trick some manufactures (Epson) do is have a sensor that reports low/out of ink way before the Cartridge is actually out

bobbyd182

iTrader: (2)

Printer ink is like liquid gold.
There was a TV program about it abit ago, banging on about the technology in the printers/printer heads improving yet the cost of the printers remaining the same. So they get you with ink.

If you do a lot of printing, look at "cartridge world" they do a monthly or yearly plan.
Worked out pretty good for us.

Felix.

The price of printers now, for a basic printer which is all I need really, is about £30 from Tescos. I'm finding it more cost effective to just buy a new printer when ever i need new ink.

My mate at work does the same - he even keeps hold of its box, so he can put the printer back in the box and straight in the bin

dpb

get yourself ricoh sp213w , if its just small scale printing you need

and visit high street print shop for everything else