Why SMBs Should Avoid Inkjet Printers for General Use

I do not agree with most points in this article.

(1) I don't see a full comparison of the cost of the injket cartridge replacment versus the cost of the laser cartridges. Last time I checked the laser cartridge costs comparing hig dpi inkjet versus similar dpi laser was much higher.

(2) I do agree that printer manufacturers like HP undercut the cost of the inkjet printers to seduce buyers in purchasing them but the cost of the replacement cartridges..even the replacement of one batch is sometimes more than the initial cost of the printer.

However there is a solution.

The most cost effective approach is to get the best inkjet for your business, watch for the big discounts being offered, then refill the ink with high quality ink yourself.

Follow these steps:

(a) Purchase a printer that uses separate cartridges for each color range (usually Black, Yellow, Cyan and Magenta...the HP's that use the '02' types add Light Cyan & Light Magenta to gave very high color resolution)

- The cartridges that come with the printers ar usually only filled partially so they will be empty quickly.

(c) Purchase a refill kit from a reputable dealer.  I get mine from a company in NJ that has been supplying me for years with ink which exactly match the factory brands and specs and they supply kits which are very simple to use.

(d) Follow the refill instruction carefully and diligently you will be shocked at the savings.  Each refill bottle usually give you about six full capacity refills.  Each bottle sells for less that the price of ONE cartridge. You are saving a massive 85% on your ink costs.

I have done this for years and have several printers one for daily business use.  It is fast and fairly efficient.  The other will print up to 4800 dpi and I use that when very high resoution options are required includng photographs and high quality labels.

CONCLUSION:

You beat the inkjet printer manufacturs at their own game.  You get a printer at below cost sometimes and you don't use the overpriced cartridges.

Drum kit for use in the Dell 1720 printer which has a pagelife of 30000 pages , the Dell 1720 printer is based on a Lexmark print engine , but the toner kit and Drum kit is not interchangeable ( so you can’t use the Dell cartridges in a Lexmark printer or vice versa as the products contain machine specific chips

I think your position is outdated on “Why SMBs Should Avoid Inkjet Printers for General Use”

The Cost of Inkjets

Most inkjet printers are “consumer grade” quality products (you implied they are intended for businesses by mentioning them in your article…they are not), but there are networkable “business class” inkjet printers and all-in-ones that are designed for product life cycles exceeding 500,000 pages. For example, HP has produced the OfficeJet 3000. Newer models like the HP OfficeJet 8500 series utilize pigment inks that mimic toner durability and water/smudge resistance. These machines typically offer cost-per-page results much lower than laser printers.

Note: “Business class” Continuous Ink Supply Systems (CISS) from Adaptive Ink (www.adaptiveink.com) can provide additional dramatic savings on color printing (even lower than monochrome lasers). They have CISSs with ink tanks up to 720ml that will provide nearly 40,000 pages of color printing for less than a penny per page.

Quality of Printouts

You mentioned the disadvantage of inkjet printers’ higher susceptibility to smudging, adding that the best inkjet printers generally cannot match the quality of a standard laser printout for non-color general business printing. The latest generation of pigment inks resolves the smudging issue and can easily match the sharp-text quality of a 1200dpi laser printer even on plain paper. I’ve seen demonstrations where color inkjet pages were put in a tube of water and they did not smear. On high-quality paper, the print quality is definitely in favor of inkjets. Lasers produce acceptable photo quality output, but they do not approach the photo quality of the best inkjet photo printers or business inkjets.

Consider Color Laser

You stated: “One common rationale for getting an inkjet printer would be its ability to produce color printouts at a relatively lower cost compared to the cost of buying a color laser printer.  However, the price for color laser printers has dropped substantially over the years. As I shopped around over the past two weeks, I found at least three or four different color laser printers retailing at an average of US$300 -- there was even one model selling at just US$200.  As a bonus, all these laser printers come with separate cartridges for the three primary colors as well as a fourth one for black.”

You failed to consider the high power requirements of laser printers, the high price of toner cartridges, fusers, image drums, etc. – laser printers have multiple consumables that need periodic replacement. Most business class inkjets require periodic replacement of reasonably price print heads and the per-page cost of the ink is much lower than that of toner.

You mentioned that “higher-quality printouts would probably be done better at a professional print shop.” Unless a business is printing tens of thousands of copies of a static document, in-house business inkjets will produce professional offset print quality results at a lower cost. This does not even take into consideration the time and expense of working with the print shop.

Laser printing has been the “accepted” technology utilized by business for years. Speed, reliability, features, and print quality were the likely reasons laser printers and office machines dominate the office environment. But, the current generation of inkjet printers provides the performance of laser printers while being dramatically lower-priced. Adaptive Ink has a Continuous Ink Supply System (CISS) that solves the ink cost issue that is considered to be the primary reason inkjets are not suitable for high volume office printing.