See here for our Best Ink-Saving Printers 2012
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Cheap Printer Ink Cartridges
Best Printers for Saving Ink 2011
In the last year there has been a lot of change within the printing industry and discount ink cartridges. Rather than selling cheap printers and expensive ink, manufacturers are now starting to market printers specifically with cheap printer ink as a primary selling point. With this in mind, we thought it would be a good time to break down the printer market and let you know which of the newer printers are the best printers for saving ink. We evaluated 47 current printer models by Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP and Kodak and Lexmark. The best choices were printers that use the following cartridges:The printers and all-in-ones that use these cartridges are listed below along with their features and prices. To make our recommendations more useful we divided these printers into categories for occasional, typical, and heavy users and highlighted our recommendations for specific models in dark blue.
| Printer Model | Cost of OEM ink per page | Cost of 3rd party ink per page | Price Of Printer | Features |
For Typical Users: Printers using HP 940XL series cartridges
|
HP Officejet Pro 8000 |
$0.020 | $0.009 | $89.99 | Color printer. Wireless model $99.99 |
| HP Officejet Pro 8500 |
$0.020 | $0.009 | $179.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier/fax |
| HP Officejet Pro 8500 Plus |
$0.020 | $0.009 | $279.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier/fax with legal-size scanner |
| HP Officejet Pro 8500 Premium |
$0.020 | $0.009 | $349.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier/fax with legal-size scanner and extra paper tray (250 extra pages) |
For Heavy Users (100+ pages a week): Printers using Brother LC79 series cartridge
| Brother MFC-J6510 |
$0.017 | $0.0036 | $249.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier/fax 250 page capacity |
| Brother MFC-J6710 |
$0.017 | $0.0036 | $299.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier/fax 500 page capacity |
| Brother MFC-J6910 |
$0.017 | $0.0036 | $349.99 | Wireless duplex* printer/scanner/copier/fax 500 page capacity |
For Occasional Users (less than 10 pages a week): Printers using Kodak 30 series cartridges
| Kodak ESP C31 |
$0.044 | N/A | $79.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier |
| Kodak ESP Office 2170 |
$0.044 | N/A | $119.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier/fax with ADF** and photo tray |
For Printing Photos: Printers using Canon CLI-226 series cartridges
| Canon Pixma IP4820 |
$0.033 | $0.015 | $99.99 | Home photo printer. |
| Canon Pixma MG6120 |
$0.033 | $0.015 | $199.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier |
| Canon Pixma MG8120 |
$0.033 | $0.015 | $299.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier with a professional level Scanner and envelope printing |
| Canon Pixma MX882 |
$0.033 | $0.015 | $199.99 | Wireless printer/scanner/copier/fax with duplex* scanning and printing. |
**ADF or Automatic Document Feeder- Multiple pages can be scanned or copied without having to manually enter them into the machine.
Best Printers For Saving Ink
HP Officejet Pro 8000
If you are a medium sized office or just a busy home user, this line of all-in-one printers offer a good middle ground in terms of initial price and low ink cost. While the Brother LC79 printers are more cost efficient for extremely busy offices, the HP Officejet Pro 8000/8500 series offers a comparable set of models that are considerably more affordable when printing under 10,000 pages over the lifetime of the printer. The HP Officejet 8000 for only $89.99 offers very efficient color printing at the same price as some of the other common printers on the market. As for the all-in-ones, the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is much less expensive than the basic model of its comparable Brother competitor (MFC-J6510) with similar yields making it one of the best printers for saving ink.
Brother MFC-J6710
At the end of last year Brother introduced the most ink efficient line of printers on the market. With their LC-79 cartridges, these printers have a page yield higher than anything created by the other brands thus far and at a much lower price than those with similar yields. When using a compatible cartridge the price gets even lower to a very inexpensive .15/page. This is less than half of the next cheapest competitor and comparable to high end laser printers, even when just looking at black and white ink. On top of that they also have a very high page capacity as well as an impressive printing speed of 35 pages per minute. The primary drawback to these printers is there initial expense. At $249.99 for the cheapest model, these printers can be quite a large initial investment. If you are planning on printing more than 13,000 pages over the lifetime of the printer it becomes the most efficient option even when compared to the less expensive HP Officejet Pro 8500 ($179.99)
Money Saving Printer Kodak C310
At the lower price range lies the Kodak 30 line of printers. These have been promoted as some of the most efficient printers on the market and for their price range they absolutely are. With new cheap ink cartridges as low as $10 apiece and being priced around $80, these all-in-one printer/scanner/copiers make great options for moderate home use. Comparable models from manufacturers such as HP, Dell, Canon or Lexmark in similar price ranges will cost you an extra 30-40% more per page. Outside of just efficiency, Kodak's line of printers have received excellent reviews for their outstanding color and photo quality. The Kodak all-in-ones are also fairly inexpensive at under $130 and have more features than many other similarly priced printers.
Canon IP4820
For photos and color it is tough to beat such an efficient printer as either the Officejet Pro 8000 or the Kodak C310 but the Canon Pixma IP4820 is a solid middle ground in terms of efficiency as well as quality. Of all the printers on the above list, the Canon Pixma IP4820 is the only true photo printer with a photo-black cartridge in addition to the normal CMYK cartridges. Unlike some of the other printers in the $100 price range, the IP4820 has multiple color cartridges allowing you to switch out colors as they run out rather than a single CMY color cartridge like the Kodak C310.
HP Officejet Pro 8000
If you are a medium sized office or just a busy home user, this line of all-in-one printers offer a good middle ground in terms of initial price and low ink cost. While the Brother LC79 printers are more cost efficient for extremely busy offices, the HP Officejet Pro 8000/8500 series offers a comparable set of models that are considerably more affordable when printing under 10,000 pages over the lifetime of the printer. The HP Officejet 8000 for only $89.99 offers very efficient color printing at the same price as some of the other common printers on the market. As for the all-in-ones, the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is much less expensive than the basic model of its comparable Brother competitor (MFC-J6510) with similar yields making it one of the best printers for saving ink.
Brother MFC-J6710
Money Saving Printer Kodak C310
At the lower price range lies the Kodak 30 line of printers. These have been promoted as some of the most efficient printers on the market and for their price range they absolutely are. With new cheap ink cartridges as low as $10 apiece and being priced around $80, these all-in-one printer/scanner/copiers make great options for moderate home use. Comparable models from manufacturers such as HP, Dell, Canon or Lexmark in similar price ranges will cost you an extra 30-40% more per page. Outside of just efficiency, Kodak's line of printers have received excellent reviews for their outstanding color and photo quality. The Kodak all-in-ones are also fairly inexpensive at under $130 and have more features than many other similarly priced printers.
Canon IP4820
For photos and color it is tough to beat such an efficient printer as either the Officejet Pro 8000 or the Kodak C310 but the Canon Pixma IP4820 is a solid middle ground in terms of efficiency as well as quality. Of all the printers on the above list, the Canon Pixma IP4820 is the only true photo printer with a photo-black cartridge in addition to the normal CMYK cartridges. Unlike some of the other printers in the $100 price range, the IP4820 has multiple color cartridges allowing you to switch out colors as they run out rather than a single CMY color cartridge like the Kodak C310.
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20 Comments
9.14.11
very helpfull. thank you
10.13.11And I thought I was the sensible one. Thanks for steting me straight.
11.22.11Heckuva good job. I sure appreictae it.
12.02.11
I am also using HP printers in my office who are saving huge money every years and brings my total cost down to a huge extent. thanks for this valuable information you shared with us. Ink cartridges
1.07.12
HP printer is one of the most well known printer for printing and its feature is very good.HP printers is the best decision for printer. Thanks.
Toner cartridges
5.11.14I recently went to a Great Clips store for a haicurt and noticed a poster touting a new mobile app for scheduling a haicurt. It had a QR code for Android and one for iPhone. the problem was that the poster was placed a few inches off the floor and directly in the center of the check-out/check-in station. On top of that, the QR codes were placed near the bottom of the poster. This campaign is doomed to fail because you would have to hold your smartphone a few inches off the floor to scan the code.
2.02.12
hp printer is best for saving ink and best use for printing in office work.
Fix Print Head
2.13.12
People are very concern about the savings that they will be able to make especially when printing and this is the reason why these products are preferred as well as cost-saving supplies like cartridges for HP.
7.11.12
Two cents on this. Buying a printer differs on the need of the user. If you want to go for quality Brothers is the latest ink efficient printer in the market as stated in the article. With all the pro's of the printer, buying it in a costly price is good for investment because you'll save more in the long run. In terms of quality, HP and Canon are in the top of the list because of the productivity of printers released by both.
Ink Supplies Online
11.26.12
I bought an HP8500A a little over a year and a half ago. I had replaced the ink cartridges only once and when it ran out of ink the second time I bought ink and replaced the cartridges. When I started to print it would not print well, it was spotty. I took the printer in to the shop where it was purchased a couple of days after the warranty had ran out. They tried to find out what was wrong with the printer and decided it was the print head and told me they could order one and install it. In the meantime I had contacted HP and they told me the print heads had a different warranty on them so I had to go pick up the printer and call HP to give them the warranty dates and they had me to go through procedures on the printer to determine themselves what was wrong with the printer. I had to purchase at the costs of $100. each time ink to finish this task. Once the printer ran out of ink the second time, HP told me they could not replace the printheads even though there was about two months left on the warranty. I am so disgruntled with that company I will never buy another HP product. I know me not doing so will not affect their company, but I feel they should stand behind their product. These printers will not print even if one color is out.
4.06.13yes HP is the worst product ever when it comes to prnters expensive ink
and cheap make prnters
I agree with you
I do not use them any more
12.23.12
So, I ALWAYS set my printer choices to "black only" to save on the color ink. The problem is the printer "Brother-465" will not print if any color cartridge is empty. Do those color cartridges "dry UP" when not used ? Because they seem to run out quickly and I almost never use color.
thanks
3.11.13Most printers run ink throw the print heads on log on. This keeps the heads from drying up but uses ink.
12.25.13hello
10.17.13
I looked at this article specifically because I have had a Canon Pixma 6100 for about 2 years, and have bought more ink for that printer than any other printer in my life, that thing is drinking it like a sailor on leave, so I am looking for a new printer that is more efficient with its ink usage, and WHAT DO I FIND?? Canon Pixma made the list of most efficient printers out there???? What??? that has NOT been my experience, what gives?? Did the authors actually test the results?? or did they calculate the cost based on mfgr specifications? Is the internet delivering content? or is it all marketing where the story is sold to the highest bidder? UGH!
10.23.13
I would like to hear the answer to that also bill...also looking for a non-inkaholic machine that prints nice pictures.
11.26.13
Along with Bill and Shani I would also question the recommendations for the Canon Pixma. Almost ALL reviews-from many sources-state this Canon is a "ink hog". Therefore..the answer to my question as to which printer is best on ink consumption- as answered here..is highly unreliable. I see no reply from inkfarm.com after Bills comment-backing up or retracting -their statement and recommendation of the Canon Pixma 6100. Not basing my opinion just on Bill's comment- but also by the outstanding amount of reviews..by professionals and regular users like me- and lack of response from the author of this article- I feel inkfarm.com is highly unreliable and misleading to its readers.
2.15.14
So, Which one is the least ink drinking machine? I'm looking for one right now. Please give some advice.
4.28.15
With school year round I'm constantly going to the school library to print off papers. It has gotten to the point where I feel I should just get my own. I need a quality one, but I honestly can't spend a lot of money either. I'm trying to decide if I should possibly even get a quality printer that is second hand or just by a next to top quality and pay full price new. I hate spending my money on things I don't have a good understanding of. Anyone have advice? I'm currently more experienced with canons more than any other brand, should I go for it? http://www.yourtechservices.com.au/printers--multi-function-units
4.28.15
With school year round I'm constantly going to the school library to print off papers. It has gotten to the point where I feel I should just get my own. I need a quality one, but I honestly can't spend a lot of money either. I'm trying to decide if I should possibly even get a quality printer that is second hand or just by a next to top quality and pay full price new. I hate spending my money on things I don't have a good understanding of. Anyone have advice? I'm currently more experienced with canons more than any other brand, should I go for it? http://www.yourtechservices.com.au/printers--multi-function-units
2.18.17
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Это подойдет Всем, кто хочет заработать в интернете онлайн например на дому для мам в декрете, домохозяек - совмещение. Или людям кто ищет работу удаленную онлайн.
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2.19.17
Доброго времени суток предлагаю вам обратить внимание на материал по теме: Работа для всех в Интернете
Это подойдет Всем, кто хочет заработать в интернете онлайн например на дому для мам в декрете, домохозяек - совмещение. Или людям кто ищет работу удаленную онлайн.
Переходите по ссылке ниже и узнаете все подробности
Заработать онлайн fas.st/VPUID
3.06.17
4.16.17
7.04.17
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