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Aren't Inkjets Cheaper Per Page Than Laser?

I keep reading how much cheaper laser printers are per page compared to inkjets and was considering getting a color laser in order to do some work that is fairly slow on the inkjets. Much to my surprise though it seems as though laser printers ink costs quite a bit more than my inkjets. I pay $430 for a gallon of each of the 7 colors which really lasts me a very long time considering I don't print with too much coverage usually on my Epson 9600. On the Xerox 6360 I was looking at the toner was $360 but it sounded like it only lasted 10,000 pages at something like 5% coverage. I also bought an HP Officejet K5400 inkjet which is really fast but it has tiny ink cartridges. Am I missing something because after doing my best breakdown of prices the inkjets seem significantly cheaper per page simply because the ink is so much cheaper.

Public Comments

1. You are correct in your calculations and assumptions. If the quality of the color really matters such as making photos, then get laser. But if it doesn't go with ink jets. You can refill the ink jets at Walgreen's for what it cost to buy one ink jet cartridge. Not sure if refilling laser cartridges is possible or best to do.
2. I never knew you could buy ink buy the gallon! but mono lasers over the long run beat ink jets in per page cost. not sure of color though as they need separate cartridges. yes you can refill laser cartridges too. I have an HP f4280,prints great for what im doing, it costs about $50 if you replace the #60 black ink cartridge with the 60xl it costs about $50 ! that's the price of the printer! Don't look at the "starter" cartridges as a guide to usage..there only half full from the start...that's why they call them "starters"! its the same with lasers! I also have the Epson Artisan 800 that prints great pix on glossy paper but I don't do it that often as the cost is prohibitive. As to a brake down of ink vars. laser..don't look at advertisements...they lie!...everyone is going to tell you there's is better! You need to look at "in-depend research" like Consumers report or Tom's Hardware, or something like that to get the real skinny. and you have to consider the coverage at what setting? Draft or Best? size of the margin, double space, graphics? You want to know real world results, not some testing done by the manuf. to show their stuff is better. Yes "refills" of both ink or toner are about half the cost of new so it put you back to square one! The only other thing I can say is my laser lasts about 3 times longer between refills that my injets.
3. First, you can refill most laser printers. I bought two Brother HL2040s for $50 each years ago. I have been refilling with $6 toner bought off ebay. I get about 3,000 pages from each $6 bottle. Compare that to inkjet! We also own several Samsung CLP-300 color lasers. They are small, fast and cost under $100 delivered. We bought our last one off ebay for $96 delivered brand new. A set of 4 toner cartridges is $50 at http://www.ccs-digital.com. We recently replaced our first black toner cartridge after more than a year of regular use.
4. I've got the best thing for you ever to keep down your ink costs. Your printer (the K5400) uses HP 88 cartridges, the same as my printers (HP L7590 and L7680). On both of my printers I use whats called a continuous ink system. Its a system that has external ink tanks that feed into specially made cartridges. They cost about $40 and are filled with about $500-$600 worth of ink (if you bought the equivalent cartridges retail). There are several on ebay, the best one I've been able to find is this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/CISS-CIS-for-HP-88-K5400-K8600-K5400DN-K5400DTN-K5400TN_W0QQitemZ260456535775QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Toner?hash=item3ca46b56df&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 I've been using them since January and haven't looked back. I do a ton of color printing for my business and I don't have to worry about ink cost *at all* anymore. The quality of the ink is the same from what I can tell (I tested a picture printed with brand inks and these inks and both pics look the exact same, even after 8 months). They also have continuous ink systems for epsons but I think the HP 88 printers are the best for them. The reason being is that the HP 88 printer feeds ink from the cartridges to the printheads, the printheads are on the cartridges for the epsons. If you have any questions about the continuous ink systems let me know. Just shoot me an email through my yahoo answers profile. Cheers, -K