printer cartridges

[Aviator_14]

Ok I have an Epson Stylus CX3810 printer and it just uses up cartridges like there nothing. It has 4 cartridges; Yellow, Cyan, magenta, and Black. Whenever I print a plain word document with just black font it uses all the colors because the color ink level was lower after printing about 5 pages of just black text. The black cartridge really goes down. Earlier today just before I printed anything the black ink level was around 80%, but after I printed about 5 pages the ink level is down to 50%. Why is it using up so much ink? I have to a new cartridge every month and it costs $20 for each cartridge so it gets expensive buying 4 cartridges every 3 months . As soon as I replace one cartridge the other one runs out, and I hardly ever print any photos, and I don't print out that much documents either (I print about 2 or 3 documents a week). I HAVE A REFILL KIT BUT THE PRINTER CARTRIDGE IS NOT LISTED IN THE REFILL INSTRUCTIONS SO I CANNOT REFILL IT. Is It normal for a printer to use 25% of ink for 10 pages of black text. WHAT CAN I DO SO THE PRINTER DOESN'T USE UP SO MUCH INK. THE FONT COLOR IN MS WORD IS SET TO AUTOMATIC.

[Steve R Jones]

Look in the printer properties for a "draft mode" type setting. This setting uses a lot less ink.

[BipolarBill]

Think of how much you have spent on ink in the last year.

Now, realize that a decent laser printer can be had for less than $150.

Why are you still using inkjet? Buy a laser and keep the inkjet for color only.

[IanMatthew]

BipolarBill is right. Lasers are far more cost effective, unless you need to print hi-res photo's on photo paper.

That said, some simply take their digi camera or camera phone memory cards to the local mini mart, or photo processor and get them printed there. Some find this is cheaper than self printing.

If using an inkjet, then go to this site: http://www.asiessentials.co.uk/

The Inksaver application has gotten good reviews. Could save some cash for inkjet users.

[millwork]

Hello Aviator_14,

In addition to the draft mode Steve mentioned, with most any printer when printing Word documents just to file or keep handy, you could use the "Courier New" font. Uses a lot less ink or toner (for laser) than other fonts. You can use one of the bolder looking fonts like Times New Roman Tahoma or Arial, only for presentation to others, FAX or something like that.

Using the "High" or "Best" print quality setting is a serious waste with every printer I've used.

Of course, using font attributes in any word processor uses a lot more ink or toner too.

Most, if not all ink jet printer drivers also have a selection someplace in properties to set for grayscale or B&W printing - these selections on some printers may still use some color ink, but a lot less - on many, does not use color ink at all.

Don't know about your CX3810, but on a CX4200, grayscale printing still uses a little bit of color ink - don't know why.

John B.

[RockNRoll]

I've heard that the chip in Epson cartridges is set so that it actually STOPS printing, not when there's less than 5% like it SAYS there is, but when there's about 40% left. There's supposedly a class action lawsuit against Epson for this but they're not doing anything so far.

http://pcworld.about.com/news/Oct242003id113112.htm

I have an Epson Stylus CX 3810 also, and when I took the "empty" cartridges out and shook it, you could hear a good amount of ink shaking around inside. Whether it's the "safety reserve of ink to prevent damage that can occur to the print head if the cartridge runs dry" or just them ripping people off, I don't know. I don't make Ink Cartridges, so I don't know what's inside. Sounds to me like a good rip-off deal though.

Your issue could possibly be related to the "smart chip" ripping you off little by little on ink you don't even use. I dunno. Just figured I'd share that though.

[RayH]

Hold your breath and you can get a laser printer for $50!

[Aviator_14]

I went into my printer settings and clicked "advanced" and there was a box that said "use Black ink only" it was unchecked so I checked it. Hopefully now my color cartridges will last longer, but then it might use up more black ink.

[millwork]

I went into my printer settings and clicked "advanced" and there was a box that said "use Black ink only" it was unchecked so I checked it. Hopefully now my color cartridges will last longer, but then it might use up more black ink.

Hello Aviator_14,

Did you also select the print quality option "draft" as Steve suggested?

With Word, recommend printing each job from the "File" menu drop down so you'll have the option to change settings for each job.

If you just print from the printer icon, the default setting for print quality will be used - with recent Epson printers, that's "Text & Image" which will use a lot more ink than "text" or "draft."

John B.

[Aviator_14]

[QUOTE=millwork]Hello Aviator_14,

"Did you also select the print quality option "draft" as Steve suggested?"
__________________________________________________ _________________
Yes it was on "text" so I selected "draft" and it seems to be using less ink now.

[GrefMofovich]

Hold your breath and you can get a laser printer for $50!

Yes, and it would be made of cardboard, some twigs, and bits of broken bottle glass.

Hi, Aviator_14, and welcome to capitalism! Let me explain how it works: companies design products to break. Then they sit back and wait for the $ to come rolling in as people buy new printers, toasters, and thigh masters every couple years. Need to lower your price because of competition? No problem! Just hide additional costs in "accessories" that are effectively necessary for your junk to function. So prices will always be dropping and r & d teams will be looking for new things to give you in exchange for any extra money you might have in your pillowcase. This is what's known as "progress" in case you're looking for a word to summarize it.

-GM