20/12/2021
In praise of Epson EcoTank printers .......
According to the popular press, the price of printer ink is more expensive than any precious metal known to mankind.
I’m not sure that’s true, I think it’s a common misconception, but HECK!
In my day-to-day business, I generally only print invoices and packing labels, usually in black and white. If I need to print brochures in high colour, I enlist the services of the excellent local print shop.
But still, my Epson dot matrix printer chews through ink from all four cartridges in about three months.
It will start warning me that ink levels are getting low quite early on; it’s a rather pessimistic gauge similar to the low-fuel warning light in the car that lights up when there’s still 150 miles to empty.
A quick internet search tells me that a set of four ink cartridges will set me back just shy of £80.
Jeepers – the printer when new cost only around £80 and came with enough ink to get me through the first couple of weeks.
Surely, there must be another way.
Before anyone leaps to the defence of Epson and says, “all manufacturers are the same”, let me tell you that it is Epson who had the solution all along.
In fact, the solution has been around for years, originally in the form of their continuous ink system (CIS).
I recall a friend who had one of these twenty years ago; it had five or six small plastic ink bottles outside the main body of the printer. They were topped up from larger ink bottles when required. No need to buy all colours – just the one(s) you needed.
Today’s equivalent is the EcoTank range of printers, with four ink bottles inside the casing and topped up from bottles in a similar fashion to the CIS.
Just as we went into lockdown in March 2020, we realised that home schooling was going to become real, so I bought an Epson ET-2750 printer. The advertising blurb reckoned it came with up to 3 years’ worth of ink in the box. Mmm, that obviously depends on how much it is used; we’ll see.
During the subsequent two lockdowns it took a HAMMERING!
School projects were printed in full colour where needed, but it soon became apparent that we weren’t going to need to top up the ink any time soon.
In fact, some 21 months later, all four ink bottles are showing somewhere between one third and one half full.
I wonder why I didn’t do this earlier. I think it is probably due to the initial purchase price of £230.
It seems expensive at first, compared to the £80 printer with 0.0000001 millilitres of ink included. But it’s the ongoing running costs (basically zero, apart from paper) that makes EcoTank so attractive.
And no cartridges going into landfill, which is a bonus.
On the basis of an £80 pack of cartridges every three months, my ink costs with the original printer would have been well over £500.
I have no affiliation to Epson, I just felt like I had to let the world at large how good this printer is, and how smug I feel having made a good decision for once!
