What are your thoughts about HP Instant Ink?
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@thanksaj said:
Do yourself and your printer a favor...don't...
@IRJ said:
If I am paying $100 for one set of ink from HP or $35 for two sets of 3rd party ink. I could save $165 on just two ink changes which is more than the cost of the printer. Most reviews on the ink were positive (4 star rating). Some of the negative reviewers installed the ink incorrectly or some gave a negative review just because the printer couldn't read the ink levels as accurately as before.
Exactly. There is zero reason to buy vendor branded ink. So what if your printer gets wiped out. You will likely have already saved much more than the cost of the printer.
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The fact that printers are sold at a loss and the expectation being that they will vastly overcharge on ink to make their money pretty much guarantees that this situation will exist in this way. The OEMs have to take an up front loss hoping that people will overspent like crazy on ink. The third party ink makers don't need to do that. They sell their ink without the upfront loss on the printers. And it is common for people to never refill their ink which makes the losses even heavier for the OEMs.
There is just a lot of opportunity for the third party ink makers to make a good product cheaper than the printer makers can.
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@david.wiese said:
@IRJ my dads inkjet was just ruined by using a third party cartridge in his HP printer. All it takes is 1 time and you have your justification to not using 3rd party cartridges.
Exactly. This. Out of 10 batches, only one batch might be bad. But that one batch just ruined your printer.
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@thanksaj said:
@david.wiese said:
@IRJ my dads inkjet was just ruined by using a third party cartridge in his HP printer. All it takes is 1 time and you have your justification to not using 3rd party cartridges.
Exactly. This. Out of 10 batches, only one batch might be bad. But that one batch just ruined your printer.
But the other 9 batches that didn't already paid the difference for you to purchase a new printer and supplies for the next year. Sure it's inconvenient that you have to run to the store and buy another now, but the savings in your pocket should easily make that worthwhile, unless you're Scott making 7 figures - then your time running to the store is more valuable, and using name brand ink starts to make sense.
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@thanksaj said:
Exactly. This. Out of 10 batches, only one batch might be bad. But that one batch just ruined your printer.
And the point here is to prove you ignored the rest of our comments?
How do you explain away not just buying a new printer as @Dashrender said above? These things are disposable devices.
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I don't earn 7 figures but probably two of my top ten most hated things to do are (1) go shopping and (2) setup new printers, so I'm with AJ! Plus, you have take your old printer to the town recycling centre, which is another major ball ache. You can't just bin electrical items here - is it the same in the US?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I don't earn 7 figures but probably two of my top ten most hated things to do are (1) go shopping and (2) setup new printers, so I'm with AJ! Plus, you have take your old printer to the town recycling centre, which is another major ball ache. You can't just bin electrical items here - is it the same in the US?
In Brevard County, Florida you don't get penalized for anything. There are no deposits on canned goods or other recyclables. You probably aren't supposed to throw a printer out like that, but I have never heard of anyone getting fined for throwing anything out. So I don't think they even check the garbage
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@IRJ said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
I don't earn 7 figures but probably two of my top ten most hated things to do are (1) go shopping and (2) setup new printers, so I'm with AJ! Plus, you have take your old printer to the town recycling centre, which is another major ball ache. You can't just bin electrical items here - is it the same in the US?
In Brevard County, Florida you don't get penalized for anything. There are no deposits on canned goods or other recyclables. You probably aren't supposed to throw a printer out like that, but I have never heard of anyone getting fined for throwing anything out. So I don't think they even check the garbage
A lot of areas have it so you can't just throw a lot of stuff out. In my area in NY, you have to take stuff to a recycling center. It's a hassle honestly.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I don't earn 7 figures but probably two of my top ten most hated things to do are (1) go shopping and (2) setup new printers, so I'm with AJ! Plus, you have take your old printer to the town recycling centre, which is another major ball ache. You can't just bin electrical items here - is it the same in the US?
It does depend on where you live, two people have stepped up saying that you have to recycle the equipment, where I am there is no check. Though a lot of businesses like Best Buy and Staples now allow you to drop of old equipment and they will send it off for recycling. So since you're making the trip anyway, you can bring the old with you and drop it off.
In your particular case CB and anyone like you, I guess you have to decide for yourself if the hundreds of dollars saved is worth the hassle of buying a new printer. If I was really concerned about this, I might take my first such savings and buy the exact same printer and keep it on the shelve for the time the first one does die. Then when one dies, replace it with the spare, and immediately order another spare (hopefully you can find the exact same model again). Installing the same model often takes nothing but the manual switching of it, and possible Re-IPing if networked. Should be pretty easy.
Though I'd argue, that if you hate the hassle of these problems why are you buying low grade stuff in the first place - spend the money on a business class unit and support, then the problem isn't yours to deal with.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I don't earn 7 figures but probably two of my top ten most hated things to do are (1) go shopping and (2) setup new printers, so I'm with AJ! Plus, you have take your old printer to the town recycling centre, which is another major ball ache. You can't just bin electrical items here - is it the same in the US?
If you aren't rich, doesn't saving hundreds of dollars or pounds make MORE of a difference rather than less? A little hassle for a lot of money seems like an obvious choice.
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@thanksaj said:
@david.wiese said:
@IRJ my dads inkjet was just ruined by using a third party cartridge in his HP printer. All it takes is 1 time and you have your justification to not using 3rd party cartridges.
Exactly. This. Out of 10 batches, only one batch might be bad. But that one batch just ruined your printer.
Sorry AJ, you totally failed on logic here. That one batch that ruined your printer doesn't matter because you just saves nearly $600. I don't know how much money you guys are willing to just throw away, but for me, I'm with the third party ink people. Your own statement here, even though you try to make it a tone of "don't buy third party ink" shows clear as day that it is crazy to buy OEM ink.
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@Dashrender said:
@thanksaj said:
@david.wiese said:
@IRJ my dads inkjet was just ruined by using a third party cartridge in his HP printer. All it takes is 1 time and you have your justification to not using 3rd party cartridges.
Exactly. This. Out of 10 batches, only one batch might be bad. But that one batch just ruined your printer.
But the other 9 batches that didn't already paid the difference for you to purchase a new printer and supplies for the next year. Sure it's inconvenient that you have to run to the store and buy another now, but the savings in your pocket should easily make that worthwhile, unless you're Scott making 7 figures - then your time running to the store is more valuable, and using name brand ink starts to make sense.
Maybe I get offered seven figures because things like "not wasting crazy money on printers just to say I used OEM ink" is something that I actually do financial analysis on
Even for people making gobs of money, the savings here is looking to be enough to justify nearly anyone to buy OEM ink - especially as people can buy a printer via Amazon and have it the next day at home (probably cheaper than Best Buy or Staples anyway) and if you are really into the money you have a personal shopper who costs less per week than the third party ink saves you.There is pretty much no financial situation that leaves you in the position of $600 being so trivial that it isn't worth saving that.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I don't earn 7 figures but probably two of my top ten most hated things to do are (1) go shopping and (2) setup new printers, so I'm with AJ! Plus, you have take your old printer to the town recycling centre, which is another major ball ache. You can't just bin electrical items here - is it the same in the US?
We rarely "have" to recycle them. I am not even aware of how you would recycle that in most of the US. You can't just bin some things, but printers you mostly can. But let's just say that you want to recycle anyway, you just add it to your pile of normal recycling waste. We deal with that weekly or monthly anyway. Doesn't seem like a big deal, how much do you print? I haven't gone through ten cycles of ink in twenty years. So, on average, it would be like a quarter century between trips to the recycling center for me and after all of that time getting a new printer would probably make sense anyway.
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I may not have read the whole thread but how much are you guys printing at home in order to save $600 by buying third party ink? That sounds like a massive amount of printing. I barely print anything.
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@thanksaj said:
A lot of areas have it so you can't just throw a lot of stuff out. In my area in NY, you have to take stuff to a recycling center. It's a hassle honestly.
But don't you have to go regularly anyway? Or if not, isn't it trivial to have a box of stuff to take and save up until a trip is worth it and/or convenient for some other reason?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I may not have read the whole thread but how much are you guys printing at home in order to save $600 by buying third party ink? That sounds like a massive amount of printing. I barely print anything.
Which makes ink even less desirable. Unless things have changed in the last few years, I always run into the problem where my ink cartridge dries out, or the jets get gummed up, etc due to lack of printing. This is what makes lasers nice for me.
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@scottalanmiller said:
... But let's just say that you want to recycle anyway, you just add it to your pile of normal recycling waste. We deal with that weekly or monthly anyway. ...
I can't add something like a printer to my weekly recycle pickup, I have to either take it to a recycle place, or in my personal case I can bring it to work and add it to our recycle pile in the office and they take care of it.
Another push back is that most places charge to recycle types types of things, anywhere from $5 for a device to $0.25/lb for a pile.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
... But let's just say that you want to recycle anyway, you just add it to your pile of normal recycling waste. We deal with that weekly or monthly anyway. ...
I can't add something like a printer to my weekly recycle pickup, I have to either take it to a recycle place, or in my personal case I can bring it to work and add it to our recycle pile in the office and they take care of it.
Another push back is that most places charge to recycle types types of things, anywhere from $5 for a device to $0.25/lb for a pile.
If you live in a more populated area then I do you would be surprised at the number of electronics re-claimers who take things on donation. There are three around our NC office.
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@Dashrender said:
Which makes ink even less desirable. Unless things have changed in the last few years, I always run into the problem where my ink cartridge dries out, or the jets get gummed up, etc due to lack of printing. This is what makes lasers nice for me.
I haven't bought anything but a laser for main printing since 2001.
If ink dries out, that makes third party ink even that much more important as it lowers the chance of a jam per dollar spent.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I may not have read the whole thread but how much are you guys printing at home in order to save $600 by buying third party ink? That sounds like a massive amount of printing. I barely print anything.
It's $600 / per destroyed printer. Could be weekly, could be a lifetime. The $600 is the savings you get, very roughly, by using third party ink over whatever average period it takes to have a printer destroyed by the ink.
