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Vanishing printer ink

johndavies

johndavies

master brummie
I bought a Lexmark S500 wireless printer 9 months ago and have used it little since then. Just BW documents and a maximum of 20 pages and certainly no printing of photographs.
Yesterday I was suprised to see that the printer was reporting low ink on black and megenta cartridges and the repacements are going to cost me half as much as I paid for the printer.
I know some manufacturers only half fill cartridges but the selling point of this printer was that the ink supplied was of normal capacity.
Can anyone explain where all the ink has gone please?
 
John, I don't know where the ink has gone - my printer is a Canon and does not use a huge amount, but you could try getting cartridges from Cartridge World, as they are much cheaper. They also don't damage your printer like a lot of other cheap catridges do.
 
Thanks for that Shortie, this is a complete mystery. Evaporation is possibly the answer.. and as far as I know there are no fairies in the house printing in the middle of thhe night.
I know that head cleaning uses a great deal but its something I have never done...
Will have a look at Cartridge world, they have to be cheaper than the £50 + that lexmark want!
 
John, I know someone who used to have a Lexmark, I will enquire of her later today as I am just going out - she may know the answer. Be back later.
 
Not sure about nowadays but when I bought my Son a Lexmark printer he had the same problem. We later discovered that certainly at that time the cartridges supplied were said to not contain a full load of ink. Most low end printers (not Office type) are subsidised by the cost of replacement cartridges. Kodak are claimed to give the most honest deal on printers and inks at present.
 
Oh and one other point - ink jet printers are notorious of the nozzles clogging if not used on a regular basis. Catch 22 almost.
 
It is probably programmed to give that warning after a certain length of time.
You will probably find it prints perfectly.
They make huge profits on the cartridges, and could afford to give the printers away for free!!
 
Someone worked out on the forum the other day that printing ink is the same price as Single Malt, I have a Epson
and its very good for photos, my ink costs £15.99 for the colours and £5.99 for black from Tesco, I do use it most
days, a fair amount of my pics seem to end up on the forum. Bernard
I sent for a free Which mag on computers, in the tests it mentioned every printer bar Epson.
 
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Thanks for that Bernie, I reckons the salesman was telling porkies when he told me the cartridges suppiled were full. Will go to PC World and have a look at the Kodak printers.
 
Check for a printer report on computeractive John - they often carry out inks usage tests.
 
Thanks Bernie, a very interesting site. They did a report on the S505 (mediocre quality printer) but no ink useage test. The cheapest Kodak wireless printer (essential) is £160 so Im cutting my losses and buying a set of new ink cartridges from inkcycle, a little under £29 for a full set of new compatibles. Better than the £53 that lexmark want. Lets see how long these last.
Shortie, I tried Catridge world but they only sell original cartridges at similar rip off prices.
 
Bill123 said:
...They make huge profits on the cartridges, and could afford to give the printers away for free!!
Click to expand...
A friend of mine found he could buy a new Lexmark printer with cartridges £3 cheaper than replacing those in his existing Lexmark. I'm afraid it's something that particular brand is infamous for. I have a 10 year old HP that just keeps going. The cartridges from Cartridgesave.co.uk aren't the cheapest but they're reasonable and seem to last longer than others because they contain more ink.
 
My Epson DX6050 printer is an 'in-drinker' - it wants me to buy ink even when the cartridges are quarter full. I ignore it's pleas until the very last moment.
 
The original cartridges in new printers often contain less ink than replacement cartridges - this is especially so of HP printers 16ml originals, 24 ml replacement on the one I bought.

Also - Epson printers differ from most other leading makes in that they have a separate print head so a large proportion of the ink in the intial cartridge is used up just filling the feed lines from the cartridge to the print head - thereby giving the impression that the printer uses a lot of ink. Once the lines are filled, then the printer's usage is little different to other similar quality printers.

Having a separate print head is the reason why Epsons are prone to clogging (the head gets replaced every time on other printers because it is an integral part of the actual replacement cartridge).
There is a set of rules you need to follow when using Epsons (or, rather, when they are not in use) and they are detailed here:

https://www.mwords.co.uk/catalog/info-articles-printer-info-c-15_124.html

It includes information on other pages on how to bring clogged Epson printers back from the dead.
 
Printers use a lot of ink while they are "cleaning" i set mine to only clean at my instruction and not automatic. Previously with a Lexmark printer i would hear it clicking away in the evening and then found out it was set to "auto clean" Max
 
The last two printer scanners I got, I had a Lexmark and Staples were were selling a different Model cheaper than I could get the Inks for so my partner brought the new all in one back. I've had so much trouble with it telling me I am running out of ink. Only printed a couple of photos in the 12 months I've had it.
 
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This printer ink issue is scandulous..almost legalised theft by the printer manufacturers. Gone are the days when you could just refill the cartridges, they now contain microchips that unless reprogrammed will not accept refills. I have an old dot matrix printer that I bought with my Amstrad 1512 in the 80s, when it was retired the printer tape was as good as the day it was made...perhaps I ought to go searching for drivers and bring this back into service.
 
John, my neighbour who runs his own small business from home said his Lexmark drinks ink, so you are not alone. He does not do a huge amount of printing either. The cartridges from Cartridge World also have chips, but they are refillable, they just re-set the chip and as I said before, they are much less than the originals.
 
My old Lexmark did the same; it worked at its best if used once every day or so...didn't like standing idle. Now use a Cannon and no longer have the problem to the same degree; but I suspect most printers are best used regularly.
 
I bought a Lexmark printer on a special offer in the Computer Active Magazine with a voucher for PC world, what I didn't know is that it is a special model made for PC World and as such it's very hard to get the cartridges No.2 & 3. In the end I bought a refill kit of black & colour inks and refill them myself, I just ignore the on-screen info telling me that the ink is low, total cost less than £10-00 with enough ink for several refills!
 
thats how they make the wonga,sell a very cheap printer with just enough ink to get you home,they then charge you a fortune for a refill.
 
bilsat said:
I bought a Lexmark printer on a special offer in the Computer Active Magazine with a voucher for PC world, what I didn't know is that it is a special model made for PC World and as such it's very hard to get the cartridges No.2 & 3. In the end I bought a refill kit of black & colour inks and refill them myself, I just ignore the on-screen info telling me that the ink is low, total cost less than £10-00 with enough ink for several refills!
Click to expand...

I tried refilling the black cartridge but on the new models Lexmark have become cute. Once the chip notes the cartridge empty, it will no longer feed ink to the printhead even though it has been refilled.
 
I recently received this short video from a friend. Make of it what you will. I have a Dell Photo 962 All-in-One Printer and the prices of their cartridges are astronomical. And you can only buy them from Dell! This video isn't applicable to the Dell cartridges I use .... there is no Reset button. Posted in good faith. Good luck, David

[video=youtube;WJQ1FQ68lU8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQ1FQ68lU8[/video]
 
I have an hp845c printer and the last colour cartridge cost £14 from tesco in 2009 they now want £39.
paul
 
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