Choosing a new domestic printer - GREAT CARE IS NEEDED! 
Here we explain a little of the history, the pitfalls and how to overcome them.

Most homes and home based offices now employ at least one printer, and although laser printers are becoming increasingly popular, most people still use inkjet printers in a domestic or small business environment. They are usually reliable, and you can also produce your photo's on them so they suit most people. (Photo paper must never be fed into a laser printer - they run at very high temperatures and melt it!)

Although quite important, the cost of buying a the printer itself is nowhere near as important as the cost of running it. A typical home-use printer might last (say) 5-7 years. During that time it will need replacement ink cartridges numerous times. Therein lies the story...

When you see a colour printer on offer at £30 or even £20, it really does look like a terrific bargain. Surely nothing can go wrong? 12 month warranty.... Does the photo's... Dive in! Then you set it up, print a few things out, and the "low ink" warning comes on. So, you either pop back to the shop or get on the web. You're ahead of me now aren't you...? That "bargain" printer is going to cost £40 for a couple of ink cartridges. Every couple of months. Over 5 years that's around £1200. Ouch. Not such a bargain then.

Since the mid-nineties when digital cameras and home colour printing started to become hugely popular, the big manufacturers like HP, Epson, Lexmark, Brother, Canon (and many others) have tapped into this gigantic market. They have been racing to make their printers better, faster and more user friendly. Almost every day a new "improved" model or range is launched.

In the early days printers came with ink cartridges filled with a realistic amount of liquids. It didn't take long before the manufacturers discovered just how much money they could potentially make selling ink cartridges in this exploding market. Some bright spark in marketing suggested that if ink cartridges contained half the ink, they'd sell twice as many! Consequently ink cartridges have become much smaller and are now generally filled with rather less ink - many with LESS THAN ONE TEASPOONFUL. Because they could make such huge profits selling ink, it became prudent to sell printers cheaply (even at a loss) to hook customers into buying the ink cartridges. 

End users quickly get fed up when they think they're being had - well don't you? Consequently people began to look for ways of reducing the cost of running their printers at home. Refilling empty cartridges with refill kits became very popular, and it wasn't long before a whole new market emerged - cheap printer cartridges - either brand new copies or professionally refilled and repackaged empties. Copies are known as "compatible ink cartridges" and refilled ones "remanufactured in cartridges". Costing a fraction of the price of genuine inks, these soon became incredibly popular and a huge dent was put into the profits of the big boys. They had to respond...

Most of the printer manufacturers started building micro-electronics into cartridges in an attempt to stop people using compatible or remanufactured cartridges. They use patents and very expensive lawyers to protect themselves, with, it must be said, considerable success. Many ink cartridges are now destined to fail electronically when they have delivered a pre-determined (small) amount of ink. No amount of refilling or trying to use copy cartridges will work - the electronics make sure of that. FOR THIS REASON ALONE YOUR CHOICE OF NEW PRINTER SHOULD BE MADE VERY CAREFULLY!

In view of all the above, we have recommended many customers to a range of BROTHER printers. Genuine Brother ink cartridges are sensibly priced, and contain a realistic amount of ink. Copy cheap ink cartridges are also widely available, and extremely reliable - there are no nasty electronics in the way. So - if you spent (say) £65 on a Brother DCP-195C printer/scanner/copier machine, and ran it on compatible ink cartridges for 5 years you could save a packet, compared to the above example. As you can see here - http://www.inksave.co.uk/product/DCP%7C195C a bundle of 6 cartridges are available for £15.95. A couple of bundles a year would mean that over 5 years your ink costs would be less than £160. So - SPENDING AN EXTRA £20 OR £30 ON A PRINTER FROM THE OUTSET MIGHT SAVE YOU OVER £1,000 IN INK COSTS OVER THE LIFE OF THE MACHINE. CHOOSE CAREFULLY!

At www.inksave.co.uk we sell loads of ink and toner cartridges, but don't actually sell printers. You can therefore be absolutely certain of impartial advice about printers from our helpful friendly staff. Give us a call on 0800 9700 346 for free advice.