Ink Costs More Than Printer, Forum User Claims
HP inkjet user calculates 20 cents per page. Compatible cartridges for Brother DCP-J315W drop to €1.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The Ink Trap: A Case of 20 Cents Per Page
An inkjet printer costs less than €70, but ink is the expense that skyrockets. The case opening the discussion on budget printers sums it up plainly: an HP device that prints, scans and copies "very well," but according to its owner's calculation, comes out at 20 cents per page.
The second blow comes when trying to dodge the toll. Refilled and compatible cartridges the printer refuses to accept. An expensive XL model that stops being detected after a few weeks. Resets, twists and turns, and a machine full of ink that doesn't print. The owner's conclusion, verbatim: I hate HP. The contrast is provided by nostalgia for an old Canon whose cartridges cost €3 for tonalidad and €2 for black and lasted hundreds of pages.
How much does printing a page at home really cost?
It depends on the cartridge, not the printer. That is the finding that underpins the entire comparison. With the Brother DCP-J315W kit, 12 cartridges for €12 bring the unit cost down to one euro. Buying 24 units drops the package to €21. And in the German eBay market, a lot of 30 cartridges goes for €0.66 per unit.
Bulk ink breaks the floor of all scenarios. A liter purchased for €33 leaves the cost per page at a figure the buyer himself describes as less than €0.001. Those who prefer to keep refilling have another calculation: 500 ml for €20, 16 ml per cartridge and about 300 pages per black cartridge allow for 31 refills, that is, 9,375 pages with an outlay of €20.
The radical alternative is not to print at home. A copy shop charges 3 cents for black and white, and some argue that a well-used university printer beats any domestic amortization. The problem is the rest of the equation: travel, hours and access.
Brother DCP-J315W vs MFC J 430 W: The Comparison That Decides the Purchase
The two models come with nearly identical prices and both are out of stock at the time of inquiry: €67.69 for the DCP-J315W and €73.67 for the MFC J 430 W. The difference between them is six euros for the machine and the fine print of the consumable.
The four-cartridge kit for the higher model costs €23.74; the six-unit kit for the lower one, €21.19. That's where the balance tips. Lower outlay for the printer and lower for ink, plus a large community to find solutions if something fails. The recommendation rests on this arithmetic, not on print quality, which the enthusiast himself downplays: "it prints in black and white and tonalidad, but don't expect extreme quality."
Laser or Inkjet: The Dilemma That Decides Usage
Those who print twice a month have a structural problem with inkjets. Ink dries out, and depending on where the injector travels, maintenance changes, as explained in the thread: with HP, Canon and Lexmark the printhead is on the cartridge, so when it clogs you have to buy a new one, while Brother and Epson include automatic cleaning routines that mitigate neglect.
The monochrome alternative is defended with a concrete case: a Samsung ML-1610 with toner refilled seven times, about 2,000 copies per refill and each bottle costing €4. The drawback is obvious: black only. For those who need tonalidad, the choice becomes uncomfortable.
DIY Refilling: The Path That Sustains Low Costs
Manual refilling requires learning. There are printhead cleaning tutorials for Brother multifunctions and cartridge recycling guides, some in German with subtitles. The prize, according to their advocates, is a cost per page that original cartridges rarely match.
Even so, the system isn't 100% reliable. Cartridge recognition errors appear, low ink warnings with full tanks, and mandatory cleanups every time the device shuts down. The community responds with more aggressive procedures, but no one guarantees they always work.
Where the Calculation Gets Stuck
With these numbers, printing at home should be cheap. Yet the stated cost per page ranges from a thousandth of a euro to 20 cents depending on the method, brand and user patience. There is no standard, and the account remains unsettled.
An inkjet printer costs less than €70, but ink is the expense that skyrockets. The case opening the discussion on budget printers sums it up plainly: an HP device that prints, scans and copies "very well," but according to its owner's calculation, comes out at 20 cents per page.
The second blow comes when trying to dodge the toll. Refilled and compatible cartridges the printer refuses to accept. An expensive XL model that stops being detected after a few weeks. Resets, twists and turns, and a machine full of ink that doesn't print. The owner's conclusion, verbatim: I hate HP. The contrast is provided by nostalgia for an old Canon whose cartridges cost €3 for tonalidad and €2 for black and lasted hundreds of pages.
How much does printing a page at home really cost?
It depends on the cartridge, not the printer. That is the finding that underpins the entire comparison. With the Brother DCP-J315W kit, 12 cartridges for €12 bring the unit cost down to one euro. Buying 24 units drops the package to €21. And in the German eBay market, a lot of 30 cartridges goes for €0.66 per unit.
Bulk ink breaks the floor of all scenarios. A liter purchased for €33 leaves the cost per page at a figure the buyer himself describes as less than €0.001. Those who prefer to keep refilling have another calculation: 500 ml for €20, 16 ml per cartridge and about 300 pages per black cartridge allow for 31 refills, that is, 9,375 pages with an outlay of €20.
The radical alternative is not to print at home. A copy shop charges 3 cents for black and white, and some argue that a well-used university printer beats any domestic amortization. The problem is the rest of the equation: travel, hours and access.
Brother DCP-J315W vs MFC J 430 W: The Comparison That Decides the Purchase
The two models come with nearly identical prices and both are out of stock at the time of inquiry: €67.69 for the DCP-J315W and €73.67 for the MFC J 430 W. The difference between them is six euros for the machine and the fine print of the consumable.
The four-cartridge kit for the higher model costs €23.74; the six-unit kit for the lower one, €21.19. That's where the balance tips. Lower outlay for the printer and lower for ink, plus a large community to find solutions if something fails. The recommendation rests on this arithmetic, not on print quality, which the enthusiast himself downplays: "it prints in black and white and tonalidad, but don't expect extreme quality."
Laser or Inkjet: The Dilemma That Decides Usage
Those who print twice a month have a structural problem with inkjets. Ink dries out, and depending on where the injector travels, maintenance changes, as explained in the thread: with HP, Canon and Lexmark the printhead is on the cartridge, so when it clogs you have to buy a new one, while Brother and Epson include automatic cleaning routines that mitigate neglect.
The monochrome alternative is defended with a concrete case: a Samsung ML-1610 with toner refilled seven times, about 2,000 copies per refill and each bottle costing €4. The drawback is obvious: black only. For those who need tonalidad, the choice becomes uncomfortable.
DIY Refilling: The Path That Sustains Low Costs
Manual refilling requires learning. There are printhead cleaning tutorials for Brother multifunctions and cartridge recycling guides, some in German with subtitles. The prize, according to their advocates, is a cost per page that original cartridges rarely match.
Even so, the system isn't 100% reliable. Cartridge recognition errors appear, low ink warnings with full tanks, and mandatory cleanups every time the device shuts down. The community responds with more aggressive procedures, but no one guarantees they always work.
Where the Calculation Gets Stuck
With these numbers, printing at home should be cheap. Yet the stated cost per page ranges from a thousandth of a euro to 20 cents depending on the method, brand and user patience. There is no standard, and the account remains unsettled.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (117 replies).
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