THE INS AND OUTS OF INK

SHOULD YOU STICK WITH INK OR TONER FROM YOUR PRINTER MAKER, OR IS IT SAFE TO BUY THIRD-PARTY REFILLS?

The reason why inkjet printers are cheaper than laser printers is that brands will generally sell them at a loss. The likes of HP, Canon, Epson and Brother make their money back from the sale of ink cartridges — which, for a full set of all the colours in the high-yield option, can cost around a third of the price of the printer itself.

The good news is that most printers have moved to using separate cartridges for each colour, which means you can replace these individually as they run out rather than having to buy an entire new set each time.

If you’re really looking to pinch pennies, you can also consider using generic ink cartridges, which are generally up to 50% cheaper than the genuine branded versions.

However, it’s worth checking the printer manufacturer’s position on using non-genuine ink cartridges. HP came under fire last year for rolling out firmware that disabled printers using non-HP inks. While it subsequently retracted its stance, the HP printers we tested for this roundup make it clear that only HP ink cartridges are supported, and that any non-HP ink cartridges that currently work may not work in the future.

Several brands have also introduced different solutions to counter the high cost of running a printer. HP Instant Ink, an initiative introduced overseas, is a tiered ink subscription service that automatically sends you new cartridges when your printer runs low — a service it says saves users up to 50% on the cost of ink.

Epson and Canon, on the other hand, has launched new printers with integrated ink systems that offer lower printing costs per page. While they’re more expensive than the typical MFC (the Epson EcoTank Expression ET-2650 is $499, while the Canon PIXMA Endurance G4600 is $559), they’re both able to print more than 5,000 pages with the ink supplied out of the box.