3 ways to save money on printer ink

Consumer technology keeps improving, but one thing stays constant: consumer complaints about the high cost of printer ink.

There’s a lot you can do to use less ink. Here are three options from Consumer Reports.

Epson EcoTank: Beyond the cartridge

Epson EcoTank printers forgo traditional ink cartridges in favor of large, refillable ink tanks. The bottled ink included with the printers should last about two years, according to Epson. Once the bottles are empty, you can buy replacements for $13 apiece, or $52 for a set of all four colors -- cyan, yellow, magenta and black.

That’s pretty cheap, but EcoTank printers cost a lot, with the least expensive models going for around $300. That’s a hard sell when some inkjets cost as little as $50.

However, printer costs depend on the time scale you’re considering. Consumer Reports looks at both the up-front price (what you pay for the machine)

and the cost of ownership (which adds in your ink purchases). Rich Sulin, who leads Consumer Reports’ printer testing program, says EcoTank printers are a good deal if you use them long enough.

HP Instant Ink: Subscription service

If you have a compatible HP printer, you can sign up for HP Instant Ink, a monthly subscription service that provides ink refills whenever you need them.

The monthly fee is based on the number of pages you print, not how much ink you use. So whether you print one word per page or cover every sheet with dense illustrations, the cost is the same. The printer monitors your monthly page count and automatically

contacts HP to order ink refills whenever you run low. So it does mean the printer is keeping tabs on you.

The plans start at $2.99 per month for printing 50 pages and goes up to $10 for 300 pages. If you go over your limit, you’re charged an extra $1 for every additional 15 pages. The company provides prepaid envelopes to return used cartridges for recycling.

According to HP, consumers could save 50 percent on ink costs by using the plan.

Consumer Reports’ Sulin says the subscription plan is a good deal if you print roughly the same number of pages each month.

Third-Party Ink: Shopping around

Aftermarket or thirdparty inks are sold by companies other than the printer manufacturer. Typically, they use recy-

cled cartridges that have been refilled and resold.

The savings can be significant. For instance, HP 28 tricolor cartridges cost $36 on HP’s website; a compatible aftermarket cartridge from a company called Cartridge World costs $22.

Not everyone trusts these inks, and perhaps for good reason. In Consumer Reports’ 2016 printer reliability survey, slightly more than onethird of subscribers who had purchased aftermarket inks thought they didn’t offer the same quality as original-manufacturer inks. (If you take the positive view, that means almost twothirds thought the quality was just as good.) If you’re shopping for aftermarket inks, make sure there’s a good return policy or satisfaction guarantee, Sulin advises.