In the red for ink

sir – Nigel Duncan (Letters, February 5) is out of luck if he thinks he can outwit the printer manufacturers by buying a new printer each time he runs out of ink. New printers are supplied with “starter” cartridges, which soon run out.

I have saved more than £100 per year by using the Hewlett-packard instant ink service. You pay a fixed monthly price based on your usage and they automatically send you a new cartridge before you run out. Roger Holden

Richmond, Surrey

sir – Nigel Duncan is lucky he’s using only a small domestic printer.

We operate two Japanese banner printers in our business and the ink cartridges are about £70 each. The manufacturers include a microchip with each cartridge that acts as a sell-by date; when the unknown date arrives, a light flashes on the machine to advise that the cartridge has to be replaced, regardless of how much ink remains. Very often a half-full cartridge has to be discarded.

Manufacturers are making excess profits from selling ink while taking no responsibility for the waste. I have written to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about the waste-ink lake but am yet to receive a reply. Brian Wilson

Glasgow

sir – Printers are sold very cheaply in order to generate profitable repeat sales of branded ink cartridges.

However, non-branded (so-called clone) cartridges are available at much lower prices. Manufacturers claim that such clones may damage the printer. This has never happened to me, but if it did, a cheap replacement would be readily available. Alan Cox

St Clears, Carmarthenshire