Why Are Printer Ink Cartridges So Expensive?

2010-10-21

Anyone who looks over an office supply budget or even does a lot of work from a home computer can tell you that printer ink cartridges, with their high cost and frequent use, can be a large drain on any supply budget. Printer ink cartridges typically sell for such a high price because different brands and models of printers each have their distinctive hardware, including cartridges.

Compare this model to simple double A batteries. All batteries are built with the same specifications and are universal to all devices that require them. With cartridges, however, every printer ink cartridge needs to be designed and built for one or a few models of printer only. While they are an essential part of operating any business, there exist a number of alternatives to replacing cartridges frequently, as well as how to get the best deals on discount ink cartridges.

The first and possibly most important aspect of saving money on ink refills comes when you initially buy your printer. When researching which printer to go with, be sure to check out the price of refill cartridges, how often they need to be replaced with common usage, along with the general quality of your print outs. Also, check to see if that particular model's cartridges can be manually refilled.

Most commercial printers use cartridges that can be refilled. While refill kits are often customized to each brand of cartridge, they are largely similar to use. They usually come with a bottle of the ink itself, including colored ink for color cartridges, and a syringe-like device to inject the ink directly into the cartridge. The process is slightly different for each brand of cartridge or printer, but those fundamentals are typically the same across the board. The process of actually refilling the cartridge only takes a few minutes.

You can always buy cheaper, lower quality printer ink cartridges but most people agree that this is ill advised simply because you may notice a big difference in quality. The lower quality of the print outs from a cheaper cartridge are noticeable and undesirable. One option is to look for discount ink cartridges. Rather than simply look for lower quality ink cartridges, try and find the best cartridges available at discount or wholesale retailers around the web. Always comparison shop around a number of different online retailers and you'll be sure to find discount ink cartridges.

Printer ink cartridges may be expensive, but there are a number of ways consumers can battle their high cost. Investigating printers and their cartridges beforehand, looking into refills, and finding the best deals on discount ink cartridges by shopping around are just a few ways to keep costs down.