Had to buy me a printer, i dont really do a lot of printing and so wanted nothing fancy, so i bought a canon iP1800.It came with ink installed ready to go. Pretty basic machine but does what i want cost $69.
I was a happy little camper.

Yesterday i was printing CD covers and it was a case of trial and error.The upshot of this was running out of colour and 1/2 the black gone.

Went online to buy from a place i've used in the past and with the free postage was cheaper than what i can buy locally.

Cost of printer $69
Cost of 2 ink cartridges $54 dollars

Not a happy little camper now.

Cheers Fred

Fred, we HAD a Canon printer and it sits on Newt's computer desk and isn't even installed on any of our PC's. Gobbled ink worse than a Lexmark (and that takes a lot, too). Our best experiences have been with the HP. Printers are dirt cheap because the manufacturer can then rip you off on the ink cartridges. Stupid warranty goes null and void if you use refills or off brand cartridges.

This post has been edited by Jan V: Sep 4 2008, 06:07 AM

Unfortunatly we have a lexmark. They have made them nice and compact now, including the size of the ink cartriges. Tried refills and drilling, putting ink in them but never had any real sucess. Resigned to paying a high price until the next time we replace the printer.

I have a Canon Pixma iP5000 and I've not had a problem with ink consumption or the cost of refills. Having said that it's a model that doesn't require Canon replacement cartridges. I buy mine from Choice Stationery together with cleaning cartridges and they're excellent value. Can't recommend them highly enough

This post has been edited by Peggy Burke: Sep 4 2008, 07:18 AM

Peggy, I also buy the generic cartridges and save money in doing so. I see no difference in the quality of the output. We like the "HP All in One" printers since they are also copiers and scanners.

I have two Canon printers, an IP4200 and an IP4500. They both use the Canon chipped cartridges, and they both suffer very high useage.
Under the label on top of the cartridge is a little depression. If you remove a section of the label you will see a little plastic ball set into an opening. This is the refill point. I use a sharp threaded bradawl which screws into the ball to get a grip allowing me to pull it out. I then refill the cartridge with ink I buy in bulk, 500ml at a time, from Ebay, The ball then just presses home and the bradawl is unscrewed. On occasions I have had to refill cartridges 6 time a day so the printers take some stick and both perform with no problems. I probably refill the cartridges close to 100 times before the little ball is worn out!
The other advantage is that they both print direct onto CDs which is important for my business.
Would buy Canon again over any other make, no problem

I've got the same one. I just went round PC World's cartridge selection, found out which was cheapest and then bought the printer that took them! To be honest it is a bit of a pain in the arris, as it insists on re-installing itself every time I power it up. I don't know whether that's down to the printer or the computer (it's on my Vista machine so I have no intention of trying to sort it out!)

Always use Epsom, never had any problems, got a six cartridge model currently, run it on look a like ink cartridges as cheap as chips if not cheaper and no problems. Run off thousands of flyer's and other shop pricing bits and pieces.

Are you using the Vista driver for the printer, Colin? We are on a network and I use XP Pro on my desktop, Vista on my laptop and Newt has Vista on his laptop. We've had no problems nor has Vista insisted on a re-install every time we boot up. Maybe Newt can help you on that. I'm the software portion of our computer expertise and Newt does the hardware, OS and networking.

i find the heads dry out if you dont use them and you chuck the printer away ,always had epson since dot matrix but got an hp now ,new heads with every cart ,easier to refill too with bigger carts.
i really want an A3 printer but their expensive ,had an HP 1220c (same carts as my elderly but supported 970cxi)but its not supported under xp ,annoyed me so much it went out the back door with the XP generic driver
strangely they get fair prices on ebay ,they will learn just as i did

This post has been edited by chesters1: Sep 4 2008, 11:41 AM