Computer ink seven times more expensive than Dom Perignon

Computer ink is expensive! Any inkjet printer owner can attest to that. But exactly how costly is the cost of printer consumables, especially printer ink, compared with other consumables? A study carried out by the Consumer Association's Which? magazine compares the cost of printer ink against the cost of expensive wine. 

The study cited an example of an HP color cartridge that when priced per milliliter of ink was actually 7 times more expensive than a bottle of vintage 1985 Dom Perignon. As though to add insult to injury the study also found that cartridges would signal a low ink level well before the cartridge actually ran dry. For example, Epson inkjet cartridges contain a chip that prevents the cartridge from working when the ink tank reaches a specific level. A researcher for the Which? study was able to print a significant number of pages after bypassing the system by resetting the printer cartridge. 

In one particular instance the researcher was able to print 38 percent more pages after the Epson ink cartridge was reset. The least amount of extra pages printed by the Epson printer was 17 percent.  

When a printer is purchased the manufacturer rarely makes the consumer aware of the total cost of owning a printer and those costs can be very significant when you factor in the cost of consumables. Unfortunately, most often consumer printer purchasing decisions are driven by the initial cost of the printer when printer total costs, including consumables over the life of the printer, is a much more realistic and accurate measure of actual cost.