How much ink does your printer waste?
If you only use your printer occasionally, you could be using more than six times as much ink as you would printing the same number of pages in one go.
Ink is wasted when a printer runs a cleaning cycle, often as it is switched on, which means that less of the ink you buy ends up on the page.
The result is that you’ll need to replace your ink cartridges more frequently, paying high prices for ink that you’ll never even get to use.
Find a Best Buy printer that manages great print quality and speed.
Which? tests uncover the scale of ink waste
Our tests have found a dramatic difference between the amount of ink your printer gets through when it’s printing occasionally over a period of weeks, either switched off in between or left in standby, and when it’s printing the same amount all in one go.
The results below show just some of the shocking differences in ink use we’ve encountered in our lab tests. The figures show the difference between printing 50 sheets of colour graphics continuously (all in one go) versus occasionally (over a period of weeks, with the printer either switched off or left on in between prints).
Prices are based on typical cartridge costs for each brand.
As the graphic above shows, there are huge differences in the amount of ink you’ll get through depending on whether you’re a frequent or occasional printer, and whether you leave your printer off or on between jobs.
How can you save on your printer ink?
Nobody wants to store up all their printing to do it in one go just because it’s more efficient. So what’s the best alternative – leaving a printer on or off between prints?
Our tests found that it’s not always the case that leaving a printer in standby is a better option than switching it off altogether.
The HP printer we tested wasted less ink if you didn’t switch it off between prints. The Canon and Epson printers wasted less ink when we turned the printers off in between, instead of leaving them in standby.
If your printer sounds like it’s cleaning its heads every time you turn it on from cold, it may be cheaper to leave it switched on permanently and let it power down itself into sleep mode.
Is your printer wasting ink? Let us know on Which? Conversation.
How much energy is wasted leaving a printer on?
Leaving any device on around the clock may seem like a waste of electricity, which is why we measure the energy use of printers in our lab.
If you left the HP Officejet Pro 8500a Plus eAIO in its sleep mode after printing, rather than turning it fully off, it would cost you roughly £2.54 a year in electricity. This can work out cheaper than having the printer waste ink when you switch the printer on, given the cost of buying new cartridges.
- How we test printers – our print quality, speed and cost tests explained
- Who sells the cheapest ink? - get a bargain on your cartridges
- Printer running costs explained – how to keep your ink costs down
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AndrewBrown
Does it make any difference whether you are using branded ink or third party ink? Does, for example, HP ink perform better in a HP printer than a similar third party ink?
Katie Waller
We haven’t run all three of these tests on third party ink.
We know from previous tests of third party ink that printing pages in a continuous fashion produces different costs per page from printer branded ink. So the cost would almost certainly be different. Whether the proportion of extra ink used will be the same, we don’t know.
This will be something to consider for the next third party ink test.
J400uk
Very useful article, I recently upgraded my 2006 HP AIO for a 2011 model and have been scratching my head for months wondering why it seems to use so much more ink than the old one, even though I’m not printing any more. This certainly explains why! Is there any way to turn off the automatic cleaning? I’m not prepared to leave it switched on continuously.
RoyJ
I have an Epson SX425W my main problem withit is the price of replacement cartridges. How can ‘third party’ suppliers prices be SO much LESS than original suppliers – guess PROFIT – which leads to larger bonuses for senior management and executives. I notice that whenever I switch my printer on it performs some task which possibly uses a small amount of ink as is indicated by your graphs.
Baz
If third party suppliers had to manufacture the printer then they too would have to charge considerably higher prices for ink.
Ian
I have often wondered if when buying none branded inks there is as much ink in the cartridge as with branded ones. Maybe we should be campagning to have ink capacity clearly marked on cartridges and in avertising material.
Malcolm
I certainly second the idea of capacity being clearly marked.
Also, any chance of this test being run on all of the Best Buys in the near future?
Katie Waller
Relying on cartridge capacity alone could be misleading. One brand of cartridge could contain more ink than another, but put more ink on the page during a print, resulting in a higher cost per page.
We’d like to see more clarity around the number of pages you can print from a cartridge taking automated cleaning cycles into account, which as we’ve discovered have a massive impact on printing costs in some cases.
Malcolm, in answer to your question we’re already in the process of rolling out a new test to highlight the extra ink used by cleaning cycles as part of the main printers test.
steve
just bought some refilled hp cartridges from inkxpress on net. their website had info an capacities.
are laser printers any cheaper to fuel up?
Baz
What your findings clearly show is that buying either a Canon or HP printer is clearly the quickest way to the poor house so, perhaps, your astute consumers should consider purchasing either Epson or Brother printers.
A test that would be very interesting is to build in the costs printer manufacturers incur in hardware R&D, manufacturing, shipping and costs associated dealing with returns from consumers who do not buy genuine inks.
Richard
A great article thanks. I recently had to buy a new MFP after my trusty Lexmark packed up. I plumped for a Canon MP495 and have just replaced the original cartridges after 9 months of occasional use, which I was quite happy with. As I actually do more scanning than printing, it hadn’t occurred to me before that just switching on the printer to scan would invoke the cleaning cycle and waste ink! If I had the space I’d run a separate scanner to avoid this.
Mike
I bought a SX620FW a year or two back – good printer. Looks like I made a lucky choice! I tend to turn mine off between print jobs
Peter
One simple way of keeping costs down is to set the printer quality to “draft” – it is faster and cheaper, and the print quality is acceptable for most purposes.
Comments about the acceptability of subsidizing printer manufacturers by paying through the nose for ink are economically illiterate. Let manufacturers charge what they like for printers and ink, and let consumers find the lowest costs, informed by Which?
Our concern should be the constraints on choice when manufacturers make it difficult to use compatible inks. Will Which? please report on this?
Bob
I have a Kodak ESP7 and only print in black.My colour cartridge has just ran out and it will not let me print just in black so I have to buy a colour cartridge just so it can evaporate.What a waste of money so much for there cheap ink.
Steve
Over the past 5years, I’ve had quirt a few, printer, I did at one point, think, it was cheeper, to buy a new printer, then buy a ink cartridge!, I brought a new Computer, back in 2006, I already had a printer, (Lexmart), I found, it would not work, with Vista, and also, when i put my own ink in, the paper, used to jam, in the printer, So I brought another, and gave the printer to a friend, I brought a DELL Printer, I found, that when I tried to use my own ink, it would not work, Then I brought a Cannon, That was even worse, Last year, I brought, From Tesco’s an EPOSONSX425W, It’s WiFi, I have found that the WiFi don’t work, but I do find it very cheep to run, I have not botherd to put my own ink in, As I can, Buy it cheeper on the internet, Ps even though I have a rechipper, I don’t Bother.
Bob
A big thank you to Which for bringing this issue to my attention. I pay a lot of attention to what Which says about printers. I currently have a Canon PIXMA MX850 and I’m looking to upgrade to a wifi capable equivalent.
My prints are rare, urgent, and time critical. I have a Canon MX850 and considering an upgrade to get wifi capability. I prefer a printer (such as the Epson) that costs less when rarely turned on.
I worry about ink drying on the heads. I deliberately print a page once a month because I think it may make failure or misprint less likely. Can wizards at Which tell us if deliberate printing at defined intervals is a good idea?
Katie Waller
Hi Bob,
We’ve only tested a small number of printers so far, so it’s too soon to draw any conclusions by brand or to see any clear relationship between the time the printer is off and when automatic cleaning cycles occur.
If your inkjet printer is off for a month it’s probably cleaning the heads when you turn it on. Whether it’s necessary that you turn it on every month I can’t be sure. We’ve had some printers sitting around unused for a month or so that get going again after a head clean, but how long you can leave it is likely to depend on the printer. If there’s one thing we can certainly say from the first wave of pilot tests it’s that different printers behave differently.
We’ve used the research from the pilot tests to design a new test which is now part of the regular printers test – we should start seeing results from that in the new year. And we’d like to continue with more tests around cleaning cycles and ink costs, so we’ll keep plugging away.
Bob Mackay (
Would you advise separate ink cartridges for each colour (in addition to black), as opposed to one cartridge containing several colours?
Katie Waller
Hi Bob,
Normally I would have said go for separates – that way if you print more of one colour you won’t have to replace all three colours when just one runs out.
However, we don’t have ink use data from the occasional print test for any combined colour cartridge models yet. We don’t know whether these models will behave differently when it comes to head cleaning. We’ll have to wait for results.
Malcolm Humphrey
Epson SX130
Epson cartridges 4 of them cost ~£11 each
Specially designed refillable and rechippable cartridges from Ebay £11 the set.
Ink for SX130 from ebay 4 bottles with nozzles to make filling easy £6
Pete
Is there any equivalent loss of toner on laser printers, or does this issue only apply to injets? If not, lasers could be cheaper to run in the long term.
Katie Waller
Hi Pete. We expect not, but we’re going to test some lasers to find out.
Dickie
A test report that compared total costs (purchase, expendables) of inkjet and laser printers, in occasional domestic use, would be valuable. I feel also that the inkjet can be a costly option when used ocasionally.
Katie Waller
Hi Dickie. Absolutlely. We hope to use our ‘occasional printing’ test data to do this.
Suesue
Useful article and very useful tests. After all there is no point buying a Best Buy at, say £50 if overall you need a second mortgage for the inks! I have a Photosmart C310 and I think the ink costs are atronomic for us who, actually print very little. I don’t print photos on it any more as it’s cheaper to go to a self service lab. It only does letters and occasional sheets for homework yet I am always changing a cartridge. The expenditure over a year of doing this is near on £300. The printer is soon to be dumped! I tried using refilled cartridges but the problem with that is that it wont tell you that a new cartridge is installed (still says it’s empty but will print) but therefore if a colour does run out it won’t tell ywhich colour either so it’s complete guesswork and then you install the wrong colour!! As a large proportion of the populate have printers at home, a full testing programme by Which? to test most printers on the market as to ink usage/running costs using official cartridges would be really useful.
Bill Cardwell
I use an HP Photosmart 309g for very rare colour printing. I put new inks in it months ago and have used it for perhaps 12 pages since. It now reports empty.
I also have a mono laser HP 1022 which has worked for YEARS on two toner cartridges – I don’t do much printing!
Eyelid
I also have an HP Photosmart 309g which mostly works well, though the 20 or 30 seconds of whirring, clunking and clicking which it goes through before anything happens drives me loco. Again, if a cartridge dries out because of infrequent use it means a 12 mile drive to Tesco for an expensive new one, even more so if it’s a pukka HP one.
I used to leave it on standby until it burnt out the power transformer. I avoided having to chuck away an otherwise OK machine by getting a replacement on e-Bay for about £25, so that’s a risk to be considered. It would be useful to know the best make and machine (for print, copy and scan in one) for occasional use — say a few pages every week, fortnight or month.
JonG
Which? ought to label all these printers that waste ink as DONT BUYs because no consumer wants any product they bought to be wasting their money behind their back, the manufacturers are not serving their customers and ought to be brought into line with what we really want from a printer.
Antony
Its true your inkjet will use ink when it’s powered on, basically ink is sucked through the print head to keep the head unclogged, this is achieved with a peristaltic pump that fills the “ink-tank” with your prescious ink. My advice is refill and reset the chips on the original cartridges, original cartridges are the best type to refill as they will not present ink flow problems as *cheap compatible* carts do, which enevitably starve the print head of ink and thus your print head overheats and is toast. So refill your original carts. Use a good digital scale to wiegh a fresh cartridge so when you come to refill it you can add the new ink with a high degree of accuracy (whilst it sits on the scale) hope this helps.