Ink Jet Printering costs

Larry Brown (LGBMPA@aol.com)
Fri, 8 Mar 1996 18:03:34 EST

Sue asks about ink-jet printer costs for rather heavy use. We have about
a dozen ink-jets, mostly HP 500's and 600's. In our lab of 12 machines,
receiving moderate to heavy usage, about 200 pages/day through that 600,
a cartridge lasts about a week. We re-ink them, with about a 50% success
rate. Sometimes we can re-ink one several times. Others fail on the first
time. We had real good success with the 500's. The 600's are more touchy.
Re-inking is always a dirty job. We get our supplies from:

Grove Enterprises, Inc., 708-966-2723 (No, I don't work for him.)

Of course the length of time depends upon the density of what is printed.
When they are doing graphics, they eat ink in a hurry. When they are doing
papers, text only, paper goes fast, ink more slowly.

The alternative is to go with laser printers. We have several of the
Okidata OL400e's. They are kind of fragile. They were cheap, and we have
had good service for about 2 years. Now they need work frequently to keep
the tray in and pickup roller clean. The jets are more kid-proof.

Printers are more reliable than I thought they would be as we entered into
the computer age 20 years ago. But the ink and the paper run into money. We
run a lot of paper on both sides. That helps cut costs, but is still a pain.

Larry Brown, Morgan Park Academy, Chicago, IL 60643 LGBMPA@aol.com