Two Rules For Buying A New Printer

We often have questions from customers asking what kind of printer to buy. Here are two rules to follow that will ensure you can use compatible cartridges and save on your ongoing costs.   Remember a cheap printer to buy, can be very expensive to run.

Rule 1: Never buy an HP printer.

Rule 2: Buy a printer that uses multiple ink cartridges.

We have good reasons for this advice which we will outline here.

Rule 1: Never buy an HP printer.

We could go on for days on this one but to keep it simple here are a few reasons to avoid HP.  Many HP printers use two ink cartridges, one black and one tri-colour. If one colour in the tri-colour cartridge runs out, you need to replace the whole unit before you can continue printing. This means you’re almost guaranteed to throw away some of that precious ink you paid so much for.

HP cartridges are among the most expensive genuine cartridges available and HP goes to great lengths to stop consumers using non-genuine products. HP make the cartridges difficult to replicate by using complicated electronic chips and changing this technology frequently. This drives the price of both genuine and compatible HP cartridges up, as well as creating more areas where things can go wrong.   If this is not enough HP printers bought overseas will not work in NZ, with tight regionalization built in. HP printers will also show many warnings if a non-genuine cartridge is detected. Note: in NZ legally a printer company cannot void your warranty for the use of non OEM products as it is seen as anti competitive behaviour.

Canon are the most reliable printers closely followed by Brother and then Epson according to Consumer NZ Surveys

Rule 2. Buy a printer that uses multiple ink cartridges

Look for a printer that takes four, five or even six cartridges.  These cartridges are much simpler to make as each cartridge only contains one colour and consequently they are cheaper to buy.

Using individual cartridges for each colour is a much more economical way to print, allowing you to replace cartridges only as needed meaning you do not throw away any ink. This also makes it easy to identify or replace any faulty cartridges if you happen to get one.

See our post “BEST PRINTER TO BUY TODAY” for two printers we think are great options.