Inkjet printers waste up to half the ink cartridge

A recent survey by product inspection organization TUV Rheinland in collaboration with Epson showed that 60% of the ink has not been used and users have to buy the whole new box.

The study focused on understanding the actual amount of ink used and the balance remaining in the box when the "out of ink" alarm. The results show that, even if "ink-jet printer", there is a large amount of ink being wasted. On average, inkjet printers are only 58% effective when printing images and 47% when printing company forms.

The survey of TUV Rheinland was conducted with 8 different types of printers belonging to big brands such as HP, Canon, Brother, Lexmark, Epson and Kodak. The lowest ink efficiency is recorded in multi-color printers. These products include several types of ink delivery mechanisms from a single source of blue, red and yellow, and printers with 5-color cartridges.

Hartmut Mueller-Gerbes, a representative of TUV Rheinland, said the printouts of PowerPoint presentations often use a dominant color scheme as a background. Therefore, printing in the office tends to consume a certain color faster than other colors and once a color is exhausted, the printer must add ink.

Epson sponsors the survey because they want to emphasize the advantages of designing printers with independent cartridges, containing each color differently. That means that when a certain color is used more and out first, the user only has to add that color, not all, just like the status of the multi-colored cartridge mentioned above.

In the study of TUV Rheinland, to ensure the accuracy and weight of weighed cartridges before and after testing to determine the amount of ink inside. The researchers also compared the weight of ink with an empty container. However, experts believe that this survey still has some significant limitations, including not assessing the cost issue for users, the number of pages that each machine has printed before the end of one color. and do not consider the amount of ink consumed during the cleaning process that the printer automatically performs regularly. According to many experts, this last factor is a significant point in the rate of ink loss.