Digital Home Thoughts: Is the Printer Cartridge Half Empty or Half Full?

"A new study says that on average, more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink. The study by TÜV Rheinland looked at inkjet efficiency across multiple brands, including Epson (who commissioned the study), Lexmark, Canon, HP, Kodak, and Brother. They studied the efficiency of both single and multi-ink cartridges. Espon's printers were among the highest rated, at more than 80 percent efficiency using single-ink cartridges. Kodak's EasyShare 5300 was panned as the worst printer tested, wasting 64 percent of its ink in tests. TÜV Rheinland measured cartridge weights before and after use, stopping use when printers reported that they were out of ink. "

As if ink cartridges were not already expensive enough! I recall having an inkjet printer years ago (can't remember the brand) that would just stop printing when it said the cartridge was empty. When I took the cartridge out, I could tell by shaking it that there was still quite a bit of ink left, but it would refuse to print with it because it insisted it was empty. I'm OK with the printer telling you it is getting low on ink as a warning to get a new cartridge soon, but I don't want to have to change one out until I can visibly tell that it is out of ink. Also, I don't think this problem is limited to inkjets. My laser printer has been telling me that I needed to change the cartridge for going on 6 months now, yet it still keeps spitting out nice prints.