HP "instant ink" program

[mjeff87]

I know there's alot of tech savvy guys on here....I am not.

 

We have an HP something or other printer/copier/faxer/scanner all-in-one thing for our home PC.  I rarely use it, but my wife has a side job that she uses it for, ALOT.  Both color and b/w printing/copying.  I'm sick of buying ink cartridges for it every time we go shopping, and stumbled across this from HP:

 

https://instantink.hpconnected.com/us/en/l/

 

Anybody here use this, or know anyone that does?  Pros or cons of it?  I think it might be a good Christmas gift to get her, but I don't know enough about it other than what I read on the site and don't want to get scammed into something.

 

Thoughts?

 

edit:  she used to save receipts for ink/paper/supplies when she was a 1099 employee for this job, but has since been put on payroll and just bills them hourly flat fees and gets a payroll check issued with taxes deducted.  We are not itemizing our taxes any longer, so we're just eating the cost of printing supplies now.  Chaps my butt.....

[Dzimm]

3 hours ago, mjeff87 said:

I know there's alot of tech savvy guys on here....I am not.

 

We have an HP something or other printer/copier/faxer/scanner all-in-one thing for our home PC.  I rarely use it, but my wife has a side job that she uses it for, ALOT.  Both color and b/w printing/copying.  I'm sick of buying ink cartridges for it every time we go shopping, and stumbled across this from HP:

 

https://instantink.hpconnected.com/us/en/l/

 

Anybody here use this, or know anyone that does?  Pros or cons of it?  I think it might be a good Christmas gift to get her, but I don't know enough about it other than what I read on the site and don't want to get scammed into something.

 

Thoughts?

 

edit:  she used to save receipts for ink/paper/supplies when she was a 1099 employee for this job, but has since been put on payroll and just bills them hourly flat fees and gets a payroll check issued with taxes deducted.  We are not itemizing our taxes any longer, so we're just eating the cost of printing supplies now.  Chaps my butt.....

I personally haven't used it nor do I know anyone who does. 

 

Looking at the plan though, you'd have to figure out how many pages and how many ink cartridges you use in a month then do the math.   Just from in my head napkin math it sounds like you could save some money with it but thats completely dependent on what is being printed.   I also imagine your printer would have to be monitored by HP in some way so they know how many pages you actually are printing. 

 

 

[Eagle]

She's using an ink jet printer? She's getting hosed.

 

Ink jets are a rip-off. My late wife had an H-P multi-function DeskJet something-or-other. She didn't use it that much, yet it seemed like we were always buying ink cartridges (it took four). Not long after she died, it stopped printing ... again. I bought a new set of ink cartridges, installed them, and it still wouldn't print. It wanted new print heads. The print heads used to be part of the ink cartridges but, with the newer printers, the heads are separate. And they are EXPENSIVE. I went over to Staples on a sale and bought a Canon multi-function color laser machine. No separate print heads to wear out, no concerns about ink drying out, and the cost per page is about a quarter what the cost per page is with ink jet.

 

But ... the laser won't do photo quality. If she needs photos, you're stuck with the ink jet. If it's routine business printing, my advice would be to toss the ink jet and buy a color laser printer.

[Ωhm]

Check print quality setting. When set to 'Draft', this will extent cartridge life. Just a suggestion.

[mjeff87]

2 hours ago, Dzimm said:

I personally haven't used it nor do I know anyone who does. 

 

Looking at the plan though, you'd have to figure out how many pages and how many ink cartridges you use in a month then do the math.   Just from in my head napkin math it sounds like you could save some money with it but thats completely dependent on what is being printed.   I also imagine your printer would have to be monitored by HP in some way so they know how many pages you actually are printing. 

 

 

 

Yeah, it looks good on paper, but there's got to be some kind of angle going on.  And from what I've read online, yes HP monitors your printing remotely.  I need to adjust my tin foil hat a bit, or add some more foil, but I'm not a fan of anyone monitoring anything we do.  It's bad enough we bought one of those Google "home" things that just sits here and records everything we say.  The only thing I use it for is a jukebox.

 

1 hour ago, Eagle said:

She's using an ink jet printer? She's getting hosed.

 

Ink jets are a rip-off. My late wife had an H-P multi-function DeskJet something-or-other. She didn't use it that much, yet it seemed like we were always buying ink cartridges (it took four). Not long after she died, it stopped printing ... again. I bought a new set of ink cartridges, installed them, and it still wouldn't print. It wanted new print heads. The print heads used to be part of the ink cartridges but, with the newer printers, the heads are separate. And they are EXPENSIVE. I went over to Staples on a sale and bought a Canon multi-function color laser machine. No separate print heads to wear out, no concerns about ink drying out, and the cost per page is about a quarter what the cost per page is with ink jet.

 

But ... the laser won't do photo quality. If she needs photos, you're stuck with the ink jet. If it's routine business printing, my advice would be to toss the ink jet and buy a color laser printer.

 

Yep, inkjet.  The ink refills are NOT cheap, and it defaults to color print by nature so every time you send a print job you have to change the setting to b/w, if you remember......  Some things she does need to print in color (educational/instructional stuff) but not everything.  Pisses me off to no end.  We (she) doesn't do photo anything, so a laser jet might be a good solution.  I'll look into that

1 hour ago, Ωhm said:

Check print quality setting. When set to 'Draft', this will extent cartridge life. Just a suggestion.

 

Do you have to select that for every print job you send, or is that a global, "set it and forget it" setting?  If we could make that a default setting, that would be great.

[Ωhm]

Should be a global setting (windows) under control panel / printer devices / Printer Properties.

[Eagle]

2 hours ago, mjeff87 said:

 

Yep, inkjet.  The ink refills are NOT cheap, and it defaults to color print by nature so every time you send a print job you have to change the setting to b/w, if you remember......  Some things she does need to print in color (educational/instructional stuff) but not everything.  Pisses me off to no end.  We (she) doesn't do photo anything, so a laser jet might be a good solution.  I'll look into that

 

This is a slightly newer version of the one I bought. I got it on sale about two years ago (I think), for right around $200. I very happily tossed the H-P DeskJet in the trash (and that's unlike me -- I still have some other printers around here that are 25 or more years old, and still functional).

 

https://www.staples.com/Canon-Color-ImageCLASS-MF628CW-Laser-Printer-New/product_1807525

 

Watch Staples sales.

 

What ink cartridges does your wife's printer use? If they're the same as what I think I still have around here, you're welcome to them.

[89eliminator]

my wife uses it for her business.  she prints out a lot of shipping labels.  you'll have to do some figuring out at first to see how much you print in a month to choose the best package.  

[mjeff87]

Eagle, I think they are either a #60 or 62.

 

Wade, does HP monitor your page counts somehow?  Thanks.

[89eliminator]

4 hours ago, mjeff87 said:

Eagle, I think they are either a #60 or 62.

 

Wade, does HP monitor your page counts somehow?  Thanks.

 

as far as i know, they monitor pretty much everything the printer does.  we only use the printer for shipping labels so i never really looked into it too much.  i just know its one less thing to forget when running errands and it saves us a little money.  

[Minuit]

Getting a laser printer has been one of the best decisions I've made in the last few years. Mine is a Brother MFC-9130CW. I use it for pretty much everything. The color printing is acceptable quality, and the scanning is excellent quality. I have it set up to print and scan over wi-fi using their software. It prints very quickly and doesn't make much noise at all, which are two things that have bothered me about every inkjet I've owned.

 

More importantly, it has never once just decided not to work like nearly every inkjet printer I've had the displeasure of using.

[kryptronic]

Take the advice here and get a laser jet.  Hoover brought the vacuum cleaner to market to sell vacuum bags.  HP brought the injet printer to market to sell ink cartidges.

[Eagle]

12 hours ago, mjeff87 said:

Eagle, I think they are either a #60 or 62.

 

 

Doesn't sound familiar. Sorry.

[mjeff87]

Ok, I think I might be sold on a laser jet.  Bonus points if it makes the "pew pew" sound when copying

 

Looking at some prices, they seem reasonable considering just how many ink cartridges we've bought for this $100 inkjet since we got it.  I can see a pretty quick ROI here.