HP Burns through cartridges

[Clark]

<grouse>

I have an HP 3310 All-in-one that I chose for, among other reasons,
the fact that it had separate cartridges since I dont print many color
pictures -- figrued to save a little on ink cartridges

Well, I have printed maybe 5 or 6 color prints total (along with lots
of plain black and white documents, and I have had to replace several
color cartridges already (actually, I had to install the *third*
yellow cartridge yesterday).

Turns out the stupid thing uses color inks to get a blacker black when
you are printing just black. My old printer never had to do that. And
when you set this one to print greyscale / black only you get a black
that isnt the greatest (I guess HP no longer knows how to make black
ink??)

So now I always use that setting, but it is still using the color inks
up, I assume when it is doing that "printer maintenance" thing that it
seems to do pretty much every time it is turned on.

And -- it wont let you even print Black and White if you dont replace
a color cartridge after the printer has emptied it for you!

So I guess the bottom line is, if you get this printer, dont use it.

</grouse>

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

That's normal for every ink jet printer. If you want to print documents in
just black, the cheapest option is to buy a second printer, a laser, and use
that for the plain documents and save the ink jet for photos and whenever
you really need color.