How Much Ink is in a Printer Cartridge

Indiana Ken

Well-known Member
I have an HP Envy 5052 Printer. It uses two #65 ink cartridges, one is for black and the other is for color. The OEM cartridges lasted about 3 months after which I replaced them with HP XL cartridges. The XL size lasted a little longer but I only print a few pages (YT post responses) per month. This morning, I weighted the removed empty(?) cartridge at 25 grams and the new replacement cartridge weighted 34 grams. How much ink is supposed to be in them?
 
As your experiment shows, not much. HP cartridges will also age out. HP printers are a scam. Printer is cheap, but they keep you buying expensive ink. I switched to Canon, printer costs more, but the ink is cheaper and the colors are separate.
 
The printer companies have two ways of getting money out of us. One way is to sell a cheap printer and expensive ink. The other way is an expensive printer and cheap ink. The overall quality of the printer seems to be the same though. We have an HP lazer jet that is supposed to last the average homeowner a year before cartridges are changed. Boy were they wrong! We do a lot of printing so maybe we are exceeding their expectations.

This post was edited by fixerupper on 01/22/2022 at 10:09 am.
 
Agree, the ink is ridiculous!

I quit buying inkjet printers a long time ago. The ink would dry up before it ever got used. Switched to laser, only does black but the powder never dries out, and is cheap!
 
Xerox Work Center 60XX series office Laser Printer. It cna be shut off for months and fire right up. Cost per print is far less, though toner tanks are costly, they can last for thousands of copies. Resolution is incredible.
 
It has been reported that the cost of inkjet ink is right at $12,000 per gallon. There have been companies that have installed software to eliminate non-OEM ink cartridges. Another company built their scanners to be inoperative if the printer inkjet is empty. Laws and lawsuits against inkjet printer manufacturers have really been ineffective. Years ago, I owned an Epson inkjet printer that had a one-year warranty that failed before the warranty was up and Epson would hang up on me while trying to pursue warranty work. So, I've decided that I will never own another inkjet printer, it's all laser printers for me. I've also decided that I will never own another Epson product of any kind.
 
The cartridge label should tell you how much ink is in the cartridge.

As others have mentioned, inkjet ink dries out with age, especially after the seal is broken. I switched to a laser printer for lower cost and better reliability.

Has anyone used a color laser printer?
 
Typical printer ink has a density of 1.04 g/ml. Your cartridge has approximately 8.5 ml of ink in it or about 0.29 oz.
 

Dont know how much is in them but its not nearly enough for the price of the cartridges
We were going thru 3-4 sets of cartridges a year at $60 per set and only getting a couple years out of a printer
Bought a Eason tank printer 4 years ago, ink comes in bottles that you fill each tank with, weve bought 1set of refill bottles for $52, we still have half of the black refill left and havent open any of the three color bottles yet
Printer with first set of bottles was $300 but weve saved enough on refill cost to pay for the printer twice over
 
I have 2 color laser printers.

First is a Brother HL-3070-CW. The printer came with starter cartridges. However, what makes them starter cartridges? They left off one small gear that defines the difference between a starter and a full toner cartridge. IF, and I do mean IF you were to buy a Brother printer, you will find that a set of toner cartridges will cost more than the printer did. The obvious answer is refilling them and installing the missing gear. These are readily available online. Graphics are so-so on color printing. Not photographic, but reasonable.

My second printer is an HP M452dn. Color graphics are much better than the Brother machine. Toner cartridges are still on the pricey side, but so far, I am still going on the original toner cartridges.

The big advantage to a laser printer is the low cost per printed page. The drawback is the high initial cost on replacement toners. They are available from third parties for much more reasonable cost.
 
Just so you know, HP printers (at least the lasers) are rebadged Cannon printers. Chapter and verse. I've repaired enough of them to know. Open one up and you will find canon labeling on most of the parts.
 
Dump your printer and get an EPSON ET-2720 no cartage and I can't believe how long the reservoir last.. cartages' are a scam
 
I bought my older sister a color laser printer because she never used her inkjet printer enough to keep the cartridges from drying out. End of problems.
 
If HP printers are Canon, why do my Canon printers have separate cartridges for the individual colors, where HP have one black and one color? Maybe Canon makes discount printers for HP, but my Canon printers last longer and take affordable cartridges. My current Canon has ink tanks that are refilled with bulk ink bottles. Going on 3 years with that printer, haven't had to buy any ink yet and all tanks are at half full. Think I paid $350 for the printer.
 
For a number of years, I had a side business repairing laser printers. Most of what was brought to me was HP printers that either continually jammed, would not feed paper, or had error codes and just refused to print. When I took the cover off, everything had Canon logo and part numbers on them.

I only know what I saw. I have no idea of the why and wherefore.
 
I have a Brother MFC-J485DW. Purchased it after the Canon gave up. Going on 4 years now. I purchased aftermarket cartridges and ink, as well as a cartridge resetting device from a "printer filling station . com". Never an issue with refilling or the printer not working with these products. Quite a bit less expensive than new manufacturer cartridges. Takes about 5 minutes to refill all four cartridges. Good printer, but only wireless and USB; wish it had an ethernet port. Prints very good quality on photo paper. zuhnc
 
Bought a Canon color laser all in one (actually a small office unit) middle of December.

Like most, biggest reason was ink drying out plugging things up, especially now that the kids are gone.

Does a good job (it had better, it's new). Not great photo quality, but more than acceptable to me. We didn't do photo quality printing on the inkjet either.

Only gripe I have is the scanner interface. Seems awkward compared to the HP 8600 it replaced. Requires an extra step or two. I scan all needed receipts and bills, don't like file cabinets full of documents. So this is annoying to me.

Link is to the printer I bought.

Fred
Canon printer
 
Thanks to all who took the time to reply. I am much better informed now. I paid $59 for the printer in 2019 and the latest XL65 black cartridge was $33, both were purchased at Walmart. The removed cartridge weights 9 gr less than the replacement however, I really do not know if it is empty or just decided to quit printing. I am happy with the printer. The XL size cartridge is advertised to print 2.5 times more pages than the standard size. However, I have not see any claim to the number of pages the standard size prints. I used to hear of people refilling cartridges but not recently. Again thank you all, Ken
 
I think in today's "buy it now" society, the technical ability to follow relatively simple directions to refill a cartridge is beyond the scope of many individuals.
I know that most individuals on this forum DO have that ability, given the equipment operated and serviced.
It can get a little messy, at times, but we are used to that!
 

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