It’s something that many Britons use every day without thinking twice.
But a new investigation by Which? has revealed just how staggeringly expensive printer ink remains in the UK.
The consumer champion compared the cost of printer ink to several luxury items, including champagne, whisky, and perfume, and found that it topped the list.
Speaking to MailOnline, Lisa Barber, Editor of Which? Tech, said: ‘Printer ink shouldn’t cost more than a bottle of high-end champagne, 18-year-old whisky or fancy perfume.
‘We’ve found there are third-party products that give you great quality printing at a fraction of the cost of their original brand counterparts, so there’s no point spending the big bucks unless you want to print the very highest quality photos.’
Which? compared the cost of printer ink to several luxury items, including champagne, whisky, and perfume, and found that it topped the list
In the study, researchers at Which? set out to assess just how expensive original printer ink is in the UK.
They chose to focus on a replacement set of XXL size cartridges for Canon’s popular Pixma TS6350 printer.
Despite being Canon’s best-value ink for the printer, this costs £86.49, which works out as £1.85 per millilitre.
For comparison, a 75cl bottle of Dom Perignon Vintage 2013 Champagne costs £200, which comes out as 27p per millilitre.
Meanwhile, a 70cl bottle of the 18-year-old Macallan Sherry Oak whisky costs £350, which translates to 50p per millilitre.
Finally, a 150ml bottle of Dior J’adore eau de parfum costs £169, which is £1.13 per millilitre.
Overall, this means Canon’s printer ink is almost seven times more expensive than the champagne, almost four times more expensive than the whisky, and 1.6 times more expensive than the perfume.
If you regularly print things at home, there’s good news.
Which? says you could save more than £1,000 over your printer’s lifetime, simply by switching to third-party ink.
For example, compatible third-party cartridges from Colour Direct (sold via Amazon) are 8.5 times cheaper, costing just 22p/millilitre.
Despite this, a survey of more than 9,000 printer owners earlier this year revealed that more than half still use original ink.
If you regularly print things at home, there’s good news. Which? says you could save more than £1,000 over your printer’s lifetime, simply by switching to third-party ink (stock image)
According to Which?, this is largely driven by misconceptions about third-party inks.
Half of printer owners say they’re worried third-party ink won’t work in their printer, yet just five per cent actually encounter issues.
‘In the small chance you do run into an issue, most third-party ink brands have guarantees that they’ll send you a replacement or refund in the event of a problem,’ Which? advised.
Meanwhile, many printer owners think that third-party ink isn’t high-quality.
To prove this isn’t necessarily the case, Which? tested a range of third-party and original inks, and found very little difference in quality.
‘Our research shows that many third-party brands are great for the majority of printing needs,’ it added.
‘The slightly superior print quality of original-brand ink isn’t worth paying many times the price of third-party ink.’
If you’re a regular printer, thankfully there are several things you can do to reduce your printing costs.
This includes opting for an ink subscription service, and only printing in colour when you really need to.
