Several days ago as I was printing out text documents, the dreaded “Low Ink” indicator flashed before my eyes. It indicated that the black ink cartridge needed replacing…again!!! I felt like I had just replaced it! It was only 3 months ago that I spent over $50.00 to replace the ink jet cartridges for my inkjet printer; three months before that I spent another $50.00. All in all I spent over $100.00 in 6 months on ink jet cartridges! I thought to myself …this is ridiculous…enough is enough! There has to be a more economical way to meet my printing needs. After all, I am just using my ink jet printer at home to print out text documents and sometimes a colored photograph. It shouldn’t be this pricey. So, I started doing research on which type of printer would give me the best bang for my buck.

First and foremost, refurbished printers are the way to go! According to Webopedia, the definition of refurbished refers to "old" or used computer equipment that has been restored to like-new working condition and/or appearance or computer devices that have been sent back to the factory to fix a flaw. After learning about “refurbs”, I liked the idea of having electronic devices sent back to the factory for a second inspection and a “rebirth”. In addition, purchasing a “refurb” protects the environment because manufacturing new printers produces more carbon, consumes raw materials, and expends significant labor energy.

With that said, a refurbished HP Officejet Pro K5400tn Color Inkjet Printer costs about $124.00 according Google Shopping. It produces documents at speeds of up to 10 pages per minute (ppm) color, and up to 12 ppm black. HP.com sells its black ink cartridge (OEM/original ink cartridges) for $23.99, and the yellow, magenta, and cyan cartridges costs about $15.99 each. If you are using the K5400tn daily for home use such as printing text docs and pictures, after printing about 850 pages using the black inkjet cartridge and about 625 pages for each of the separate color inkjet cartridge, you will have to drop approximately $72.00 to replace all ink cartridges.

According to Google Shopping, a refurbished HP Laserjet 1320 laser printer (base model) sells for about $137.00 and prints up to 22 ppm. A toner cartridge for the HP Laserjet 1320 which is the q5949a costs about $68.99 and yields up to 2500 pages.

Of the two products, the HP Laserjet 1320 laser printer, gives you more bang for your buck.The HP Officejet Pro K5400tn Color Inkjet Printer costs $13.00 less (for the initial printer) and prints in color; however, the ink cartridges print significantly less pages (850 black pgs and 625 colored pgs compared to 2500 black pgs from the HP Laserjet 1320) before having to purchase new cartridges. Basically, the HP Laserjet 1320 will print about 3 times more black and white text documents than the HP Officejet Pro K5400tn with one black cartridge. So, if you were only printing in black with the inkjet printer, you would have to replace your black ink cartridge 3 times spending about $72.00 ($23.99 x 3) in order to print 2500 pages; whereas with the HP Laserjet, one toner cartridge yields 2500 pages, and you would only have to spend $68.99. In addition, the HP Laserjet 1320 helps you save more money since you wouldn’t have to make 3 trips to Office Max or pay 3 times for shipping.  My next printer purchase was a no brainer…the LASER PRINTER wins!!! It should be your winner too!