Be Excellent To Each Other

Hi,

I remember that some folks here had printers on the Instant Ink service? I was wondering, when you buy an instant ink printer are they tied to the instant ink service for life, or can you just buy a refill and use it as a ‘normal’ printer?

I believe you can buy a refill and use it normally. I haven't done this with mine though as the subscription service does genuinely save me money and is a lot less hassle. Something quite rare in this day and age!

Thanks, I’m asking on behalf of ma and that’s good to know that she can just use it as a normal printer and restock the cartridge when she wants to.

Her use is very sporadic. She might need 300 pages one month and then none for a month or two. She doesn’t want to have to change cartridges often and only needs to print in black and white, so I think a mono laser jet is her best bet. I’m not quite sure the best use case for Instant Ink is quite the same for a mono laser jet as you need to change the toner so rarely and as her usage will be so unbalanced I think it’d work better for her than a subscription model, but most of the lower end laserjets come on the plan as standard. To add another layer is awkwardness she wants to get it from Argos because of something to do with Nectar points (?)

We got a simple laser jet at the beginning of lockdown, used it for ages and the toner goes on forever, but they don’t have our model, sadly, so I’m in a bit over my head looking for an alternative.

I might look to see if I can find an affordable second hand one for her.

I would say cheap mono laser too, and was going to recommend my Samsung one, but it seems impossible to buy them anymore. I paid under a hundred quid, and the only place I can find it now wants £500!

Same with ours. We paid about £100 for it at the start of Covid and it’s double that now.