The New Hotness

The amount of ink dumped into the external waste ink tank is staggering. A single head cleaning results in a stream of ink pouring into the tank. After a few weeks of watching that, I stood the tank on end: to my astonishment, the ink pretty much fills the black endcap.

In round numbers, the cylinder is 40 mm ID and the cap is 20 mm tall. Volume of a cylinder is πr²h, so you’re looking at 25×10³ mm³ of waste ink.

Seeing as how 1 mm³ = 0.001 ml, the tank currently holds about 25 ml of ink!

The printer has six cartridges. Assuming head cleanings drain an equal amount from each cartridge, that’s 4 ml apiece. Given that the large OEM ink cartridges come with 11 ml of ink, you can do the math: a third of a cartridge of each color just for head cleanings so far.

I do not object to head cleanings; that’s how they keep all those teeny little nozzles free of gunk. However, coupling that ink usage with minuscule ink tanks is robbery, plain and simple.

The next time you hear a printer manufacture tout their greenness, you can spit right into their shadow for me.