What is the cheapest brand of ink jet printer to maintain, speaking of the cost of ink cartridges?

None of them are inexpensive. If you can do without the color, go with a laser printer. They are also much more reliable. I have two HP laser jets and one Epson inkjet. Stopped using the Epson 2 years ago. The nozzles kept clogging.|||If you are looking at capacity, for price then Brother and Canon. However you are going to want to get the canon ink tank systems. Either number 3, 5, 6, or 8 cartridges.





Brother cartridges are all ink tank system and can easily be found in a compatible (third party) brand for a fraction of the price)





If you are just looking for a cheap cartridges because you really don%26#039;t do a lot of printing, then look for something that takes an HP 21, 22 or 92,93. They are around $20/cartridges but are very low capacity.|||If you are just going on the cost of cartridges, then usually Canon is the cheapest in the long run. Their cartridges are typically the least expensive to begin with and you get the benefit of individual cartridges for each color. Take a look at these cost per page results:





http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/08/c鈥?/a>


http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/17/m鈥?/a>





There are other results like this out there, like on CNET, but most of them I have seen usually have Canon as the cheapest to operate.|||Now it is HP, that wasn%26#039;t the case before. Espson has become one of the most expensive.|||Each manufacturer has inkjet printers that cost about the same as the ink cartridges that ship with them (seriously) and those designed for higher volume use, meaning a lower cost per print. Look for a printer with large, separate ink cartridges - you can get down to between 1 and 2 cents per page of text and you won%26#039;t have to purchase a new cartridge just because you ran out of one color.





Currently, the HP Business Inkjet and OfficeJet Pro lineup of printers has about the lowest cost per print of any color inkjet and start at about $200.|||I would go with a Canon or an Epson. You can find compatible ink cartridges at half the cost of the OEM versions.