The home cost-effectiveness of inkjet printers and laser printers needs to be compared right from the initial purchase, cost of consumables, maintenance charges and power consumption. For instance, inkjet printers (such as HP DeskJet 2755) cost approximately 300 yuan, while similar laser printers (such as HP LaserJet Pro M15w) cost 1,500 yuan, the initial cost of the former is 80% lower. However, the biggest difference in long-term consumables cost – black inkjet cartridge (HP 664) unit price of 150 yuan, prints 150 pages (1 yuan per page), and laser cartridge (HP 18A) unit price of 450 yuan, 1,500-page lifespan (0.3 yuan per page). When the family’s average monthly printed volume is 30 pages, the inkjet printer’s annual consumable expenditure is about 240 yuan and the laser 108 yuan, the latter saving 55%.
From the energy efficiency perspective, inkjet printer standby power is 3W (10W printing), laser model standby power of 30W (300W printing), assuming standby 18 hours a day, printing 10 minutes, inkjet’s yearly power consumption of about 6.57 degrees (electric bill 4 yuan), laser 21.9 degrees (electric bill 13 yuan), the latter saving 70% of energy. But for high load, laser printer speed disparity is dramatic, for instance, printing 20 documents of pages, inkjet 4 minutes and 30 seconds (canon G series), laser 1 minute and 10 seconds (brother HL-1218W), the time cost is reduced by 74%, which is perfect for urgent jobs.
Failure rates and maintenance cost also contribute to overall cost of ownership. Inkjet printer nozzle clogging probability of about 15% (not used for half a year), the need for special cleaning liquid or new nozzle (cost 200-500 yuan), while laser printer failure rate only 5% (mainly due to aging of toner cartridge), replacement period of 2-3 years (cost accounts for 30% of machine cost). According to IDC’s 2023 report, 68% of the home market is occupied by inkjet printers mainly due to low printing levels and color output needs (80% of home users demand printing photographs or diagrams), while lasers capture only 32%, in text-based applications.
Technological innovations of consumable technology change the cost structure, for example, Epson Ecotonank series inkjet printer (initial price of 1,800 yuan) employs continuous ink supply system (CMYK four colors of 70ml each, total cost of 200 yuan), capable of printing 7,500 pages (unit page cost of 0.027 yuan), in contrast to the same laser (unit page cost of 0.05 yuan) saving 46%. However, the quantity of such models increases by 40% (dimension 350x400x200mm), and the price in space is larger. Furthermore, third-party compatible cartridges (30% of original price) may reduce the cost of inkjet single pages to 0.1 yuan, but the danger of quality volatility increases (the probability of color deviation ΔE>5 increases by 25%).
Environmentally, inkjet printers are plagued by poor ink supply at low temperatures (<10°C) (20% increase in failure rate), whereas laser printers are most plagued by humidity (15% increase in paper jam rate when humidity is >70%). The long-term cost simulation shows that if the household use cycle is 5 years and the average monthly printing volume is 50 pages, the total cost of inkjet (purchase + consumables + electricity) is about 2,200 yuan, and that of laser is 2,500 yuan, the former saves 12%, but if the monthly printing volume is over 100 pages, the total cost of laser is 18% lower (exaggerated by the advantage of consumables efficiency). As per a 2022 survey of Consumer Reports, 65% of household users choose inkjet for “the occasional printing of photos,” whereas 70% of laser users would like “out of the box” and “low maintenance.”.
Promotion marketing strategies also push decision-making, such as the 30% discount of inkjet printer during JD 618 (e.g., Canon MG3680 from RMB799 to RMB559), while the discount on laser series was only 15% (brother HL-2260D from RMB1,299 to RMB1,104). Taken together, low frequency, multi-purpose homes (<500 annual pages of print) are best with inkjet, and high frequency text printing (>1,000 annual pages) best suited with laser, and the overlapping in cost of the two is about 80 pages per month (the overall cost of inkjet for 5 years is $2,900 vs. Laser 2,850 yuan).