Cost Analysis Explained

How do we calculate the savings percentages and costs for rihac inks and Inklink systems?

Ink volume calculations:
To accurately calculate the value of your cartridge savings we need to know how much ink is inside standard OEM cartridges.  
Not all manufacturers publish the volume of ink contained in their replacement or starter cartridges. Epson and HP are exceptions to the rule (well the UK sites anyway) and publish ink amounts on their respective websites. Canon and Brother on the other hand do not publish this information. It is worth noting that the starter cartridges supplied with a new printer in some cases contain different amounts of ink than replacement cartridges. Some brands, for example Epson, actually contain more physical ink in the starter cartridges they provide with a new printer than the replacement cartridges you buy at the shop. The reason for this is because the printers use and waste a lot of ink during the initial initialization and ink charging process.

For Canon and Brother branded genuine cartridges (where we don’t know their true ink volume) we have conducted our own tests by physically withdrawing the entire ink contents from the cartridges to determine the exact amount in milliliters (mls) are contained inside. This is done separately for the colour and black cartridges, as generally the black cartridges have a greater ink volume than colour cartridges.

On extra consideration is that when a cartridge indicates empty they still physically contain ink inside. This amount varies from brand to brand and the cartridge and printer model series. The reason for this is a sound one. Running a printer with a physically empty cartridge can damage the print head, so to prevent this from happening the cartridge will indicate empty despite having a small amount of residual ink inside which may be as much as several milliliters. For this reason we also conduct ink volume testing on cartridges that have indicated empty. This can provide the most accurate picture of ink savings because we calculate the exact amount of ink the printer uses from a cartridge

The Ink equation:  Initial ink volume – residual ink volume at empty = actual usable ink

Where do your OEM prices come from?

We conducted research into replacement cartridge prices using online prices from major retailers such as officeworks, Epson online and Harvey Norman. Black cartridges and colour cartridges often have different prices too. This has been considered in our calculations

So how do you calculate the savings?

This is a 3 step process.  Lets use the latest LC133 brother cartridges as an example.

Step one
Find out how many colour cartridges are needed for 100ml of each colour

Our research showed that the LC133 colour cartridges contain just 5ml of ink.

100ml/5m l= 20 cartridges.
As there are 3 colours (CMY) we need to multiply this by 3
20 x 3 = 60

Therefor 60 is the number of colour cartridges needed to equal 300ml of ink

The cost of replacement OEM brother branded cartridges is $28.16 (officeworks online July 2014)
$28.16 x 60 = $1,689.60

Step two
We then need to perform the same calculations for the black ink cartridges

Our research showed that the LC133 Black cartridges contained just 12.5ml of ink.

100ml/12.5ml= 8 cartridges.
(As there is only one black cartridge we do not need to multiply this by 3 as we did for the colour cartridges)

Therefor 8 is the number of black cartridges needed to equal 100ml of ink

The cost of replacement OEM brother branded cartridges is $42.79 (officeworks online July 2014)
$42.79  x 8 = $342.32

Step Three
Calculating the savings in dollars.

We know the Inklink system contains 400mls of ink.  To get 400mls in genuine brother ink we need to buy 68 Brother cartridges (60 colour and 8 black). This would cost us $2,031.92 (Step 1 + 2 results)

Then we need to again look at the prices of the rihac Inklink system and the rihac refill ink set (4x100mls)

The cost of a rihac Inklink system = $135
The cost of a set of rihac refill inks (4x100mls) = $50.40
So when we buy the Inklink system we are saving $1886.92 ($2,031.92 - $135 ) 
We save even more every time we refill the Inklink, in fact we save $1,981.52 ($2,031.92 - $50.40)

Step Four
Calculating the savings percentage.

To calculate the cost savings percentage we take the value we calculated to be the savings by using the inklink (as above) being $1886.92 and divide it by the cost of the equivalent value in cartridges of $2,031.92. The result being  0.93

We then take the answer of the above equation and multiply the decimal by 100 which gives us our savings answer of 93%

So in short by using the inklink CISS you save 93% compared to the cost of cartridges. And every time you refill your inklink you save even more, in fact 98% … Or in other words you are printing for 2% of the comparative cost of inkjet cartridges.