Hands-On Review: HP Instant Ink Program
We’ve reported favorably on the HP Instant Ink Program several times since its introduction. While it’s not available worldwide, and only available for select HP Envy and Officejet e-printers and e-All-in-Ones, everybody needs to be reminded once again about its features and benefits. In fact, knowing what we know about HP Instant Ink, we just signed up for it ourselves.
In a nutshell, here’s how the Instant Ink Program works:
- Ensure that you have an eligible printer and that it has an Internet connection.
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Go to the HP Instant Ink Web site and sign up for a plan that comes closest to matching the number of pages you print monthly. You’ll need a credit card for this.
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There’s no annual fee and ink, shipping, and cartridge recycling are included. You can change or cancel your plan online at any time.
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Once you’ve signed up, HP then mails you special HP Instant Ink cartridges when your printer runs low on ink- our ink cartridges arrived in several days. The cartridges you receive are “special” because they contain more ink than XL ink cartridges, and you’ll need to replace them less often than retail ink cartridges.
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Billing and service start after you install your first HP Instant Ink cartridge in your printer, and from that point on, your printer tells HP when to send more ink.
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Your service is not based on how many cartridges you use, so for instance, you can print as many high-quality color photos as you like without being charged more.
There are three Instant Ink plans available:
Occasional printing – $2.99 per month
- 50 pages per month included (that’s 6¢ per page regardless of color, page coverage, or page size).
- Each additional set of 15 pages is $1.00 (that’s 6.7¢ per page regardless of color, page coverage, or page size).
- You can roll over up to 50 unused pages.
Moderate printing – $4.99 per month
- 100 pages per month included (that’s 5¢ per page regardless of color, page coverage, or page size).
- Each additional set of 20 pages is $1.00 (that’s also 5¢ per page regardless of color, page coverage, or page size).
- Roll over up to 100 unused pages.
Frequent printing – $9.99 per month
- 300 pages per month included (that’s 3.3¢ per page regardless of color, page coverage, or page size).
- Print more? Each additional set of 25 pages is $1.00 (that’s 4¢ per page regardless of color, page coverage, or page size.
- Roll over up to 300 unused pages.
That’s a pretty good deal, especially when the lowest color Cost Per Page (CPP) of an HP inkjet printer using XL cartridges can cost upwards of 6.7¢. Plus, that calculation is based on a page coverage of only 5 percent per color when borderless photos have a page coverage of 100 percent.
Note that the CPP of Instant Ink is the same whether you are printing an address label or a borderless 8.5″x11″ color photo. You should never again have to run out to the store in your pajamas at the last minute in order to buy ink for that class project that is due tomorrow morning. Finally, you no longer have to concern yourself and hector others about mindlessly printing too many high-coverage or color pages in an attempt to conserve ink, money, and shopping time.
On the other hand, if you print primarily in black or documents with minimal area coverage you may want to consider the only other sensible alternative–buy value packs of HP XL ink from a retail outlet.
Our Instant Ink Story
HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer – R.I.P.
The HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer that we use in our home was getting long in the tooth, particularly in regards to mobile printing. When it began to habitually drop off of the wireless network and/or freeze up, we knew that it was time to put it out of its misery. We printed a lot of photos on the unit and its performance was exemplary while it lasted. Ink was not cheap (it has five [5] ink cartridges) but it was tolerable because we invested in the HP 564XL Combo Pack in order to minimize our CPP. We soldiered on with it until the last of the ink was used up and had to make a decision about a replacement unit.
Since we were in the midst of testing twelve (12) current HP inkjet printers and All-in-Ones, our decision was easy – we simply picked the best one out of the group for our needs, which included a small footprint, two media trays, photo printing, WiFi networking, automatic duplex printing, and the latest and greatest remote and mobile printing capabilities.
Based on this criteria, we were wavering between the HP Photosmart 6520 and the HP Envy 5660. However, the Envy uses the dreaded tri-color ink cartridge (you must discard the entire cartridge when a single color runs out regardless of how much ink is left for the other colors), while the Photosmart had three individual color cartridges. This should have put an end to the wavering but we (like you) were still concerned about ink costs, particularly when printing our primary application, photos. Then, we remembered the Instant Ink Program and since the Photosmart is not an eligible printer and the Envy was, the HP Envy 5660 with Instant Ink Program was a done deal. Plus, we found that there was negligible differences in print quality between the two printers and they both had dedicated 4″x6″ photo paper trays.
Under Instant Ink, HP DOES send you new cartridges when needed – cartridges that are priced much lower than retail prices. Pages cost the same not matter what mode you’re printing in, draft, high-quality, black-and-white, color, draft, page coverage, etc. Unless your monthly page volumes are wildly different, Instant Ink makes sense for many people and has been very popular.
I opted for the instant ink program when i bought a new printer (I have purchased over the years 47 laser and inkjet printers for at home, my small business and gifts for family members (yes I kept track of the number). I am extremely dissatisfied with the instant ink program. I signed up for the 300 pages a month program thinking that some months I would use this many pages. the number is NOT cumulative. although i probably used less that 100 pages many months, last month i went over the 300 page limit and got charged another $9.95. Twice i have had to purchase HP cartridges anyway because the mailed ones did not come in time. As a result, I had 2 extra program cartridges as well as the 2 I had just received when i cancelled the program. The day after I cancelled the HP program cartridges immediately STOPPED WORKING even though they were full. How can you ever cancel the program? I guess you have to wait until right before your cartridge gets low enough for HP to trigger another mailing. Very disapointed in HP and am seriously thinking of switching to another brand. I paid $9.99 a month, got 6 total cartridges in 12 months (and not the XL ones) and paid $130 for the service. Now 4 of the cartridges I PAID FOR are not usable!! BEWARE. to me, this qualifies as a scam.
Here are a few comments from us addressing more negative news about the HP Instant Ink Program: 1) If you do not reach your monthly quota of printed pages, HP is supposed to roll unused pages over to the next month. However, it is not easy to track how many pages you have actually printed unless you religiously keep a log or check the page count of your printer on a regular monthly basis. How to check the page count? You can print it from the control panel or and save yourself some ink and view the Printer Home Page (EWS) from HP Printer Assistant software or your Web browser (if you know the printer’s IP address); 2) It is unsettling if your replacement cartridges did indeed not come in in time. Once again, we recommend that you keep a set of retail cartridges available for emergencies and you should not need two sets laying about; 3) If you cancel the program, your Instant Ink cartridges are remotely disabled. Install the retail cartridges in order to print again and make sure that you send the Instant Ink back in the pre-paid mailer; 4) It is a good idea to not panic about your ink levels and wait for HP to send you new cartridges, because they know the ink levels as well as or better than you; 5) Instant Ink cartridges hold more ink than XL cartridges.
My cartridges ran out of ink before I received the mailed replacements. I might not print every day but sometimes when I do I print a lot of pages. the 2 sets of cartridges i had “lying around” were the program sets.. I didn’t know that I had to use those first. I didn’t want the non-program cartridges to dry up so I continued to use them, thinking that I could use the program cartridges later, If I PAID FOR the program cartridges, I dont see why I can’t use them. Like I said, I ended up paying over $130 for essentially 2 cartridges because the 4 I have left as not usable. Does that sound right to you?
Not to me it doesn’t!!
also, I can’t believe that the excess pages rolled over, or I should have been able to print over 1000 pages the month I was charged extra. didn’t happen.
I have always purchased HP products and this is the first time I am upset over it. I have been paying for HP instant ink for the last year and have only had the original cartridges sent to me. Used up the ones that came with the printer first prior to installing the ones enrolled in the HP instant ink. Made sense to me… anyway, being that I VERY rarely print I decided to cancel it. Its been about a couple weeks since cancelling but wanted to print a Birthday e-mail and my printer says because I am not enrolled and paying them anymore that ink is no longer good. This program is supposed to save you $$ on ink and also be convenient but to think about how many people have cancelled early not knowing they would no longer be able to use their ink, is a total waste! And all the money they have collected monthly for this service. I just spoke with someone regarding my issue and they said I was informed when cancelling they would no longer work. Hmm… why didn’t I just use up all the ink prior to cancelling then? I am very disappointed in them and am now forced to go buy ink when all the money pre paid to them would have paid for new cartridges and I would still be ABLE to print! Not allow a company to control my printer in my own home. My suggestion, just find a place that re fills old ink cartridges for a discounted price. Don’t waste your time and money on this instant ink.
The moral of this unfortunate story is:
Do not cancel your subscription until you are out of ink and make sure that you have retail cartridges on hand when you do. Also remember that whatever prints you have made using the program are at least half as expensive as if you purchased ink at retail prices. Finally, if you do not want to do instant ink, the best way to save ink is to print in draft/grayscale/black-only modes whenever possible.
Instant Ink is a terrible program. It is very deceptive. If you cancel for any reason, the cartridges you already bought are useless. I was left unable to print an extremely important document in the middle of the day and when I contacted customer support, I had two options: re-enroll or go out to the store and purchase additional cartridges. Nope. I’ll never again buy any HP product.
Oh yes, it’s terrible. Let’s do the math:
You sign up at $3 a month and cancel after two months. You’ve now paid $6 total and think you should be able to take advantage of HP and use the several hundred dollars worth of ink that remains in the cartridges that hold even more ink than the cartridges sold in the store.
Anyone see a problem with this “I paid for them” logic? *shakes head*
Hear hear Donovan!
Really you think you are going to get a set of ink for $9.95 you are paying for a service that you can print anything you want up to 300 pages for $10. If you stop service yes they won’t work. They tell you this also when you sign up!
This is from hp site.
When Your Service is cancelled for any reason, HP will remotely disable the Instant Ink Program Cartridges and You will no longer be able to use the Instant Ink Program Cartridges to print.
Please. What would happen if you stopped paying your electric bill? Free electricity? All it takes to keep the ink flowing is a realible monthly source of funding that costs less than a mocachino from Starbucks.