Q: I just got some a few days ago, and about a fifth of the black ink is gone. I only printed off about 5 pages of color pictures. Does your printer do this, or is mine just an ink guzzler? And how often do you replace them? Lexmark X8350. It's fairly new.
A: It would help if you listed your printer model. Ever since Epson won a courtroom victory allowing it to produce printers which refuse to work with compatible cartridges, the other printer companies did the same. Then with a near monopoly, they raised the price and lowered the amount of ink. Epson went from 21ml to 12ml. Some other companies are even worse, 9ml to as little as 4. So now every little thing you do, including cleaning the heads, causes the ink level to drop. Some of the compatible cartridges give you extra ink (if you can find compatibles which work). For epson I use http://ccs-digital.com/ink.asp You can find others on ebay but make sure they have a money back guarantee because a lot of compatibles just dont work.