EXCLUSIVE: The everyday item that’s pricier than champagne: How printer ink now costs up to £1.85/millilitre – while Dom Perignon is just 27p

It’s something many Brits use every day without thinking twice.

But a new investigation by what? It has revealed how printer ink remains astonishingly expensive in the UK.

The consumer champion compared the cost of printer ink to several luxury goods, including champagne, whiskey and perfume, and found it topped the list.

Speaking to MailOnline, Lisa Barber, editor of What? “Printer ink should cost no more than a bottle of luxury champagne, 18-year-old whiskey or a luxury perfume,” Teck said.

“We’ve found that there are third-party products that give you high-quality printing at a fraction of the cost of their original brand counterparts, so there’s no point spending the big bucks unless you want to print the highest quality photos.”

In the study, researchers in what? It was set up to assess how much original printer ink costs in the UK.

They have chosen to focus on a replacement range of XXL size cartridges for Canon’s popular Pixma TS6350 printer.

Despite being Canon’s best value printer ink, this costs £86.49, which equates to £1.85 per millilitre.

For comparison, a 75cl bottle of Dom Perignon Vintage 2013 Champagne costs £200, which equates to 27p per millilitre.

Meanwhile, a 70cl bottle of Macallan Cherry Oak, aged 18 years, costs £350, which translates to 50p per millilitre.

Finally, a 150ml bottle of Dior J’adore eau de parfum costs £169, which is £1.13 per millilitre.

Overall, this means that Canon printer ink is about seven times more expensive than champagne, four times more expensive than whiskey, and 1.6 times more expensive than perfume.

If you regularly print things at home, there’s good news.

any? It says you can save more than £1,000 over the life of your printer, simply by switching to third-party ink.

For example, compatible third-party cartridges from Color Direct (sold via Amazon) are 8.5 times cheaper, costing just 22p/ml.

Despite this, a survey conducted earlier this year of more than 9,000 printer owners revealed that more than half of them still use original ink.

If you regularly print things at home, there’s good news. any? It says you can save more than £1,000 over the life of your printer, simply by switching to third-party ink (stock image)

According to What?, this is largely due to misconceptions about third-party inks.

Half of printer owners say they worry that third-party ink won’t work in their printers, yet only five percent actually experience problems.

“In the event of a small issue, most third-party ink brands have guarantees that they will send you a replacement or refund your money if an issue occurs,” Which? Advise.

Meanwhile, many printer owners believe that third-party ink is not of high quality.

To prove that this is not necessarily the case, what? I tested a combination of third-party and original inks, and didn’t find much difference in quality.

“Our research shows that many third-party brands are great for the majority of printing needs,” he added.

“The slightly higher print quality of original brand ink is not worth paying many times the price of third-party ink.”

If you’re a regular printer, fortunately there are several things you can do to reduce your printing costs.

This includes choosing an ink subscription service, and only printing in color when you really need to.