Epson 812XL cyan · XL

The Epson 812XL cyan is the high yield cyan for two Epson business inkjets, the WorkForce Pro WF-7820 and the WF-7840, both from 2020. It is already the larger of the two sizes Epson sells for these machines, so this is the cartridge to buy rather than one to upgrade from.

The 812XL cyan is rated at about 1,100 pages and lists at $36.99, which is 3.36c a page. The standard 812 cyan prints about 300 pages for $15.99, or 5.33c, so the smaller cartridge costs about half as much again for every page it produces. Black is the odd one out in this family. The 812XL black is rated at about 1,100 pages for $47.99, or 4.36c, which makes black text more expensive per page than any of the colours.

Multipacks are priced for the whole set, so they only pay off when all four cartridges are low together. On a printer with four separate cartridges that is rarely how it goes, and buying the single colour that has run down is normally cheaper over a year than replacing the set each time.

Compatible and remanufactured 812XL cyans work and the non-genuine ink notice can be dismissed. Epson's own guides for both models warn that a firmware update can stop non-Epson cartridges working, so leave automatic updates off while you rely on them. Chip revisions in the 812 range are recent enough that a seller should be able to say which printer firmware they test against, so ask before ordering. Both machines also have a maintenance box that collects the ink spent on cleaning cycles, which halts printing when its counter fills even with full cartridges fitted, so resist running cleaning cycles back to back when a nozzle check would tell you whether you need one at all.