Printers

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m_calingo

Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
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Any here getting sick and tired of replacing their printer ink and tossing $$$ out the window?

I have an old HP Office Jet printer and when it has fresh ink works great.

I realize that manufacturers offer some printers at dirt cheap prices just to get the buyer "hooked" on their printer ink line.

So my question--has anyone here found a printer that they are happy with where the printer cartridges do not cost a fortune to replace?
 
I like my HP Photosmart - having different cartridges for different colors makes more sense than throwing away a multi-color cartridge just because one color ran empty.
But mostly I just don't use the printer much; I would never use it for photos or mass-printing reports or books, for instance. It's cheaper and easier to do those things through online services. Instead of printing at home I have accounts at Digital Silver Imaging, AdoramaPix, White House Custom Color, MyPublisher...
 
m_calingo said:
Any here getting sick and tired of replacing their printer ink and tossing $$$ out the window?

I have an old HP Office Jet printer and when it has fresh ink works great.

I realize that manufacturers offer some printers at dirt cheap prices just to get the buyer "hooked" on their printer ink line.

So my question--has anyone here found a printer that they are happy with where the printer cartridges do not cost a fortune to replace?
Click to expand...

No and I'm not happy about it either .......
 
Who replaces cartridges? Fill them with bulk bottled ink. My ink cost is just a few dollars a year.
 
I've never had a problem with Epson ink clogging even after months without use. I've also used bulk bottled ink for maybe a decade or more. My experience was that the nozzles would clog if not used almost daily. The off-brand ink manufacturer recommended running a sheet of big blocks of each color daily. Even so, it was far more economical than using factory ink. Bulk ink is much cheaper if the printer is used daily (at least in my experience with the brand of ink I was using.) As of now, I have a big Epson 24" printer that gets occasional use. No clogs ever—even after long periods without use. I also bought a Samsung Xpress SL-M2835DW/XAA monochrome laser printer for under $100. If you don't need color, printing costs virtually nothing in comparison.
 
I use an HP Color Laser printer. Cartridges last much longer but are about $85 a shot. I buy replacement ones on eBay for about $25-$30 instead. Much cheaper than ink jets.
 
[video=youtube;bV0M9_NwMHY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV0M9_NwMHY[/video]

Seriously I hate printers.
But I recently got a Brother HL2280 Laser printer, and I'm pretty happy with it. It only prints in black, but the toner lasts alot longer than ink.
 
Go paperless. The question isn't which printer, it is how can I avoid owning a printer at all.
 
lawp said:
Who replaces cartridges? Fill them with bulk bottled ink. My ink cost is just a few dollars a year.
Click to expand...

I've been curious about these.

Were you just lucky to find a system that worked for you right away, or did you have to go through a series of ink systems to find the right one?
 
I've installed hundreds of stand along printer and MF units though the years. The newer ones look for and will only work with verified original manufacturer ink. That means,no recycled, refilled, Walgreen style inks. If you are blowing though ink/toner like it's going out of style you might be doing something wrong, or have the entirely wrong device for the job. Your paper could be too "light weight" which absorbs much more ink, your print settings could be changed, you might not be running the print head cleaning/aligning when necessary, the volume of printing might be better suited for a small laserjet rather than a traditional home use inkjet.

sideways said:
Go paperless. The question isn't which printer, it is how can I avoid owning a printer at all.
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It's impossible to go paperless 100%, the company I work for tried that years back and we still generate and recycle over 50 tons of paper a year company wide and growing. Don't want to own a printer? Find a place that you can print your documents to like a public library or find an open network printer that will function with whatever your device may be Those recycled toners are a bunch of BS, I've dealt with those companies in the past and they tell you anything you need to hear and in the end the price per page is actually much higher than the original toner/ink in the long run.
 
I have two printers that I use. One is a relatively new Brother B&W laser which covers the majority of my printing needs. It is very dependable and produces high quality stuff. It's okay up to 100 page print jobs but that seldom happens any more. I don't print many photos or have a desire to. The second is fairly old now (OKI Color Laser) which is so so for pictures but ink jet printers are far better for that. I print some things out in color and since the cartridge sources from a powder, the cartridges don't "time out" like ink jet cartridges. Also, I get a lot more printer speed in color.

I have two or three ink jet printers that I bought mostly when I was working out of town and needed something "cheap" to print out contracts or whatever. I have not used one of these in at least a year, and I suspect they are all ready for the dumpster from clogging and lack of use. At a mininimum I would need to buy new cartridges. To me that is a crap shoot.... but I would probably give it a shot if I need to print out a bunch of photos or something.

Years ago I got a color ink jet all in one printer-scanner-fax machine. For the amount of use I had, I basically got about 6 months use out of it before I had to replace cartridges. I looked at my use and cost and bought a laser fax machine. Still on the orginal cartridge with that one and it is probably been in use for 4 years now. Not many faxes these days..... I send some, but I seldom receive any as most things are scanned and emailed now.

My suggestion is bite the bullet and buy a laser printer. Even if you have to replace the cartridges and they can be expensive for factory ones (like $100 each on my OKI... once replaced all the cartridges in one day.... big $ ouch.) But there are OEM ones available which I believe to be slightly lower in quality, but good enough for my needs.

I try to not print much of anything now and save all my files electronically. I scan them and save them. There is little paper. I even do this for receipts although I still save the paper ones in a big pile (aka shoe box) just in case. Saving electronically does have some problems for me since I am less willing to start "project files" for the file cabinet and stuff gets placed in "mass files". Traditional files take up a lot of space. I have boxes and boxes of them in my garage (aka archive).
 
For the cost of buying ink and new printers you can get a lot of sheets printed on communal printers. Never mind the hassle of maintaining a running printer. Let someone else clear the paper jams, store it, and feed it ink & paper. Just my 0.02. I've been printer free in my private life for 5 years now. Professionally I use the company gear.
 
That works if you work for a company and your job is such that you have access to printers when you feel like it. I always had no problem printing b&w stuff at the office, but I would not do color due to their cost.
 
m-calingo: "I've been curious about these. Were you just lucky to find a system that worked for you right away, or did you have to go through a series of ink systems to find the right one?"

My printing needs are the common home office stuff. Not huge or delicate. Scan, scan to PDF, copy, and print are used in the printer. I don't fax, only use PDF in the computer to send docs by email. (Clients appreciate the paperless doc and higher quality, and they can resend or file at will.)

Over the years I've used and given up on several brands of inkjet printers. Lexmark, HP, Canon, etc. Some are not compatible with bulk ink, some have cartridges with chips so you can't reuse them, some have unstable software. Now I have a Brother MFC-J430W. It was cheap, has stable software for scan, fax, email, etc, easy to fill cartridges, original print quality with bulk ink, does not clog, helpful graphic on the display to indicate ink level in the four cartridges. Two years now with no problems and cheap ink. Get one.

I also have an old (20 years) HP DesignJet 24" wide format printer for engineering drawings. Black only. I have bought only a few cartridges for this, mostly fill and reuse the HP cartridges.

I've tried several different inks, most are OK. Be sure it's made for inkjet printers. There's a whole sub-culture lurking on the internet devoted to inkjet printer quality, longevity, hacking, and cartridge refilling.
 
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I was having trouble with my ink drying out. So I got a Laser Jet type printer that heats a powdered ink with a laser beam. I am much happier, but it doesn't do color.
 
I bought a cheap Dell laser printer about 6 years ago. About$300 back then. I print a couple thousand pages a year and I'm only on my second black toner. Replacements are cheap online. I will never go back.
 
H.P. Is the worst, i hate their printers, Ink, customer service and will never buy anything with their name on it as long as i live.....I threw their printer in the garbage after 3 months and bought a Dell, it runs great on cheap ebay ink.
 
sideways said:
Go paperless. The question isn't which printer, it is how can I avoid owning a printer at all.
Click to expand...

I did this to about 95% or more! Most items I need to keep I print to PDF and save on my data drive. I only actually print something out if I have too, which is very seldom. If it is a document I might need to show someone, I put the pdf file on my phone or just email it to them.
 
If you are going to buy a new laser printer, I would recommend two features for most people. Get one that can do flatbed scans, really handy for a lot of things, and copies of official documents are very useful, and email beats faxes for sending signed forms. Another feature that is very handy for most people is a USB port so that you can directly print PDFs. Not something most people need often, but it is super handy if something goes pear-shaped and your compy stops talking to the printer. also great for those who have several machines, but not a good network. Networkable machines are nice (my current one has wifi, since our router lives in a dumb place in the house, and we have a couple of computers that need to print/scan) But thats not essential and a bit troublesome for most folks.
If there is any chance you can get by with just a few sheets once and a while, go the library route. We bought ours for my wife's degree coursework, as that was the most cost effective for us, she still had to do color at the school, but then its just a page or two.
 
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