Buying advice - cheap-to-use printer

[A.K.]

I'm in the market for an inexpensive inkjet printer that's not going to
bankrupt me with replacement cartridges. I expect only occasional use,
for text and graphics from the Internet, and no photos. (Because of
the low volume and need for some non-text printing, I decided against a
laser.) We print a photo once in a while on our Canon i860, but have
to keep replacing one color cartridge or another even when they're
rarely used. Would love to find a printer that's less expensive over
time and better suited to our intended use. Don't care about speed or
other bells & whistles. Thanks for any advice -- regarding specific
printers or other forums or websites that might offer useful
information.

-- AK

 

[Burt]

if your i860 is working ok use bulk ink to refill - MIS, Formulabs, or
Hobbicolors have been used successfully by participants in this NG. Cost
will be around $1 per refill. If you want to use prefilled carts Neil Slade
posts good reports on the new G&G carts from Inkgrabber. They had some
leaking problems with their previous carts but Neil says that the new ones
are fine. Good color match and work well. You are replacing color carts
because the cleaning cycles that are done automatically use all carts,
including the color carts. No need to buy another printer till this one
dies. All inkjet printers will do the same thing with cleaning cycles using
ink from all carts. If you don't care about color, when this printer dies
buy an inexpensive laser printer. Cheaper per page, no cleaning cycles, and
is happy with occasional printing, unlike inkjets which clog when not used
enough.

 

[measekite]

canon ip4200 is the best value. on sale for about $80.00. still best
would be a low price hp laser.

 

[A.K.]

Thanks for this. I'm keeping the Canon i860 and looking for a second
printer for wife and kids.

I'd been leaning toward the 4200 -- very well reviewed, recommended by
measekite, below -- but (1) I hate to pay for photo capabilities I'm
not going to use and (2) the supplier of off-brand inks I've had good
luck with (DataBazaar) doesn't yet have such replacements for this
model.

Should I consider a printer with only one color cartridge if I'm not
going to use much color or is the 5 or 6 separate cartridge approach
really more economical even under these usage conditions?

 

[A.K.]

If I do go the laser route, is it your opinion that HP's are especially
good? Especially cheap?

-- AK

 

[measekite]

cheap is unwise. a good deal is better. there are some relatively
inexpensive laser printers and HP is OK

 

[zakezuke]

If I do go the laser route, is it your opinion that HP's are especially

good? Especially cheap?

FYI measekite is our neighborhood troll... he pretty much only
reccomends canons, which they are nice printers but as you your self
pointed out... on your i860 you eventually gotta shell out for the
color cartridges as the cleaning cycles will eventually empty them.
I'm too lazy to fetch the timming info but there is a point where you
might as well print something as it will waste ink anyway. But
needless to say the underlying technology has not really changed since
the i860.

The problem going "cheap" with lasers is the cost of the toner tends to
be higher. It may not seem like it buying a $75 toner but if that $75
only gives you 2000 pages it's on par with many inkjets in terms of raw
cost. The HP 1022 is an example of this... $70 for the toner but only
2000 pages. Going with the HP 1320 (a $400 unit) gives you 20% more
pages for the same price, a savings of about $14 per cartridge in
contrast. However the brother HL-2040 costs only $120ish in the us and
the toner costs $60ish for 2500p. While it comes with a starter
cartridge, the running cost is lowish for a $200 laser.
The Brother HL-5240 Costs a bit more than $200, with toner it'll run
you $320 or so... but the toner costs $90 per 7000p. There is a drum
you replace after 25000 pages that would add .64cents per page, but
taking that into account we are talking 2 cents/page, closer to
2.4c/page if you go with the smaller toner cartridge and taking the
drum into account. Drum is close to the value of the printer.

So you have your $200 (full toner included) laser which costs about 70%
more per page than this other $320 laser (Well $220ish plus $100ish for
toner), a cartridge that provides 2.5times the pages at only 20% more
in cost.

 

[A.K.]

Thanks for this very detailed account. Have you looked into the cost
to operate various inkjets? Any model to recommend for an occasional
-- and non-photo-printing -- user?

-- AK

 

[Burt]

Thanks for this very detailed account. Have you looked into the cost
to operate various inkjets? Any model to recommend for an occasional
-- and non-photo-printing -- user?

-- AK

If you are looking for low cost printers and really want an inkjet for the
occasional color print the best is what you already own if used with
aftermarket inks. The IP4200 is a good printer, but there are no
aftermarket carts for it yet, the carts are more expensive than the previous
generations of pixma printers, and the few aftermarket inks require
refilling and also buying another set of OEM Canon carts as a backup. For
occasional printing the HP's with the print head built into the cart solves
the potential clogging problem as you just replace the clogged head when you
buy a new cart. Not very economical, however. If you never need to print
color, go with a mono laser.

 

[Burt]

Thanks for this. I'm keeping the Canon i860 and looking for a second
printer for wife and kids.

I'd been leaning toward the 4200 -- very well reviewed, recommended by
measekite, below -- but (1) I hate to pay for photo capabilities I'm
not going to use and (2) the supplier of off-brand inks I've had good
luck with (DataBazaar) doesn't yet have such replacements for this
model.

Should I consider a printer with only one color cartridge if I'm not
going to use much color or is the 5 or 6 separate cartridge approach
really more economical even under these usage conditions?

The models with the single color cart (tricolor) have just a "thimble" full
of ink per color and empty very quickly. The ip4000 or ip5000 are the best
canons for you as you can use aftermarket color carts in the $3 range or
less.

 

[zakezuke]

Thanks for this very detailed account. Have you looked into the cost

to operate various inkjets? Any model to recommend for an occasional
-- and non-photo-printing -- user?

That's harder for me to estimate, due to various factors involved.
Canon isn't a bad choice at all as Burt and measekite have pointed out.
I don't honestly know how fast the ink runs out of the ip4200/ip5200,
I could look at the numbers but I imagine that a given set of ink if
not used often will last a year if you don't use it at all, perhaps 6
months. This isn't a calucation but estimates based on what others
have said... so take with a grain of salt. But as the technology
hasn't changed, expect the ip4200/5200 to behave in much the same way.

But if canon is not your bag... and photos are not your priority... and
cost per page is paramount... there are the Business printers by HP.
I lack personal experence with the newer ones as well the older ones
are built like bricks and don't need to be replaced. You can get into
a HP Business Inkjet 1200d for about $200, the networked eiditon 1200dn
$249.00. It'll cost about $135 to replace the ink. But... we're
talking 70ml of black, 28ml each color. for black printing the cost
should be onpar with your i860, around 2.3c/page. Color is about double
the cost per cartridge, double the volume, but well over tripple the
yield. The black ink is pigmented like your current i860. Seperate
heads which eventually do wear out, but the printer is cheaper.

If not that then there are a ton of the more traditional head on the
cartridge type of HP printers in the Office class. Don't have model
numbers handy. They tend to be less wasteful than designs like canon
which have a seperate head that requires cleaning, but tri color
cartridges always loose one color first but at least with those you can
often ignore an empty cartridge until you need to print in color.

 

[A.K.]

Many thanks. Very helpful.
On your last point, though, my current HP (several years old) doesn't
allow B/W printing if the color cart. is empty.

 

[Michael Johnson, PE]

I'm in the market for an inexpensive inkjet printer that's not going to
bankrupt me with replacement cartridges. I expect only occasional use,
for text and graphics from the Internet, and no photos. (Because of
the low volume and need for some non-text printing, I decided against a
laser.) We print a photo once in a while on our Canon i860, but have
to keep replacing one color cartridge or another even when they're
rarely used. Would love to find a printer that's less expensive over
time and better suited to our intended use. Don't care about speed or
other bells & whistles. Thanks for any advice -- regarding specific
printers or other forums or websites that might offer useful
information.

I suggest keeping your i860 since it uses cheap BCI-6 cartridges. For
the last year I have used cartridges from here:
http://www.tylermartin.com/Canon Rainbow Bundles.htm
These cartridges work just fine (photos included) in our i960, i9100,
iP4000 and MP780 Canon printers. When ordered in bulk you will pay way
less than $2/cart shipped to your door. I could refill cheaper but for
the price of these I can't justify the hassle.

 

[Tony]

Many thanks. Very helpful.
On your last point, though, my current HP (several years old) doesn't
allow B/W printing if the color cart. is empty.

I am very surprised. Most if not all HP Deskjet printers do allow printing when
one of the cartridges is empty.
Tony

 

[Bob Headrick]

I am very surprised. Most if not all HP Deskjet printers do allow
printing when
one of the cartridges is empty.

That is the case for *all* HP DeskJet's - they will all print (or at
least attempt to with one or more empty cartridges. The Business
Inkjet series of HP Printers, those with separate printheads and ink
tanks do not allow printing with an empty supply.

Regards,
Bob Headrick

 

[Tony]

That is the case for *all* HP DeskJet's - they will all print (or at
least attempt to with one or more empty cartridges. The Business
Inkjet series of HP Printers, those with separate printheads and ink
tanks do not allow printing with an empty supply.

Regards,
Bob Headrick

That was my understanding but I was being careful in case there were some
exceptions.
I was aware that it does not apply to the Business inkjets, for very good
reason of course.
Thanks
Tony

 

[A.K.]

My mistake. I've been unable to print even B/W text with my HP Deskjet
940c for some time, and because the warning light is blinking I assumed
it meant that the problem was an empty color cartridge. But now that I
look more closely I see the arrow is aligned with the indicator that
suggests some other kind of trouble, not just an empty cart. Now I
have to figure out what that trouble might be...

 

[bmoag]

You may want to check out the new batch of low cost color lasers now being
marketed.

 

[Michael Johnson, PE]

You may want to check out the new batch of low cost color lasers now being
marketed.

The trouble with color lasers, from what I have seen, is there are no
low cost replacement toner cartridges.

 

[zakezuke]

The trouble with color lasers, from what I have seen, is there are no

low cost replacement toner cartridges.

It depends on what you mean by "low cost". I know lasermonks.com
carries a quite a few makes of "compatible" color toner. the prices
are not super stellar but not horrid.