Best utility printer

[pgx]

I am considering replacing a 10-year old ink-jet printer.

Overall cost is prime consideration. I mostly print B/W text,
occasionally some color graphics. No large volume. I want something
that will take generic ink, will run with color cart empty, possibly
refill B/W ink, not clog after long hours without printing, drivers
available for Win98 thru Vista.

What would you suggest?

Phil

 

[measekite]

I am considering replacing a 10-year old ink-jet printer.

Overall cost is prime consideration. I mostly print B/W text,
occasionally some color graphics. No large volume. I want something
that will take generic ink, will run with color cart empty, possibly
refill B/W ink, not clog after long hours without printing, drivers
available for Win98 thru Vista.

What would you suggest?

Phil

A BW laser

 

[measekite]

Well I certainly would advise you to give any Epson printer a miss as

they have a tendency to become blocked if not used to print at least one

full-colour picture every single day.



I used to be a Epson user until my £100 printer became clogged with ink

and no amount of manual cleaning with solvent would clear it. I

consigned it to the scrap-heap and bought a Canon Pixma last year --

never blocked once.

Things must have improved with Epson. I have a friend that has an Epson
3800. He turns if off between uses. He prints about once every 2 to 3
weeks. He claims to had a clog and does not do cleaning cycles. It
normally does one at startup by default.

 

[IntergalacticExpandingPanda]

Things must have improved with Epson. I have a friend that has an Epson
3800. He turns if off between uses. He prints about once every 2 to 3
weeks. He claims to had a clog and does not do cleaning cycles. It
normally does one at startup by default.

Dude. The 3800 is like an a2 printer costing over $1000. $1500 with
colorburst rip.

You can hardly compare them to their $100 models, esp. their C series
with with the DuraBrite inks.

 

[measekite]

Dude. The 3800 is like an a2 printer costing over $1000. $1500 with
colorburst rip.

You can hardly compare them to their $100 models, esp. their C series
with with the DuraBrite inks.

Hey shmeckle, the Epson DuraBrite printers are crap.

 

[IntergalacticExpandingPanda]

Hey shmeckle, the Epson DuraBrite printers are crap.

In contrast, sure! But aren't you the fool that claims the 3800 is
obsolete?

But you got the point. Odds are high that a $1000-$1500 pro printer
isn't going to perform like a $100 consumer model.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

It is possible the reference to the 3800 is the CX3800, a Durabrite ink
all in one printer. It's not current either, but it at least is in the
same price group of printer/AIO models.

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

 

[Flasherly]

I am considering replacing a 10-year old ink-jet printer.

Overall cost is prime consideration. I mostly print B/W text,
occasionally some color graphics. No large volume. I want something
that will take generic ink, will run with color cart empty, possibly
refill B/W ink, not clog after long hours without printing, drivers
available for Win98 thru Vista.

What would you suggest?

Phil

Picked up a new Samsung laser for I guess $40 on a decent sale. I do
books b&w and this my third refill with generic sourced toner (that's
spelled as in EBay). Somewhat lighter contrast, not as dark printing,
but have gone through a couple reams at much heavier context than 5%
industry rating bases. Perhaps 3-4 thousand pages, then. OK for
under $10 of toner, though it'll take awhile yet, pound per pound to
pay for itself by dotmatrix standards (a discounted benefit of
whipping out a hundred pages of text in couple minutes).

 

[LF]

I am considering replacing a 10-year old ink-jet printer.

Phil: Why?

Overall cost is prime consideration.  I mostly print B/W text,
occasionally some color graphics.  No large volume.  I want something
that will take generic ink, will run with color cart empty, possibly
refill B/W ink, not clog after long hours without printing, drivers
available for Win98 thru Vista.

Phil: A used HP that takes a 45 series black cartridge (Hewlett
Packard 51645A, 51645D, 51645G, C6615A, 51644, 51640A, 51640C, 51640M,
51640Y ) would work well for you. It won't clog easily, and if it
ever does it's fixable (see Google for instructions, or get a new or
refurb cart). IMO, newer inkjet printers are generally less durable,
harder to refill, and more expensive to run. The HP printers that use
this cartridge also have a tri-color cartridge. Many of the printers
for these carts have USB interface, as well as parallel.

Walgreens refills inkjet carts; last I looked $10 for black cart, $15
for tri-color cart. Check out their web site to find out which
cartridges they refill. They fill the 45s and the color carts that
are in the same printers, AFAIK.

In my experience, the HP 45 series cartridges are pretty easy to
refill, and are reliable. They hold a decent amount of ink too. I
like to use a *snap & fill tool* to extract any remaining ink & fill
the 45 with fresh ink -- cleans the printhead in the process. Got
mine for about 7 bucks at (no affiliation) MIS <http://inksupply.com/
snapfill45.cfm>. I've been very happy with their re-inking supplies
and advise.

You could do a lot worse than picking up a used HP with a 45cart on
Craigslist. (Just ask Google or HP which printers take the 45
cartridge.)

Best,
Larry

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I tend to agree with Larry.

If all you need is black text and the occasional color graphics, pretty
much any color inkjet printer made in the last 10 years will provide
more than adequate output, as long as it is working correctly.

The advantage of older units is that they are usually more durable,
cartridges often don't have microchips, making them cheaper, more easy
to refill, often more available as 3rd party product. If you buy a
printer which has the printer heads built into the cartridge, you get a
new head with each cartridge (and can probably refill the cartridge
numerous times), or, if you acquire an older Epson dye ink printer and
are willing to clean the head when you get it, should it be clogged, you
will then only need to refill the cartridge as the printer head is
permanent and stays in the printer. Older printers tend to use larger
ink cartridges, allowing for refilling less often, or cheaper refilling.

The disadvantages are that the older models tend to be a bit slower, the
dot size may be slightly larger, and if you are using a newer operating
system you may not have access to new drivers, which may limit the
options within the driver. But, older printers can be acquired for
minimal cost or even free from recycling programs, garage sales and
thrift stores and free lists like Craigslist and Freecycle.

Art



If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/