K
Ken
Hear plenty about at refilling inkjets but does anyone have good or bad
experience refilling colour lasers?
Ken
experience refilling colour lasers?
Ken
I
Ivor Jones
Ken said:
I've heard of it being done, but I for one am not about to bugger up a
£400 printer to "save" money.
Ivor
T
Tony
Ken said:
Plenty of people successfully do it.
Like inkjet cartrdiges, some are easy and some are tricky and there are some
imperatives like emptying the waste toner compartment (on most cartridges) and
often parts need to be replaced as well as the toner.
You would need to research the printer model you have, or plan to buy, because
of the huge differences between manufacturers and models.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
A
Al Bundy
I've toyed with the idea of moving up to a laser myself, but it's the
complication of those "other parts" that has bothered me. Parts are
not cheap or available on every corner either. I'd need to have other
backup printers. The thought of a solid ink printer is appealing too,
but similar issues come into play. Would you care to comment on the
solid ink devices?
L
linuxcoupe
I will tell you what i tell all of my customers. use only the toners
that are made for your printer. The printer is calibrated for for
that toner.
1. Aftermarket/refurbished toner is a low grade toner and wont give
you the color reproduction.
2. The Image drums on Aftermarket/refurbished are not always replaced
when they are recycled. They don't last forever.
3. used cartridges leak and in the least cause a mess but can cause
serious and sometimes irreparable damage.
That said, use the toner that you want to.
60% of my color laser repair jobs involve aftermarket/refurbished
toner cartridges.
M
measekite
Oh Yeah and also do not partronize the ink relabelers either. Also poor
color reproduction, messy and leaky carts, more rapid fading and a
possible clogged printhead that ruins the printer. Did I forget lower
quality photos.
T
Tony
Al Bundy said:
I would love to but sad to say I have absolutely no direct experience of solid
ink printers, so I will keep quiet.
Good luck.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
N
Nicolaas Hawkins
Put what little brain you have in gear before allowing your knees to jerk,
dickless. The MAN is talking about laser printer refills.
A
Arthur Entlich
The solid ink, or wax based printers have some positives and negatives,
depending upon your needs.
The cost per print is very competitive. The amount of e-waste produced
is quite low, since there aren't any toner or inkjet cartridges. The
main consumable is the waxy ink itself. The quality is constantly
improving and comes close to a color laser. They have sped them up
quite a bit, but they are still relatively noisy. They need to be kept
on all the time to make best use of ink, which is purged if the system
cools down too much from being off. They can print on most print
surfaces, even colored ones, without losing the color completely.
The deep sleep mode, however, is low wattage.
The other consumables aren't needed for a relatively long time, aren't
many and aren't an arm and a leg.
The negatives are, the ink is still not as well fade resistance as high
quality inks can be. The color rendition is not quite as good as laser,
the inks are waxy feeling and can chip off paper iron very cold weather.
Laminations probably not a good option, since the ink can melt during a
hot mounting or lamination.
Art
depending upon your needs.
The cost per print is very competitive. The amount of e-waste produced
is quite low, since there aren't any toner or inkjet cartridges. The
main consumable is the waxy ink itself. The quality is constantly
improving and comes close to a color laser. They have sped them up
quite a bit, but they are still relatively noisy. They need to be kept
on all the time to make best use of ink, which is purged if the system
cools down too much from being off. They can print on most print
surfaces, even colored ones, without losing the color completely.
The deep sleep mode, however, is low wattage.
The other consumables aren't needed for a relatively long time, aren't
many and aren't an arm and a leg.
The negatives are, the ink is still not as well fade resistance as high
quality inks can be. The color rendition is not quite as good as laser,
the inks are waxy feeling and can chip off paper iron very cold weather.
Laminations probably not a good option, since the ink can melt during a
hot mounting or lamination.
Art
A
Al Bundy
Thanks for that information Arthur.
F
Frank
Nicolaas said:
hehehe...good one!
Although I don't think meashershithead know the difference.
frank
V
vivek9856
I think you are right and wrong on certain things. I have a Xerox
Phaser 8550 DP that I got for $800 after rebate. This thing is great.
It only melts ink once, which is the first time you plug it in ever.
Once you plug it in, do not unplug, and replug it in, as that will
waste ink. But once you have it in, it has 3 modes - Full Ready -
Standby - and a "Sleep" mode. The Standby and Sleep mode use VERY
little power, the ready using a little more, and the actual printing
mode, which can at times use 1300 Watts of power (Yeah, thats almost
10 Amps). Also, its like 80 pounds.
There aren't as many consumables compared to laser. Every 30K pages,
you replace an oil drum which costs $150. You can buy the solid ink
made my Media Sciences, which Page Computers sells for dirt cheap. I
buy it from them all the time. Lastly, there is a waste tray that
Xerox says you need to replace, but you don't. It only melts ink once
when you turn it on, so ink never builds up. I have printed over 10K
pages, and the printer has warmed up and went into standby over 100
times, and I have only had 1 drop of ink wasted.
The quality of printing is amazing! The regular mode is 1200X1200 DPI,
with the option of 2400X2400 DPI in best quality mode. At 1200 DPI
regular mode, I print about 20 full page, color images per minute!!!
And it prints it in a glossy manner that looks like it came from a
photo shop. And the prints will never fade or go away like laser. I
dropped an image in a puddle of water for 2 weeks, and the paper all
around the print was deteoriated, but the actual print was still
together! The ink doesn't do too well with high heat or sharp folds.
(Folding paper w/ text is fine, but full page images, you get a wax
break line).
The thing is noisy when printing. (Mainly the really fast paper
handling). But it makes no noise otherwise. It has a 525 page paper
tray as well as a 100 pg accesory tray. When you put paper in the
tray, the printer detects the paper size, and asks you for example
("Is this a Number 10 Envelope - Yes or No). The software
automatically coordinates this with the printer, so no funbling with
paper config is needed.
With a small business, this is also good. After printing large
reports, the printer gives me an invoice for the printjob (It figures
in paper cost, oil drum cost, cost of all three colors and black ink
used in printing, and any extra surcharges you want to add (Eg. Power
usage)). It Tells you percent coverage per job and ink usage and
everything. I highly reccomend this printer.
M
me
Al said:
The Xerox Phaser machines do have a number of companies providing
compatible inks. With my ones (860 and 8200) the only things that need
doing are the waste tray needs emptying occasionally and there is a
roller that is changed every year or 10,000 or 40,000 pages depending
whether you get a high capacity one or not.
One of the heating bulbs on the 860 blew and I replaced it which is
meant to be a service engineers task, but it had lasted 6 years and
about 60,000 pages, and I just swapped the whole heating part out with
another one that isnt used, people do sell the bulbs separately on ebay
for about £5/$10 (I think)
M
me
Arthur Entlich said:
I haven't had an issue with colour, some people like the wax feeling,
you must be using _very_ cold weather to try and make it go brittle!
I can get round this by having the laminator on its lowest setting,
using a carrier and a sheet of paper either side of the laminate inside
the carrier.
A
Arthur Entlich
Thanks for the extra bits of information on this type of printer. I'm
not sure where I made any errors in my description, as you pretty much
confirm everything I stated, only in more detail.
The two areas we have any disagreement at all is regarding the
permanence of the image (I was speaking about fading under light,
specifically UV, and that is still not as good as a color laser print or
a quality pigment inkjet print) not soaking the image in water. By the
way, laser prints and many inkjet prints with the right paper are also
waterproof image- wise, and in terms of quality.
Yes, it can produce a glossy print (or not, depending on how much ink is
distributed to the paper and the temperature and roller used) but as of
the last time I looked at samples (about 4 months ago) the color is
still not as accurate as a color laser print. The color is too
saturated, and contrasty. It looks nice, but it isn't accurate, and for
people who are considering images that are photographically accurate
solid ink still has a way to go. For highly graphic images it can be
very nice, but skin tones however, still lack the tonal range required.
Art
not sure where I made any errors in my description, as you pretty much
confirm everything I stated, only in more detail.
The two areas we have any disagreement at all is regarding the
permanence of the image (I was speaking about fading under light,
specifically UV, and that is still not as good as a color laser print or
a quality pigment inkjet print) not soaking the image in water. By the
way, laser prints and many inkjet prints with the right paper are also
waterproof image- wise, and in terms of quality.
Yes, it can produce a glossy print (or not, depending on how much ink is
distributed to the paper and the temperature and roller used) but as of
the last time I looked at samples (about 4 months ago) the color is
still not as accurate as a color laser print. The color is too
saturated, and contrasty. It looks nice, but it isn't accurate, and for
people who are considering images that are photographically accurate
solid ink still has a way to go. For highly graphic images it can be
very nice, but skin tones however, still lack the tonal range required.
Art