Latest thoughts on cheap printers?

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 7 Oct 2012 6:48 am

I thought I would ditch my cheap Epson ink jet when it runs out of ink WAY too soon again and get a cheap b&w laser printer but suddenly I'm needing color ink jet printing for my projects. I HATE the ink replacement scam. It might be cheaper to buy a new printer every time I run out of ink.

Does anyone have any recent observations about which printers are less ink hogs than others? I don't care about print speed and for print quality, average is good enough.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 7 Oct 2012 7:06 am

I HATE the ink replacement scam

I'm right there with you Jon. I have a pretty good Dell printer, but the price of the cartridges are absurd. $30 for a B&W cartridge and the about the same for a color. Un-freakin-believable. Mine is out of color ink right now, so the printer won't print, even in black and white, although my black cartridge is almost full. Buying from the companies that make the re-manufactured cartridges doesn't help much. You constantly deal with the errors about your cartridge being low on ink because they can't reset that in the cartridge once it got too low. I bought 2 cartridges from one company that worked for about 2 days and then the printer thought they were totally out of ink and the printer would not print. So buying the rebuilt ones, even at half price, is no good if they don't even last half as long.

If I had room, I would get a cheap B&W laser printer and have the inkjet too for color stuff. But toner for laser printers is expensive too.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 7 Oct 2012 7:13 am

I have been using an HP OfficeJet All In One since 2008. The black OEM cartridges cost about $22 and the color cost about $20 and both go a long way.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 7 Oct 2012 7:15 am

Yes--same issues. And I go for periods without using it and then I have to go through head-cleaning procedures that apparently use a LOT of ink---I had 3/4 full cartridges the other day and after running two head cleans to get things printing right again, one cart was down to 1/4 and giving me a warning.

But now I need color ink jet printing so I'm hoping someone can name a cheap printer that is less offensive than the rest.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 7 Oct 2012 7:39 am

Thanks Wiz. That's a start. Of course being penny/pound wise/foolish and all, I still have to consider just getting more Epson ink carts for a printer/scanner that is otherwise working ok. Can you imagine how radical it would be for a company to actually sell a printer that delivered good ink economy? I'd sure think such a business model could succeed just by sheer sales volume for being the 'good guys'.

Bill Waskiewicz · Post by **Bill Waskiewicz** » 7 Oct 2012 1:22 pm

Jon: FWIW I also got sick of the cartridge scam, after buying three ink jets in the past 4 years or so plus many cartridges.
Just got a OKI C530DN LED Digital laser color printer and I am very pleased with it, the price was $329.00 from Amazon the list price is $499.00, I think I will be better off in a long run plus a lot less headaches,
a bit pricey but should last for about 2,000 pages in the toner department.

Bill W.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 7 Oct 2012 1:41 pm

Thanks for the input, Bill. Funny thing--over the past 10 years I've hardly needed a printer. And really not a color printer. 2 months ago I was out of ink and I was this close to getting a laser printer but then I got involved with my 2pup project (see New Product Announcements). I found a very cool product for graphics but it requires ink jet printing. The results are so satisfactory that I can't see abandoning ink jet right now. Otherwise I totally agree that laser is the way to go to break free of the cartridge cartel.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 7 Oct 2012 5:55 pm

The laser is a better deal if you print a lot but you have to allow for the cost of a fuser every 3 or 4 toner carts.

Greg

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 7 Oct 2012 5:56 pm

Bill, what is the cost on the toner? 2000 pages sounds real good.

jay thompson · Post by **jay thompson** » 8 Oct 2012 2:14 am

Have you considered an CIS system? I have had very good results with them, particularly with Epson printers.
Regards, Jay Thompson

Bill Waskiewicz · Post by **Bill Waskiewicz** » 8 Oct 2012 5:54 am

Richard:
The new OKI toner cartridges from Genuine Brands Supplies run $89 to $114 but prints from 3,500 black 3,000 pages color, prints real bright colors and I love the two sided printing feature.
Bill

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 8 Oct 2012 8:24 am

Richard Sinkler wrote: $30 for a B&W cartridge and the about the same for a color.

Have you shopped around for a better price? On the internet I found carts for my inkjet for about $1 each. They work fine. (printer/fax/flatbed scanner/feed scanner is Brother MFC-295CN ; cost $79 new)

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 8 Oct 2012 9:35 am

There are "remanufactured" cartridges or "refilled" cartridges around. You pay your money and take your chances with these. They may be guaranteed to work and if not you can send it back and they will send you one just like it. Quite a hassle.

Don't consider a Kodak printer. They just announced they were discontinuing that division, as part of their Chapeter 11 reorganization. Kodak's will probably be on "clearance" sales but I wouldn't buy one.

I have an Epson all-in-one as I also use it for direct printing on ink-jet printable CD's. It has separate ink cartridges so if the magenta runs out all I have to replace is the magenta cartridge.

You can buy cheap printers, for $29 or so, but all new printers (even high $$ ones) come with "starter" ink cartridges (less ink).

They basically sell the hardware (printer) with very low profit margin and make it up with the ink cartridges.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 8 Oct 2012 5:55 pm

Earnest, I have spent hours and hours searching. 2 times I have bought remanufactured (not re-filled) cartridges and both times had less than satisfying results. I time was decent, but the other, they failed pretty fast.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 8 Oct 2012 6:48 pm

Richard Sinkler wrote:Earnest, I have spent hours and hours searching. 2 times I have bought remanufactured (not re-filled) cartridges and both times had less than satisfying results. I time was decent, but the other, they failed pretty fast.

Me too. Re-manufactured didn't work so well. Even worse was re-filling them myself.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 9 Oct 2012 1:26 pm

@ jay thompson------somehow I never saw your post. After reading it, I am right now researching this. First I ever heard of it. Definitely an interesting option.

Al Capoldo · Post by **Al Capoldo** » 9 Oct 2012 2:53 pm

I just purchased an HP 3051A wireless printer cost was about $35 and cartriges run 20 for B/W and 23 for color. All was purchased at Wal-Mart and so far it is working fine. Cartriges seem to last for quite a while.

Ray Thomas · Post by **Ray Thomas** » 6 Nov 2012 7:17 am

I get mine mostly on ebay, can get OEM cartridges for around one half the going rate in most cases.

Kurt Schrotenboer · Post by **Kurt Schrotenboer** » 26 Dec 2012 8:17 am

I'm done with ink jets. Bought a Brother H3070CW for $179 on Ebay. Plugged it into my router to share it with the other computers. Never had a problem since. It always works.

Bill Bassett · Post by **Bill Bassett** » 3 Jan 2013 8:49 am

Good topic for today, I'm just about to go to town for ink carts. But my question is about an older, 2005, Epson ink jet which has been idle for several years. I got new ink carts the other day but the only color it prints is blue. How do I clean the heads? I have Long ago lost the manual.

Any advice?

Thanks

Robert Leaman · Post by **Robert Leaman** » 26 Jan 2013 6:05 pm

If you think the ink cartridges are expensive, wait until you need a new printer head.

Bud Angelotti · Post by **Bud Angelotti** » 26 Jan 2013 7:07 pm

When the old cartridge is done, take it out with a napkin & tap it on the table. Then put it back in the printer. It'll keep working for awhile. (Keep the cartridge in the napkin to keep the black stuff from flying around.)
I don't bother with a printer anymore. Put it on a flash drive and print it at the library for a dime.

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 29 Jan 2013 4:25 pm

Bud Angelotti wrote:I don't bother with a printer anymore. Put it on a flash drive and print it at the library for a dime.

That's a good strategy if you live next door to the library. If not, with the wear and tear on the vehicle and cost of fuel these days, maybe not so much.

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 29 Jan 2013 4:39 pm

Robert Leaman wrote:If you think the ink cartridges are expensive, wait until you need a new printer head.

"Printing", especially color printing, has never been inexpensive. Going the inkjet route always looked "cheap", but they're notorious for being the industry's dirty little secret. Inkjet printer are priced aggressively, sometimes as a loss-leader, because the manufacturer anticipates he will make up for the low price of admission many times over in replacement ink cartridges. And as others have said, DIY replacement cartridges are no "magic bullet" when it comes to economical printing - messy and ineffective. Been there, done that.

I switched from inkjets to laser printers years ago, not only because of technological issues, such as clogged ink jets mentioned here, but also for the vastly better reliability and resolution available from laser equipment. Cheaper - nope. But I have no interest in prints that look cheap. You pay for what you get, just like anything else. I don't need to print much, but the HP color laserjet I've been using a while has given me good service and quality prints. That's the objective for me.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 29 Jan 2013 4:45 pm

I don't print much, so I don't even have a printer. If I need to print anything I put it on a flash drive and go to OfficeDepot or some such. Got way tired of fooling around with paper, paper jams, head cleaning and expensive cartridges. And inexpensive ones that only work part of the time.

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