Done with inkjet

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Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
So are you guys saying that laser printers are a higher initial investment, but the cost to print in the long run is less ?

Yep. Although a color laser printer will negate that quickly if you need to replace the imaging unit(drum and/or image transfer belt) or fuser.

if you own a older HP 2000/4000 series printer, you can get the cartridges refilled and reconditioned locally if there's still a shop that does that. You don't have AirPrint for iDevices or Google Cloud Print for Android and Chrome, but with an HP JetDirect card installed with the right router, you could have AirPrint or GCP.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
Duff, I hear you. I've had it with inkjet as well, but I'm completely unfamiliar with laser printers for home use. I guess I'd research what it costs for a new toner cartridge and if it's got a separate drum that needs to be replaced periodically.


aftermarket for most brother printers are around $10-$16 for a drum and toner is around 2 for $15

not quite everyday prices but at least a couple times a month

Drums usually last at least 10000 pages with no issues.
 
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Samsung Colour Laser printers are cheap. The toner is relatively cheap for the amount of prints you get and they last a very long time. My current one is 10 years old and has had probably about 6 or 7 black toners and about 3 of each colour as they wore out.

Very happy with it.

Looks something like this... Can't find the exact one because it's about 10 years old.

er_photo_223801.jpg
 
From five years at a computer repair shop I decided to never buy inkjet printers again. Last one I purchased was an Epson WF4630 (not a cheap printer by any means) and it died after three years - sad because Epson still seemed to make the best inkjets.

Anyway, I now have a Brother HL-2270DW black and white laser printer I got dirt cheap refurbished off Amazon and a Dell 1350cnw color laser my uncle gave me a few years ago when his business closed. I have never had any issues, and do print a fair bit. I would gladly recommend either Brother or Dell laser printers to anyone.
 
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Inkjet still OK if you know some tricks:

- unplug cartridges with "windex" window cleaner, with ammonia, I added 5% extra ammonia
works great! Ammonia is the active ingredient that does the trick, isopropyl alcohol, water,
etc, no good. Dollar store 'windex' with added ammonia works good and costs ways less.

- Be sure your printer is plugged into a power bar that's turned off when not in use,
when the power fails and comes back on, many printers turn ON and pull the printhead
out of the 'parked' position and they start to dry out and plug as they sit for hours!
Seems on purpose to me!

- get a cheap ultrasonic cleaner tank off Ebay and use warm windex to unplug
a tough cartridge.

- use a cheapo digital scale to weigh a new cartridge and the empty one, then you'll know how
much ink to syringe into it. Cap the fill hole with tape, etc.

- Buy refill ink in a 6 or 8 oz bottle, good for several years.

- On average I can refill and use a cartridge 15-20 times and use it over a year.

One HP printer I was looking at seemed OK but the toner per page yield and the cost was like 4 - 5 cents
plus paper!
 
Wife just talked me into buying her a HP 4520 inkjet. It has a $5.00 a month ink plan. Printer tells them how many pages you print and it send out new HP cartridges automatically. HP already sent replacement cartridges. So far that seems reasonable.
 
I have a Brother MFCP 7040. Light to medium use.

Here are my tricks:
1) Hit print
2)Go get print
3) Watch i_hate_autofraud perform his tricks while I relax over a few pots of coffee.

Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud


Inkjet still OK if you know some tricks:

- unplug cartridges with "windex" window cleaner, with ammonia, I added 5% extra ammonia
works great! Ammonia is the active ingredient that does the trick, isopropyl alcohol, water,
etc, no good. Dollar store 'windex' with added ammonia works good and costs ways less.

- Be sure your printer is plugged into a power bar that's turned off when not in use,
when the power fails and comes back on, many printers turn ON and pull the printhead
out of the 'parked' position and they start to dry out and plug as they sit for hours!
Seems on purpose to me!

- get a cheap ultrasonic cleaner tank off Ebay and use warm windex to unplug
a tough cartridge.

- use a cheapo digital scale to weigh a new cartridge and the empty one, then you'll know how
much ink to syringe into it. Cap the fill hole with tape, etc.

- Buy refill ink in a 6 or 8 oz bottle, good for several years.

- On average I can refill and use a cartridge 15-20 times and use it over a year.

One HP printer I was looking at seemed OK but the toner per page yield and the cost was like 4 - 5 cents
plus paper!
 
The Epson Ecotank inkjet printers looked pretty interesting when I was looking around for a printer. The initial cost for the printer is expensive but it makes up for the cheap ink refills that you just add to an ink reservoir vs buying expensive ink carts. See Razor and blades price fixing where they price the printers cheap but mark up the ink needed to continually use the printer.

I just picked up a Brother basic laserjet printer after my dinosaur HP Laserjet 4100 puked toner and screwed up the fuser.
 
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Originally Posted By: MrHorspwer
I purchased a Brother color laser almost a year ago. According to to printer menu, I've printed just under 800 pages, most of them color.

Black toner is at 20% and C, M, Y are each at 30%. Drum life is showing 96% remaining. This is all with the factory fill of toner, exactly how the printer came out of the box.

I don't regret kicking my inkjet to the curb.


This has been helpful and now you got me thinking it would be nice to be able to print in color. I did the math and at this rate the carts that come with the printer would last me for 10+ years and by then who knows what we'll use for our printing needs.

I don't print that much but when I need to I just want to hit print and be done.

Thanks guys, now we wait for black firday and hope for a good deal.
 
I've got a Samsung laserjet printer.

But the cheapest per page got to be the Epson dot-matrix printer which I used for printing receipts, double copy.

The ink ribbon last thousands of pages and cost much less than a toner.
 
Originally Posted By: Coprolite
I have a Brother MFCP 7040. Light to medium use.

Here are my tricks:
1) Hit print
2)Go get print
3) Watch i_hate_autofraud perform his tricks while I relax over a few pots of coffee.


That's my routine with my Epson inkjet. It's on 24/7 and I print as needed. About once a year I replace the ink cartridges at $20 ea for low yield or $40 for high yield. We print a decent amount.
 
Originally Posted By: kb27

But the cheapest per page got to be the Epson dot-matrix printer which I used for printing receipts, double copy.


I remember our old Epson MX-80 dot matrix. Slow as molasses but cheap. When the ribbons dried out you could take them out, pop off the top and hose it down with WD-40 and get a bunch more pages that way. Also gave you nice crisp blacks for a little while too.
 
There will probably be a better deal around black friday, but the last color laser I got was a Dell for about $100. There's one now for about $179 on Staples,

https://www.staples.com/Dell-C1760nw-Col...roduct_24256626

Those toners sets you can get on Amazon or Ebay for $20-$50, but they can run up to $200+ if you use Dell ones. Same deal with all the manufactures although sometimes those aftermarket toners don't reproduce colors accurately and only OEM does it. The knock off Dell toners I've used so far have been fine though.

If it's light duty stuff, by the time the drum or fuser wears out, it will probably be years later and at $100 for a new one with starter cartridges, it's just cheaper to buy a new printer.
 
I have never ever bought a printer before making sure it could take cheap aftermarket ink. Surprisingly, if we do not buy the latest model, most likely you can buy a fancy last year's printer which now will have after market support.

Of course, this does NOT apply to HP as it seems to be almost impossible to find aftermarket ink
 
Many different printers which are better for various needs and uses.

Have had a Konica-Minolta laser, but it was unable to print card and photos and the photo quality was not great.
Now I have a HP 8630.
It uses pigment inks as standard which needed for printing business cards and flyers that need to be weather proof.
I did note a number of cheap aftermarket cartridges did not use pigment ink.

I ordered 500ml of each colour and black from Germany for the same price (inc shipping to UK) as a full set of XL HP carts at retail; colour reproduction is good, but not perfect and no problems using this ink on matt and glossy card/photopaper. I bought a set of 4 cheap refillable cartridges from Amazon, which even show the % ink left correctly.
Refilling many times, I have had one accident, so definitely would not recommend refilling in a regular home room or office.
I've printed 1000 sheets (mostly office documents, flyers and business cards) and still got over 50% of the ink left.
 
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