I need a new printer - I have 2 Epsons which refuse to work or recognise cartridges. Finished with Epson. I had good experiences with Canon compatible cartridges in the past, but both my printers' print heads eventually stopped working.
I just need a low volume printer - even just black would do as a standby if it always worked.
The main requirement is that it has to be able to use compatible cartridges trouble free so low cost upkeep.
What have you been using that you'd recommend?
If it's not used very often, then I'm told that a laser printer is cheaper, as it doesn't have the cleaning cycles that an inkjet has. They also don't clog up their nozzles when they're turned off, not having any.
Monochrome laser if you can stand the physical size that goes with it. It would also do higher throughput and with much less cost per page and no chance of the print head ever clogging up with dried up ink.
For low volumes you have quite a wide choice cheapish monochrome lasers and it is really a matter of whether you want duplex as well.
You can even get colour for not much more and third party toner eg.
Not actually used that one but my 1320CN is excellent. I gather the newer ones are not quite as good at photoreal output but cheaper.
Low cost and trouble free seem to be incompatible where modern printers are concerned. The cheapest ones go to insane lengths to stop you using third party cartridges or refilling old ones (and the hackers find new ways to chip even the most sophisticated OEM ink lock-in hardware).
Look at it a different way - if you're using "compatible" cartridges, cost must be a factor. It will be cheaper if you use the actual manufacturers cartridges - apart from making profits for the manufacturers there are good reasons for it. Printers are precision kit, and the tiniest variation in viscosity or particle size in the ink and everything is screwed. I had an HP business printer that served me well for some time - the first time I was tempted to use "compatibles" (there were some handy) it wrecked the printer heads - never worked correctly again. Same with a local garage and a part for my my BMW (once only) - it does not pay - ever.
My current printer/scanner is a Canon Pixma MP495 - cost about £32 from Tesco on offer. At that price you can afford umpteen (light usage) years supply of the correct ink and still be in pocket. It' been going a couple of years now without a hiccough no the manufacturers original cartridges!
I hadn't thought of this, but it sounds ideal. I don't use a printer much b ut I do need it to work first time when I do use it, and dried up cartridge s and "change printer cartridge", "incompatible cartridge" messages have m ade my life a misery when it comes to printing.
I've never had a laser printer. You mean to say it just sits there for year s and works when you switch it on?
Yup! The only downside is the physical size - roughly a 0.5m cube. (a few are smaller but hold less paper)
Expect things to start to wear out after ~25k pages or so.
VH has a hand-me-down LaserJet4 well past its should be dead by date.
I'd echo your comments. I had a Canon which suffered head clog with compatable cartridges/ My current HP laser, bough second hand , had compatable cartridges fitte. I spent ages trying to get the colour rendering right and then realised the non-HP cartridges weerw to blame. One of them also leaked toner everywhere.
Which is why the good compatible cartridge manufacturers have R&D departments that are just as large as the printer manufacturers'.
Odd, given that I can't think of an HP printer where the heads are not integral with the cartridge and get changed every time the cartridges are. That is why they are so much more expensive than Epson cartridges, which are simply ink tanks.
Another printer where the heads are integral with ink cartridge IIRC.
Colin Bignell
Mostly because they can and the hardware is sold as a loss leader.
The price of inkjet printer ink per gramme is higher than the street price for pure heroin. If you use printers heavily then the cost of consumables over its lifetime completely outstrips the hardware.
I have had the odd (reputable) one that didn't get recognised by the printer but nothing that has actually damaged my Canon i9900. The original Canon inks BCI-6 series for that incidentally are not truly light proof and will visibly fade in a few weeks of sunlight even when used on original Canon paper. I was initially very nervous about using anything other than Canon ink in it but eventually tried it & all OK.
It is possible I have been lucky OTOH I don't buy the cheapest possible and I do look carefully at any negative feedback on inks and suppliers.
I don't use it heavily enough to invest in one of the third party archival bulk bottle ink systems available for that model.
Sadly it is true that they have become throw away items. I actually bought an entire remaindered Dell 1320cn unit from Morgan to get three sets of original Dell toners for ~£100 (and a free spare printer in the loft). By the time I ran out of those the third party toner makers had caught up and the per cartridge price was down from £80 each to £40 for a full set. They are now down to under £20 a set of four.
The colour matching isn't quite as photoreal as Dell OEM toner but it is still plenty good enough for all practical purposes.
Seconded. I've used past-their-sell-by secondhand lasers for years now, currently a Kyocera that is at least 10 years old. Works first time, no clogging, and I've spent under £20 on printing in as many years.
Yes. My Konica is at least 5 years old and starting to run low on its original black toner. Runs happily on Tesco Value A4 paper, and I got a duplexer on Ebay for a tenner.
Owain
That is absolute bollocks. I'm on my fourth BMW in 25 years and have always used ATE discs and pads from Eurocarparts at replacement time. And they've been as good as 'genuine' BMW parts at a fraction of the price. On this car, the original BMW branded battery lasted only 3 years. The Bosch replacement 11.
yes.
AIUI on most all printers the printer heads are on the actual carts, that not the case on this one?..
Yes we gave a Canon away, couldn't afford to run it. 5 odd carts at one time. Still use the olde HP K8600 least you can get refilled carts for that last ages:)...
>
Yes. Buy a s/h Laserjet 5M on eBay.
The "absolute bollocks" cost me £700 quid to put right - I'm quite sure about it. The fake Vauxhall brake disks on a company car nearly killed me too. I didn't imagine that either. I couldn't care a shit whether you believe that or not - I was there and I know.
I may have got the brand wrong, but I don't think so - it was some years back though. I've never been tempted to try it since.
They are - I was giving it as an example of how cheap you can buy them for and the subsequent lack of necessity to save money on the most important component. In fact, it was a free printer, because I had some Tesco vouchers saved.
Yes
If you buy one with a fold down paper tray it need not be any larger than an ink jet, just fold down and put the paper in when you want to print
Look in Staples or similar for reduced end of range printers. I bought an HP1018 a few years ago for £50.
Malcolm
No, what you wrote is absolute bollocks. If you do it wrong, yes, fitting the wrong parts could be expensive, and I'm sure you've been screwed those two times. But not fitting manufacturer-labelled kit to cars is pretty normal practice, and it saves a lot of money a fair amount of money.
There's a big difference between dodgy fake labelled stuff and well made non-manufacturer stuff. It sounds like you'd have been better off with non-Vauxhall disks from a reputable manufacturer rather than somebody relying on a fake label to make the sale.
Sorry - are you talking BMW or Vauxhall?
FWIW, I'm sure there are dodgy parts out there. If a garage fitted them, it's they who are to blame instead of buying pattern parts from a reliable source.
Oh - and that sort of garage is equally capable of fitting the cheapest they can get even although you specified and paid for genuine parts.
So the moral is find a decent garage.
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