Printers (slightly OT)

[Theo]

I'd do that. Brother are quite behind the curve on imposing cartridge DRM, while Lexmark wrote the book on it:

(on my Brother HL-L8260CDW the 'protection' is a small plastic wheel, which can be turned to tell the printer the cartridge is full. Because this is trivial to defeat, compatible cartridges are £35 for a set of four colours)

They look good. There's also continuous ink systems for some models, although I think refillable cartridges are less hassle.

(Epson are also nice in that they use piezoelectric inkjets, rather than bubblejets. They will print other fluids of similar consistencies to ink - conductive polymer ink, anyone?)

Theo

[jkn]

Hi John

Yes, that model is a possibility if repairing the 2200 becomes uneconomical. To date I seem to have managed the fairly minor fixes necessary. How do you find the M402?

Thanks J^n

[Fredxx]

I trawl the type of printer I want, ie colour laser, in order of cost and then look for the cost of consumables from third parties. Not all toner cartridges are available from third parties.

I will then narrow down the cheapest printers consistent with reasonably priced cartridges, where the final choice will takeg into account reviews.

On the whole my printers last me 5+ years before I have issues with quality.

[williamwright]

Yes, quite a bit. I mean per page.

Bill

[Raj Kundra]

Got a XEROX Phaser 3250 duplex mono printer, standard cart 3500 Pages, large capacity 7000Pages.

It was new free as part of large deal, but plenty cheap on E bay.

[wasbit]

Something wrong there. Let's say that a starter cartridge prints 500 pages & you print 50 pages a year. That's 10 years use. :)

[newshound]

That's an option I had not thought of, there are four new ones for £109 each. I *think* I might go back for another Brother, though, since I have spare cartridges (and can always canibalise the old one for spares).

[Raj Kundra]

Tharts exactly what I did . There were 2 of these Phaser 3250 on job pallet, one with damaged chassis and one perfect. I took all good parts from damaged unit.

[newshound]

Me too. After I thought about it for a bit I ordered the Brother (2365DW). The Xerox still looks like a good deal, though. Now, do you know anyone who would like a Lexmark 2236DW for spares?

[John Rumm]

Well I don't print large volumes with it - so can't really comment on the running costs, but expect them to be under 1p/page

But, it sits there is standby, and when you send it a job, it wakes up and kicks out the first pages remarkably quickly (8 seconds from clicking print on a windows test page, to the printed page being sat on the output tray). Print quality is good with good black density. Good solid blacks. Reliable paper feed including duplex. So far its ethernet has not committed hari kari either :-)

Its got a fast processor and renders jobs quickly and can handle multiple versions of PCL and PostScript.

So all in all a good "low fuss" printer from my point of view.

(having said that, its probably not a current model either now!)

[Fredxx]

Some years ago I had a Phaser, it was good colour printer that lasted a few years with cheaply sourced toner.