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Do people still buy inkjet printers?

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destrekor said:
Alright, someone want to help clarify:

HP Inkjet
Similar model to the one I currently have, at least it uses the same ink cartridges. PCMag shows:

  • Cost Per Page (Mono): 2.4 cents
  • Cost Per Page (Color): 10.4 cents
On their site, I couldn't find a single color laser printer that offers CPP lower than that, either color or mono.
Click to expand...

I have this printer.

  • Cost Per Page (Mono): 2.2 cents
  • Cost Per Page (Color): 11 cents
However, in the 5 years I've owned it, I have yet to need to replace the cartridge. The monitoring program shows that there is still around 40% remaining in the lowest toner level (black). Admittedly, I don't print huge volumes, but to me this printer is worth it because I simply don't have to worry about toner. I can flip it on and it will always give me a page of crisp, clear text and the photos that it prints, while not up to the latest "photo" quality, are more than adequate for 4x6 prints I might want to tack up in my cube at work. Also, ink jets tend to need the cartridges replaced after a year regardless of whether they are empty or not, which means that if you don't use up all of a cartridge before it expires/dries up the CPP figures for inkjets rise considerably.

If I want actual photo printing, I have an mpix account.

ZV
 
lxskllr said:
*BUT THEY'RE TOO LOUD!!* I'd rather use a pen and paper than a dot matrix.
Click to expand...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
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ZZZZZZZZZZT ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT ZZZZZZZT ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT ZZZZT

arghhh!!!!!


yea paper feed nightmares as wel.

not sure why anyone would put themselves through that voluntarily.
plus the ridiculous paper had sprocket holes.
freakin sprocket holes!!

win-pics-dot-matrix-paper.jpg
 
My parents have been using their HP Laserjet 5P for almost 14 years now and they go through about a case of paper a year so they have gotten a lot of use out of it. The main print tray has been dead for 9 years, but the top tray meant for envelopes has been working since then. My Dad did pay about $600 for it back then, so it wasn't cheap but it sure has lasted.
 
rockyct said:
My parents have been using their HP Laserjet 5P for almost 14 years now and they go through about a case of paper a year so they have gotten a lot of use out of it. The main print tray has been dead for 9 years, but the top tray meant for envelopes has been working since then. My Dad did pay about $600 for it back then, so it wasn't cheap but it sure has lasted.
Click to expand...


yeah the old laserjets were built to last. All 3 of mine probably have well over 200K pages printed and my brother has one that read 122 pages at last check, he has run about 2000 sheets through it so that means it has printed so many the counter has rolled over and it is 6 digit counter so that is more than 100K pages printed. I guess hp thought they were making them too good, people didn't need to buy another 🙂
 
0roo0roo said:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
ZZZZZZZZZZT ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT ZZZZZZZT ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT ZZZZT

arghhh!!!!!
Click to expand...

I remember printing school documents late at night. Even with my bed room door closed, I could still hear the printer while I raided the kitchen.

Living in an apartment must have sucked in the 80s and 90s. Even if you had the really loud sex neighbor, you'd thank god they aren't using a dot matrix printer at night.
 
ShawnD1 said:
That was another thing that pissed me off about ink printers. I had to use special printer paper.

If I try to print ink on a transparency, it doesn't work. I need to buy special transparencies that have little bits of paper embedded, which cost about 5x as much as regular transparencies. Ink printing doesn't work with tracing paper, nor does it work with loose-leaf paper. Ink also doesn't work on certain types of glossy paper.

Laser printers will print on anything. Lately I've been printing on spare unlined loose-leaf paper that I found in my basement. I've also printed on tracing paper, so I can use all of that instead of throwing it in the trash and buying new paper.
Click to expand...

Educate yourself on pigment printers. Then rethink your post.. 😀
 
Modelworks said:
yeah the old laserjets were built to last. All 3 of mine probably have well over 200K pages printed and my brother has one that read 122 pages at last check, he has run about 2000 sheets through it so that means it has printed so many the counter has rolled over and it is 6 digit counter so that is more than 100K pages printed. I guess hp thought they were making them too good, people didn't need to buy another 🙂
Click to expand...


Ou, there's a page counter in them or just the higher end models? If so, I need to go digging around to find it next time I'm over.
 
RedSquirrel said:
Laser all the way. I'm surprised they still make inkjets / bubblejets (think they're the same, or are they different?)

inkjet cartridges last a few weeks at most if not used, laserjets can last YEARS if more. Color lasers are also more consistent in quality. ink jets will print maybe 5 high quality prints then it goes downhill from there until the whole head/cartridge assembly is replaced and that will run you almost 100 bucks. Not worth it. Get her a color laser, it will have a bigger upfront cost but very low future cost to run. Avoid the HPs, their drivers are crap, especially the 3600 series. Crashes our print server all the time. :/
Click to expand...

I have inkjet cartridges that are about a year old. They work fine. One will last me about 6 months of use. Works fine the entire time...at least till the last few pages.

Not saying lasers are bad mind you, I think they're awesome. But you're full of shit casting dispersions on inkjet. Other than the cost of new name brand cartridges there are no downsides (and that's simple to overcome with refills or generics).
 
In the several years I've had cheap Brother b&w laser printer, two inkjets have died on me. One got a un-cleanable clogged print head and the other just plain died. With the laser, the toner lasts forever and I never have to worry about it bitching about low-ink or having crappy prints. Screw inkjets.

Between having a cheap b&w laser, a scanner, and online professional photo printing, I'll never waste money on an inkjet printer again.
 
PrinceofWands said:
I have inkjet cartridges that are about a year old. They work fine. One will last me about 6 months of use. Works fine the entire time...at least till the last few pages.

Not saying lasers are bad mind you, I think they're awesome. But you're full of shit casting dispersions on inkjet. Other than the cost of new name brand cartridges there are no downsides (and that's simple to overcome with refills or generics).
Click to expand...

lasers just over all better for most tasks. quieter, faster, crisper on even the cheapest paper.
the only thing missing is color/photos which is better done at the developer anyways.
that being said don't buy a color laser unless you have a work necessity for color printouts. lasers don'tn do photos well. well atleast cheap ones.
 
I'm a history major and realized right after I declared, I was going to need a laser. My first was an HP 1022. I still have it. About 6 months ago I went double or nothing and got a printer than did auto duplexing. HP 2015dn I think. I just need to figure out how to make Windows 7 print auto-duplex again and I'll be all set.
 
Fuck inkjets. Just, fuck them. Are there some decent ones now that don't rape you on ink and don't shit out constantly? I don't even care at this point! Fuck inkjets!

I just print everything to my samsung black and white laser. The thing never complains, it just starts up and the pages roll of the line. And I haven't had to replace the toner that came with it yet. If I need color (rare) I just have some photo place print it up, which always looks way better then what the cheap junky crap pile inkjets print anyway.

My wife bought a god damn photo printer, despite my protesting against it. I just pretend that thing doesn't even exist. When she says its broken or out of ink I just stick my fingers in my ears.
 
I have a Laserjet 1200 for my wife and a 3310 for me. The toner cartridges are cheap and the printer is usually fairly reliable.
Mine though, finally had the teflon on the fuser die. Teflon will only cost me $10 but it entails unscrewing the adf/control panel from the printer, removing all the covers, pulling out a gear, tons of screws, pulling out the fuser, disassembling it, pulling off the sleeve, put the new sleeve on and pray I don't use too much or too little lube, then reassemble. 🙁
 
rockyct said:
Ou, there's a page counter in them or just the higher end models? If so, I need to go digging around to find it next time I'm over.
Click to expand...


All the HP laserjets from the 4P models and up have a page counter in what they call the engine. It isn't a physical counter, but is stored in the printer memory. I found out about it by accident. I hooked the printer up to a jetdirect ethernet adapter for making parallel printers work on the network and when I went to the admin page of the adapter it showed all the information, year made, pages printed, last service, etc.

Not sure if there is other software that does that.



For the people that have inkjets , a tech told me that if you will print just one page a week and not let the printer sit idle for weeks between prints you can save a lot of ink because the printer uses about 10 pages worth when it does its cleaning routine from sitting idle for long periods.
 
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staplesbrotherhl4040cn.jpg


Got this clearance open box (82 pages printed) HL-4040CN for $40.50 +9% tax earlier today from Staples :awe:

Nice addition to my barely used HP 1600 and Samsung CLP-315 color laser printers. I still have 2 Canon Pixma iP5000, iP4300 and Epson R320 to print photos.
 
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Modelworks said:
All the HP laserjets from the 4P models and up have a page counter in what they call the engine. It isn't a physical counter, but is stored in the printer memory. I found out about it by accident. I hooked the printer up to a jetdirect ethernet adapter for making parallel printers work on the network and when I went to the admin page of the adapter it showed all the information, year made, pages printed, last service, etc.

Not sure if there is other software that does that.



For the people that have inkjets , a tech told me that if you will print just one page a week and not let the printer sit idle for weeks between prints you can save a lot of ink because the printer uses about 10 pages worth when it does its cleaning routine from sitting idle for long periods.
Click to expand...


Some googling shows that apparently pressing the Go and Reset button at the same time prints out a test page that includes the page count. I need to get my parents to do that.
 
For all of you discussing page counts, be aware that they aren't always as high as they should be -- I've seen numerous printers reset their total page count to 0. It's extremely infrequent, but the possibility certainly exists.
 
I've never had an inkjet cartridge go bad, even when I haven't printed for a while...

Just ran my status page. 3,803 pages printed, 901 DVDs printed.
 
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sswingle said:
I've never had an inkjet cartridge go bad, even when I haven't printed for a while...
Click to expand...

Depends on the environment, on the type of printer/cartridge/etc. I've had a LOT go bad, in most models. In certain models, I've never had a single cartridge go bad, even after sitting for multiple months at a time without printing a single page.
 
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