Help me choose a printer please

[ibex333]

My EPSON stylus photo 785EPX died a couple of days ago. It was a good printer. Never let me down in 4 years I had it, allthough it was pretty slow, wasnt good at printing photos despite the ads, and the print heads required frequent cleaning which wasted a lot of ink.
I dont know why it suddenly died... It just prints out blank sheets of paper. I replaced the cartriges, cleaned the print heads, lifted the cover, looked inside.... Everything seems fine. Checked the troubleshooting section on epson's site, found nothing that could help. Ran the diagnostic feature, printer shows as O.K. - no errors.
My warranty expired long ago, so I have to buy a new printer unless anyone knows how to fix this problem.

I dont know which printers are concidered "GOOD" these days, so I need your help.
I need something RELIABLE and sturdy for $120 or less. Must be at least "desent" at photo printing and tolerable speed. Would be nice if it had a scanner and printer in one, but I heared those break often. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

 

[Lemon law]

You hit the curse of Epsons that would be otherwise good.---namely printhead clogging and high maintaince.

If you can find one I would recommend an Canon ip4000. If not and if you plan to use OEM ink only, the new chipped Canon ip4200 is also a great printer and would also come in at well under $120. But until a workaround is found for the chipped Canons the ip3000, 4000, and 5000 are probably the best choices for a general purpose printer that does very well at photoprinting also.-----plus they are fast and trouble free.----but being discontinued models they are getting hard to find. But you should be able to get one new on ebay for under $120. shipped. New and with a one year warranty.-----the ip4200 is readily available but has the curse of the chip making third party cartridges not an option and refilling harder.

In general, HP and Lexmarks are also good on quality but hopeless on per page ink consumable costs. Important if you plan to do much printing--or photoprinting which really eats ink.

In terms of an all in one, you might be able to get one under $120. but not on that offers low ink consumable costs.

If you are willing to spend $200. the Canon MP780 is on sale at Staples for that this week. The MP 780 is based on the non-chipped ip4000 printer engine, has a flatbed scanner, and also a fax. It somewhat a myth that an all in one will break faster.

But see the April/05 issue of consumer report, threads on this forum about printers, and also I recommend steves digicam forums and nifty stuff forums for more printer information.

But I did buy a Canon ip4000 for my wife and a used MP730 for myself.----and am a happy camper.

Also do check the Epson web site for any advice on why your printer died. Or maybe someone else has some insights.---hope that helps.

 

[Zepper]

Yup, there's no choice involved AFAIC. Canon is it. Last year's model 4000 or 5000 if you can find one reasonably priced or the new 4200 (and hope they can clone the tanks soon). Get 4200 at Outpost.com for $80. AR (may have to hurry, as IDK how long their specials last and it's already been a few days). Last year's models will always beat the new series in TCO if you keep it long enough.

.bh.

 

[xgsound]

You've got great advice in the above 2 posts. The only thing they left out is the price of Canon compatable cartridges at http://www.swiftink.com for the EDIT 4000 printer. It's $20 for all 5 of the colors plus $3.95 shipping. That's why it's important to try to get the 4000 based machine while you can and where you can.

I haven't used swiftink yet, but after listening to these guys and 13Gigatons sing thier praises, no more $60 ink sets for me.


Jim

 

[Lemon law]

Will point out an error I think xgsound made accidently. You can use swiftink compatable cartridges in the canon ip3000, 4000, or 5000 but NOT ON THE CHIPPED ip4200.----at present and until a work around is found for the rip off chips.

Nor is swiftink the only option--see the fifty something responce right below this one on inks and third party cartridges you can use in non-chipped Canons.

 

[Zepper]

Yup, I don't know of anyone that has cloned the new tanks yet.

.bh.

 

[Wuzup101]

I personally vote for canon also. I have an i950 that I purchased about 2.5 years ago now (summer before I went to college). Unlike all my printers before it, it seems like it never uses any ink at all - and I DO print A LOT with it. I think I've changed the black ink like 3-4 times since purchase, and I do the majority of my printing on it (as a college student I'm always printing notes and such). Great print quality, robust, and fairly fast/quiet.

 

[ibex333]

ouch! the cartriges for the ip4200 are expencive! I found the ip4200 at a great price, and lots of people seem to like it, but I just dont see myself spending anymore than $35 on cartriges.
I only buy 3rd party cartriges, since brand name are expencive and harder to find. I always bought from printpal.com and they have great prices, allthough their ink was suspect. Hey at least it was cheap and tolerable quality. I dont know how you guys found anything on swiftink.com. I wasnt able to find cartriges there for any Canon "IP" models. I did find them on printpal however.
I think I'll have to go with ip4000 since I have no guarantee of someone cloning the tanks anytime soon.

Thanx a lot for your help guys.

 

[Lemon law]

To ibex 3333,

I don't use swiftink but have been to their website-----they DO have the BCI-3&6 series cartridges
that fit the ip4000. I also agree that until a workaround for the chip is found, the ip4000 is a better value than the chipped ip4200. In terms of thirdparty cartridge vendors, there are a plethora of them. See the post right above this one for user experiences on inks. And for $35., you can get three or more full sets of cartridge changes for the ip4000 and pay for shipping to your door.---and still get some change back.

Your universal problem with third party ink cartrdiges is shipping----its often the same for one cartridge or three dozen. So for economy buy ink bulk.-----in my case I bought 18 cartridges for $33.90 shipped.

 

[ibex333]

Hey let me ask you guys a question... Let's say I bought a ip4200 and used up all my cartriges. Lets say that I dont feel like buying all 5 cartriges and I want to buy the black ones now and the color ones later. Can I do that? or the printer requires all 5 to be in place in order to work?
The reason I'm asking is becasue there's only 2 people selling new ip4000's and I dont even know if I'll win the auction...
the ip 4200 is easy to get though.

 

[Lemon law]

to ibex 333,

Not totally sure I understand your question----so I am guessing.----But you seem to be asking a question of what happens if one cartridge is removed from the printer-----and or one of the cartridges is out of ink.-------in the ip4000 I believe the printer would inform you a cartrige has low ink but might continue to print anyway. ( ask a prebuy question of Canon to be sure ---toll free number and it will get answered with out a fee)-------but its a bad idea-----a real bad idea. Because the printhead will get energized to vaporise ink that does not exist to cool down the printhead.--and hence possibly damage the printhead.-----and even when you are printing just black text a minute amount of color is also used.----so even if a color cartridge is empty, the same damage could occur in text printing.

On a Canon ip4200 I believe the printer would go ballistic if a cartridge were removed or empty. And shut the whole printer down.----but again check with Canon to be sure.

To cover the other possible question asked-----cartridges need not be replaced in sets-----just the one cartridge that is low or empty.

And yes, ip4000's are getting hard to find-----but ebay is a good place--just make sure you are getting a new one will all ink and a factory warranty of one year.----often the vendor has removed the UPS to get the rebate.-----watch out for no printheads along with printer-read the ebay fine print for gotchas.-----but you should be able to knock down a buy it now ip4000 shipped for less than $120 and often $100.

But right now the MP780 is on sale brand new at Staples for $200. cash and carry. The MP 780 uses the ip4000 printer engine-----but also flat bed scans, copies, and faxes.-----a good deal if you can use the extra features. I have the previous generation MP730 and I love it.

 

[ibex333]

Thanx a lot that answers my question in full.
Wow!! there are 3rd party cartriges avalable for MP780! I will definately concider getting it.

PS: Staples shows the MP 780 for $249.98 the price must have gone up

 

[Lemon law]

At least in my area the Staples ad was for the full week------try office max also--they seem to have it on sale for $200. on alternate weeks in my area. ( Indianapolis, IN area)

But call the local stores-----lots of those printers are still under shelves or in bins-----you never know if you don't try. Nothing to lose.----or maybe your local staples will honor the price from other areas or get one in at that price from another area.

That MP 780 is a great all in one.------but I note someone else reports it may not survive being dropped down a flight of stairs.-------otherwise rock solid reliable.

 

[biggiesmallz]

Originally posted by: ibex333
Thanx a lot that answers my question in full.
Wow!! there are 3rd party cartriges avalable for MP780! I will definately concider getting it.

PS: Staples shows the MP 780 for $249.98 the price must have gone up

In store it's only $200 - 12%= $176 with this coupon http://www.staplescentral.com/customerAppreciation/customerappreciation.htm

 

[Lemon law]

Good info biggiesmallz.------you may have made alot of people's day.

Love these forums-----people power.

 

[ibex333]

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz

Originally posted by: ibex333
Thanx a lot that answers my question in full.
Wow!! there are 3rd party cartriges avalable for MP780! I will definately concider getting it.

PS: Staples shows the MP 780 for $249.98 the price must have gone up

In store it's only $200 - 12%= $176 with this coupon http://www.staplescentral.com/customerAppreciation/customerappreciation.htm

Thanx man! you rock! And you sure made my day.

 

[Mayson]

I bought a crappy $20 lexmark from Walmart, ran out of ink, bought another $20 printer and saved $20 on just buying new ink cartridges.... can't say it prints especially well, but I only ever used it to print out reports and stuff.

 

[Rottie]

Yesterday I bought Canon Pixma ip4000 and it works great...it replaced 6 yr old Canon bjc6000 I wish I had 6 inks printhead because I print a lot of pictures/graphics....I am a digital artist.