Ugh. Just spend $85 on ink

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: Lothar
People still buy Ink catridges?

I simply buy a new printer anytime I run out.
With the prices of ink these days, it makes more sense to either get a laser or keep buying new inkjet printers and using them until the starter toner runs out.

WTF do you do with the old printer? Just toss it in the trash? Seems pretty wasteful.

Ink is a ripoff, though, don't know how printer companies can get away with it. I recently replaced my inkjet w/a Brother B&W laser. Text is much more sharp (might just be because my inkjet was pretty old/crappy, new ones might be more comparable in terms of print quality) and should be cheaper to operate.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: zinfamous

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Go with laser. You'll pay more upfront, but you'll be able to print more then 5 pictures before you need to change the toner.

Concur. probably could have bought a laser for a bit more than the $85 you paid

the laser printer (HP 2025) that we use in the lab costs $400+ to replace the toner cartridges. CMYK individual. And it simply does not last that long.

no thanks.

Is that some commercial-grade printer?

I've got a Minolta 2400W printer. I seem to recall having to purchase a new black cartridge for it back in freshman semester, when I was printing quite a bit of stuff. That may have been to replace a "starter" cartridge, or else I'm just thinking of the regular B&W printer I bought back at my parents' house.
So that was about 3.75 years ago that I got the 2400W.
The printer's status software estimates a capacity of 1500 pages per cartridge. It's showing 24% remaining in the black cartridge.
The color cartridges (original) are at 86% full.


Cost of a new high-yield black cartridge at Staples: $88. 4500pg estimated capacity, cost per page of 1.956 cents. Let's see an ink jet match that - and also match the speed and clarity.

Granted though, the color output isn't exactly top-notch, but I find it to be more than adequate. (I also simply prefer error-diffusion dithering; this printer lacks the ability to set the dithering type. It just uses something that results in a faint grid-pattern on flat colored areas.)

it's a rather new HP model. very hard to find replacements, actually, and the cartridge story doesn't carry the toner cartridges or offer any refill service on it. pain in the ass. Honestly, I assume this model is unique when it comes to lasers as we do churn through black toner. Let's see...I started in December. I know that I've replaced the black toner twice since then, almost 1/4 through this current one.

replaced all of the color cartridges once, and more than halfway through the current.

Toner is ~$108 per cartridge when on sale at Newegg. 4 total cartridges. Not what I would have chosen had I been purchasing when this printer arrived.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I bought a laserjet 1012 in 2005.

I haven't put a new toner cartridge in it yet. Just keep feeding it paper Oh, and doing a driver workaround to make it operate in Vista since HP wanted me to buy a new printer instead of using the one I had :roll:

 

[brunell8]

Originally posted by: mrrman
buy ink from inkjetmadness.com alot cheaper then the stores, I have been buying it there for years

I've got a Canon MP470 - looked at this site on your recommendation. Prices were higher than Staples.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

WTF do you do with the old printer? Just toss it in the trash? Seems pretty wasteful.

Ink is a ripoff, though, don't know how printer companies can get away with it. I recently replaced my inkjet w/a Brother B&W laser. Text is much more sharp (might just be because my inkjet was pretty old/crappy, new ones might be more comparable in terms of print quality) and should be cheaper to operate.

Printers are one of my biggest piss offs in computing. I'd rather pay $800 for a nice inkjet, with fully replaceable parts, and have ink cost what it's worth, than the ridiculous system we have now. I have a printer/scanner sitting in a box that I got this winter. I paid $18 for it, which is the same price as a generic ink load out for my Canon printer. My Canon's screwed up, but it works well enough for printing rebate forms and stuff. I'd rather have just replaced the print heads, than buy a whole new printer.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: Lothar
People still buy Ink catridges?

I simply buy a new printer anytime I run out.
With the prices of ink these days, it makes more sense to either get a laser or keep buying new inkjet printers and using them until the starter toner runs out.

WTF do you do with the old printer? Just toss it in the trash? Seems pretty wasteful.

Ink is a ripoff, though, don't know how printer companies can get away with it. I recently replaced my inkjet w/a Brother B&W laser. Text is much more sharp (might just be because my inkjet was pretty old/crappy, new ones might be more comparable in terms of print quality) and should be cheaper to operate.

Who cares?
The idea that any company can tell me that the inkjet cartridge is worth more than the cost of manufacturing the printer itself is a load of bull.

I bought a Brother laser for $20, a Samsung B&W laser for $20, and a Samsung color laser for $50 late last year.
When my inkjet runs out, I will connect one of them.

When the starting toner for the lasers run out, I will sell two of them on eBay and decide to keep only one.

 

[bobdole369]

How about this bullshit:


I can't scan, fax, or print black and white, because the cyan ink is out. It's a separate cartridge. An option in the print dialog is "print black and white", but it doesn't work because the printer refuses to do anything till I spend $12.50 on cyan ink.

WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I SCAN A DOCUMENT BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE CYAN INK???!!!!!! AAAAARRRRRGH!!!!!!

 

[bobdole369]

Why do you need a color laser?

Indeed or would actually want one unless its just web pages or reference stuff. lasers blow for photos. And I don't know if its still the case, but actually cost something like $0.55 per color page.

 

[bobdole369]

You bought the manufacturer's ink?

You bought other than the manufacturer's ink? I happen to like black blacks, and actual good tone and ink that doesn't run/goob/smear, or clog the printheads in the machine.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: bobdole369

You bought the manufacturer's ink?

You bought other than the manufacturer's ink? I happen to like black blacks, and actual good tone and ink that doesn't run/goob/smear, or clog the printheads in the machine.

I sure do. I've been using generics (eBay) on Epson and HP printers for years and have never had a problem. I also use generic toner (eBay) for my HP Laserjet 2015dn with no problems.

 

[lokiju]

This is the reason I have a B&W laser printer.

I'll just go to a kiosk at Wal-greens or go to Costco if i need something printed up in color now.

 

[rgwalt]

I have an old Samsung ML 2510N laser printer that I absolutely love. I hate dealing with ink jets and the absurd prices, plus it seems that my color cartridges were always going bad from lack of use. Once my Samsung runs out of toner, I am going to buy an HP color laser with the network interface and the duplexer.

My dad has an old HP 4050DN, workgroup level laser printer for his home business. He was going through hundreds of dollars per week during his busy season printing out reports on an inkjet, then taking them to kinkos to get copies made. So I found him a great deal on-line (when Next Tag was still a good deals site) where he picked the printer up for about $400 less than the competition, and it is still going strong. Unless HP has declined in quality of late, one of the better bets is to buy one of the 3000 series HP printers (IMHO).

 

[NissanGurl]

I got one of those new Kodak ESP 5 multifunction printers that Richard Karn was pitching (Al Borland) that have the cheap ink. A brand new black ink cartridge is only $10 while a new color ink cartridge is only $15. I like it so far, but haven't done massive amounts of printing on it yet.

 

[bobdole369]

I also use generic toner (eBay) for my HP Laserjet 2015dn

Oh god... as an HP tech I have horror stories. Lets just say you've been lucky. Glad you found an economical solution that works for ya! I happen to have fixed countless printers that failed directly attributable to generic ink. Thankfully most of the folks that use generic ink are the folks buying basically throwaway printers and it wasn't a big deal. Folks relying on the printer for the business and moneymaking needs typically are using real ink in a real printer.

One of these days walgreens is gonna get slammed with a class action.

 

[dullard]

Most people, most of the time, just need black and white. I use a cheap laser printer for that purpose. For that $85, you could have 10+ years of light printing (printer + toner). Then when you need to print a photo, send it to a real photo printer (online or in a store). Their cost and quality is far superior to inkjets. At a few cents each for far superior quality, you'd be an idiot to use an inkjet to print photos that you want to display.

Or, for just a bit more, do the same thing with a color laser. At work, we got this on sale for $299. It does quite well, except for one frustrating flaw. It won't print anything if one toner is low. I'd perfer if it just let you print with the other colors. But, that isn't too bad of a hassle. Samsung and HP color lasers are $199 at the moment, but I haven't used them. Again, when you want to print a photograph, use a real photo printer at Walmart, Sam's Club, Walgreens, or any of dozens of online places.

 

[bobdole369]

Then when you need to print a photo, send it to a real photo printer (online or in a store). Their cost and quality is far superior to inkjets.

Until you hit about $500 for the printer, then those inkjets are far superior to any photo lab for digital prints. For 11x17 photo the epson stylus photo R1900 is the king (arguably or was the king, not sure what the current professional epson model is), then you get into plotter size which is a whole different ball game. A real photographer using a lab for proofs is an idiot when the pictures are much better printed right in the studio.


BTW a lot of "digital print" photo labs are actually inkjet printers. It's only when you get prints from negatives does it go through the wet exposure process.

 

[evident]

TINFOIL HATS ON!!!!!!!11 GET THE TRUTH ABOUT PRINTER INK
All of you need to watch this video
NOW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-uN2Dmn0M

 

[OutHouse]

i had to buy ink last month. i have a HP office jet all in one and it will NOT SEND a fax if there is no ink. WTF! stupid shit...

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: bobdole369

I also use generic toner (eBay) for my HP Laserjet 2015dn

Oh god... as an HP tech I have horror stories. Lets just say you've been lucky. Glad you found an economical solution that works for ya! I happen to have fixed countless printers that failed directly attributable to generic ink. Thankfully most of the folks that use generic ink are the folks buying basically throwaway printers and it wasn't a big deal. Folks relying on the printer for the business and moneymaking needs typically are using real ink in a real printer.

One of these days walgreens is gonna get slammed with a class action.

What makes the generics so different? Hell, I used generic toner in my old LaserJet 4000tn for YEARS. I was in the heyday of my eBay selling a few years back when I still had my 4000tn -- I used it to print shipping labels and invoices. I went through quite a few replacement toners at the time.

With my 2015dn, I went through the starter toner pretty quickly and then went straight to an eBay toner and haven't missed a beat.

Same goes for the ink carts for my PS 3310 -- I print color documents and photos with generic inks. I was worried about this at first when my original inks ran out -- how it would handle photos. But for whatever reason, photos printed with the generic inks look just as good.

I refuse to give the manufacturers $$$ for genuine inks/toner if the generics work just fine. But then again, maybe as you say, I've just been lucky

 

[bobdole369]

It is the quality of the toner. After I went through a lawyers office who had 19 HP 5si's replaced 6 fusers and a dozen transfer rollers (the complaint being gobs of toner, stray toner marks, lines, banding, irregular characters) - I hacksawed one of the generics open and examined the toner while doing the same to a real HP (one for recycling). Not only was the color a rather dark grey - It was also rather coarse in comparison to the real one. I could flick the HP toner and it would make "smoke" while the generic fell to the table.


It all depends on the quality of the generic inks as well. I've actually seen specks of pigment floating in the ink tubes. Those specs clog printheads. Also lots of times the color and adherent properties are not the same. Where a print made with real ink might last 35 years, the same with generics might fade within 3 days in the sun. Time after time I see ragged edges with generic ink and color that looks right at a glance, but print a photo with real ink to compare and there is no contrast whatsoever. Its a flat lifeless image. YMMV.

 

[zinfamous]

I've had generic ink ruin one Epson C80, but no real problem with generic in my current Canon i960. I think it's a YMMV situation. then again, there are some generics made better than others, I suppose. I think the biggest problem with inkjets is not using them--I just did the Isopropyl clean on my Canon after having monstrous clogs (didn't use it for many, many months ). Everything is back to normal.

I'm now more wary on the age if the individual cartridges, and the down time of my printer. I initially bought this Canon due to the ink heads being replaceable (unlike Epson, though I much prefer their quality). But since this model is now discontinued, replacement heads are hard to find and quite expensive (~$99 last I checked).

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: bobdole369
How about this bullshit:


I can't scan, fax, or print black and white, because the cyan ink is out. It's a separate cartridge. An option in the print dialog is "print black and white", but it doesn't work because the printer refuses to do anything till I spend $12.50 on cyan ink.

WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I SCAN A DOCUMENT BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE CYAN INK???!!!!!! AAAAARRRRRGH!!!!!!

haha. same problem I have. really pisses me off. Even when I repeatedly force grayscale, it still claims to use magenta for this? Bull.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: bobdole369

Why do you need a color laser?

Indeed or would actually want one unless its just web pages or reference stuff. lasers blow for photos. And I don't know if its still the case, but actually cost something like $0.55 per color page.

well, if you read my response, you have to realize that color is completely essential for printing research articles with color-crucial data and figures. laser + inkjet printer for this purpose is completely asinine.

 

[TwiceOver]

Tossed my last inkjet after buying a Network Laserjet 4m at a rummage sale for $10 that came with two unopened toners. It may be a big ass printer, but I still haven't opened any of the toner carts in 4 years.

 

[hanoverphist]

i generally print everything at work. we have a hp 430 plotter for large format (inkjet, fairly reasonable pricing on hp carts so far), two bizhub laser b/w printers (konica minolta, kick ass printers) and a hp k550 for color stuff. the quality is there, i got a great deal and the ink isnt too expensive. used to have a 2230 photo printer but the cartridges (7 of them) went from 14 bucks a piece to 34-44 a piece. gave the printer to an employee. at home i have a 8450 that is very good quality, networkable and has a card reader/ editor built into it. it also has the docking station add on to print directly from the cam if i want to. cartridges arent very expensive, and i can get about 150 prints out before i need to refill. this as well as all the crap my kids print out regularly, not a bad amount. im not a printer snob, but will generally see what the pricing is like before buying the manufacturer toner/ cartridges before deciding on generic or not. for the plotter, we generally buy only hp, since the few times i did go generic the lines came out washed out a bit. noticeable enough for an engineer to ask us to reprint it darker.