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Ugh. Just spend $85 on ink

I rarely print color pictures anymore, but I have a Canon i9900. All of my ink had run dry (except black, I replaced it). Finally I broke down and drove to Office Depot and bought 7 different color tanks (the i9900 uses more colors than most printers).

I thought hell, for this amount of money I could just buy a cheap ass printer, but then again I have a badass 13x19 printer so I might as well keep it. Anywhom, no point to this story other than I was sad.
 
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.
 
Originally posted by: Howard
You bought the manufacturer's ink?
Click to expand...

That's what I first thought but then remembered that some manufacturers actually place a chip in the ink cartridge so that it only works with originals.


Hell, my last printer was less than $5.00 NEW and included a fax, scanner, printer and copy functions (Brother unit from OfficeMax).
 
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.
Click to expand...

Concur. probably could have bought a laser for a bit more than the $85 you paid
 
Originally posted by: Howard
You bought the manufacturer's ink?
Click to expand...

That's ALL I buy for my printers.

I've had 2 Epson ink jets ruined by shitty after-market ink cartridges...so I bite the bullet and buy factory cartridges.

My Canon has the chipped cartridges and doesn't lend itself to refilling or after-market cartridges.

I KNOW it's a lot cheaper for the refill kits/aftermarket kits, but my experience has been negative, so I don't do it.
 
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: Howard
You bought the manufacturer's ink?
Click to expand...

That's ALL I buy for my printers.

I've had 2 Epson ink jets ruined by shitty after-market ink cartridges...so I bite the bullet and buy factory cartridges.

My Canon has the chipped cartridges and doesn't lend itself to refilling or after-market cartridges.

I KNOW it's a lot cheaper for the refill kits/aftermarket kits, but my experience has been negative, so I don't do it.
Click to expand...

I can see people buying ink jets for color stuff. I'm not sure I've seen $85 color laser printers.

My $50 laser that I bought 4 years ago ran out of toner. I bought refill toner + high capacity chip for $9 shipped (ebay) but there were still lines through my prints. I took a few parts off the toner cartridge and found the dirty spots opposite the roller. Alcohol wouldn't cut through them, but acetone worked great.

No problems in the last 3 weeks and saved myself at least $90.
 
For photographs, I just go to Rite-Aid (or similar) and pay a few nickels for a nice print from the self-service photo printer. It looks better than any home inkjet job.
 
I get inks for my HP Photosmart 3310 (takes 6 separate carts) for around $20 shipped on eBay and they work just fine. Doesn't make sense to pay retail.
 
lexmark laser printers are actually not that bad, but the bubblejets suck (unless they've been improved in past years or so)

For color laser you will spend about a grand though, but I don't know, it pays itself if you print a lot.
 
with color laser you still have two buy 3 toner cartridges, but still it's no debate that laser>inkjet in every way possible... i have an old HP deskjet 990c that is the only color capable printer i own, and its out of ink... for everything text the task is left to my trusty old laserjet 5n, simple black and white laser printer, with 32mb of ram, so it's pretty decently quick as well...not like anything new, but it will do probably 10-15 pages a minute, so it's not bad...its not like i print anything that's a bunch of pages anyway.. it also has the optional duplexer as well, which is nice... although i've never used it for anything other than playing around.
 
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.
Click to expand...

It costs me over $600 for 4 toner cartridges for my color laser printer. That's more than half the cost of a new printer actually.
 
Originally posted by: BoomerD

I've had 2 Epson ink jets ruined by shitty after-market ink cartridges...so I bite the bullet and buy factory cartridges.
Click to expand...

epsons ruin themselves
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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

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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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

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.
Click to expand...

Why do you need a color laser? I've printed at least 3000 pages with my old LaserJet 2100 on this toner cartridge and it hasn't shown any signs of running out of toner yet. Even when it runs out I can get a refurbished cartridge for about $50. If I want to print color I just use my inkjet. Can't remember the last time I needed to print color though.
 
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: Howard
You bought the manufacturer's ink?
Click to expand...

That's ALL I buy for my printers.

I've had 2 Epson ink jets ruined by shitty after-market ink cartridges...so I bite the bullet and buy factory cartridges.

My Canon has the chipped cartridges and doesn't lend itself to refilling or after-market cartridges.

I KNOW it's a lot cheaper for the refill kits/aftermarket kits, but my experience has been negative, so I don't do it.
Click to expand...

The canon cartridges from swiftink come with the chip. I've had no problems with them for general printing. They just don't print photographs very well.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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

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.
Click to expand...
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.)


 
Originally posted by: Shawn
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.
Click to expand...

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

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.
Click to expand...

Why do you need a color laser? I've printed at least 3000 pages with my old LaserJet 2100 on this toner cartridge and it hasn't shown any signs of running out of toner yet. Even when it runs out I can get a refurbished cartridge for about $50. If I want to print color I just use my inkjet. Can't remember the last time I needed to print color though.
Click to expand...

really?

as for our lab, we absolutely require color when printing journal articles. what good is a figure depicting a fluorescent image if it's only in grayscale, for example?

This is paper after paper after paper. Sure, the color toner cartridges go out a bit slower, but your'e not going to find an article in our field without color figures.

Should we send a crazy sequence of pages to the laser printer to print B&W, then the pages with color figures to an inkjet? ridiculous.

As for me...hell, I don't want to do that at home. I print photos. Do you expect me to not care about color when I print photos? How is a laser printer a viable alternative when you throw out your crazy assumption that I would not need color? esp when inkjets by-and-large demolish laser when it comes to quality color printing?
 
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