what type of printer for low cost/page $$ B&W printing?

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Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
3
0
Choosing a printer that fits your needs can be an overwhelming task. There are several different types of printers, they come in all shapes and sizes and a there are a wide range of manufacturers to choose from. For some people, size and portability may be an issue, while others may be concerned about color quality, speed or the expense of ink cartridges. Whether you are a home user, an aspiring writer, amateur photographer or a small business entrepreneur there is a printer that is right for you.
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Sadly for the photo printing set, the best inkjet printers are no longer being made, and instead ink jet manufacturers have gone to chipped models that make refilling artificially difficult.

Even if its 10 year old technology, many regard the Canon i960 as the best photprinting ink jet ever made. With many of the five color printers using the BCI-3&6 cartridge family not far behind.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,082
136
If you have to concern with only text,then nothing better than inkjet.And many of the models are available in inkjet category which produce excellent image printing also.

Ummm, this is sounding very suspicious.
Are you going to start spamming the forums with ads for inkjets shipped from Uganda?

Seriously. We have been telling you that laser print quality is far superior to inkjet, and if you dont get a piece of junk it will last longer than an inkjet printer anyway. And despite some pretty ridiculous arguments from the ink fanboys, we've proven that its far cheaper as well.
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
3
0
I have to somewhat disagree with the shortylickens contention that, "Seriously. We have been telling you that laser print quality is far superior to inkjet, and if you dont get a piece of junk it will last longer than an inkjet printer anyway. And despite some pretty ridiculous arguments from the ink fanboys, we've proven that its far cheaper as well."

And if we are just talking monochrome, I will agree the laser is far faster, and has slightly superior resolution. And if you look at the printermarket today, for off the shelf models, and using OEM consumables, the below average laser will come in at half the per page consumable cost of the best ink jet.

However, this not the way it has to be. If the printer manufacturers designed ink jets to properly exploit ink, we would find Laser hard pressed to compete on monochrome consumable costs, and ink jets would blow lasers away on color consumable costs. And instead, ink jet printer manufacturers design ink jets to ripoff poorly informed consumers. And its worked out to be great for ink jet printer manufacturers that can sell poorly engineered and short life printers below cost, and make boat loads of money doing it. As soon as consumers buy OEM replacement cartridges, the money rolls in, vending ink the takes less than $50.00/gallon to make for a low of $2300 to well over $10,000/gallon in extreme cases when put into cartridge form.
 

Spicedaddy

Platinum Member
Apr 18, 2002
2,305
77
91
Used to have a Samsung ML-1610. It was great, except you replace the drum every time you need toner, so it's more expensive. (I tried cheap toner cartridges from Monoprice, and print quality was crap)

I recently got a refurb Brother DCP-7030 for 99$ and it's perfect. Toner is cheaper since the drum is separate. I gave up on HP a while ago, the hardware is good, but drivers are horrible. Inkjets are OK if you want cheap color and don't print too many pages.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,680
13,838
126
www.anyf.ca
Brother and Samsung make nice home laser printers. I've owned a Samsung ML... can't recall the exact model but looked similar to this but all white, and flatter front: http://laser-printer-reviews.com/laser-printer-reviews/samsung-ml-1510-laser-printer-review.jpg

My parents now have it and it works great for them.

I now own a Brother MFC 7840W and it works great. I paid about 400 bucks for it, but well worth it for a multi function. When you think about it, you will pay around 200 bucks for a decent laser printer and another 100-200 bucks for a decent scanner so combine them and the price seems reasonable.

Either way, go with a laserjet. The cost per page is much less, and the quality is better for documents, graphs, and stuff with relatively straight lines. If you want to print pictures just get it done at walmart.

One thing with laserjets is they use lot of power when they kick in. I would recommend getting a decent UPS for your equipment (NOT the printer). My Samsung used to make the power spike and the computer would freeze or sometimes even reboot. The UPS solved that issue though.
 
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amheck

Golden Member
Oct 14, 2000
1,712
0
76
Hey guys, well I came across a sale on a generic toner cartridge that everyone seemed to be happy with, so I bit. Got the toner installed into the 2170w, and it prints, but half of the page is blank, and the right half is very, very light.

So here's a summary:

Bought 2170w, very happy with it, used toner it came with.
Bought replacement toner, installed, and nothing prints on page
Deliberates buying new printer or new toner
Buys new toner and still having printing problems.

Is it possible the drum is bad? Or am I somehow installing these toners wrong? I did also shake the toner before install and I slide the green slider to clean off the drum. I also was on brother's website and I saw something about cleaning a "window" in the printer, so I did that too. But still nothing. Saddens me that I have a printer and probably 2 full toner carts that I can't get to work. Any ideas?
 

Revolution

Senior member
May 24, 2000
209
0
0
Off Topic:

In to days modern world is there any brand who manufactured new non chipped printer(doesn't matter injet or laserjet) ?.....o_O
 

Revolution

Senior member
May 24, 2000
209
0
0
Off Topic:

In to days modern world is there any brand who manufactured new non chipped printer(doesn't matter injet or laserjet) ?.....o_O
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
3
0
No, to some extent we have to realize the initial marketing target of the various types of printers.

Initially, in the early days of computers, economical dot matrix printers were for consumers who could not afford laser printers and had to expect greatly inferior graphics, and lasers were for business. And woe be onto any laser printer who could not compete on per page economy relative the competition, because corporate bean counters were all that much much better than than clueless consumers at counting beans.

Then inkjet technology came along in 1990, suddenly consumers had cheap cheap inkjet printers that could do text and graphics and even do color too. Nirvana had finally arrived. And was even better than sex and sliced bread.

But because the average consumer sucks at bean counting, loves that initial low low price to the exclusion of all rationality, and because no inkjet manufacturers will compete on economy, and instead conspires to be a me too pad their huge profits by making the inkjets a universal no armed bandit.