Any feedback on printers & ink use???

[MakeItHappen 15]

I'm trying to go paperless, but the rest of the world won't let me.........

Any input on printers?
ink consumption?
dry or wet ink?
how fast does the cartridge dry out?
esp when not in use. I tend to print 100 pages one time per every 3 years and then not print anything the rest of the time.
I live in a hot, dry climate - well except for last week.

The printer I love is my very old HP 500C. But the paper feed mechanism is broken in two places (a spring and the cam).
It takes two hands to feed in the paper. If anyone has an old one of those - I'll take it.

I have a Canon BC-4300 color printer, but it went through ink fast. Then it started printing a vertical line at the beginning/end of each line.
That won't work.

Speed and paper tray capacity are of lesser importance than ink consumption & dry out.

ideas yeas, nays about printers you've used?

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Make It Happen
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DiveMaker

[anthonyfellows 0]

How about a laser printer, rather than inkjet? Toner doesn't dry out like ink, because it's powder. Or just buy a new cheap 30 dollar inkjet printer every three years, if you print that infrequently.

Serious relationships turn into work after a few weeks and I already got a fucking job :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
H.A.F. = Hard As Fuck ... Goddamn Amateurs

[likestojump 3]

I print a lot. and printed even more when I was in college. Ink printers are extemely expensive.

Why not get a laser printer ? They are much better quality, faster, and much higher toner capacity. They are very inexpensive. Unless you print a lot of color, a Laser printer is a much better choice.

[skymama 37]

There are websites dedicated to how to trick your printer into using all of its ink. They're programmed to tell you the ink is out when in reality, it really isn't. I recently trashed a Dell printer because you can't use generic ink in it and the cost of cartridges was costing me more than the printer cost. If you go into your local office supply store, they should be able to give you a list of which printers will use recycled ink. I bet Dells aren't on the list!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[muff528 3]

Here's another vote for laser. Toners can be expensive but they'll last a loooong time for a typical home user. Get built-in networking if your budget allows and you have multiple computers on your network. (Be sure to check online for any complaints about a specific model before settling on one. We got a HP network laser printer at work and it developed a problem that turned out to be a dirty mirror which was the result of poor design. PITA to disassemble the printer and clean the mirror.)

[MakeItHappen 15]

Ok maybe I was not clear enough.

I am looking for consumer (that would be you) feedback about such-n-such printer.

Something like this:
"I have the Acme Gee-Whiz-Bang Model XY29e. It uses (dry/wet) ink and it lasts for x many pages."
Then maybe some comments on what you liked or did not like about it.

Networking the printer - got that covered.
Using third party ink supplies - got that covered.
Inkjet v laserjet - got that covered - don't care

Looking for 'Do not buy this POS' or 'go get this one pronto' comments.

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Make It Happen
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DiveMaker

[NWFlyer 2]

Go on Craigslist. Buy an HP LaserJet 4L. I've been using one for 15 years now and have only been through two cartridges. Granted I'm not a heavy-duty user, but I probably print a few pages a week on average. These things are bulletproof and widely regarded as one of the best home-use printer series ever made.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[likestojump 3]

fine.

I have owned HP 4L, 5L, 5P, 6P - all good.
currently have a HP 2200DN (w/ duplex and network options) and just got rid of 4050DN

HP/Lexmark/Xerox - all good brands (as well as some others I am forgetting to mention). HP seems to have the most product out there, so easier to get on secondary market (aka craigslist/ebay).

[MakeItHappen 15]

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Go on Craigslist. Buy an HP LaserJet 4L. I've been using one for 15 years now and have only been through two cartridges. Granted I'm not a heavy-duty user, but I probably print a few pages a week on average. These things are bulletproof and widely regarded as one of the best home-use printer series ever made.

Hey Krisanne - kudos to you. That is exactly the type of info I'm looking for.

I have read feedback at all the printer websites. They are mostly new users of the product and have no long term experience with such-n-such widgit.

Thanks Krisanne.

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Make It Happen
Parachute History
DiveMaker

[captain1976 0]

Quote

Ok maybe I was not clear enough.

I am looking for consumer (that would be you) feedback about such-n-such printer.

Something like this:
"I have the Acme Gee-Whiz-Bang Model XY29e. It uses (dry/wet) ink and it lasts for x many pages."
Then maybe some comments on what you liked or did not like about it.

Networking the printer - got that covered.
Using third party ink supplies - got that covered.
Inkjet v laserjet - got that covered - don't care

Looking for 'Do not buy this POS' or 'go get this one pronto' comments.

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Your cheapest printer is a copier that is connected.

They are a bit larger but copiers depreciate lightning fast and you can pick them up cheap. Your typical cost per copy is about 1 cent for black & white vs 10 to 15 cents per copy on a cartridge printer.

The typical yield on a copier is about 20,000 copies for a $25 toner cartridge.

If you want a black & white with color printer/copier like the Minolta 3105 or Konica 8031 (same copier), your cost per color copy is about 4.5 cents. You can even maintain it yourself.

Ebay and craigslist is full of cheap copiers and you can get a decent one for a couple hundred bucks. If you can't find one send me a private message and I will lead you to them.

You live more in the few minutes of skydiving than many people live in their lifetime

[NWFlyer 2]

No problem. My only beef with it (and it's a relatively minor one) is that it is pretty picky about paper quality, which makes it difficult to reuse paper for printing stuff that doesn't need to be printed on a clean sheet of paper. My particular one seems to like only virgin, fresh-off-the-ream paper.

I have my then-roommate to thank for this purchase; we were starting grad school and outfitting ourselves with all-new technology and she convinced me to spend the extra money (I think these were about $400 new back in 1995) for the laser printer. As she put it "it's the only thing you're buying that won't be obsolete in two years." That thing has been through a bunch of moves, multiple operating systems, and still keeps on ticking. Of course, being oldschool, it only has a parallel printer cable, so if you're connecting it to a newer laptop you'll need a parallel-to-USB converter.

I also have an Epson all-in-one (I'm not home and don't recall the exact model number) that I only use for scanning and the very occasional color print. It's serviceable for what I use it for, and IIRC it was only about $70 new. But it goes through ink really quickly and the cartridges are expensive to replace, which is why the LaserJet is still my default printer.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[wmw999 2,589]

I have an HP 4180 printer that goes through ink pretty quickly; it's a great printer otherwise, but the ink is a weak point. I had an Epson before it that died in a couple of years.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[JohnDeere 0]

My main printer is a all in one HP Office Jet Pro L7580
Have had it about a year? I have made about 10-15K copy's. Does use quit a bit of ink and the auto feed has messed up so I got a stand alone fax machine now. Other than those two it has been a good a machine. I get HP most of the time cause the plug and play very well.

Nothing opens like a Deere!

You ignorant fool! Checks are for workers!

[amstalder 0]

I have an HP C5280 All-in-one inkjet...

Got it almost 3 years ago... theyve since come out with a shinier wireless version..

Anyways, I absolutely love it... The cartridges are a wee bit expensive (but you probably know that already since youre just coming off of HP). I print rarely but a lot of pages, and the ink is just fine... I think in the last three years ive replaced the ink 3 maybe 4 times... If that.

I really do <3 HP, tho. I dont think you can go wrong with any of their printers (my college roommates all had HPs, different models, and they worked fabulously as well).

[BillyVance 35]

Mine's a HP Photosmart C8180 All-In-One, and it even has its own DVD Light Scribe drive.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[amstalder 0]

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Mine's a HP Photosmart C8180 All-In-One, and it even has its own DVD Light Scribe drive.

Im not sure what that is, but mine has a place for a cd to go inside of it! Still havent figured out how to work some of the features on this thing....

[Niki1 2]

I've had 2 or 3 HP All-In One injet printer/copier/scanners. The ink cartridges were $35 for the black and $40 for the color. And dried out before they were used up. The last time I needed ink I bought a Kodak ESP3 for less than the cost of the HP ink. The replacement cartridges are $25. For both black and clolor.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

[skybytch 273]

What would it cost to have 100 pages printed at Kinkos? You may find that it's more cost-effective to not have a printer.

[billvon 3,119]

>What would it cost to have 100 pages printed at Kinkos? You may
>find that it's more cost-effective to not have a printer.

Often I need a printer right there. They include:

printing recipes
printing E-tickets
printing pinouts (to have a reference while working on something)

So we'd need a printer anyway. (But it is a good idea to print larger jobs at Kinko's, especially if you need other services like collation or binding.)

[NickDG 23]

I have the HP Photosmart C7280-All in One-Printer-Fax-Copier-Scanner. I've had it for two years. It has docks for four different types of digital camera memory cards and a USB for a flash card or connecting right to a computer.

The print results are excellent and even more so on the photo side of things. Using HP photo paper you can do sizes from 4x6 (or smaller like passport size using your computer software) all the way to 8x10. As a photographer that aspect of the machine was important to me and it didn't disappoint. Even an 8x10 on regular plain printing paper looks great framed and behind glass.

I do bemoan the absence of archival quality of these photographs, but that's a price we all pay in the digital age. Unlike the photos I once made in darkrooms which will last hundreds of years or longer these prints will degrade eventually in time. Plus the fact any photos stored on digital media (hard drives, flash drives, and back up servers) will all disappear if we experience a good sized electromagnetic pulse either natural or man made.

However, in our case Jan, all that might be a good thing when a hundred years from now the government begins lining up and executing the descendants of intellectuals like us.

The fax feature I didn't think I'd use much but it turned out (for me) to be very convenient. Between keeping my EMS ratings current and Paramedic school I use it all the time. And it both sends and receives so it saves me a lot of trips to Kinkos.

HP's MSRP is $299 but street prices are lower. There is now also an updated version that offers wireless connectivity if that's important to you at the same price.

The downside? At my high rate of use it eats ink cartridges and a box containing the black and color replacent cartridges are about $70. But replacing the cartridges is very easy and isn't as messy as previous printers I've had and so far I've never spilled a drop or had to clean up a mess. An HP printer I had previously could be refilled at home with a kit containing syringes and bulk ink, but they now have a computer chip in the cartridges that "so far" no smart hacker has found a way around.

But to an extent all printers depend on cartridge sales to subsidize the initial cheap price of the printer itself. And I can remember when a decent printer was over a $1000 back in the 1980s. But like I said the quality, ease of use (I've never had any glitches or driver problems) makes it worth it to me. And I do a lot of printing so your mileage on cartridges might be acceptable.

If you are just going to be doing everyday type printing like creating depositions and replying to subpoenas you may want to look for a cheaper to operate laser printer.

Edit to add: The thing about using Kinkos for all your printing needs is fine, but you lose control of the final product. And that may or may not be important you, but it is to me . . .

NickD

[BillyVance 35]

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Mine's a HP Photosmart C8180 All-In-One, and it even has its own DVD Light Scribe drive.

Im not sure what that is, but mine has a place for a cd to go inside of it! Still havent figured out how to work some of the features on this thing....

Same here. I don't think I'll ever use every feature it has. My wife is the one who bought it. A Light Scribe DVD drive can label your DVD with graphics/names on the top side of it.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[MakeItHappen 15]

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What would it cost to have 100 pages printed at Kinkos? You may find that it's more cost-effective to not have a printer.

Kinkoes is way down in Temecula. The last time I checked it was something like 25 cents per page.
That is also what the PIP printing charges here in Hemet.
Besides the document right now is about 20 pages long that I need printed out as I revise it over several weeks.
It's not like I have one 100 page doc to print once.

I did locate an HP 4L in Orange for $20 & one on ebay for a bit more. I have determined that I do have enough space (after some rearranging) for this printer.

Most others are saying that the ink is very expensive, even for the recent ink jets.

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DiveMaker

[MakeItHappen 15]

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I have the HP Photosmart C7280-All in One-Printer-Fax-Copier-Scanner. I've had it for two years. It has docks for four different types of digital camera memory cards and a USB for a flash card or connecting right to a computer.

I don't have any need to print in color or print photos. So that's not a driver for selection of a printer.
But if it was I'd make sure I could replace colors in CYMK and not one cartridge for all colors.

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Plus the fact any photos stored on digital media (hard drives, flash drives, and back up servers) will all disappear if we experience a good sized electromagnetic pulse either natural or man made.

However, in our case Jan, all that might be a good thing when a hundred years from now the government begins lining up and executing the descendants of intellectuals like us.

I've looked into EM pulses - like ones from a nuclear bomb - and have realized that I live far enough away from probable targets that the damage won't be that bad. So feel free to send your archives to me to bury in my backyard.

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The fax feature

Fax? I've sent/received less than 10 faxes in my entire life. The new age is to send PDFs and have the recipient print it out.

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If you are just going to be doing everyday type printing like creating depositions and replying to subpoenas you may want to look for a cheaper to operate laser printer.

Nick, you are too funny. Actually all my depo docs were printed by my attorney and not me. I didn't even have enough time to find all the electronic docs, let alone any paper stuff. Lawyers love paper.

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Make It Happen
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DiveMaker

[skybytch 273]

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Most others are saying that the ink is very expensive, even for the recent ink jets.

That's my issue with printers. $20+ for a black cartridge that lasts for about 100 pages is crazy. Sure wish all my professors would go paperless and accept assignments electronically...

[NWFlyer 2]

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Most others are saying that the ink is very expensive, even for the recent ink jets.

Yep, that's a big point in favor of laser printers. I think the 4L cartridges are around $20 for a refurbished one these days and, like I said, I think I've bought two in the 15 years I've owned the printer. Maybe 3.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke