Printer/Ink Recommendations
 

It seems like I spend a lot on printer ink for my HP printer. I've tried those outfits that sell refilled cartridges, but recently had some bad experiences. Some arrived empty, some only had enough ink to last a few days. If you read Amazon/Ebay reviews, many are unhappy with those selling refills.

I started buying the real deal from HP at $15-$20/bux/a whack. I only have HP printers because it seems over the years, I'd get a free one with a laptop/camera or whatever. I had 3 at one point.

Maybe I need to go to another brand of printer/scanner/copier? I know they are cheap to buy, because they want to sell you the ink. Ideas appreciated.

I had an HP all-in-one inkjet ten years ago with a black cartridge and a color cartridge. I'd print every 3 months or so. Every time I would print, I'd find both cartridges had dried out. I'd end up spending $80 every time I wanted to print, about 4 times a year. Seen another way, I was paying something like $320 to print maybe 20 pages a year--or a whopping $16 a page.

I bought an HP black-and-white LaserJet maybe 8 years ago as toner doesn't dry out. I paid around $150 for it. I finally ran down the "sample" toner cartridge--with a reduced capacity--about 2 years ago. I'm on my first real toner cartridge ($80) and I expect it to last me a decade.

So for $230 over 8 years, I've spent $30 a year on printing.

If most of what you do is B&W, get an (old(er)) laser.

Mom bought a surplus HP LaserJet II back in '00 for $25. Paid $50 for an overhaul, the diagnostics at the time showed almost 1 million pages printed...

Once a year, she get a replacement cartridge delivered and installed by a local outfit for $40, every year the tech says "this is barely used, it doesn't need replacing". She always replaces, needed or not.

On the other hand if most of what you do is color, do a cost-per-print on color lasers. Prices have come down (yay Moores Law!) so it may be worthwhile for you.

I had to ditch my LaserJet III 10 years ago because I couldn't get toner cartridges for it. (To be fair, I only looked at HP.com and Office Max.) That's why I ended up with that horrible all-in-one.

Eh, unless you are also using a vintage 486 you could update to early 2000s technology like the LJ 5, 5000, etc.

If you are still using a 486, PM me your address, I have 32mb of RAM I can send you... make that sucker fly.

Laser.

Inkjets are the biggest scam going.

The worst part about some of them is the built in shelf life.

You can buy one, stick it in a drawer, open it two years later and it will streak. Not because the ink is bad but because the chip has a built in expiration date that results in bad prints forcing you to buy a new cartridge.

Thanks, I respect your computer skills. I do some color, will the LaserJet handle that?

I bought an Epson Ecotank several months ago and am thrilled with the ink tanks, I've printed a fair amount and there is still a lot of ink. My old cartridge style HP's would sometimes only give me a handful of pictures/copies before they dried up or failed; sucks to spend $70 and then get only a dozen pictures.

HP has a new program going now for their printers called Instant Ink. They charge a monthly fee and
fedex new cartridges when needed.
The lowest plan is $2.99/month...but you only get 50 pages worth of ink! $10/month gets you 300 pages.
Just another way to keep the money rolling in.

I had a xerox phaser. Solid ink blocks. It was a small office laser printer. Costly to buy but printed thousands of color pages inexpensively. I'm not in real estate anymore so I rarely need a printer. My wife has an all in one something or other that I've never used. I just forward emails.

Brother Laserprinter/copier/scanner combo. around $100, aftermarket toner cheap on Amazon, look at reviews.

Have four, 1 at home, 1 in-law, 2 office, still plugging away.

Edit:
Last I looked, Dell color laser printers had the cheapest aftermarket toner.

Yup, but I also know someone who has one of the massive (they are BIG) Brother laser mopiers+fax - it is one of the few computer things I don't need to fix for them on a regular basis...

I've had HP inkjet printers for 20 years. The "trick" is to run the printer at least once every 2-3 weeks. If nothing else, do a cleaning once a month. This way the jets don't clog.

You need to get away from ink and go to a laser jet, on top of that the hp model is much like the Handel and the razor concept with all the money made off of the consumables. Invest in a Konica Minolta or similar machine-
I am a manager at one if the largest copier dealerships in the country- feel free to pm me your number and I will give you a quick call tomorrow for some free advice no strings attached.

If the question is about quality of print a laser jet is generally better.

Ink jets became popular because of low upfront hardware costs and what appeared to be lower consumable costs in addition to being basically disposable when compared to lasers maintenance expenses. For example a fuser drum which is a wear item was more expensive than an entire inkjet.

Modern SOHO lasers are a completely different animal than that monstrosity found in corporate environments.

My HP all in one has only a slightly larger footprint than the average inkjet, prints photo quality, all 4 toner cartridges can be had for $80 total from Amazon, they yelld 2,000 prints and each toner cartridge has an integral independent fuser drum that gets replaced when you swap in a new cartridge meaning no expensive maintenance intervals.

Inkjet can't even compare.

That may be our problem...I have a HP we're going to toss. The diagnostic says "bad printer head". Frustrating because we've had it several years, but print so rarely that it was on it's first set of replacement cartridges. Dunno what we'll buy next, but it won't be HP.

I've been touting Brother brand printers (inkjets) for years. They use ink tanks that you can buy generic versions of for about $10-20 for a set of 4 (3 colors and Black). The MFC models have print, scan, copy, fax capabilities.

+1 for the laser . Got myself one for Christmas. Same deal, tired of dried out ink. The Brother printer is wireless so I actually print more because its convenient and out of the way. I mostly went with Brother because it is linux friendly. Thrilled with it so far.

I switched to a Canon laser combo to save $$. Toner lasts forever and print quality is good. As above, wifi, scan, print, copy... dead simple.

Solid advice!

Get away from ink!