Printers

[Jaded]

Bought a new printer today...cost $3 more than the replacement cartridges.

Now that I have had time to think about it...I will go back tomorrow and get another so I have a replacement when the ink runs dry on this one LOL.

[Spathiphyllum]

Heh, the needles should be cheaper than the juice, shouldn't they? You was robbed!

[Vin DSL]

Believe it or not, this is THE play these days! Buy a $39 printer, or whatever, and throw it out when the ink runs out...

Buying replacement cartridges is a fool's game!

[Daiver]

Yep... It's truly amazing how it's actually cheaper to throw it out than to buy cartidges.

I usually just refill them or get generic ones. They work pretty good...

[Vin DSL]

Yep... It's truly amazing how it's actually cheaper to throw it out than to buy cartidges...

When you think about it, the cartridge is what does the printing. The rest of the 'printer', so called, is usually just a cheap POS platen mechanism. After a couple of refills, the paper quits feeding correctly, and so forth.

Really, you're better off throwing the baby out with the bath water...

[Daiver]

I would probably do it in the States, but down here there's still a moderate difference between getting a new printer and using 6 or 7 rounds of refilled cartridges...

[jason]

Its kind of sad to see how much of a disposable society we've become. A couple years ago the motor quit on my vacuum cleaner, so I threw it out and bought an new one for about $75. Doing that, I was thinking about going with my mom to the vacuum repair shop to get her's repaired--probably 20 years ago. Today I'm not even sure where'd I'd go if I wanted to get it repaired.

I just bought a new cartridge for the laser printer that I bought on E-Bay a couple years ago. I paid $15 or $20 for an old HP LaserJet 4L from a local seller (so I didn't have to pay shipping). It had a toner cartridge in it already, which lasted me about 2-1/2 years. The printer works great, but now that that cartridge is running out, I started looking at replacement cartridges. A new HP cartridge costs $97! I found a non-OEM cartridge from a company I've ordered other things from in the past for $28, so I ordered that. I can't see throwing out the printer when it still works so well. It was definitely worth my initial $15 investment.

--Jason

[Jaded]

"Disposable" appears to be industry driven. I bought the new Canon printer to replace an HP deskjet that quit printing and an HP all-in-one that quit scanning (would not print because couldn't get past the self-test lmao!)

Replacement parts and labor are too expensive. Why do repairmen *I don't know any women in the industry* believe they deserve to be paid as well as a professer? It's highway robbery I tell you!

OT - Vacuum cleaner repair? I cut my teeth repairing Rainbows, Hoovers, and Kirbys in a basement shop...Crap, I think I just heard another nail being driven...LMFAO! LIFE ROCKS!

[jason]

OT - Vacuum cleaner repair? I cut my teeth repairing Rainbows, Hoovers, and Kirbys in a basement shop...Crap, I think I just heard another nail being driven...LMFAO! LIFE ROCKS!

Maybe I should have sent that old vac to you then...

--Jason

[Gwaihir]

Bought a new printer today...cost $3 more than the replacement cartridges.

Now that I have had time to think about it...I will go back tomorrow and get another so I have a replacement when the ink runs dry on this one LOL.

Carefull there: for many models those replacement cartridges contain 2 to 3 times as much ink as the "starter" ones that come with your printer. So, getting another printer might not be the way to go when what you really want is as much ink for your money as possible.

[Ron]

I am in need of a new printer. I have an HP G85 AIO Office Jet, and it has been a WONDERFUL printer, copier, scanner, fax. It has a sheet feeder, too.

The problem is tht right at the end of printing a page, it no longer gives a little kick to the page to send it into the colletion area, so the page stays in the way of the printhead when it's time for the next page to print. Probably a gear or a band broke or fell off or got chewed up.

This printer cost $799 when I bought it. I can't get it fixed.
It uses HUGE cartridges they last nearly forever. The black cart holds 42ml and the color cart holds 38ml, delivering about 1000 pages...

I researched the heck out of AIOs before I bought this one way back when, no I have no idea what printer to get to replace it. I am willing to pay more upfront to have lower ongoing ink costs, so the one that takes the biggest carts and uses the smallest amount of ink per dot would be good.

Any recommendations? Thanks.

[Vin DSL]

Any recommendations? Thanks.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ku=H24-PSC1507

[the_ancient]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ku=H24-PSC1507

I have that one,

It is fine if you dont do ALOT of printing


Ron, I use a HP LaserJet1000 for 99% of my print work, I got the one linked above for when I need color, which is not very often, I print mostly text (reports and what not)

What will you use the printer for, i.e photo's text, all of these above?

[Spathiphyllum]

Ron,

I'm probably misdiagnosing but I'm not sure I understand the "kick"ing component. Have you tried cleaning the page advance wheels? They accumulate dust and lose their grippiness both from residue, particles, and oxidation. A wipedown of all the components might just solve the issue and I'd advise that first. Now, if it is a wheel/gear that physically bumps the page into the collector, then all the cleaning in the world will be for naught as you already know.

Recommendations? I still like my old, industrial strength HP LaserJet. Sharp text, cheap ink on a per page amortization, and works like the dickens.

Ink jets? No idea. There are so many... and they are still inkjets with that proprietary price gouging thing. I guess you could pony up the dough for color laser, right?

[Ron]

Yeah, spathy, there's a bar with prongs on it.. you could think of it like a turnpike, that bumps the edge of the paper and drives it forward just enough to get it to fall into the output tray.

(There are also little arms that come out and hold up the papaer from falling into the tray if the system decides (or you manually determine) that the page needs "extra drying time")

The key point that folks seem to be missing in their recommendations is the need for a document feeder... this is an office here, and we send paper faxes out. My less-than-computer-savvy spouse enjoys printing the faxes before sending them, then physically filing them

Multiple page faxes are tough without a sheet feeder, so that's a deal-breaker.

I've seen some of the HP 2610 and 2710 model lines they look ok (a LOT smaller that my G85!!!) but I wonder about their TCO (ink usage and cart capacity and price).

I guess it's time to call a friend over at PC Mag and see what he's been reviewing lately! I hope he still works there!

Thanks all.

PS I used to LOVE my HP 4L... I think I junked it before my trip. Now that I have a larger office set up, I suppose I could have 2 printers set up. Never really considered that before.