Do printers that use cheap ink exist anymore?

[sindows]

I have an old Canon S600 but its begining to show its age. I can never seem to get the ink heads lined up.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you don't need color, get a <air quotes> "laser" </air quotes> printer, shark not included.

 

[imported_rod]

Lasers offer low cost b/w printing, but they're usually not very practical for home users.

If you want an economical printer, look at Canon and Epson. Canon's may be expensive initially, but they will save you money in the long run. Also, canon's generally run well with generic inks, so you can buy a bottle of ink, and refill the ink cartridge yourself for about $1 each time. Much better than forking out $20+ for ink.

RoD

 

[fatpat268]

Some of the newer canons actually have some pretty cheap ink cartridges.

But you really should look for a printer that seperates the color into three carts: cyan, magenta, and yellow.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: rod
Lasers offer low cost b/w printing, but they're usually not very practical for home users.

What? Why not?

Mine works perfectly well (except for an annoying driver issue but that's irrelevant).

 

[jondl]

Canon MP780 is what you want if you want cheap cartridges. They are going for $100AR at Outpost and Fry's. I have one at home and its great. It uses the same printhead as my ip5000 so im sharing cartridges. You can get them fairly cheap online for less than 3 bucks for 1. I believe the newer models use the newer type of cartridges where the printhead is built into each one so the costs will greatly increase.

 

[johnnyMon]

Another vote for laser, if you can get away with no color.

 

[thorin]

Lasers offer low cost b/w printing, but they're usually not very practical for home users.

Based on what?

There are plenty of low end Laser printers (print BW as good as or better then a BubbleJet / InkJet) around the $100 mark these days. The cartridges don't gum up or dry out. They might be ever so slightly larger but I don't see any associated impracticality unless someone actually needs color printing (then that's a whole other ball game).

 

[jonnybruno]

i use an epson. i get new cartridges for $2.50 off megatoners.

 

[Greenman]

Avoid Epson. I've never had an epson printer last a year. The last one never made it through a second cart. The heads clog from not enough use, they clog from to much use, they clog if it's to warm or too cool. There is even an Epson head clog button built into most apps, it's called "print".

Edit: The Canon MP780 has worked very well for the few weeks I've owned it.

 

[Henny]

Originally posted by: fatpat268
Some of the newer canons actually have some pretty cheap ink cartridges.

But you really should look for a printer that seperates the color into three carts: cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Untrue. The new Canon's use chipped/proprietary ink tanks. There are no aftermarket tanks for these new printers.

In addition, the older non chipped Pixma's are going for top dollar on Ebay. (I just sold a PIXMA IP3000 for close to $150).

If you want a cheap inkjet printer you better hurry before their gone. (ex: The Canon MP780 has been going for about $100 AR at Frys and it uses very inexpensive tanks.) This printer get's excellent reviews but it won't be on the market much longer.

Also the HP Officejets can be very inexpensive if you fill the cartridges yourself. (very easy to do). However you won't find deals on prefilled aftermarket cartridges.

 

[Scifience]

I would get either a black and white laser or a low-cost color laser.

I don't know why some people think they are inappropriate for home use. Other than being larger than inkjets, there is nothing any longer that would tie them specifically to a business environment. They have a very low cost per page when compared with an inkjet, and an entry-level color laser is no longer any more expensive than a good color inkjet.

I can recommend from personal experience Samsung's CLP series of color lasers, or, if you are looking for something a bit fancier, the Epson AcuLaser CX1100NF. The latter is an all-in-one with an auto document feeder and built-in network support and costs $800, the former can be found for as little as $400.

 

[jonnybruno]

Originally posted by: Greenman
Avoid Epson. I've never had an epson printer last a year. The last one never made it through a second cart. The heads clog from not enough use, they clog from to much use, they clog if it's to warm or too coll. There is even an Epson head clog button built into most apps, it's called "print".

Edit: The Canon MP780 has worked very well for the few weeks I've owned it.

i have an r300 and i've printed atleast 100 dvds with it along with countless documents. my megatoners ink works fine and i never have problems with clogged heads. which epsons did you have so many problems with?

 

[Greenman]

The last one to die was a picturemate. I used most of two carts cleaning the heads. The thing wasted so much ink it was way cheaper to have prints made at costco. I've owned other epson printers over the years, and never had one that just worked, there was always some issue with print quality and the heads being cloged, and I always used new epson carts.
I'm sure there are people that have an epson that works, but I can honestly say I've never seen an epson printer go through one whole cart without a problem.

 

[vanvock]

I wouldn't recomend Lexmark, they have the heads built into the cartridges too & are very expensive. They even charge a premium to buy one that is completly filled up, it's like 8 to 12 more dollars over the "moderate use" ones which just sucks, it's a blatant rip-off. I had a Cannon before where the heads were in the printer & it used tanks but didn't use it often enough & the heads dried out & clogged, my fault.

 

[DaveSimmons]

A frickin' laser never dries out or clogs: toner carts can last years without going bad, and you can safely go weeks without printing anything.

 

[thedonutman]

i have a epson cx5400, new set of ink costs around £60, yes SIXTY POUNDS!, thats about half the price of the printer

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
A frickin' laser never dries out or clogs: toner carts can last years without going bad, and you can safely go weeks without printing anything.

Exactly.

 

[13Gigatons]

We had a thread about the $80 Samsung and how much it really cost to run and in the end the OP bought a Canon inkjet. He was printing 600 pages of black text per month.

 

[piasabird]

I have a cheap HP laser but it tends to curl the pages because it does not have a fan. So I suggest about $400 for a printer is a fair bargain if is a B/W Laser. We still have old HP Laserjet 4's at work and they work great. They sell roller rebuild kits for them. You can spend just a little for a printer and it will keep running out of Ink. Or you can spend a lot for a Laser and it will practically run for ever. Either way you pay the same in the long run.

 

[Lucu]

I recently bought an Epson dx3800 (multifunction) to replace my HP840c, only because i can´t easily find refills or oem cartridges for my HP and i had to shell 30 or more euros for an original cartdrige, i felt violated each time i had to buy one.

And the scanner comes in handy as my HPscanjet3300c won't work under windows XP and HP won't care about it. Basicaly they told to go sc#"$ myself or buy another one of their scanners. (jokers)

As a side note most of my experience with HP as been dreadfull, despite most people good review of their products.

That also contributed to the change.




I took the plunge on the epson despite reading on the net the horror stories on cloged heads. Why?


I assumed that one mostly reads horror stories because most people that don't have any problems just won't write their experience. I always take this kind of thing with a pinch of salt.

And i can buy oem cartdriges for the epson from 2,5 to 5 euros thats a huge diference from the 30 euros of the HP even knowing that they are probably half the capacity. I got scared when the cart that came with the printer only lasted a couple dozens fo pages, but i later learned that epson ships its printers with almost empty carts.


Though the epson is the slowest printer i ever worked in years (its a no issue to me, as i usually print uni stuff. Its done when its done), and the print quality (black&white) is inferior to my aged HP in draft mode as in quality mode its the same.


Conclusion: if most of all you want a cheap printer (80euros) with cheap ink (oem carts), this epson might suit you if you don't care about print speed. Oh and the scanner its good to for the price.


ps: i own the epson for maybe 3 months now and it didnt clogged the heads yet, fingers crossed.

 

[mikeford]

We have several printers, main is a big old HP 4, which cranks outs reams of professional looking B/W very quickly, and a rather fussy Epson Color 880. The epson was not getting used very often, and the output right now sometimes has white lines or streaks on the first few pages, but that could just be the $2 ink I bought to try. HP 4 is about to be replaced with a 5, since the old one is due for a new set of rollers, but a newer 5 that uses the same toner carts and is in good shape is cheaper than the parts.

The way to shop is to look for the best cheapest source of ink, then find the printer it works in.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I consider cheap ink to be anything under $50....lolol....
I have watched as the prices have slowly gone up over time.

I have also watched with interest how certain companies have gone after ink manufacturers who manufacture ink cartidges for various companies!!

 

[Zepper]

Tsk, tsk.. Thread belongs in Peripherals!

LemonLaw found some Canon iP6000D at Outpost.com . Those are true photo printers with six ink tanks (1 black and 5 color). So you will go thru black tanks quickly if you do a lot of text (relatively low volume of ink in the BCI-6 black tank).
. The Canon MP-780 mentioned in an earlier post can also be found. My local Staples still had one last Friday. Other than that there is eBay and For Sale/Trade forums for finding the original iP series printers. Many are going for well above selling prices when they were current. Any Canon of the old line will pay for itself over time in ink savings - almost no matter how much you pay for it to begin with. The old tanks also have a bit larger capacity than the new ones and some companies (like swiftink.com) cram even more in there.
. re. the new Canon iP series. They print at least as well as the earlier models. You could always buy one and hope and pray that someone manages to clone the new tanks soon. In the meanwhile, someone has some newly formulated inks to match the new Canon for doing your own refills. The inexpensive new Canons have integrated head ink cartridges like HP and Lexmark - avoid those models like the plague.

I didn't see that anyone had mentioned the Brother MFC all-in-ones. The new series (420, 640, 820, etc.) print significantly better than their earlier models (not up to Canon iP standards - but few are) and perhaps they don't suffer the print head defect that plagued the earlier models- too soon to know. The MFC-640 is $150. AR at Staples this week. These are the only remaining units that still use passive ink tanks. The cloned Brother tanks aren't as cheap as the other brands largely due to lower production volumes (Brother is nearly off the chart in the inkjet market) and the complexity of the tank - but they do contain quite a bit of ink.

re. Epson. The chipped Epson ink tanks have been cloned for a long time and are available cheaply. I think one key to avoiding most of the clogging is to print something at least daily. Keep the spitoon gasket and face of the head clean (cleaning sheets are available to keep the face of the head clean - use cotton swabs and distilled water on the spitoon gasket). Also be very quick when changing tanks. I have suggested a tag-team approach: one to remove the old tank and the other to pull the tape and insert the new one. I think the extra fast-drying, pigmented ink has a lot to do with the Epson "clog at the drop of a hat" reputation. And the reletively cold Piezo technology of their print head is a big part as well. Epson also has the advantage of being the only general-purpose IJ printers that can directly print on DVD/CD media available here in the States. The pigmented ink can also make photo prints look a bit strange relative to the dye-base inks that most others use.
. I would also suggest using clone ink tanks from the get-go. I think they put something in the OE ink that causes the cloned ink to clog more than it otherwise would - better to have none in the system.
. Buy decent brand of cloned ink (not the cheapest) that will be around as long as you own your printer, so you will always be using the same formulation of ink, etc. I've heard that Epson is clamping down on tank cloners that didn't use a clean-room method to clone their tanks, so the availability and price of Epson cloned ink tanks may be changing radically soon. Make sure the printer model you decide on uses tanks that have already been widely cloned - not some new model. I'm sure at least a few of the cloners used the clean-room technique to do the cloning, so they shouldn't all disappear. Key is to find one that will be among the survivors.

-->> But the first thing I would suggest is to try a new print head for your S600. User replaceable and not too expensive. This is a necessary, "wear and tear" repair item on recent Canon printers. If it was any other brand I'd say send it off to the landfill, but it's a fairly recent Canon with high quality output (when functioning properly). Unfortunately they don't accept returns on heads that don't solve the problem unless you send your printer in to Canon for "service" where they get to decide you really need a print head, and charge you double for the privilege.

good luck,

.bh.

PS. Did someone say they got ~$150. for an iP3000 - seeing Bye-Bye in cartoon balloons around mine... Was that a new or a used one that fetched $150. I think I paid around $70 for mine AR. .bh.

 

[Zepper]

I see they have some Canon iP3000 factory refurbs (with warranty) on eBay for $105 shipped. The Canon brand ink tanks alone are worth $44. I'd buy one if I was in the market now. (be sure to check that you do get the ink tanks - I'm not sure whether they were specifically mentioned in the listing or not.). I saw someone there listing an iP5000 for $10 for the item, $200. for shipping, and $75. for insurance. That's one way to avoid eBay fees but I reported the listing. Now smart ebayers do that all the time, but when more than 90% of the final value has been shifted to s/h to avoid fees - well, that's a bit much!

.bh.