Is I cheeps?

[waggy]

fuck injets. My laser is great. cost slightly more but i get more prints.

 

[TeeJay1952]

I have spent as much on printers over the last 25 years as i have on Computers. I get inkjets and then I don't print enough and then the jets clog. I must have bought 4 HP, 2 Epson,1 Canon and 1 Brother, they all failed. They work at first but then fail because I don't print regularly. Now I use usb stick to have son print it for me or take it to Kinko's.

 

[NutBucket]

If you want to stick with inkjet and do a decent amount of printing look into getting a continuous ink system. Might run you $80 up front but ink is DIRT cheap. We got one a few years back for an HP plotter at work and its been solid. It has saved a boat load over cartridges and the photo prints don't seem to have degraded at all.

 

[lxskllr]

.... unless your time in invaluable.

To be clear, I respect the open source community and everything they do. I understand that we enjoy alot of OS and application features that originated from open source projects.

My statement is more in response to alot of pompous Linux fanboys who think Linux based operating systems are completely without flaw, and anyone who doesn't know, or is unwilling to take the time to learn how to operate and configure a linux operating system is an imbecile regardless of how much free time that person really has.

The fact of the matter is that I find not everything works right out of the box, and I don't have to time to figure out why flash isn't working correctly, or why I can't get my audio to work correctly. It's always alot of little things like that which keep me from running a Linux machine.

I wasn't going to say anything, but decided I'm in the mood today. You missed the point. The free in Linux has nothing to do with price. It's free as in freedom, or libre, so it's always free. If you paid $200 for Debian, it would still be free. If you spent 30 hours getting it installed, it would be free. That kind of free is priceless. You'll never see me crying in the O/S forum, asking why my system won't activate online. I'll never question how many computers I can put it on, and I will never ask about artificial package limitations with the version I have. Every version can do everything, from an embedded device up to a super computer, and from one user to thousands of users.

Yea, some things take a little more effort because in the end, it's a Windows world, but I'll take earned freedom over easy chains every time.

 

[mikeymikec]

No.

laser > inkjet unless you actually need colour printing.

Careful here. There are definitely cheap laser printers on the market and the consumables for them aren't as good value for money as a lot of average inkjets (let alone the average laser). The companies have cottoned on to this idea of 'if you have the money go laser' and are counting on people not properly researching the purchase first. Check page yields and costs for consumables and compare like-for-like with the same manufacturer (rather than trying to compare two manufacturers' yield stats).

I paid £90 for my current inkjet and comparing like-for-like with Epson's stats, I should get 3x the number of pages with the highest capacity cartridge for my printer, compared to cheaper Epson printers' highest capacity cartridge. The cartridge costs are massively in favour of of what I'm currently going for. I also get double-sided printing and much faster print jobs.

You can also pay about £200 UKP for a high-end inkjet and get page yields that are about the same for a similar-cost mono laser. Lasers also typically cost more to power than inkjets. It is definitely worth shopping around.

I would expect for a low-end inkjet's high capacity black (from Epson's stats, real life is a different story) to give ~300 pages. My expectation for a reasonable yet low-ish-end mono laser is ~3000 pages. I've seen cheap lasers only quoting ~1000 pages and yet have the same consumable prices as the ~3000 page cartridges. My inkjet claims ~900 pages and the black costs a tiny bit more than the first inkjet's high capacity cartridge.

 

[olds]

My wife's printer takes like 5-6 cartridges. I pay about $6 on Amazon for all of them and they work fine.

 

[xSauronx]

Is it wrong to consider buying a new printer instead of buying toner for my existing printer just on the principle that buying a new printer is cheaper than buying toner?

when i run out of toner im just not printing anymore. its 2013, the only thing i HAVE to print is stuff for the kids once a month. ill figure out something.

 

[Mixolydian]

I must be the only one who still prints something every single day.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Admittedly my printer is 3 years old and things change, but it's the cheap wireless brother, doesn't dry out like an inkjet, cost something like $100 for the first 1500 pages, and the refill cost something like $45 for the next 3000 pages, after which the drum will probably be spent. That should take me to about 2017 if the toner stays good that long.

At the time, I just simply couldn't see any other brand of budget laser worth considering. Good to hear Lexmark is still the worst value in all of 'technology'.

 

[dud]

Is it wrong to consider buying a new printer instead of buying toner for my existing printer just on the principle that buying a new printer is cheaper than buying toner?

You are not cheap ... you are "value" oriented. If you have an Inkjet consider a CISS. Haven't bought a cart in 4 years!

 

[TheSlamma]

lol.. printer

 

[mikeymikec]

I must be the only one who still prints something every single day.

I go out of my way to avoid printing. I'd say I print 2-3 sheets per month on average.

Someone mentioned ink cartridges drying up - just make sure you print *something* colourful + black once a month, and don't place the printer in direct sunlight. One thing I'm not aware of is whether AC dries up cartridges more, because it's not common / necessary to have air conditioning in the UK.

 

[Pardus]

bought the Brother MFC665CW printer in 2007, replaced the print head on it twice from using cheap generic ink, never again. seller on ebay has the original ink as a set-3 color/1 black for $27.

whatever printer op decides to get he should check cost of new ink vs other models. some canon printers have very expensive ink.

multifunction lasers are nice but have a huge footprint.

 

[Phoenix86]

Isn't the "new" toner included usually like a trial size anyway?

Yup.

 

[nageov3t]

I've heard great things about Brother inkjets being pretty cheap to replace.

if I were back in my college days where I frequently needed to print out 5-10 page papers (and didn't want to rely on computer labs), I'd probably buy a laser printer... nowadays, the only thing I print out anymore are pictures (because lbr, digital picture frames are tacky) so I stick with an inkjet.

once in awhile, I'll have to print out banking forms or trip itineraries/directions for vacations if I'm going somewhere I can't rely on my cellphone (foreign countries, middle of nowhere, etc)

 

[Gronnie]

I got a Brother 2280DW day after Thanksgiving. I highly recommend getting a laser printer, ink is way cheaper per page.

 

[Leros]

I must be the only one who still prints something every single day.

What do you print?

 

[Printer Bandit]

i find that placing tape over the ends of the toner cartridge in my brother laser printer extends the life even though it says low ink and needs replacement.

 

[sdifox]

What do you print?

Groupon :biggrin:

or his Music theory papers :biggrin:

 

[sdifox]

I've heard great things about Brother inkjets being pretty cheap to replace.

if I were back in my college days where I frequently needed to print out 5-10 page papers (and didn't want to rely on computer labs), I'd probably buy a laser printer... nowadays, the only thing I print out anymore are pictures (because lbr, digital picture frames are tacky) so I stick with an inkjet.

once in awhile, I'll have to print out banking forms or trip itineraries/directions for vacations if I'm going somewhere I can't rely on my cellphone (foreign countries, middle of nowhere, etc)

I have a Brother MPC-8480DN. Love the sucker. Don't know anything about their inkjets.

 

[WelshBloke]

Why the fuck is colour ink so expensive anyway?

 

[kamikazekyle]

I'd actually say to anyone in a similar situation, if you can keep finding really good deals, offloading the printer and buying a new one would be a good way to go for infrequent printing. Resell/donate the old one to somewhat reduce waste and lower the effective cost of the replacement. Though this does kinda hinge around finding deals, seeing as how new printers have "starter" cartridges (as others have alluded).

I used to have a nice color Ricoh color laser -- clear toner cartridges that were seperate from the transfer rollers so it was like a giant inkjet cartridge. Just unchipped and you could refill by simply sliding open a little access door. It was great till one of the transfer rollers started to go out, and I then broke the fuser paper guides. The fuser alone costs more than the printer did when I purchased it, and the transfer roller cost more than a new Brother mono laser (and there's 5 in the printer). So we got a Brother monochrome laser.

We currently get refills from Lasertech (or is it lazertech, I forget). You can buy bulk pack refill kits and normally get percentage or dollar-off coupons, so I think we usually pay $40-$50 for three refills. Each refill is good for about 3k pages at 5%, though we often do 20-70% coverage prints.

I must be the only one who still prints something every single day.

Nope. If we don't print every single day, we at least print very frequently. My girlfriend is a kindergarten teacher and the school doesn't supply enough paper, copier toner, or ink for her inkjet, so she has to print out a lot at home. I just ran a stats page on my Brother printer, and we've churned out 7100 single sided pages and 2400 duplexed pages in the past 9 months. We have an Epson AIO inkjet with 8 ink tanks which my girlfriend prints color singles to do color copies later (as we no longer have a color laser), but I'm not sure on its consumption.

 

[shortylickens]

Why the fuck is colour ink so expensive anyway?

Oh shit really? You havent the hundred threads here and the thousands of articles online?

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16162/hp_explains_why_printer_ink_is_so_expensive

For the most part its the teeny tiny nozzles which spray micro droplets. If there was any sort of junk in the fluid it would completely clog the nozzle. Printer ink needs RETARDED amounts of filtering. Its cleaner than I.V. solution.

Also theres the whole supply/demand thing.

In fact much like a PS3 vs. the cost of its games, its all about what consumers are willing to pay. Most people are fine with buying a 50 dollar printer (which used to cost 500) and spending a couple hundred a year on ink.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Funny story:

Last Thanksgiving was the first time my cousin's new hubby had made it to a family event. My grandpa and uncle (his FIL) sat him down and explained things, at length. Their choice of topics: tax deductions for freelance musicians (we're all musicians by training, if not occupation) and how awesome laser printers are, because the toner doesn't dry out.

They were so distracted, I didn't get my usual "find a nice girl at church" lecture until Christmas.

 

[SaurusX]

I'm definitely going laser with my next printer. I have an inkjet right now that has become completely clogged due to the fact that I don't need to print except on rare occasions. It's basically like having a car who's engine ha seized up due to lack of oil. Add to that that it won't print black and white if it's low on magenta. Ridiculous.