need a printer for low volume printing.

[T2urtle]

i've mainly done this method for a while and been listing free printer give aways when i'm out of ink. People pick them up mainly since color ink is still full and its still a scanner.

http://i.imgur.com/KdNCV.jpg

Current prices right now for multi function printers at walmart are $32 for canon and $40 for HP. i've done canon last 3 printers and wanted to try HP.

I've been averaging about 50-90 sheets a month of mainly b/w printing and my printers last me about 5-7 months. I barely ever use the color, i dont print photos. I've tried and color quality isn't there for me. I rather do wal-mart printing at 30 cents a photo or etc.

So roughly $50/ 6 months

Hanging around the forums here and other technology related sites, people have raved on and on about brother's 2140, getting reman printers for $50 and toners for $25 on meritline or etc. I've read claims on 2500 sheets. I know the 2140 model is a BLACK only printer. That doesn't bother me. But do you guys think this should be the way to go for me.

I mainly print text and articles from sites that i greyscale. I do a lot of document scans for for medical bills and etc but i greyscale all those as well. Should this printer last me a whole year...

I'm looking at this at a $25/year type of deal if i just buy one toner a year, assuming the toner doesn't dry out or the printer needs cleaning or fixing.

 

[Lemon law]

To T2urtle,

The ink jets you have been buying are called throw away printers, by in large cheap junk that preform quite well, and once you deplete their small cartridges, buying replacement cartridges cost more than the printer. They are always horrible choices, you can't ever get to low cost per page using them, and the best thing to say about them is that they do make decent flower pots. Worse yet, your occasional printing may not get the full use out of the small quantity of ink in the cartridge which may clog the printhead long before the cartridge is depleted.

But if you do only B/W text, an old dot matrix is very economical. Add in graphics, but still B/W, then a monochrome laser is a clear choice for economy. If you want a scanner too, now you are out of the $50.00 laser class. But still in the 2 cents consumable cost per page area. Not much more will buy you a sheet feed scanner, and some more will buy you a sheetfeed scanner, and flat bed scanner, an Automatic document feeder, and a fax modem too. If you want to get into the one cent per page laser consumable class, it will probably cost about $50. extra to buy a
4000 page cartridge rather than a 1500-2500 page toner cartridge.

Decide what you want, get ye to newegg or somewhere similar, do your research, and even close to a do it all printer can be had for less than $180.00 shipped.

Or if you a a real cheapskate like me, buy on the used market, ebay, good will stores, craigslist, and such plus some patience can locate a bargain. Worked for me, as I knocked down a brother 7820N with a half full toner cartridge for $60.00. Two years later, I am still on the original cartridge, and I never have to worry about anything clogging from lack of use. And the fax machine has saved me a bundle even if I seldom fax.

 

[T2urtle]

i can work around the scanner part, i can always scan the image to the computer and then print to the laser unit.

I still have one or two "throw away printers with the scanners that work perfectly"

The throw aways work nicely for what i need. Just feel its wasteful to buy and throw them away at $40 every 6 months.

bestbuy has the brothers 2140 for $50

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Brother+...2140&cp=1&lp=2

the CLAIMS are on 360 toners are 2600 pages. Do they dry out over the course of time and etc? I'm worried about that part because of my low print volume. I know a 2600 page toner will last me 1+ year if they dont dry out with age. Is the design of the laser printers that much better for low volume printing? I always thought the main advantages of lasers were great text, fast printing and long lasting toners (but pricey toners.) Now i see prices have really gone down on some models to about $25-40 a off-brand toner.

lemon, your 7820N seems like a bit overkill for my small usage.


Any idea what the cost per page is on those $40 throw aways?

 

[Soundmanred]

I own an HP Laserjet P1006 and it works flawlessly after almost two years. I used the first toner cart that came with it and I'm still using the replacement after printing a ton of pages. I bought the printer for $99 and the replacement cartridge for around $40 a year later. It's one of the best investments I've ever made!

 

[Lemon law]

Now T2urtle asks, "Any idea what the cost per page is on those $40 throw aways?

When you already think you have an answer in, "I've been averaging about 50-90 sheets a month of mainly b/w printing and my printers last me about 5-7 months"

I doubt even your low ball estimate of 300 pages in six months is a true estimate because most throwaways inkjet printers seldom exceed 200 full A-4 pages before inkout.

But still do your math, 3200 pennies buys you 300 pages or 10.7 cents per page.

Now spend 5000 pennies for a laser, get 2500 pages out of it, and you are down to
5000/2500 or 2 cents a page, after you buy a replacement cartridge taking a $32.50 average. and your next 2500 pages come in at 3250/2500 or 1.5 cents per page.

But then again, for people like me who had the foresight to buy thee non chipped Canon inkjets that took the large capacity BCI-3&6 family of cartridges and refill, I can print Black for .5 cents a page and full color for a penny. I still scan goodwill stores hoping to find one, I have found some excellent cheap non-chipped photoprinters, but no ip4000 or ip5000's yet. I might get lucky one day and find an Canon MC 750, 760 or a 780 for resale or a replacement for my wife's ip4000. Some
8000 pages or more and still going.

But since I seldom print, an inkjet would be subject to clogging in my case. But since my wife and network our printers together, we can both print to our own printer or the other printer.

But since our OP does not need photoprinting, he might look for some of the older 4 color inkjets, like the canon i560, i850, or even the 5 color i860. Or the more modern,
four color, ip3000 on ebay or goodwill stores. With OEM cartridges they come in at 3cents per page black and eight cents full plain paper color, but by buying readily available third party cartridges that slash costs by 4x or so. But refilling can slash costs buy 12X or more.

 

[Binky]

In my experience, inkjets are terrible for infrequent use. The ink heads dry up and the printer dies (too expensive to bother fixing). I've had about 10 inkjets over the last 10 years and they just don't last whether you use them or not. Injeks are GREAT for pictures and that's about it.

If you really don't need color, just get a black and white laser. At my house, I've got a Samsung color laser that I really cant stand. It's a POS. At my office, we use HP lasers that just seem to last forever with minimal issues. So my advice - grab an HP laser and use it for 5-10 years.

 

[Lemon law]

In my experience, inkjets are terrible for infrequent use. The ink heads dry up and the printer dies (too expensive to bother fixing). I've had about 10 inkjets over the last 10 years and they just don't last whether you use them or not. Injeks are GREAT for pictures and that's about it.

If you really don't need color, just get a black and white laser. At my house, I've got a Samsung color laser that I really cant stand. It's a POS. At my office, we use HP lasers that just seem to last forever with minimal issues. So my advice - grab an HP laser and use it for 5-10 years.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Binky, I certainly will not disagree with you. Much of what you say is true for you.

But what about that set of people who demand color options, be they photo printing that lasers color printers cannot deliver, or just plain color on normal paper that color lasers can deliver? Why don't them color demanding folks have equal rights? As for you, Binky, I can feel sorry that you bought a color Laser that is a POS, but does that mean all color Lasers are a POS?

But maybe its time to finally ask the real questions, why does the entire world permit what amounts to an entire world wide printer manufacturers conspiracy to charge way way way more for color than actual costs justify?

To a great extent that rip off barn door was locked early on in monochrome lasers that industry adopted early on. But inkjets when they were new tech became a different story. As printer manufacturers discovered they could vend in that cost them $100.00 or less a gallon to make in cartridge form, for a 25X or greater mark up. The profit in color printers became selling printers for below costs only to rip off the consumer on the ink rip off. A failure of our free enterprise system and a consumer rip off conspiracy I for one decry.

As for a color laser, its a slightly different story, because to print multiple colors takes four passes, making the color laser printer a more expensive animal. But still, they rip you off for color toner.

 

[T2urtle]

But then again, for people like me who had the foresight to buy thee non chipped Canon inkjets that took the large capacity BCI-3&6 family of cartridges and refill, I can print Black for .5 cents a page and full color for a penny. I still scan goodwill stores hoping to find one, I have found some excellent cheap non-chipped photoprinters, but no ip4000 or ip5000's yet. I might get lucky one day and find an Canon MC 750, 760 or a 780 for resale or a replacement for my wife's ip4000. Some
8000 pages or more and still going.

But since I seldom print, an inkjet would be subject to clogging in my case. But since my wife and network our printers together, we can both print to our own printer or the other printer.

But since our OP does not need photoprinting, he might look for some of the older 4 color inkjets, like the canon i560, i850, or even the 5 color i860. Or the more modern,
four color, ip3000 on ebay or goodwill stores. With OEM cartridges they come in at 3cents per page black and eight cents full plain paper color, but by buying readily available third party cartridges that slash costs by 4x or so. But refilling can slash costs buy 12X or more.

I have the IP3000 and the MP130 both are 3-5 years old and both are no good to me now. They print out blurry, since the black in was like 8$ i wasted a whole tank on just head clean software canon has. I took apart the little holder and cleaned with alcohol and etc. They pretty much are no good to me. Thats why my last 2 printer were the "throw away ones". but obviously $8 black ink a month VS now i'm spending $40 every 2-3 months was getting to me.

I've done my poking around and came up with. I'm getting a laser, it dry powder so ink shouldn't dry. Most people claim they need a toner every 2-3 years on lite/medium volume print.

I'm just waiting and debating on how i want my setup. I'm going with either brother's 2140 ($50) or 2170w ($70 reman). I need a new wireless router as well, so i'm looking into getting a router with printer server built in or not. I'm leaning towards 2170 and getting a normal router.


Lemon law, thank you for your blunt comments/post. You pretty much answered and get me a lot of things to think about i liked it. You seem to be fun of knowledge on these canon wonders. Any nice simple way to fix these heads, i've taken it apart used Q tips with alchol and etc. the image got better but still is horrible. Great for home usage but something my teacher would tell me WTF.

 

[gsaldivar]

Mainly black and white printing?

Used HP 4000 series laser printer = $50
Ebay toner cartridge (good for 10,000 pages) = $20
One case of paper (5000 pages) = $40
Cost per per page (including the cost of printer) = $0.007 cents
Cost per page (including cost of printer and paper) = $0.015 cents

Problem solved.

 

[gsaldivar]

So my advice - grab an HP laser and use it for 5-10 years.

This.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Mainly black and white printing?

Used HP 4000 series laser printer = $50
Ebay toner cartridge (good for 10,000 pages) = $20
One case of paper (5000 pages) = $40
Cost per per page (including the cost of printer) = $0.007 cents
Cost per page (including cost of printer and paper) = $0.015 cents

Problem solved.

Like this? http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Laserjet-400...92259198?pt=COMP_Printers&hash=item3a5e6c4d7e

 

[gsaldivar]

Exactly.

 

[ecom]

At work, I've found that the older HPs tend to be more reliable. The newer ones, eg 24xx, I have found to be very problematic and much shorter life than say the 4000 and 5000 models.

I have some HP 8000 and 8150 laser printers also -- those things are stout!

A while back, I had a user with a 1200 repeatedly jamming over a period of a month. Our printer service contractor suggested it's well beyond end of life. I didn't have any new printer available to so I found a 6P in the junk closet stamped 1998 on it. The page count was well over 150000. Plopped it on the user's desk and it has printed like a champ for the past 6 months during which the user has printed some 3000 pages and has not reported any problems.

 

[Lemon law]

Let me make two suggestions about Laser printers for infrequent users.

1. I use the on off switch to turn my printer off. That way it consumes no power when not in use, the fan does not run so no loose toner gets blown around. And even if the eight or so watts the printer consumes if small, it adds to electric bill every minute your printer is needlessly on. The only downside is that it takes 15 extra second for the Laser printer to warm up before you can print. And if your printer lacks an on off switch, unplugging it from the wall will do the same.

2. For super infrequent users or all other Laser users for that matter, removing the toner cartridge, then shaking it some, and then replacing it will often revive a dead laser toner cartridge. And get you another 500 pages or so to boot.

And to T2urtle, the Canon MP130 has very small cartridges, is somewhat in the throwaway inkjet printer class, but with very cheap and readily available 3'rd part cartridges, it might be a cheap inkjet for someone with higher printing volume. But your IP3000 is a treasure, it uses the same large capacity BCI3&6 cartridges my ip4000 uses, but again you have to use it fairly frequently.

And yes both printheads can be user unclogged, for instructions google Nifty stuff forums. And failing results a new ip3000 printhead costs about $60.00 and can be user replaced. What ever you do, don't throw away your canon ip3000, you could probably vend it as is for a $100.00 or more on ebay.

 

[HarryLui]

I love my $20 used Brother 7820N unit. $20 worth of carbon dust will print 10000 of pages for me.

 

[gsaldivar]

Let me make two suggestions about Laser printers for infrequent users.

1. I use the on off switch to turn my printer off. That way it consumes no power when not in use, the fan does not run so no loose toner gets blown around. And even if the eight or so watts the printer consumes if small, it adds to electric bill every minute your printer is needlessly on. The only downside is that it takes 15 extra second for the Laser printer to warm up before you can print. And if your printer lacks an on off switch, unplugging it from the wall will do the same.

Good advice, just be sure to only turn the power off when the printer is idle.

If you cut the power immediately after printing a page (when the fan on some HP printers is still running fast to cool down the fuser), you risk causing some overheating to internal parts because they have not had sufficient time to cool after a print job. Minor risk, but something to keep an eye out with all electronics that use active cooling (fans) to cool "hot" internal components.

 

[T2urtle]

So before i went out to buy that laser printer, i thought i give my IP3000 one more shot.

I pulled the little ink tray and i saw some nasty build up on the bottom that wasn't there. paper towel and water cleaned it up really nice. I printed the little alignment thing. I know i'm low on blk but overall the colors were faded but came out clean. Think this guy is good to go?

I dont wanna spend the money on ink only to find out the printer is junk still. I printed black text and it came out cleaner then last time. I dont know what that alignment sheet suppose to look like but it looks normal to me.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/t2urtle/IMG_20101109_081817.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/t2urtle/IMG_20101109_081807.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/t2urtle/IMG_20101109_083314.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/t2urtle/IMG_20101109_083325.jpg

 

[Lemon law]

To T2urtle,

Yes, that alignment pattern shows you are good to go.

Now learn to either refill, or buy cheap third prefilled party ink cartridges. Those cost only 20% or so what OEM inkjets carts do.

Before I turned to refilling, I found a vendor of third party prefilled Canon BCI-3&6 cartridges. They are now out of Biz.

I pulled up a recent post off the nifty stuff forums for good vendor recommendations, and here it is.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time to time, I post this response to the 'newbies' and others who are concerned about putting 3rd party inks into their printer and now want to know how and where can I get this 'stuff'. I feel that the wider audience in this forum will benefit from my comments; applies to all printers not just mine.

I have used the Canon s9000,i9900 and now the pro9000. Immediately after buying the first one I purchased refillable BCI-6 carts and now use refillable CLI-8 carts w/wo auto resettable chips and OCP ink. My ink cost per refill: $0.24 and the prints are great.

The cost of the ink contained in OEM carts runs 3-5 times the cost of human blood!! Over the last decade of my printing I've polled the many photo sites and other users to determine whose stuff I can trust sanely and safely.

Among the good inks listed below you can pay over a 3:1 range; $11-32/pint
For the good auto/manual reset chips the range is: $2-13/chip

If you choose manual reset chips or just want reset your OEM carts after refilling expect to pay $12-39 for the resetter. Your original Canon/Epson carts with good care might even last longer than your printer, considering cost of repair!

These are some of the vendors that are most recommended:
rjettek.com OCP ink cartridge plugs and much more
inkjetreset.com ink,carts,chips and more
inkjetcarts.com ink,carts,chips and more
octoink.co.uk/ ink,carts,chips and more
Hobbicolors ink,carts,chips and more
Image Specialists ink,carts,chips and more image-specialists.com/about_us.aspx
Precision Colors inks http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/
Cone Inks color & B&W inks conecolor.com inkjetmall.com

For more info and to build a working knowledge of this subject go to:
dpreview.com good set of forums, especially the inkjet printing forum
Inkjet Printer Forum here is where tuff?'s get handled! http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/index.php
Northlight Images: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/arti … mages.html
The Canon, Epson, HP Printer forums on Yahoo, Google

For those who would like to add other reliable sources to this list please do. I'm willing to tabulate a 'sticky' that will also include the accessories: needles,bottles,carts,rubber gloves (and sandpaper for those who forget to use them!). To repeat, this is a resource list for serious printers not a 'spamalot'!

Thanks for listening irv weiner

good luck irv weiner
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other than that, to not waste ink, just leave your on off switch on your ip3000 in the off state most of the time. And as long as you print a page or two every two months or so, your print head should not clog. If you go prefilled or refill your own cartrige route, I alos recommend a dye based rather than a pigmented based for the text black. All other cartridges will be dye based anyway. A pigment based text black is always the most likely to clog.

 

[T2urtle]

i've always used 3rd party carts, that was the main reason why i bought this printer like 5 years ago, people told me about $5 ink carts.

I dont really like the idea of refilling them myself. Yea i know its easy and most like the cheapest cost. But i rather buy them. Do you know of good vendors that offer me the dye based stuff? The placed i ordered from shutdown. I looked on ebay and tons of people selling them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/4pk-BLACK-Ink-C...t=BI_Toner&hash=item2eb0ed59a2#ht_2234wt_1017

http://cgi.ebay.com/4-BLACK-iNK-CAN...t=BI_Toner&hash=item45f6b60d2b#ht_1304wt_1017

none list what generic brand they are. nor if they are dye or pigment based. For all i know they can be exactly the same stuff.

 

[Lemon law]

Sadly I am somewhat out of the loop now regarding which third party cartridges are very good and which can be some what dangerous to use.

But your first ebay link has good pricing, and you can always write or telephone on ebay in terms of ask the seller a question.

As for me, I would never dream about using a third party prefilled cartridge seller that had not been favorable reviewed multiple times on the nifty stuff forums. Or you can try the Steves digicam forums.

Both are somewhat photoprinting web sites, mainly used by serious photoprinting hobbists. And because photoprinting really drinks ink, those are the folks who know
inkjet printers best and how to make inkjets economical. Its where I learned about how to make inkjet printing economical. And the care and feeding needed. But its no accident that most everyone on those forums use Canon printers and failing that Epsons.

I really don't want to plug any product I don't personally use and I am relunctant to even plug the products I use. Lots of really good products out there and why buy pigs in the poke when those forums test them for you?

 

[tynopik]

if you're willing to wait till BF/Christmas, there are usually good deals on laser multifunction devices

after messing around with different solutions, i found the convenience worth it

or if you're adventurous you can try this deal now:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=2342025

Canon imageCLASS D420 for $75

otherwise, yeah, go for a cheap laser

inkjets just aren't worth the trouble

 

[jbbrown]

I switched from a Canon inkjet to the Brother HL-2170w a little over three months ago. It was a great purchase. A little pricey up front (I got it for $80), but it's been well worth it. So far I've printed over 900 pages and I still have roughly 40% of the toner remaining (the starter cartridge is rated at about 1,000 pages). The Brother toner, TN360 is about $40, but you can find other compatible cartridges for $20.

I've had no problems so far and definitely recommend it if you decide to go the laser printer route. It's already made up for the cost of ink I would have had with the Canon.

 

[jjmIII]

An on sale $50 Brother HL-2140 is a no-brainer IMO.

 

[Lemon law]

Its all well and fine to point out how low costs B/W lasers can be, but the fact is and remains, some printed output does not convey information correctly unless its printed in color. Charts and graphs are often color coded, and if in monochrome, information is not conveyed.

And if one wants photoprinting, an inkjet is the only game in town. Its why so many people want to have color and turn their noses up at monochrome lasers.

But as PT Barnum said, there is a sucker born every minute. And almost the entire inkjet printer market is modeled on that concept. Suck the buyer in and then make your money on the replacement ink cartridges.

But my thesis is and remains, an ink jet printer can print in color for even less than a monochrome laser. But that requires smart consumers willing and able to learn to refill their own ink cartridges. Granted very difficult to do on most HP's and Lexmarks, but very easy on Canons and Epsoms. But to add difficulty, the eveil empire has struck back with chipped cartridges.

But in my family case, why not both a B/W laser and an inkjet with network users able to print to either? Our Canon ip4000 is over 6 years old, my used brother 7820N is now 3 years old, and I have never bought a single new OEM Canon cartridge for my inkjet. But for less than the cost of five new Canon OEM replacement cartridges, I can buy a refiilling kit and enough ink to print better than 10,000 inkjet pages.

About the only time I use my laser printer is for faxing, copying, and scanning, or when I rarely need a large number of pages printed fast. Laser speed blows inkjets away.

I used to think I got a huge bargain in getting a brother 7820N used for only $60.00 until Harry Lui one upped me by getting his for $20.00.

But still, some times it takes more than one tool to have the proper tool for the application.

 

[gsaldivar]

OP:

50-90 sheets a month of mainly b/w printing ... I barely ever use the color, i dont print photos.