Will using off-brand cartridges in an inkjet printer clog the nozzles? Based on my experiences with my Epson 660,I suspect so, but am not sure.
Well, with Epson printers, at least the models of a year ago, the print head was permanent. When you changed the cartridges, you were stuck with the same heads. Thus, the output quality would steadily degrade over the life of your printer no matter how well you treated it.
Other brands supply a completely new print head as part of the cartridge. This way there’s no problem with clogging and wear.
I have two Canon bubble jet printers, which use disposable cartridges with integral printheads. I have found that print quality stays good provided you refill them immediately when they go empty, then put them straight back into service, before the print head becomes irretrievably blocked with old ink.
If they are just refilled then stored for a while, there is a good chance that clogging will occur, which will lead to poorer quality output, often of varying density (eg striping).
Occasionally, a spent cartridge will absolutely refuse to come back to life, because the printer will not elctronically recognise that a cartridge is installed.
Crankup your newsreader and go to the
comp.periphs.printers group
That’s where I go when I need specific technical info on
printers. If memory serves your Epson question has been discussed at least a few times in this forum over the past several months.
DVous Means,
A little trick to get your printer to recognize an over-used print head it to vigorously rub the copper contacts with a pencil eraser. This freshens the contacts and makes the printer a lot happier about the situation.
Refill kits work well for Canons or Lexmarks. Use bleach to get it off from your skin, but better to wear gloves so you don’t get that ink on them.
I regularly refill my Canon cartridges. Sometimes the nozzles will clog and sometimes I have been successful in cleaning them with alcohol.
I know too damn much about printers for my own good. Test me. I know Lexmark, Epson, Canon, but the most about HP.
What cartridge for what model? I can tell you. Price? I can tell you. Speed? I can probably tell you. If you have a question, I have the answer. It’s pathetic.
–Tim
Oooo! Too tempting to resist. Like a fairy Godmother you float into my line of vision. OK… I’m looking into printers…really! Normally able to parse out cost/benefit
comparisons myself but this decision has given me pause.
HP 970-950-930 all about same specs except minor speed diffs and paper handling options(ie duplex for 970). Units retail at 199-299-399. Don’t worry about best price I’ve got that covered. What I need to know is the 970 enough better in office use than the 950/930 to justify large price differential? Is it heavier duty … shipping weights are exactly the same between printers so claims of heavier duty motors etc in 970 would be well… subject to challenge. HP site (cleverly) doesn’t really compare units head to head. Have seen individual reviews of printers but have not seen any HP head to head comparisons (for these printers) in newgroups or review sites.
Even fell so low as to ask well meaning Staples clerk re above and have him tell me 970 was the only unit (of the three) that could do the 1200x2400 RET mode in spite of HP description saying all three were capable of this.
…and yes, yes, I know the latest Epsons will tear the HP 900 series a new bellybutton in photo mode but HP is where I’m making my decision.
Clue me do Homer! I need your guidance.
I used to refill my Epson600 cartridges, until I realized half my ink was going down the <clean-heads> utility. I now buy aftermarket (a.k.a. knockoff) cartridges, and the printer works fine.
I have wondered why one couldn’t get a special cartridge of solvent, to plug into the inkjet and run a few pages to clean out the nozzles. Anyone wishing to develope and market “NozzleMagic” instant inkjet cleaner is welcome to pay me a handsome royalty, or just come over and clean my printer as needed:)
Well… it is dependant. I bought the 932. It’s photoRETIII, it was $199, and it does a damn good job. My only major beef is that the fold up door seems cheap and flimsy.
They will TECHNICALLY all do the same quality, but I, and some others at work, CAN see a difference in the quality of a 932 print vs. a 952/P1000/970/P1100.
The 952 really has nothing going for it. It’s only nominally faster than the 932, no added features, but it’s $100 more.
On the flip side, it’s only slightly slower than the 970/P1100, and it’s $100 and $200 respectively.
I look at it like this:
932: Great entry level printer, fast, AWESOME print quality
952: Great mid priced printer, same quality
P1000: 952 w/4x6 tray and CompactFlash/Smartmedia slots
970: Lightning fast, super-bad prints, duplexer
P1100: 970 w/CompactFlash & Smartmedia slots
I just re-read the question and realized I haven’t answered it.
The 970 has a 5000 ppm duty cycle, which would make it heavier duty, shipping weight be damned. I think the others only have a 3 or 4 thousand cycle. Not completely sure. I’ll check with the HP rep if they are at work tomorrow.
–Tim
I am impressed Homer!
I think I’ll try the 970. I was sort of leaning in that direction but the (seemingly) large cost differentials didn’t seem to parse out relative to narrow performance differences. Thanks for real world feedback and helping with decision.
astro,
Here are some specs on the printers you’re concerned with:
Draft Quality Black
93x: 9ppm
95x: 11ppm
97x: 12ppm
Draft Quality Color
93x: 7.5ppm
95x: 8.5ppm
97x: 10ppm
Monthly Duty Cycle
93x: 2,000
95x: 3,000
97x: 5,000
Duplex Printing
93x: Optional
95x: Optional
97x: Standard
In addition to the feeds and speeds listed above, all three printers produce output quality of HP PhotoRet III (the equivelant of 2400dpi x 1200dpi). The print language is HP PCL 3 enhanced or Mac QuickDraw. Compatible media sizes are 3”x5” to 8.5”x14”. Connectivity includes IEEE 1284 Parallel and USB.
What else do you need to know?
That’s an excellent summation tymp and I had considered those numbers… though not nearly so concisely as you laid them out. The large (almost arbitrary) cost jumps between the printers esp. between the 930 and 970 (ie 200 at retail!) were what was stumping me. I was looking for some reason to spend the extra on the 970 and you and Homer have answered my question.
Thanks!
I rate cost by how much new ink is.
I appreciate the costs for the technology and the research and what gearing up to make these cartridges entails but at $ 30.00 or so for around a fluid oz of ink it really is a machine to mint money isn’t it?
You could almost give the printers away and still come out ahead in some cases.
Well, handy, if we assume a retail price of $30 for the black cartridge and $50 for the color cartridge for each of these three HP printers and a duty cycle of four reams per month (2,000 pages), we can use the published page yield rating for each of the cartridges to determine the annual cost of supplies. They all use the same cartridges and the total annual cost of supplies comes out to $2,120.00. Of course, it’s very rare for someone to need that kind of output volume from an inkjet printer of any sort.
One ream per month output, which is much closer to average usage, would incur a cost of $590.00 per year.