Screw inkJet printers. I'm going laser. Any problems I should know about?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Maybe I was living in Fantasy Land, but Epson printers used to mean top-notch, reliable, great service.

Last year, I bought an Epson Stylus C84 and soon discovered the thing chugs ink like a frat boy goes through Bud. Since day one, I’ve printed MAYBE 4 color pages, yet today the 3 color reservoirs are bone dry. Epson explains that even when you print “black only” (which I do 99.9999 percent of the time) their inkjet printers still use color ink. Huh? Replacement color ink cartridges cost about $45 for the 3 colors and then I’ll be back at square one again.

Okay, so I’ve done some research and am intrigued with the IBM LaserJet 1012 Laser Printer. Cost is $140. I print reports, nothing more, maybe 8 pages a week. Everything else is electronic. Despite this, my Epson uses lots of ink. Epson says this sometimes happens. So sorry.

Has anyone experience with these low-end lasers? I read some reviews and everyone seemed pleased with this IBM model.

2

Well, if you’re really all that worried about the ink consumption, just leave the empty cartridges in, and switch out full ones when you’re printing in color. That, or tinker with your settings so that black and white documents only use black ink (I’m pretty sure you can set “black and white” or “grayscale” in your printer preferences or page setup).

Me, I bought my used Apple Laser Printer 300 in 1995, and replaced the toner cartridge in 2001 (I don’t print much), and I’m still using it.

3

I’ve had small personal sized laser printers for a long time, and I much prefer them over the inkjets. They are faster and the text is much sharper.

Too bad I’m just seeing this now - I just gave away my HP 6MP laser because I bought a new color laser - I coulda sold the old one to you cheap. It was in perfect working condition and I even had an extra toner cartridge for it - one cartridge would last me about 2 years.

The folks at CNET seem to like your pick - at that price you can’t go far wrong, I’d think.

4

Great ideas, but I’m here to say you have no future with Epson Corporation. :wink:

The C84, believe it or not, is designed so that it absolutely will NOT run if any of the cartridges are empty. Long ago, I set the default to “black only.”

Doesn’t matter. The C84 still uses a trace amount of COLOR ink in that mode. When I asked Epson if I could remove and reinstall an empty cartridge, they said no. I tried anyway. No dice. I curse the goons in marketing.

My concern re: low-end laser printers is the cost. I mean, how much can you get for $140? The replacement cartridges aren’t cheap, but I’m getting nowhere NEAR the mileage out of my inkjet ink cartridges that I’m supposed to–a common complaint on websites.

BTW, I’m starting to think that these inkjet printers are sold at almost cost and the companies make the lion’s share of their profit on ink.

If I can get $40 for this almost new printer, I’ll take it.

5

For the really inexpensive inkjets? Absolutely.

6

If all you’re doing is printing black text then the $145 laser printer will eventually pay for itself with cheaper toner.

LASER printers are the cat’s meow for this purpose but they absolutely suck for color imagery (unless cost is the ultimate goal). I still have my HP Laserjet 4. Damn thing keeps working. It was $1200 when it came out and it is only a 600 dpi printer at 8 pages per minute. A great printer in it’s time but a total wanker by today’s standard.

Ink jets are great for specifice print jobs like panoramic prints and proof sets. It should be noted however, that companies like Sam’s Warehouse or Click Camera can make better prints from digital cameras at less cost than an ink jet.

7

The companies make most of the profit on the ink and they are trying to defeat folks that want to refill their cartridges or buy refilled ones. My HP has separate tanks for ink colors and black so I can refill the black one. I would certainly look for a replacement. Laser toners are more expensive but last a lot longer.

8

I’ve been ordering these for my company lately. We have 3 or 4 so far and have been using them for several months.

We are extremely happy with this model. I can’t recommend this printer enough.

The first time I printed a test page on one, I almost screamed because it was so fast. Nice print quality, too, and very reliable so far.

9

Whoops. HP makes it, not IBM. Otherwise, the model is correct.

Does that still jibe with your experience?

10

I bought an NEC Superscript 870 about 7 years ago. It’s gone through 2 toner cartridges in 4500 pages and had 2 mis-feeds.

In the meantime, I’ve purchased three inkjet printers, two chepies and one slightly more expensive.

I use the laser for most of the printing, and use the inkjets when I want tp print photos on glossy paper. This is something that usually happens in spurts…long enough that the ink cartridges will dry out between those spurts. I keep two sealed replacements for emergencies.

It’s worked well as ink refills cost about as much as the printers…every year or so you get a big jump in ability for the cost of the cartridges.
I can’t hardly belive laser printer prices, my NEC was $350 and I thought it was a great buy, and I just noticed color laser printers are down to about $650!

11

I thought that was common knowledge.

At my office supply store, paper made for laser printers tends to cost a bit more than paper made for inkjets, but I’m not at all certain what, exactly, the difference is. We use “multipurpose” in our own laser printers (somethingorother 7700s, I think HP) and it works fine.

12

Sounds like you’ve had a rough ride with Epson - their inkjets suck in many ways; the print quality is pretty good, but the way Epson deals with ink tanks, head cleaning and paper handling just truly sucks. HP is better, IMO - Lexmark I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole though.

Laser might be a good option for you, certainly the output is more durable with no chance of smudging and often crisper too; I think the per-page price is typically lower than inkjets.

13

Oh, one thing I forgot (and it is a minor disadvantage) - paper jams in laser printers tend to be much more serious a problem than in inkjets, mostly because the paper path is shorter and more direct in inkjets.

14

That may not be the most accurate statement for the printers of interest in this thread. Cheap printers = Simple = Simple Paper path. Most of the low yield printers I’ve seen have a U shaped paper path with really easy to clean leayouts.
What’s funny is: Our office bought a metric buttload of HP 1100’s. These printers were later a source of a class action lawsuit because they misfed paper and just generally didn’t perform well. We replaced those printers and I grabbed one for my desk out of the pile to be surplussed. While it doesn’t get a whole lof of high volume use (I’ll use the shared beast printer for that), I’ve yet to have a problem with that printer.

15

Actually, I misread it, too. :slight_smile: Yeah, I was talking about the HP’s. Really, they are pretty nice.

The only downside I can think of is that the driver install kinda takes forever. And you only really have to do that once, so it’s not a big problem.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you might not get stuck with a lemon, but the 3 or 4 we have are really nice. :wink:

16

I might be following you in. I hadn’t used my Epson inkjet for a few months, and it seems to have died from neglect. It won’t even switch on, just comes up with an error light and won’t talk to the PC. Even when it did work it would suffer from clogged nozzles all the damn time - usually one would decided to clog about five-sixths of the way through printing a high-quality glossy photo, thus ruining the print it had already expended gallons of ink on. :mad:

Cheap laser for text and Photobox for digital prints is the way forward, I feel…

17

Cnet.com has commented many times that many ink jet printers are sold below cost and they expect to make the $ on refills. IIRC they also say that the printers ink cart’s actually have less ink then they used to. One brand (HP?) actually has a chip in the ink cart., which deactivates the ink cart. when it is empty and actually sued another company making a replacement cart (w/ a copy of that chip) under the DMCA.

Epson printers used to have (maybe still has) a wax seal that is punctured once installed in the printer. This wax seal was not made to be removed or reused and has a good chance of leaking. As for using color w/ just b&w (OK the printing is in black but I’m using the term b&w anyway) prints, it may be a good thing as the epson print head is in the printer, not the ink cart. like HP. Long time w/o using the color ink cart. usually results in clogged print heads, this has been more of an issue with many saying turn off color printing till needed to save ink, the solution seems to be to use a small amount of color in b&w printing.

As for laser, I have owned 3. The 1st one I got in 92 a epson action laser 2 retired in 99 (but might have been as late as 01)?. It was a workhorse w/ nare a problem but the cost of toner and the photoconductor unit rose over the years to the point that I can get a new HP laser for less the the cost of the 2. I have no doubt it would still be going, actually it may still be as I sold it on ebay years ago. The photoconductor unit I don’t think is user replaceable anymore but more durable so it doesn’t need replacement regularly. This got 1 replacement and needed a 2nd when I sold it it it’s apx 7+ year stay w/ me.

The 2nd is a HP 1200, which I got to replace the Epson above. The 1200 just came out, so if someone can come out with the year the hp 1200 came into production I will know for sure how long the epson lasted. The 1200 is faster but sometimes prints on a slight angle, it doesn’t matter 99.99% of the time I print. The cost was around $250-$350, again I really don’t recall, it wasn’t the cheapest one, but still considered a home printer, not a work printer, though I use it for work and have seen this model many times in other businesses.

The 3rd is a Lexmart E210, this printer did a terriable job at printing maps, something that I do a lot. The streets were very light, too light even when set to print the darkest setting, but text is fine, perhaps newer drivers would help, perhaps not. This one cost on sale $50 and does go through toner a bit faster then the 1200, but still far cheaper then the ink jet route. Besides the graphics it is a very good low cost printer and has no trouble w/ simple b&w printing.

Some laser printers will come with a partly filled toner cart and will run out sooner then a normal one, after all the toner for the E210 cost $10 more then the entire printer, so it wouldn’t make sense giving me a full toner cart as I would just buy a new printer. I also recomend replacing your 1st toner cart early (before it shows singes of giving out) and saving it. The reason is that you may find you need to print something and find you are running out of toner, this allows you to just slip in the old one and continue printing.

18

My experience:

I have two printers, an Epson 660 inkjet and a Samsung 1430 laser.

The Epson will not function with generic cartridges, but it has worked fine with Epson cartridges. Interestingly, I recently plugged it in after it had been in storage for 9 months and it fired right up after a head cleaning. I was amazed. I thought that the nozzles would be completely clogged by then, but no.

I mostly print text, and that is where my Samsung shines. The cartridge has a plug for refilling, just pour it in. The toner refils cost me $7 on ebay. That will be good for a couple of thousand copies. Almost free. Now the drum is getting scratches in it after about 6000 copies, so it is time for a new one for fifty bucks.

On the other hand, the new Samsung 1740 can be had for about a hundred bucks after rebate. I understand Brother makes an excellent basic laser also.