Damn it, I need a new printer suddenly...

[digitalwanderer]

My HP 932C just borked out on me and the black inkjet just isn't working anymore even though I've tried two new cartridges. :?

I'm just about ready to throw the thing from a window and just get a new one...what is a good, cheap, reliable color jet printer?

 

[RussSchultz]

None of them are reliable. Buy one for $50 and be done with it.

 

[digitalwanderer]

You're probably right, but I'm not buying one. I returned the second borked Polaroid knock-off cartridge and got an official HP45 instead and it worked perfect the first time.

I almost bit someones head off at CVS who almost tried to deny me my second return of the same product in 20 minutes. I can see their point in thinking it could be user error, but this is ME we're talking about!

After explaining that to 'em, they settled down and refunded the seconded borked cartridge and got me the new one.

I really almost did lose my temper, the idea that I can't return a defective product because I opened it is just ludicrous to me! :?

 

[Tim Murray]

buy a laser. the end.

 

[digitalwanderer]

buy a laser. the end.

Waaaaay too expensive, the end.

 

[MPI]

FFS, there are $130 lasers... you WILL profit in the (not so very)long run.

Patience for folks bitching about ink jets wore thin years ago.

 

[digitalwanderer]

There are $130 color laser jet printers?!?!?!

 

[MPI]

No, silly... (colour lasers aren't really that good for pictures anyway, if that's your field)

But I presumed you also use it for regular text, no? Seeing as the black wore out and all... Get a laser for regular print-outs, and a crapola throwaway ink-jet for pictures. Saves more than you'd think per page and you don't wear out the crappy inkjet in the process.

 

[jvd]

I bought 15 printers a year and a half ago before hp stoped putting in the full ink carts in them .

Now i run out of ink and i throw out the printer.

I got them each for 60$ to replace the carts it would cost about that

 

[Dio]

FFS, there are $130 lasers... you WILL profit in the (not so very)long run.

You must pay a lot less for your electricity. The cheapest printer in this month's laser test in PC Pro would have cost £30 per year just to leave on standby. They made a point of saying that unless you're printing a lot every day, you shouldn't touch a laser.

 

[Mize]

I bought 15 printers a year and a half ago before hp stoped putting in the full ink carts in them .

Now i run out of ink and i throw out the printer.

I got them each for 60$ to replace the carts it would cost about that

How would one know if the printer comes with a full or half cartridge?
How amazingly wasteful our system makes us. Every printer probably has gobs of petroleum product and energy in it that we just toss out to save money because HP are ijiots.

 

[MPI]

FFS, there are $130 lasers... you WILL profit in the (not so very)long run.

You must pay a lot less for your electricity. The cheapest printer in this month's laser test in PC Pro would have cost £30 per year just to leave on standby. They made a point of saying that unless you're printing a lot every day, you shouldn't touch a laser.

Huh? I'd like to see that test... The specs for the HP 1012 says 2W "non-printing" and the Brother 2040 "sleep mode" 5W. 5W@24/7*365 makes for about $5 where I live.

 

[RussSchultz]

Comes out to about $2-ish with a cost of 6/c per KWH. (Here in Austin)

 

[epicstruggle]

How would one know if the printer comes with a full or half cartridge?
How amazingly wasteful our system makes us. Every printer probably has gobs of petroleum product and energy in it that we just toss out to save money because HP are ijiots.

I dont like the idea of it, but they are actually brialliant. Sell the printer at a loss and make it up in ink sales. Much like consoles. It sucks big time, but it makes a ton of money for them.

epic

 

[MPI]

Not that novel a concept, really... Gilette pretty much perfected it decades ago. Nice little operation they've setup for themselves actually.

I'm sad to say you have to look out for the same scam in lasers recently also. HP(and others) ships with "starter toners", which are filled 1/3! It pays to look up which don't.

One wonders if they include a customer alienation factor in their bean counting...

 

[Dio]

FFS, there are $130 lasers... you WILL profit in the (not so very)long run.

You must pay a lot less for your electricity. The cheapest printer in this month's laser test in PC Pro would have cost £30 per year just to leave on standby. They made a point of saying that unless you're printing a lot every day, you shouldn't touch a laser.

Huh? I'd like to see that test... The specs for the HP 1012 says 2W "non-printing" and the Brother 2040 "sleep mode" 5W. 5W@24/7*365 makes for about $5 where I live.

I did make a mistake: they assumed 1 hour a day printing, 23 hours on standby, cheapest £25, most expensive £115, average about £45.

Standby consumption wattage can vary between the HP Laserjet 2550's 10W to the Xerox Phaser 8400DP's 120W.

 

[The549]

The Canon ip series are reliable, and have cheap ink. I get about 15-20ppm black, with normal settings. Very nice. It also has a tray, which mean you don't have a big wanker sticking out to hold the paper.

 

[Tim Murray]

buy a cheap B&W laser, then go to CVS or wherever to print photos for $0.29 a print. THAT is cheaper than dealing with color inkjets and nice paper.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I love the convenience of having a color printer here capable of photo quality, I ain't giving up on that any time soon!

I've thought about taking a look at the Canons since I heard they are the cheapest to keep stocked on ink though.

 

[JBark]

I just picked up an Epson R200 for just under $90, and it's worked great so far. I got it mainly because it supports printing directly onto inkject printable CD/DVDs, which is insanely cool. Besides that, it's fast, so quiet I can barely hear it from 10 feet away, and the photo quality is very good. It uses 6 seperate ink carts, so no more replacing a $40 cart when only one color is empty. Each ink cart is about $10 retail (about average), and they seem to be farily decent sized. I'm not sure how long the carts last, I've printed 40 DVDs + the clamshell insert for each one (full 8x11) and haven't gotten any ink warnings. Maybe it came with full carts?