General > General Technical Chat
What's a good printer for minimal usage ?
tooki:
--- Quote from: shapirus on February 02, 2023, 07:07:10 pm ---
--- Quote from: tom66 on February 02, 2023, 11:19:01 am ---Same for if you infrequently buy photo prints. You can get miles better photo print quality ordered directly to your door, or at the supermarket at one of those print machines,
--- End quote ---
It depends. Some printers designed specifically to print photos, like Epson L805 that I use, have superb print quality provided that high quality photo paper is used. However, once you forget to print at least a small page (that contains all the six ink colors) every couple of days, the print head will clog up when you least expect it. I had to set up a calendar reminder to print a page every other day.
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For what it’s worth, Canon inkjets are much more tolerant of sitting idle without clogging. I gave up on Epson after having two of them clog irreparably despite being used at least once a week. I switched back to Canon in 2003, and none of those ever suffered a permanent clog. My current Canon printer, whose printhead has finally started to fail (ink colors contaminate each other), still isn’t clogged, and it has been in use since early 2008!!
shapirus:
--- Quote from: tooki on February 02, 2023, 07:14:34 pm ---For what it’s worth, Canon inkjets are much more tolerant of sitting idle without clogging. I gave up on Epson after having two of them clog irreparably despite being used at least once a week. I switched back to Canon in 2003, and none of those ever suffered a permanent clog. My current Canon printer, whose printhead has finally started to fail (ink colors contaminate each other), still isn’t clogged, and it has been in use since early 2008!!
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There are many variables. Printer model, ink manufacturer, air temperature and humidity, moon phase, whatever. In other words, a consensus recommendation is not to get an ink jet printer, unless you have a specific reason to do so :).
jmelson:
Yes, buy a used HP laser printer on eBay. You can usually get one for around $75 including delivery. Most of them will last for many years at low volume printing.
Jon
tooki:
--- Quote from: bigfoot22 on February 02, 2023, 07:21:23 pm ---Inkjet ink runs anyway if the paper is even mildly wet. I don't understand why people would want something which prints using the stay fast equivalent of 1st grade water colours.
I've had documents that are 20 years old that were printed on an Inkjet and they are useless today also due to fading.
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Nowadays, most midrange and higher inkjets use pigment inks that are both lightfast and resist water to some extent. (In pro photo printers, there’s often the choice of dye or pigment inks: dye for maximum gamut, pigment for lightfastness.)
It’s sad that most people’s experience with inkjets is with entry-level models. Higher end models are fast, produce great output, and don’t suffer from fading or smearing.
Lasers have their advantages for sure. But I think people sometimes forget that they have downsides, too: poorer rendition of large areas of high density, inferior color dithering in general, annoying shine on the deposited toner, higher power consumption, and increased indoor air pollution.
As for print costs: low end lasers long ago caught up to inkjet. In particular, small color lasers are extremely expensive to operate. Simultaneously, the “ink tank” inkjets that use bottled bulk ink are extremely cheap to operate. But for very infrequent use, laser’s ability to go long periods without use is a decisive advantage.
tooki:
--- Quote from: jmelson on February 03, 2023, 02:24:31 am ---Yes, buy a used HP laser printer on eBay. You can usually get one for around $75 including delivery. Most of them will last for many years at low volume printing.
Jon
--- End quote ---
$75?
You can get them for free in classified ads. People are constantly giving away laser printers: the toner runs out, and then they see that a new toner cartridge is $80 and instead choose to buy a new $100 laser (whose $50 cartridges only last for a few hundred pages) and give away the old printer whose $80 toner will last for 5000 pages…
Note to self: finally get around to ordering a new toner cartridge for my old HP laser. (It still has toner left, but the cartridge is old and produces lousy output, due to a worn out drum and doctor blades.)
But I totally agree that an old HP laser will last forever in home use.
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