I am incredibly sick of trying to print a couple of pages for kid’s school work or other random requirement and the ink is out. We barely ever print, but 50% of the time I try it the ink is out. From what I’ve read, I guess the inkjet toner is drying out. For $20 a pop, I shouldn’t have to worry about this.
I assume others have had this problem, and I’m hoping someone found a better option. I’m looking at getting a cheaper LaserJet HP printer. Seems it can print 1000 pages on a $20 cartridge, and it isn’t as susceptible to drying out. It only does blank and white, but that should be enough 90% of the time. Like I said, we’re just printing out random stuff for kid’s school. If we want color or photo quality, we have UPS and Walgreen’s that can print it out.
Cheap inkjet printers are a scam. The profit they make on selling cartridges is insane.
There are more expensive inkjet printers that use tanks instead of cartridges. Then you just buy bottles of ink and pour it in which winds up being far cheaper in the long run.
Cheap inkjet printers are a scam. The profit they make on selling cartridges is insane.
There are more expensive inkjet printers that use tanks instead of cartridges. Then you just buy bottles of ink and pour it in which winds up being far cheaper in the long run.
indeed… I’m likely never to buy a sub $200 inkjet again…
If you do stick with inkjet, never upgrade the software / firmware. You can get cheap generic tanks, but the printer companies are constantly updating the software so only their tanks are compatible.
Black and white laser is the cheapest reasonable home option. There are some color lasers that aren’t totally unreasonable and they basically last forever (we’re still rocking a Samsung that’s almost 10 years old and the color toners are all the original ones). It’s unlikely you’d quickly make up the cost difference ($150) between sending your random color jobs to Kinkos, but the convince factor may be worth it.
We used to have this problem, because we would go weeks in between printing random things. Then have to buy new cartridges. Much cheaper to just print some random something (or even a test page) once or twice a week to keep the cartridges from seizing up. Print on draft quality to use less ink.
We bought a wireless Brother Laser printer a few years ago, and we are largely pleased with it. The ink is more expensive when you have to buy it, but it lasts longer and is absent the other headaches we have had with an inkjet. We still have an inkjet color/scanner/copier for when we need it, and it sucks. The Brother printer does 99% of the lifting. It was not that expensive either at around $100.
color lasers are expensive and the cartridges are really expensive. Since your kids probably want something that prints color, get an Epson Eco-tank inkjet - no more cartridges, bottles of ink you dump in when it gets low. if you buy at Costco you get 2 sets of replacement bottles (each set of bottles is allegedly equivalent to 30 cartridges)
Yup - switched to black & white laser 5 years ago and haven’t regretted it one bit. Starts up faster than our previous colour inkjet, prints faster, toner lasts heaps longer so much cheaper to run long term.