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Home printer question (1 Viewer)

pittstownkiller

Footballguy
I have a fine home printer but we use it so infrequently (it can sit for up to a 1/2 year at a time) that the cartridges are dried out or clogged; is there a type of printer that would prevent this (laser, or the like). I do not have heavy printing needs but I do like quality and it would have to have a photo-like resolution for images.

 
Any inkjet printer is going to have the ink clogging problem that you describe. The printers are designed to perform certain priming functions periodically to clear the nozzles, but if you are using it only once every six months, then you are likely to have problems. The newer inkjet printers are going to make this problem even more costly. In older model inkjet printers, the ink cartridges were sold with an integrated printhead (the silicon chip with the nozzles), but this made cartridges very, very expensive because each ink cartridge had to be equipped with its own silicon chip. Most of the newer inkjet printers are sold with a single, permanent or semi-permanent printhead that is shared by all the ink supplies. The new ink supplies are often referred to as ink tanks (as opposed to ink cartridges) because the tank is now just a plastic box of ink that feeds into the permanent printhead installed in the printer. The upside to this design is that ink tanks are cheaper to make (and therefore cheaper to purchase) than the old ink cartridges because the ink tanks do not require individual printheads. The downside, from your point of view, is that if the printhead gets clogged, its time to replace the entire printer or at least the most expensive part of the printer -- the printhead.

Laser printers have a different set of pros and cons but clogged printheads is not an issue given that they use toner supplies rather than pigmented, aqueous ink. The downside with laser printers are that they tend to be more expensive (both in terms of the initial hardware purchase and the cost of supplies) and they do not produce photo-quality prints. There are a number of online websites that you can use to purchase prints of digital images, so that would satisfy your photo-quality requirement, but there is not an easy answer to your requirement of a printer that you will use only a couple of times a year. A laser, especially a color laser seems excessively expensive for such low usage, and an inkjet printer is likely going to have issues with clogged nozzles.

 
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Can't speak for clogging issues, but I know that nowadays, you need to have a printer that is wireless. That way, you can print from laptops in your home, or whatever. I have printed from my phone while at work before. It's one of those technologies that I can't go back from now.

 
'VA703 said:
just use the printer at work
Or get a library card. I have the exact same problem as the OP and it's a much smaller PITA to simply take a trip down to the library to use their laser printer(s) 2 or 3 times a year. At my library they allow something like 100 free prints per month which is overkill for the few times I need prints.
 
The Epson 840 has been the best inkjet I've owned - doesn't use a lot of ink, doesn't jam, and I haven't had any problems with it. It's expensive new but I bought it refurbished on Amazon at it was like new.

 
'SmoovySmoov said:
Can't speak for clogging issues, but I know that nowadays, you need to have a printer that is wireless. That way, you can print from laptops in your home, or whatever. I have printed from my phone while at work before. It's one of those technologies that I can't go back from now.
:goodposting: Wife and I work from home and I love the wireless printer. I haven't used the phone/iPad printing yet, but I just got the new version that works like that or you can send it an email if you are somewhere that doesn't have the printer installed, like relatives.I got the HP 6515 and it seems real nice. Lower end do it all (I scan expenses a lot), but nice features like wireless and an actual paper tray. Got it on sale at Costco for $89 and they refill these particular ink cartridges there.Had an Epson one and used Carrot Ink and had all kinds of issues with the ink after a while. Not sure if it was the printer or the ink cartridges although I had used Carrot Ink before with no issues. Just tossed that printer knowing it wasn't worth it to fix it rather than get a new one with better features.
 
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Epson 3540 for $149.'

I have the older version of this printer (840) and it's great - prints well, doesn't get paper jams and ink is relatively cheap. 77/82 four or five star reviews.

 
I just bought a Canon PIXMA mx892 off Amazon for $120. Inkjet that prints, copies, scans and faxes. Replacement ink is dirt cheap. Has airprint 2 so you can print from phones and tablets wirelessly. Can also scan to phones wirelessly.

My wireless HP was only 2 years old, unreliable, expensive ink and could not fax through a phone line. I liked it when it worked though.

Color laser is a little to expensive for the house. $300-400 for the printer then $70-90 per toner cartridge. Most come with starter cartridges so you have to pay for the replacements pretty early on.

 
You guys know of any printers that have 2 trays so you can have 8.5x11 and photo paper loaded at the same time to avoid having to switch back and forth?

 
Looking for a cheap printer for home. Can you get a good one for under 100?
I got mine at Costco, right around $100. HP Photosmart 6515. I think they have newer models, but same type of printer. It has been great. Prints fast, connects wireless so we can all print on it. Also, has the ePrint/Cloud Print, so my son's chromebook for school can print via their Google cloud and all the iPad/iPhones can as well. I get the ink refilled at Costco as well, so not too bad of an expense. It seems to do everything I need. It can scan and copy as well, but I got the Scanner Pro app free (thread on here about it at the time) and that works great for scanning expense report type stuff.

 
Sounds awesome. Have a Chromebook.
Only thing I had to do is add my son's school email address for the chromebook to the HP site where you setup the ePrint. In essence, you can send an email to the printer. I think the Google cloud print and HP ePrint are sync'd so you aren't really sending the emails, but you can.

 
If I was on a budget, id be more concerned about the ink cost of a new printer rather than the upfront cost. Some of that stuff is ridiculous.

 
Had success with Brother laser printers. My folks have a plain one like this. I have a Multifunction one (Scan, fax, etc.). Buy a toner cartridge once in a while for $20 and print a gazillion pages. Unless you NEED color, go laser.

 
just use the printer at work
Or get a library card. I have the exact same problem as the OP and it's a much smaller PITA to simply take a trip down to the library to use their laser printer(s) 2 or 3 times a year. At my library they allow something like 100 free prints per month which is overkill for the few times I need prints.
:goodposting:

Wow, never thought of that, great call. In the rare occasion I need to print something out and didn't/couldn't at work, I'd go to Staples and it's relatively inexpensive. Library is an even better call.

 

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