My last printer died a horrible death. I say horrible because it was pure Epson euthanasia. I got a message that the printer had reached the end of it's usable life. WHAT? I find out that after a certain amount of use, Epson reasons that the felt pad that absorbs ink during cleaning cycles is full and shuts down, (KILLS) the printer.... for good. Maybe we should be allowed to decide that a sign we made is now dirty enough and faded enough to remove it from service so the business owner has to buy a new one, even though the sign is still readable and effective. But I digress.
Now I'm not happy with Epson for killing my very effective printer, although it was kind of an ink hog. Reviewing printers on Amazon.com I find almost everyone considers Epsons to be ink hogs, and many of the newer Epsons are not recognizing a new ink cartridge when installed. On the upside, some Epsons still have a USB and parallel ports which makes it easy to hook the printer up to the Mac and the PC without networking. Most Epson's are also straight through printers which is recommended for printing on the clear acetate when using the photobrasive system for glass.
I tried a Kodak and I was not able to network it with my Mac and PC, it was slow on the PC and virtually crawled on the Mac. It's only benefit was cheap ink. $9.99 per cartridge.
I've heard nothing good about Lexmark.
Most Canons and HPs have the paper making a U turn inside.
Any ideas? Do you have an office printer that you love that will fit the bill for me? I'm tired of reading reviews where half the people love the printer and the other half hate it.
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
I researched a number of color lasers a few months ago and settled on the Konica Minolta Magicolor 4650DN. It prints 9600 dpi, is fast (around 25 ppm black and white or color), has built in duplexing which runs at about the same speed, is relatively inexpensive and has only jammed a couple times in the several thousand prints it has made. It will also print card stock through the bypass feeder.
When ordering cartridges, be aware HP also had a model number 4650DN, which was a totally different animal. I purchased some cartridges online, typing in the model number after I got to the Minolta section of the company's site and it moved me over to HP consumables. Guess what toner did not fit in my printer? Guess how happy I was to be in the middle of printing important proposals only to find out my new toner cartridges were wrong? Guess who double and triple proofreads his online orders now?
Posted by Sam Staffan (Member # 4552) on :
Dave, I have an HP Laser for burning films and masks and my black prints and just a couple of deskjets for color and I have had no trouble with any of them.
Lucky I guess.
Then again, they only work 50% of the time!
No I really do like them.
Sam
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
epson got class actioned for some of this nonsense..
I don't remember the details..
You may be eligible for a check..
But world wide epson is getting a lot of heat for its strange ideas.
[ April 10, 2009, 10:54 PM: Message edited by: Curtis hammond ]
Posted by Jon Jantz (Member # 6137) on :
Well, we have a 2 HP color lasers, a Canon color laser copier that will print 11"x17"..... but my favorite printer (by far) of the office is our Xerox Phaser 8560. It is a solid ink printer... has great color and prints, is very cheap to operate, and has fast duplexing. You can add the little wax pieces whenever you want, so it never runs out like an ink or toner printer will.
Dave, I'm sure you're way ahead of me here, but before you go get an inkjet printer that takes expensive cartridges, do some figuring on how many pages you average a month and whether a laser or solid ink printer would pay for itself in the long run... (and be a much faster/better printer for you in the meantime.)
[ April 10, 2009, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: Jon Jantz ]
Posted by Jamie Nicholson (Member # 6690) on :
Alot of printers do that, When it happens to me, I take it to a buddy that has a print cartridge company, and he is able to clean out the waste tray, and it's good to go again. The waste tray gets filled with dried ink and the printer thinks it has lived it's life, Clean it out and it lives another day. Most people do not know this, when the printer gives them that error, they go buy a new printer. This is not true for all printers however.
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
I picked up a Kodak All In One printer last year and have had pretty good luck. The scanner works as well as any stand alone I've had. The printing is a bit slow, but I'm typically doing something else while it chugs away. I especially like the SD and memory card slots in the front. Very handy for use with digital cameras. I went through less than half as many cartridges as I did the prior year with my HP deskjet.
No, it's not going to break speed records, but the quality and cartridge savings are worth it. Rapid
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
Jom has a good point.. those xerox phasers..
I have 4 phasers.. 850, 860's and a 8500.. all of them are just what i wanted. Never runs out of a cartridge,, just add in another ink stick. The colors are outstanding while the prints are as good as it gets. The 8500 is wonderful for proofs..
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
i have an HP K850.now this is an older model, its replacement is HP Officejet Pro K8600. 13x19" has 4 separate color carts, and 4 print heads,so it will never just die. also for these there is a BULK INK SYSTEM available. this is really neat, for bout the price of a couple new carts, you get replacement carts, that have exterior INK RESERVOIRS, which you fill from bottles of ink. http://www.echostore.com/continuous-ink-hp-k850.html this shows for the k850 but if the k8600 uses same carts, 10, 11's then it will work for them. you can also find this setup on ebay for many other printers.
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
office printer huh?? I bought a brand new HP laser printer in 1992 and have used it on 4 computers a 4P which has never broke down and have used it daily up until couple days ago when I started using an Epson CX7000 I had hooked up to my Mac now on my HP laptop. I also have a brand new HP color laser, copy and scan which I never removed from its original box and I've had it since Febuary 08. I don't know what the heck I'm gonna do with all these things as I can't seem to sell anything Posted by bruce ward (Member # 1289) on :
i have an 02 hp photosmart 7150, always printed great. im not into expensive printers. i can also get the ink cartigdes for this think on ebay for as a little as $12.00 per cartridge.
i regret the day i have to upgrade to new. I do refuse to buy an all in one if i can get away with it
Posted by George Perkins (Member # 156) on :
As far as the all in ones, we bought one a few months ago. A Cannon at Wal Mart. $39.00. It came with both cartridges and a cable. A black cartridge for our old HP was $31. Like Ray's, the scanning capabilities are equal to our stand alone, actually, this thing scans faster. The print quality is very good too. The all in one feature will probably bite us in the azz eventually but the combined footprint sure is nice. I wouldn't think it would do for high output but for our needs its great.
Posted by Michael Clanton (Member # 2419) on :
I just bought a cheap Black and White laser printer from Office Depot about 2 weeks ago- and it is really great, it is a Brother wireless laser printer (HL-2170w) it was about $104 after taxes- it works great for our office stuff, and it is super easy to work on our wireless network with both PC's and 2 Macs- but the biggest plus is the ability to print wirelessly from my MacBook.
I absolutely hate inkjet issues- we have had several brands over the years and I hate them ALL!!!!!! It is cheaper to go buy a new inkjet printer every time, than to replace ink cartridges every 5 minutes- what a rip-off!
I have also had a Xerox Phasor Solid Ink printer, like Jon said, it was a great printer, but I didn't use it enough to make it cost efficient for me- (it was one of the free printer offers, but you have to buy so much of the ink every couple of months whether you need it or not)
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Three Lexmark Optra S1855 black & white lasers- they're dinasaurs, but built to last & VERY cheap on toner, and run at about 20 ppm & do duplexing, too.
1 Epson Stylus 3000 for making good quality positives on screen film. It's also a dinasaur these days, but a good unit which does all we want of it.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
so how much do these wax things cost for the phasers? I've never heard of these printers, but they sure sound ideal
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Dave - I recently picked up an Epson Artisan 800. Wireless printer/fax/copier/scanner.
Wireless works great! I set the printer wherever I want and have three different computers printing to it...and it's FAST!
Tip about your problem with Epson:
When you get the 'end of life' message...you can call Epson tech support...ask them for a LOYALTY DISCOUNT CODE...and they will give you one. You can then go to their website and buy any of their printers at a discount...I did this with my Artisan .... and was able to get a discount as well as an instant rebate they had going at the time...worked great for me.
I have had Epson and Hp printers over the years. My PERSONAL opinion is that Epson is unmatched between the two. You have permanent, quality print heads instead of cheezy HP ones that are on each ink cartridge...which can wear down as the ink is consumed.
Epson has always been a great piece of equipment for me.
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Oh... years ago, we had a Phaser printer with the wax sticks... it was 'ok' at the time for what was out there...but grainy and muddy as a gravel road. But that was back around 1984. Machine cost about $10-15K at the time as I remember it. I'm sure they're much cheaper now.
Running out of a cartridge or changing a wax color stick...same thing. We just had to pull out a tray and put a new stick in - not unlike plugging in a new ink cartridge.
They must have improved them over the years...like everything else I suppose.
[ April 11, 2009, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Todd Gill ]
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
I ended up with an Oki laser. It's some sort of waxy stuff instead of standard toner. I have the 3200 for dyesub and 5500 for regular printing.
There is a door on the back to straighten out the paper path, I added a duplexer and it's FAST. I printed 200 brochures, color 2 sides for a friend while we were on the phone.
Staples is very expensive for the toners and in-store they only stock the standard yields. I use high capacity and buy from Quill. I did a cost analysis. It was less than a penny more per page to go with this one and that included considering useful life of machine and it's cost while it didn't include the cost of the old epson.
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
quote: so how much do these wax things cost for the phasers? I've never heard of these printers, but they sure sound ideal
For the older 850 machines.. On ebay I pay about $5 - $10 a stick. For the 8500 they are around $10-$15 a stick. How many pages? 5,000 or more.
Color and resolution? Up to Photo quality @ 1,200 dpi. The color is the most vibrant and accurate you can get.
Usually, all it takes to sell a phaser is for the user to see the first print. It's that good.
I have one 860 phaser that I've run over 140,000 copies through it. Its starting to show its age but still good enuf for general office use.
I run ink jet vinyl in an 850 phaser to make decals and sticky back labels all the time. How would someone like to produce 100 vinyl labels for about $3.00 in material cost?
However, all this is not for someone who prints 10 pages a month. These machines are made to run several hundred a month.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
I would love to switch to a laser but I have to have color for proofs that we send out all over the world. Been thinking about researching color laser but I'll check out some of the favorite models you guys & gals mentioned. Thanks everyone.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Hey Todd, does the Artisan run the paper straight through or does it make a U turn? I hate the U turn printers for printing checks since it prints the bottom check first so I have to count the exact number of checks I'm going to print, then I have to remember to tell Quickbooks to print in reverse order. Much easier with a straight through printer where it prints the top sheet first.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
So, would a Xerox phaser 8200 color printer, for $150 be a fair deal? Should it be less? How often do you change these sticks? Are there one for each color? How many total?
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
quote: So, would a Xerox phaser 8200 color printer, for $150
Yes it will be. However that is given with reservations.
First check to see how many copies it has printed. Then check to see how life is left on the maintenance cartridge. Then look inside to see if there is any ink sticks in there.
If it has a low page count less than 30,000 and it has a maintenance kit with some life left in it and it has enuf ink so you can do a test print.
An expired maintenance kit will not halt the printer. It just means they want you to change it soon to get the absolute best prints. I run them over expired all the time. They last a very long time.
All of the above info is available on the front control panel. its easy to find all the info on the lcd dislay. Also remember leave the printer one all the time. Each time you start it,,it does a cleaning and that uses ink.
How long does a stick last? They say its 7,000 average pages. That's 14 reams. It uses more Yellow ink than C or M. It will use black the next most.
cost? Look on ebay and get only real xerox ink. Its so cheap right now... Do not use after market. They are said to clog the ink ports.
Posted by Jon Jantz (Member # 6137) on :
Rick, you don't have to 'replace' the ink sticks, they just slide into a little tray and you can open up the printer at any time and put a couple more in. The trays are clear plastic so you can see when it's getting down a little. Very easy to add them, takes about 10 seconds...
We do like Curtis and only buy genuine Xerox ink, but get it on Ebay for great prices. The cost per print is much less than either a color laser or an inkjet.
Our Xerox has beautiful output... especially for office use. It's much better than any of our color lasers.
Like I said, we have several color lasers and the Phaser, and I wouldn't give you 5 cents for any inkjet printer out there for an office use printer.
On our last HP color laser it was crazy... we bought it for $699. It came with full-use toner cartridges. We used it for lots of prints and when it was time to buy toner cartridges, we realized it would be almost $600 for all four new cartridges... meanwhile the price of the printer (with four new FULL cartridges) had come down to $549. So it would be cheaper to throw the printer away each time the cartridges were empty and just buy a new printer...
So.. we did that. We put it aside, purchased the Xerox and absolutely love it. A while back, I decided to get on Ebay and buy some no-name cheap cartridges for the HP laser.. (at less than half the price than the HP cartridges) They seem to be working good, but the Phaser gets the bulk of the printing.
One thing about the Phaser 8560 is you cannot shut it off. It needs to be left on all the time. It will go into standby mode when not in use, but it has to keep the wax in a semi-melted state in it's print head... if you do shut it down completely, (like to move it or something) it goes through a cleaning cycle and cleans out the melted wax. We have ours on a pretty big battery backup, so if the electricity goes off, we can put the printer in stand-by mode and it'll not shut off completely. It'll run for a long time on the battery back-up in stand-by....
Posted by Barb Schilling (Member # 13) on :
Dave, I got a Dell 2130CN Color Laser printer for about 200 bucks when I got a computer last December. It works great.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Well I ended up ordering the Epson Workforce 600 all in one. I was going to order the Artisan 800 but discovered the paper does a U turn in the machine. That feature is inconvenient for my situation. With using the printer for proofs, invoices, and checks, a rear feed works out much better, especially for checks. With a paper tray you have to count the exact number of checks you are going to print and then print them in reverse order. The Workforce series has what looks like the most reasonable ink cost as any other printer.
Barb, that printer looks nice but it's PC only and I have to print from both Mac and PC.
Thanks to all who offered opinions. I really like the Xerox Phaser, but can't justify the cost for the amount of printing I do.
[ April 17, 2009, 09:47 AM: Message edited by: Dave Sherby ]
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Good for you Dave. I almost got that model myself... I believe the black ink will go farther...
I'll bet you'll enjoy it. Let us know how it works out.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
I am liking the Canon i70 that got dropped off to me a couple of days ago. Previous owners couldn't get it to work, so I ended up with it (along with about 25 black & colour cartridges, still sealed in original packaging!!!)
After taking about 15 minutes to read the manual and install the printer driver, I have a fully functioning colour printer that will serve me well in Mexico.
Best part???
It was free!!!! Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Don't you just love when that happens Dave? Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
LOL..I DO Todd!!!
I'm no guru but for some reason, "snowbirds" here think I am???? I can just sometimes figure stuff out.
Anyway, the printer will come in handy when folks need reservations or other stuff printed off.
Printer free...printing free!!
We "NOB's" hang together!!! (NOB's= North of Border folks)
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
I find out that after a certain amount of use, Epson reasons that the felt pad that absorbs ink during cleaning cycles is full and shuts down, (KILLS) the printer.... for good. ![[Bash]](graemlins/bash.gif)
Maybe we should be allowed to decide that a sign we made is now dirty enough and faded enough to remove it from service so the business owner has to buy a new one, even though the sign is still readable and effective. But I digress.![[Rolling On The Floor]](graemlins/rolf.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)