Your favorite "low life cycle cost" brands

[Bob_Smith]

Thanks Nords and samclem. I'm going to try a kit from inksell.com.

 

[nwsteve]

Bob,
Not sure this is still true but saw a couple newpaper tech columnist comment on this several months ago.
They did not test inksell.com system but in general commented that a number of printer manufacturers have a time/use factor that will allow a certain number of pages of non manufacturer ink and then crash the unit. Epson printers seemed to be the most notorious for blowing/freezing their jets.
Good luck!
nwsteve

 

[VoyT]

Hi folks .. hope you don't mind a newbie chiming in ...

Nords, (nice to meet you, BTW) I buy from 123 inkjets, and while I don't have a problem with the ink quality, I'm not sure those cartridges hold as much ink as the manufacturer's cartridges.
As for whether the printer will blow using them ... I probably used at least 8 of each in my Canon printer over the holidays (DH did Christmas cards and calendars), and it's going strong. If it does blow, well, it cost all of $50. Considering I save about $10 per color cartridge, I figure I'm ahead of the game ...

 

[Bob_Smith]

Bob,
Not sure this is still true but saw a couple newpaper tech columnist comment on this several months ago.
They did not test inksell.com system but in general commented that a number of printer manufacturers have a time/use factor that will allow a certain number of pages of non manufacturer ink and then crash the unit.  Epson printers seemed to be the most notorious for blowing/freezing their jets.
Good luck!
nwsteve

Thanks nwsteve. My kits from inksell.com are in the mail. I'm going to give it one more try and if this doesn't work, I'm giving up.

 

[Solid_A]

Great ideas - must put my 2 cents worth in regarding the car issue: My trusty Honda Accord has 188,000 miles on it and is still going strong. Needs to last at least another year or two (good thing best friend's husband is an auto mechanic!!) but seems that it will!

Since I am a teacher, I have more leeway in my "business" attire (I teach in a Junior/Senior High School). I usually shop the re-sale stores in our area (designer duds for a few bucks) or wait until my sister and/or mom clean out their closets (even better- expensive clothing for FREE - and we all even wear the same shoe size!).

 

[kz]

Shoes: Birkenstocks all the way. Usually on sale, or better yet, hand-me-ups from sis. They last for years.

Jackets/Outerwear: Columbia end-of-year sales. Usually 50% off. Some of mine are 10 yrs old.

Jeans: Lee brand on sale from JCPenneys

Dinnerware: Correlle....had some that was 15 yrs old and just didn't want it anymore. Told youngest son when he left for college he wasn't walking out the door without it. Of couse I replaced it with new Correlle.

 

[haha]

Dinnerware: Correlle....had some that was 15 yrs old and just didn't want it anymore. Told youngest son when he left for college he wasn't walking out the door without it. Of couse I replaced it with new Correlle.

KZ, I agree with you on Corelle--this stuff is indestructible, and cheap enough when you buy it. Not ugly either.

I like those Birks too. They are comfortable and they can be fixed for a reasonable amount. I prefer fixing to throwing away and buying new.

Mikey

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Inkjet printers are the scourge of the universe.

It is very hard to refill your own cartridges, and I've seen plenty of printers ruined.

Cheapo replacements either feature less ink, an inferior quality ink, or both. One of the trade rags did a review on cheap replacement cartridges and showed how lousy the output was on many of the inexpensive carts.

My favorite though is not printing for a few weeks and having the cartridge dry out and become unusable. I've never been able to revive one yet.

Most inkjets when bought come with a "starter cartridge" which has 1/4 the ink of a regular cart. Then the replacements cost more than the printer did.

I ended up buying a color laser to end the stream of empty inkjets and lasers going to goodwill. They're regularly available for $300-350. I got mine for a little more than that at Sams as it had full toner cartridges (yes, they do the same almost-empty 'starter' with many of these).

Better quality output that isnt water soluble, nice photo prints on plain superwhite paper, and no drying out cartridges.

Only downside is that they're a lot bigger than a compact inkjet. Mine has about the same footprint, but its twice as tall and weighs about 90lbs.

Its a throwaway too though...after ~7000 pages it'll need $400 worth of toner cartridges, a $100 drum and a $30 waste toner cart. About $150 more than I paid for it whole and likely a lot more than a replacement with higher resolution will run.

Theres another option: use the monochrome laser and either a warehouse clubs color digital print service or an online one. I can get color prints made up at sams for 18c. Pretty cheap when you figure in per page cost of a color printer.

My favorite life cycle improver on several fronts is a front loading washing machine. Pick a good one and you get a longer lasting washing machine, reduced water and electricity costs, faster wash cycling, and your clothes last a LOT longer. Basically unless I grow out of something or get paint on it, it seems to last forever. I have 10 year old warehouse club tee shirts and jeans that still look good.



If you dont need color, b&w lasers are often available after coupons and rebates for $60-80. I throw them away when the toner cartridge runs out.

 

[BUM]

Being a die hard DIYer I haunt the Lowes and HD "Oops paint rack". Here are some recent examples:

2 gal eggshell $10... retail $36
5 gal DryLok $20 ... retail $69
5 gal off white $20 ....retail $77

I havent spent more than 6-7 bucks a gallon for pretty good paint in some time.

ps While in HD dont forget to check out the lumber cull bins for 51 cent "1 by" pine and other goodies.

BUM

 

[Janie]

Good deals (and free shipping) on generic inkjet cartridges at www.123inkjets.com. Epson cartridges for my printer cost $32 at Office Depot but are $5.95 on this website. Usually, I just email documents to myself and print them at work :

Owning Hondas and Toyotas has saved us big $$ over the years in auto repairs. We've never had to rebuild a transmission or engine, and I can't recall any repairs costing more than $250 in over 10 years, and our current vehicles have 190,000 and 125,000 miles on them.

I also dress casually at work. I've found that cheap Walmart hiking boots and clothes fall apart too quickly- the shoes last about 6 months. I buy Columbia clothing- try to pick things up at the end of season sales. They fit better and look nicer than cheaper clothes and last forever (compared to cheap stuff).

 

[John Galt]

Back when I was in full courtship mode, I was having
dinner with a woman who (unlike some of my dates)
was not "dripping with diamonds", etc. She was a real
beauty so perhaps saw no need to "gild the lily". But, I digress. She was telling me about attending some function where "all the men looked like they bought their clothes at Farm and Fleet" (for those unfamiliar,
the name tells it all). I thought, "Oh man, that's
about my favorite store in the whole world." Rustler jeans for 10 bucks.
Come on, what's not to like?

JG

 

[renferme]

We have 2 Toyotas. My 2000 Camry has 85,000 miles on it and I've never had to replace the brakes ! Just change the oil and replaced the timing belt at about 75000 miles.
Somebody slap me upside the head if I ever decide to replace my Camry with something other than a Toyota.

 

[John Galt]

Hello parnass! We live a little way south of Rockford, so if you are north of us, you must be close to the Wisc. line.

JG

 

[BilltSuperTester]

Somebody slap me upside the head if I ever decide to replace my Camry with something other than a Toyota.

I feel the same way so maybe we can make a mutual "slap upside the head" pact? I do love the looks of the Chrysler 300C though.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Chrysler has to make their cars purty or there'd be a $50 bounty for every one you could set on fire.

Janie...check into your cartridge life on those carts from 123inkjets. I tried them once and there was about 20% of the ink in the cartridge (which was a cleaned up refill) as I was getting in a regular brand name cartridge.

Now, if you tend to not print a couple of months and see your carts dry out and have to replace them anyway, a short fill for $6 may be your better buy.

 

[vicky]

Speaking of printers - has anyone tried refilling their ink-jet cartridges? I tried once. I followed all the directions to a T and it was pretty worthless - the quality was terrible. I still have a bunch of ink. Any suggestions on how I can get this to work?

I print tons every day with an inkjet that I have had for 6 years (Lexmark 3200). I only print black, I would not even bother refilling the color stuff.

First step is to save on the ink while you are printing. I set the default printer setting to 'draft'. This way you don't have the paper suck all your expensive ink out and it usually works just fine. I print lots of barcodes that need to be scanned and no problem ever.

To refill: don't wait until the cartridge is empty (important!). If it is empty and you have just been printing another 10 white pages, you may have burnt up the chips making the whole thing useless.

When ink is low but the cartridge is working fine, use the needle thing and s l o w l y fill up the cartridge. Needle has to go into the sponge but no need to jam it all the way to the bottom. If you fill the cartridge too fast, the ink will come ooze out at the bottom and create a mess and sometimes make it useless. I usually run a test page when I am half way.

Nothing will last forever, including cartridges. I usually get 3-4 refills out of them - good enough for me. Just had to switch to a new one because I ran the cartridge empty and the refill did not work any more.

Good luck now, this is so much fun

Vicky

 

[billart]

Re: Your favorite "low life cycle cost" brands:

The most reliable products I've had:

Mitsubishi 26" stereo console TV: Got it at a discount from Dayton's in Minneapolis in 1987 thru my sister who worked there at the time. Was our main TV thru our son's 7th thru 24th years until we had to give it away when we moved in Jan. Never had a problem & still had a great picture.

Honda snowblower: Had it about 17 years, sold it to the folks who bought our house. 0 problems.

Toro lawnmower: close to 20 years old, brought it with us to FL. Repaired once, due I'm pretty sure to my son mistreating it.

Kenmore gas dryer: 21 years old, may have been repaired once, still works (in the home we just sold). BTW, some early posts made it sound like Sears/Kenmore made its own appliances. Did they once? They make none of their own now - see http://www.applianceadvisor.com/brandadvisor.htm.

Sero & Enro dress shirts: I don't know if these are still made, but I bought a few back in the 70s, 7 ended up getting rid of them only due to style changes, with the last one going to Salvation Army last year. They NEVER seemed to show wear, not even from "whisker burn" around the neck.

Bill (my 1st post in months - I retired & moved from MN to FL, so been a little busy).

 

[Hyperborea]

Re: Your favorite "low life cycle cost" brands:

BTW, some early posts made it sound like Sears/Kenmore made its own appliances. Did they once? They make none of their own now - see http://www.applianceadvisor.com/brandadvisor.htm.

I'm a big fan of Kenmore appliances too. No, I don't think that they ever made their own appliances. They do spec them out and have them made to order. What makes a big difference is how they spec them. Sears puts the higher quality components in their products before they worry about the doo-dads. They get the more durable higher output motor in their appliance before the fancy wash cycle goes in. You don't have to buy the really expensive model before you get the quality components.