Printer - Still An Inkjet In The Bad Way

[easysurfer]

About a year ago, I decided to go the Epson Ecotank route. A printer with an inktank so not have to often buy those cartridge refills.

My printer had been humming along, until recently. More specifically, printer as an inkjet developed a clog on black ink. I just ran some maintenance (uses ink) to try and do some unclogging. This pretty much unclogged the black ink but then created a clog on the color side .

I had been so confident that I gave away two laser printers. A big color one and a trusty monochrome.

 

[CaptTom]

Ouch! I have the same printer and wondered if it might be prone to clogging, since you don't replace the jet along with the ink, like you would with a cartridge. I also gave away my old printer, but the good news is my friend who got it loves it.

I used to work with a guy who had some magic liquid he used to manually clean print heads. I wish I could remember what it was.

 

[easysurfer]

Ouch! I have the same printer and wondered if it might be prone to clogging, since you don't replace the jet along with the ink, like you would with a cartridge. I also gave away my old printer, but the good news is my friend who got it loves it.

I used to work with a guy who had some magic liquid he used to manually clean print heads. I wish I could remember what it was.

I've been keeping the ink flowing by printing out a 1 page pattern weekly that uses black and all the colors. Didn't print last time as I was in a rush out of town. Noticed the black ink getting clogged.

Did a maintenance clean 3 times. Now the nozzles for black are cleared up, but that someone caused some of the colors to clog (not terrible, but shouldn't have happened).

If things still clog up more, I can do a power clean (which I understand takes up about 1/8 of the ink level) to do a more through cleaning. But I'll hold off for now as most of my printing is black. I'll wait until things get worse on the color side to do a power clean if needed.

Guess there is no such thing as a free lunch .

 

[freedomatlast]

What would be the reason or reasons for choosing an inkjet over a laser printer?

 

[easysurfer]

What would be the reason or reasons for choosing an inkjet over a laser printer?

If Ecotank works as advertised, saves on costs per print. Only about 3 cents per color page. Also, inkjet may produce better quality prints for photos.

Plus, I don't care for the tone fumes smell.

Must admit, there are tradeoffs though.

 

[ncbill]

What would be the reason or reasons for choosing an inkjet over a laser printer?

Yep...I don't understand either.

Our Brother laser multifunction is used for black & white printing & scanning.

Probably a decade old, uses inexpensive 3rd party toner.

Our inexpensive Samsung color laser printer gets very infrequent use, in the past with the kids but now only when my teacher spouse needs to print something for her classroom.

 

[target2019]

What would be the reason or reasons for choosing an inkjet over a laser printer?

There's salesmanship when a new concept comes out, like tank printers for the consumer. What is missing though is the actual consumer testing which occurs. I really want to believe the new tech is better. How many times do we get caught up in that and invest in new. But it does happen that we get let down.

The per page cost for the color ink tank printer is less. As a comparison, 2000 color pages through a color laser are $.50 each. There can be lower costs I suppose amongst different models. But ink tank comes through as cheaper. If you print two dozen color prints in a year, I'd say go with the laser. If you print 1000 pages in a year, then the ink tank sounds better.

Note that we are discussing ink tanks, not replaceable cartridges.

I highly value my time, so about 7-10 years ago I bought a color laser and b/w laser for about $750 total. This combination uses more floor space, and toner costs more than ink, but I haven't had a single problem in that entire time. I only use OEM toner ($500 for HP and $125 for Canon b/w). YMMV.

 

[Jerry1]

I think the only downside to a color laser is that it’s not the best option for photo printing. Of course we don’t need, or even want, high quality prints very often. So, if I really wanted a high quality photo, I’d print it at the local drug store’s photo center.

 

[easysurfer]

I think the only downside to a color laser is that it’s not the best option for photo printing. Of course we don’t need, or even want, high quality prints very often. So, if I really wanted a high quality photo, I’d print it at the local drug store’s photo center.

In my situation, I had a color laser printer that printed beautifully, even photo printing. But OEM color laser toner is so much that I couldn't justify. Going the third party toner route the save on cost, the print outs were noticeably not up to par.

At one point, I was totally happy with just a monochrome laser. But once, I saw color print, and not that expensive (ecotanks), I get spoiled and don't want to go back. An example is now I'm taking apart a laptop and printed out step by step instructions with pictures. Much easier to see with color print than only grayscale.

 

[LarryMelman]

Ummm... who prints anything any more? At all.

My inkjet ran out of ink about 10 years ago and I never used it again. Even working at home (without access to the office printers) for almost 2 years now, I've not ever needed to print anything.

 

[Jerry1]

Ummm... who prints anything any more? At all.

My inkjet ran out of ink about 10 years ago and I never used it again. Even working at home (without access to the office printers) for almost 2 years now, I've not ever needed to print anything.

I printed out my Super Bowl squares last night. Does that count?

I still print out documents as I prepare my tax return. As an old accountant, I need something to make my tick mark on as I enter and check my work.

True, that for the most part, our multi function laser “printer” is mostly used as a scanner more so than a printer, but we certainly do still print.

 

[Walt34]

What would be the reason or reasons for choosing an inkjet over a laser printer?

Photo printing. I have a Canon Pro-100 inkjet photo printer (eight inks) used only for photo printing. It will do gallery-quality prints although it is slow but for my uses that's okay. We have a color laser printer for everyday printing.

 

[Bamaman]

I've had inkjet printers in the past, but seldom printed anything in color.

My Brother laser b/w printer is the cheapest printer that uses WIFI. And I go through about one off brand printer cartridge a year.

I had to get a ream of paper last week, and couldn't get over how much quality paper now costs.

My cheap-o printer's good enough for me.

 

[G8tr]

Photo printing. I have a Canon Pro-100 inkjet photo printer (eight inks) used only for photo printing. It will do gallery-quality prints although it is slow but for my uses that's okay. We have a color laser printer for everyday printing.

I have an HP inkjet 5258 that was less than $100 a few years ago. It prints amazing photos, but of course that uses a great deal of ink. Yet printing at home still works out cheaper than a big box store photo kiosk for larger prints (anything bigger than 5x7). I can even refill the cartridge until it reaches the preprogrammed page count limiter HP puts in its cartridges.

 

[Texas Proud]

If Ecotank works as advertised, saves on costs per print. Only about 3 cents per color page. Also, inkjet may produce better quality prints for photos.

Plus, I don't care for the tone fumes smell.

Must admit, there are tradeoffs though.

My ecotank prints MUCH better photos than my laser...


And for some reason my laser has not been kind to me on generic ink cartridges... have had like 6 of them stop working in about 200 pages or so... it is an old one, but I think it is the generic cartridges that are the problem

 

[Sunset]

..... Of course we don’t need, or even want, high quality prints very often. So, if I really wanted a high quality photo, I’d print it at the local drug store’s photo center.

I rarely need a photo print, so I just get it done somewhere. At home we use a multi-function (everything) Brother laser B&W for printing.



I gave up on inkjets long ago.

 

[eytonxav]

I was having wireless connection problems with my HP inkjet back in the fall and have been looking to replace with a Brother laser, but since the connection issue has gone away and the availability of lasers has been limited, I will hold off for a while.

 

[camfused]

Perhaps those of you with color lasers that have had good luck with non-OEM cartridges can recommend a brand of non-OEM cartridges they use.

 

[target2019]

I go here and search:
https://www.staples.com/Ink-Toner-Finder/cat_SC43

OEM at the top of results, remanufactured below. I only use OEM, and have never had a problem.

If I buy from a office supplies store who has locations nearby, that works whether mail order or store bought. If I have a problem (and never have with OEM toner), I return the item to store.

 

[easysurfer]

My Epson Ecotank printer is back print heads no longer clogged .

I do a weekly check. One thing I noticed is the nozzle clog status isn't in real time. The nozzle print pattern may show some clogging. Then I do a regular (uses less ink the power clean) nozzle clean and may still show some clogging. Then I wait a day or two and do the check again and it may show no clog. That's one thing I have to keep in mind as didn't need to do a power clean this time around.

Overall, I'm still happy with this printer despite having to do this nozzle check dance from time to time.

 

[Jerry1]

Perhaps those of you with color lasers that have had good luck with non-OEM cartridges can recommend a brand of non-OEM cartridges they use.

The hard part is that I use so little that it’s hard to compare. I have had great luck with mine, but my daughter was totally dissatisfied with hers. I have an HP laser that uses the 201 toner cartridges and I bought a 3rd party set from 4inkjets.com (they sell ink and toner) and they worked well. I did notice that they were a bit messy, inside the printer, but the print quality is fine.

Daughter needed the 206 cartridges and they are a pain. For one, they force you to remove the chip from the factory cartridges and put them in the 3rd party cartridges. On top of that, they didn’t work well. Not sure where she got them but she ended up tossing them and getting OEM’s.

Best I’ve seen on HP OEM’s is from office supply stores, but when they run a deal, say 20% off, it’s in the form of store credit. That works fine for DD with three kids in school, be for me, it’s a non benefit.

 

[easysurfer]

When I had my color laser printer, buying OEM cartridges wasn't an option as price was just too high. I ended up trying non-OEM twice from two different places.

The first try, the quality wasn't too good for either photo or text/simple graphics. The second try was find for text/simple graphics but photo was noticeably not as good as OEM.

In otherwords, result was kind of hit or miss. At least for me.

 

[Walt34]

I've had good luck with the EZink brand from Amazon, for the color toner cartridges. Buying OEM Dell cartridges is silly - after I paid for two sets I'd have paid for the printer all over again. Not doing that.

For the photo printer (Canon Pixma Pro 100) I do use the OEM cartridges, but since we only use it for photos the cost of the OEM cartridges isn't an issue.

 

[G8tr]

There are plenty of articles on the web about how inkjet (and some laser) printer makers are trying to get around court rulings that say their cartridges must be refillable. That said, it's often difficult to find a good 3rd party ink/toner supplier whose quality is acceptable (especially with prices having spiked during Covid, and now inflation). Refilling myself is slightly better since I bought high quality ink a while back and it can last 3-4 years before I need to buy more. At this point, I have 5 printers in my house, 4 inkjet and one very old laser fax (still prints via USB cable). Yes, an abundance of riches I suppose....

 

[Davidhelp]

Epson printer and inexpensive replacement ink

Gee I wonder why they do not have a slot for ink cleaning solvent so you do not need to waste ink doing a cleaning.... $$

Get much lower cost ink at https://www.4inkjets.com/
Their own ink prints will last and last. I have used them since 2007
I was at Office Depot last week and see that they have the OEM ink behind the counter as the cartridges are so expensive.

My last Epson inkjet last about 6 years and did have clogging issues at times but a cleaning fixed them but I found that uninstalling the software, restarting the pc and installing the software you download at the site also fixed printing issues. It finally stopped working last Sept so I bought their follow on model and it prints great.
Works in my Windows 7 pc. Other companies need Windows 10.

Epson XP-6100 $219
5 color inks - Wireless Color Photo Printer with Scanner and Copier
https://www.amazon.com/Epson-Expression-Premium-XP-6100-Wireless/dp/B07PDNS5CZ