Best Economical Way to Print?

[RobbieB]

I like a color laser. Yeah, more dough. But it just looks good -

I copied my certificate of number (fancy US Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security) for the marina files and the lady told me I didn't have to give the original.

Yeah, looks good!

 

[Jerry1]

I like a color laser. Yeah, more dough. But it just looks good -

I copied my certificate of number (fancy US Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security) for the marina files and the lady told me I didn't have to give the original.

Yeah, looks good!

I’m with you. This is a small BTD item for us. Besides that the prints look good, the upside is that it’s problem free printing. No dried up ink cartridges or clogged ink jets. I did have an issue with some non-OEM laser cartridges but now I’m back to HP original cartridges and it’s working great.

 

[Wishing]

I also have HP Envy and use the HP ink service. The level of ink is monitored remotely, and the company sends additional cartridges as needed. There are different print levels depending on need. I was paying 2.99 for 50 pages per month. Recently had to go to the next level - 100 pages per month for 5.99. I never have to worry about searching for ink cartridges.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

I have suffered from this for years and it somewhat depends on your usage levels. We mostly save things as pdf's now and keep them on the phone or server. But, for infrequent users that also need photographs (rough not fine) I can recommend the Epson L3150 inkjet printer as it has large tanks that can be cheaply refilled. We have a much more expensive Canon Pro-100S for real professional photographic quality prints that get used maybe twice a year, but then in bulk. My wife is a professional photographer so this is important. The Epson is used for little things like Christmas cards and postcard-size prints of photos to give as gifts. The Epson solves that problem of infrequent use and typically inkjets dry up if not used.

If all a person needs is black and white a laser is cheaper and toner cartridges can be refilled pretty easily although it usually requires hacking the chips that report how much is used. The real problem is the industry is based on a profit model where the consumables are the profit and the printers themselves are loss-leaders. They make it hard to work around the chips that report usage and block the machine when low. Refilling them really doesn't solve the issue hence why you can get "kits" that include the chips that are hacked. I don't bother now with the Epson as it is designed to use larger volume refillable tanks. That printer though is not cheap but in the long run, is cheaper to use especially is you are an infrequent user.

 

[imnontrad]

There is a reason the printers are so cheap.

I have the same problem. The ink in the cartridge usually dries out/evaporates before I can print, And HP has a way to check if it is a valid HP ink cartridge or not.
At one time I had a home laser printer. Although the laser cartridges were more expensive, they would not have the same dry out problem. So maybe when this printer dies, or I get sick of paying the ink fees, I'll replace it with a laser printer.

 

[blueskyk]

I joined the HP Instant Ink program when I bought my HP Envy 7155 nearly 5 years ago. I was on the 50 page per month plan, which costs $3.99 per month for most of that time. They send you the color and black cartridges in advance and they send you more ink before you run out. You agree to connect the printer to your network/internet and everything is done automatically, including charging your credit card monthly. Doesn’t matter if you print 50 pages with text or 50 photos - same price. Unprinted pages rollover up to a max of 3 months. I’ve never bought an ink cartridge for the past 5 years. For more info check out https://instantink.hpconnected.com/us/en/l/

+1 on the HP Instant Ink. I had the same issue as the OP, expensive cartridges, low volume printing. Used the HP Instant Ink program for years, only paying $48 per year for ink.

Later I purchased an Epson EcoTank inkjet printer because I print in color on fabric for art projects and haven’t had any issues with ink lasting a much shorter time than expected.

The HP Instant Ink was, like many things nowadays, a little tricky to cancel IMHO and resulted in a few more months of billing than I had planned. It was still a far better deal than buying cartridges.

 

[ncbill]

I have suffered from this for years and it somewhat depends on your usage levels. We mostly save things as pdf's now and keep them on the phone or server. But, for infrequent users that also need photographs (rough not fine) I can recommend the Epson L3150 inkjet printer as it has large tanks that can be cheaply refilled. We have a much more expensive Canon Pro-100S for real professional photographic quality prints that get used maybe twice a year, but then in bulk. My wife is a professional photographer so this is important. The Epson is used for little things like Christmas cards and postcard-size prints of photos to give as gifts. The Epson solves that problem of infrequent use and typically inkjets dry up if not used.

If all a person needs is black and white a laser is cheaper and toner cartridges can be refilled pretty easily although it usually requires hacking the chips that report how much is used. The real problem is the industry is based on a profit model where the consumables are the profit and the printers themselves are loss-leaders. They make it hard to work around the chips that report usage and block the machine when low. Refilling them really doesn't solve the issue hence why you can get "kits" that include the chips that are hacked. I don't bother now with the Epson as it is designed to use larger volume refillable tanks. That printer though is not cheap but in the long run, is cheaper to use especially is you are an infrequent user.

So do the newer "bulk tank" inkjet printers just run a cleaning cycle every so often so they don't clog?

I'd like to replace our rarely used color laser printer ($$$ cartridges) with one of the above but don't want to have to deal with any more clogs.

 

[audreyh1]

Epson EcoTank printer/copier/scanner with ink tanks so you no longer buy cartridges. They have large reservoirs for inks. 3 colors plus larger black reservoir.

Bought it at Costco where they bundled several spare inks.

We also have an old Lexmark laser printer that has been complaining about low toner for years but still prints just fine. We don’t print very much.

No subscriptions.

Oh yeah - we also have an huge Epson fine art printer but that’s only for DH’s fancy large high resolution photographic prints. It uses archival inks.

So do the newer "bulk tank" inkjet printers just run a cleaning cycle every so often so they don't clog?

I'd like to replace our rarely used color laser printer ($$$ cartridges) with one of the above but don't want to have to deal with any more clogs.

Yes, we have to occasionally run a cleaning cycle. I think ink jet printers just clog.

 

[Midpack]

Print less? We have an HP Deskjet, but I consciously avoid printing as much as possible. Between saving PDF’s and using screenshots, there’s not much I have to print anymore. e.g. I don’t have paper copies of any financial or tax records any more. My physical file cabinet space has been cut 75%! I do have triple backups of everything on my Mac, so well protected. It’s easier to share images via email, text or attached files IME. Unless you have business needs for hard copy…

 

[Skitso999]

I have an ancient HP LaserJet 5P that I bought about 14 years ago, and I place a new cartridge in it about once every two years. No problems at all and the refills are cheap!

I think it was made in about 1996!

 

[wyecrabber1]

I've had Hp, Canon, Epson inkjets all with the problems listed about clogging. Did the buy the ink and refill, purchased the cheap after market cartridges where you had to pull the chip off the old one and glue on the new cartridge.

A year ago I purchased an Epson ET 4800 EcoTank. I've never had a problem, image quality is very good. I leave in on all the time -- you can hear a pump kick on every now and then.

 

[ncbill]

Epson EcoTank printer/copier/scanner with ink tanks so you no longer buy cartridges. They have large reservoirs for inks. 3 colors plus larger black reservoir.

Bought it at Costco where they bundled several spare inks.

We also have an old Lexmark laser printer that has been complaining about low toner for years but still prints just fine. We don’t print very much.

No subscriptions.

Oh yeah - we also have an huge Epson fine art printer but that’s only for DH’s fancy large high resolution photographic prints. It uses archival inks.

Yes, we have to occasionally run a cleaning cycle. I think ink jet printers just clog.

So the printer does so automatically?

I don't care about consuming some ink in a cleaning cycle.

I just don't want to go to print after it being idle for weeks only to discover clogged, unusable cartridges as with all my older inkjet printers.

 

[audreyh1]

So the printer does so automatically?

I don't care about consuming some ink in a cleaning cycle.

I just don't want to go to print after it being idle for weeks only to discover clogged, unusable cartridges as with all my older inkjet printers.

No, we tell it when to clean. But I think we’ve only had to do one serious cleaning cycle so far in 2 years of ownership. We go for weeks without using it.

Costco had a sale. It was $280 and came with an extra set of inks. We still have plenty of ink left from the first set.

 

[ncbill]

No, we tell it when to clean. But I think we’ve only had to do one serious cleaning cycle so far in 2 years of ownership. We go for weeks without using it.

Costco had a sale. It was $280 and came with an extra set of inks. We still have plenty of ink left from the first set.

Thanks, I'll check out Costco!

Don't want to spend $100+ each on color toner carts for our current color laser.

 

[Gulfbeach]

I bought a simple Brother b/w laser printer and it has worked great so far.
It still is but the in the last week the
wi fi light has started blinking slowly.
The person who installed it said not to worry about it but if there is something simple I can do I would appreciate one of you telling me the fix.
Many thanks!

 

[Koolau]

I bought a simple Brother b/w laser printer and it has worked great so far.
It still is but the in the last week the
wi fi light has started blinking slowly.
The person who installed it said not to worry about it but if there is something simple I can do I would appreciate one of you telling me the fix.
Many thanks!

Heh, heh, buy a new one? (Sorry 'bout that.) We can't keep a printer w*rking - except an old laser printer we inherited years ago. It finally ran out of toner (or whatever) so we ended up buying a new ink jet - which gummed up.