[vcf-midatlantic] OT: All-In-One Color Laser Printer
Herb Johnson
hjohnson at retrotechnology.info
Thu Jun 11 17:30:44 EDT 2020
about OT: Color Laser Printer Recommendation
Dave McGuire posts:
> Very nearly universally, ink jet printers are garbage.
I concur, conditionally. I'd call them disposable. I buy one every few
years, half price when that model is superceeded. I use them to scan 11
X 17 documents. Not for printing, the heads clog up!
They die, plastic parts break. I replace it, long after it stops
printing. I haven't replaced ANY inkcarts, which cost HALF the sale
price of the printer. And the new printer has more features than the
old. Thus: disposable printers. I have an Epson WF-7520 to dispose of
now; it's busted and clogged of course but still scans.
My average inkjet-printer+ink costs as a result: about $50/year. New
strategy: print once/twice a week, see if I can stretch out the
printing. This will cost me a set of $70 inkcarts to continue; I'm
several months in.
> my main color printer is an HP Color Laserjet 5550DTN, > Either way, I would not recommend buying one new.
I concur, on practice and brand. Thrift stores or surplus sales or maybe
recyclers provide laser printers cheaply, tens of dollars. Maybe
Craigslist? Freecycle?
HP supplies abound on eBay. HP printers work for DECADES. I've used HP
Laserjet II's and III's until the scanner motors die; that's 1990's
tech, last used in *2018*. Those, I can fix. Hey: vintage tech! We are
back on topic! ;)
My daily B&W laser printer (and my wife's) are both HP LJ 4300's. I
bought a new old stock toner cart on ebay for $18 *delivered*. My funny
story: my winning bid on a cheaper toner-cart was canceled, when the
seller realized their shipping cost was more than their selling price.
> [story of outrage about high costs of toner carts]
The inkjet-producer strategy used to be referred to as "give away the
razor, sell the blades".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_and_blades_model
includes a reference to "printers".
Re: Advice on All-in-One color Laser Printer
I have two color laser AIO's which I never use. Paid several tens of
dollars, used, years ago. HP CM2320blahblah, HP CM1312blahblah. Only 8 X
11 flatbed scanner. But nice color. Used color carts abound on eBay. I
print in color when needed, not often in 2020.
Caution: there's a hundred slightly different brands of HP color laser
printers, with dozens of different toner carts. Some carts are quite
small, you need four of them for color. And the carts (like the inkjet
ink tubs) have smart-chips in them which tell the printer "throw this
cartridge out when it's half empty". Solution: buy copied chips that say
"I'm full, use me up!". Change the chips, not the toner cart. And I have
some refilling supplies too.
This is what it takes these days, to keep from throwing money at
computer-printer companies. Inkjet ink, they say, is the most expensive
liquid in the world. I have to jam microcontrollers *into toner carts*
to get full use of them. And use decades-old tech, to save money and get
reliability and repairability.
Surprisingly, this doesn't bother me much. again: we are back on topic.
Regards, Herb Johnson
--
Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA
http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net
preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing
email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com
or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info
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