[vcf-midatlantic] OT: All-In-One Color Laser Printer

[Herb Johnson]

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