Inkjet Scam

Except my Epson ET-3750 came with two sets of bottles consisting of black, red, yellow, blue plus an extra black one and the black ones are all double the size of the colored ones and each bottle is about a fill and a half for the tank in the printer it goes in. After a year and printing out thousands of pages I still have 2 blacks and a set of the ryb ones unopened. And my tanks are also 80% full. So I figure I've used about half a bottle each of the four. You don't have to buy a printer that promises to rip you off.

Costco and Epson was marketing it as saving ink costs. It has surely done that. I can't wait for my wife's HP to run out of ink, refills cost more than the printer.

Now granted it isn't a super duty printer but then I didn't pay super duty prices either.

 

I too have that one now, an Epson Eco-Tank model.

Please note that this isn't a replaceable cartridge printer at all. It uses larger tanks filled from bulk bottles. It isn't sold under that Gillette marketing model of cheap to get started, expensive to buy the replacement consumables.

Instead, this printer costs some real money, because the ink doesn't subsidize the original printer. The manufacturer must make most of its profit on the original hardware, not on any subsequent "annuity" of comparatively cheap replacement ink purchased infrequently in bulk. For people who are going to print a significant page count over the life of the device, this produces a comparatively low cost per page. But it doesn't make much sense for people printing in very low volume.

 

I like Epson. My scanner is one of theirs.

I like that they publish (or at least did, at one time) an actual protocol that their printers and scanners use, instead of having it all be secrets in the guts of some downloadable Windows or Mac driver.

Those ET printers look like a good deal.

How long do the nozzle heads last? Are they easily replaced?

 

I never tried them, but I have read that Epson "starter" cartridges actually contain more ink then a standard cartridge because they have to "prime" the ink-delivery system. I don't know about other brands.

 

The ink delivery system is all contained with the cartridge though, correct?

 

We've got a Brother HL-3040CN, a colour LED (comparable to laser). Also, A Canon Pixma Pro100 (inkjet).

The Brother prints 8.5x11, has 3 colour and one black toner cartridge, that cost around $75 CDN apiece, but last a looong time. Also, the toner's stable, can sit for years, no problem.

The Canon prints 13x19, has 8 ink-jet cartridges, and there's always one or two bottoming out, and they're around $23 CDN apiece. Let it sit idle long enough, and you likely need to replace them regardless. Due to frequency of replacement the Canon's ink is a lot pricier. But:

You can't print photo quality on the Brother, can't even come close. I guess bottom line: photo inkjets are the way to go, but unless you use them frequently, maybe semi-pro, maybe just find a service to do your printing.

 

for photos, we just email them to cvs, and they mail them to us. use to have a printer, but this solves all the nagging headaches

 

i honestly can't tell you, mrs.b does all that. it probably isn't cheaper, but it's easier and more convenient. it' is part of solving the 'inkjet' problem.
we also print our docs at the library when the inkjet is being stubborn, but trying to get on google mail there is a 20 minute nightmare, involving the librarian.
and of course, they're closed now.

 

It sounds like you were fortunate to have landed one of those. I haven't heard much about dye-sub consumer printers lately. I remember years ago it was big news that a sort of affordable one was coming out, I even contacted the manufacturer, of course they just had a driver for Windows, to use it with Unix I would have had to write a driver myself, to even get its interface specs to do that I would have had to sign an NDA, just soured me on it.

 

Maybe it depends on the model: if there's a separate print head (as our old HP ink printer had, and two different Epson models with which I am familiar have) the ink has to get from the cartridge to the nozzle.

 

That's why I pensioned off our LaserJet 2200: HP cartridges were scarce and outrageously expensive, but aftermarket ones were seriously inferior.

HP toner cartridges include the drum. The Brother laser printer I bought to replace the LJ2200 has a separate drum that's supposed to last for 30K pages, I think.

 

Here is a recommendation for an inkjet printer we use

It is a Brother MFC-J985DW - Ink vestment series.

With school kidos our home printer gets a real workout and must do color and black and white. The kids use it for report papers with color graphics. The printer came with 3 full sets of ink cartridges and after 2 years we still have one full set left and one additional single black cartridge left. The cartridges are high yield.

I use the scan and copy features quite often. It also has a fax capability but we rarely use it. This printer is a refreshing change from my prior experience with inkjet printer. The printer simply just works when you need it. No clogged print heads- no paper jams - no connectivity issues it just works.

With kids in school nowadays you must have a printer at home. I have sworn off HP, EPSON and Lexmark because of the problems we had with them. I actually threw the EPSON in the electronic trash stream at a local recycler so that it couldn't be rebuilt and put someone else through the hell it put us through!

Here is a review of the Brother printer we suggested

Brother MFC-J985DW Review | PCMag

(you can get it much cheaper by shopping around than the article suggest). Even though the cartridges seem to last a year for us they are relatively cheap. The act of hitting the print button and having the printer actually print,scan or copy every time = priceless.

 

Does that mean you haven't printed more than 50 sheets in those 20 years?

Is $45 still a plausible price for that ribbon somewhere? I just saw a source offering a ribbon and 50 sheets of paper for like $120.

 

For the few times we want photo quality we order from Adorama Photo online.

 

This is actually reason why I got rid of all our Epson printers and went back to HP. Inkjets are kind of like the Prius, in that you need to keep using them every so often or else they damage themselves. Epson's generally have the printheads built into the tray and NOT the cartridge. HPs generally have the head built into the cartridge and not the tray. Meaning the ink delivery system in an HP is completely self contained per colour. In an Epson it isn't. When the ink dries up, when there is debris, anything that clogs or degrades a head, the Epson requires a giant teardown and rebuild to clean the guts. The HP you can just chuck the cartridge and install a new one. The HP's also usually can clean the head internally using a minimal amount of ink. So if you leave them powered on, they will run a maintenance cycle automatically without printing anything keeping the nozzle and cartridges clear and free.

I don't print very often, but when I do, the HP always works. The Epsons will have issues if you don't print every month. And I could go a month between prints easily. Of course the borderless photo printing is awesome.

I actually use an oldschool Dell laser printer for the majority of my printing needs which today is mostly UPS printing labels for my various businesses. I love this thing. It is a colour laser printer, does 40 pages a minute b/w and 35 colour and the drum is rated for 35k pages, but the original drum ran over 90k pages, the second drum lasted 100k pages. On the 3rd drum now. The toner last forever and you can get versions with huge humps that last 18k pages a piece! All networked, super easy. It's now 15 years old and prints just as good as the day I bought it. It's image quality for photos is crap, but if you print a slideshow or something, brilliant.

 

It was so long ago that I don't even remember the brand or why I got rid of it, but I had a dye sub printer, too. It was at least 20 years ago. I do remember that the images were great.