Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer is Cheapest to Use? 119
Ray asks: "A year or so ago, I got my dad a new computer system that included a Canon PX-160 printer/scanner/copier to replace his aging Lexmark with similar capabilities. On my next visit, I asked him how the new printer was working and he said the ink was killing him. The cartridges are expensive, they don't have much ink in them and there are no third party or refilled carts for it or (apparently) any other Canon. It looks like HP and Lexmark are the most likely to have (relatively) inexpensive supplies but what has your experience been with inkjet All-in-Ones as far as TCO goes?"
Slashdot answered it... (Score:4)
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Or if they're like you, and the cartridges dry up. I've found that HP are very good about not drying up, but Lexmark/Dell is terrible. Someone gave my wife a free Dell all-in-one af
Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer Cheapest to Use? (Score:1)
Wal-mart (Score:4, Insightful)
Work-mart (Score:2, Insightful)
For photos, let somebody else handle the headache at a cheap price: Wal-mart (or whatever floats your boat.
That works out well, actually. There are very few pictures most people actually want to print, but then you get good quality for a fraction of what ink costs, let alone the printer. Add in a few gimp edits and you have nice holiday cards.
For regular stuff, there's the printer at work. Who else wants print anymore anyway? The digital copy is more portable and durable.
We are all on one big c
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The other day, I had them print 5 photos off and it cost me a buck - o - seven or so. They probably lost most of their margin on the visa I used to pay for it.
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Toner for $30.
Done for a few years. Never clogged when you need it. Does not run in water. Sharp dots- not fuzzy.
And yes- pay to print pictures at your local walgreens. then you get actual plasticy photos.
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At work, one of the toners was refilled four times until print quality dropped, another was filled 2 times, and the current one is on the second refill - and prints like new. At a quarter of the cost of a new toner, it is quite cheap.
As a comparation, we use a HP 145 officejet multifunction
I believe the correct answer is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or Kodak Inkjet (Score:1)
I bougt a laser all in one (Score:5, Informative)
It cost me about $300 to buy, so there's a significant initial investment. But it's very fast, reliable, and toner is very cheap compared to ink, and lasts a long time.
My previous laser lasted me 10 years. I expect this one to do the same.
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Re:I went *to* a Canon * from an HP (Score:2)
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Re:I bougt a laser all in one (Score:4, Funny)
I hope you used the scanner part while on the printer. Lonely Slashdotters want pictures.
Some Canon Printers Have Refill Carts (Score:2)
I have a Canon MP600 Printer/Scanner and I can purchase refill kits for it or refilled ink. (web search will find plenty for sale. Also there is a Cartridge World close tome that sells the refilled inks) I think the Canon ink is not that expensive. I have had my printer for about 6 months and just replaced the black cartridge. I printed a couple hundred pages (almost no color) on one cartridge. The new Canon branded cartridge cost me ~$18. I have only printed a couple of pictures with the printer so the col
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Now that I've been a wiseass, (Score:1)
Two devices (Score:4, Informative)
Another upside is my B&W communications (letters, whitepapers, invoices) look more professional as laser-prints.
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I only use inkjet for photo printing, everything else I just use a laser. I hope to buy a color laser soon.
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Yeah, they're rated for 2,500 pages rather than the normal 5,000 pages. Still, the cost of a toner cartridge is around the cost of a set of ink cartridges ($60), and lasts way longer. Heck, until a couple months ago, we were still
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I got rid of my inkjet after the 3rd time I had to buy $35 ink cartridges that had dried up because I hadn't
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All-in-one HP works great for me (Score:4, Informative)
Put me in the minority, but I love it. I have had it for years and just this week replaced my first B&W cartridge. I am still on the original color cartridge. Yes, I don't print every single day, but I do print fairly regularly.
The printer was bargain at $79 (US)...and getting the scanner was a nice benefit, which I have used many times. An OEM HP B&W ink cartridge costs $17 and an OEM color cartridge costs about twice that. Given that I have only spent $17 on the printer since I bought it and that only a fraction of that money goes to HP, I think they are still in the hole on this one...and I probably don't have much to complain about.
Price per page? Who knows, but if he prints that much, then you should consider a laser. Yes, consumables are expensive, but they sell inkjet printers at a loss...and they have to make it up somehow. That is the business model. It benefits people like me and penalizes heavy print users.
If he is bothered that much by the cost, I suggest having him estimate page per month counts for printing, faxing, and copying...and then perform a TCO for various all-in-one inkjets, lasers, and dedicated devices for each task based on their initial cost and cost of consumables. Honestly, if the quality of inkjets is inadequate, I would think that some model will still win out. The consumables on my color laser printer at work aren't exactly a bargain.
Another benefit of the all-in-one inkjet approach - I have one device, which does not take up much room, and it was so inexpensive that I will not even think twice about replacing it when it eventually breaks.
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As the previous poster noted, it's also quite compact, a nice neat rectangle. You can put things on top of its flat surface, although this does hamper the scanning utility somewhat.
The scanner works quite wel
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As far as *NIX support goes (if that even matters in this case): CUPS, hpijs, and hplip (for scanner support). On the plus side, hpijs is now included in hplip
Google? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm all for pulling on the knowledge of the tech community, but seriously-- this isn't exactly difficult information to find. I've seen some pretty nifty questions asked on Slashdot, about things like cosmic rays [slashdot.org], full-house renovation tips [slashdot.org], clever telemarketer avoidance techniques [slashdot.org], and even which button not to press [slashdot.org].
But seriously-- this is about a half-step away from Slashdot's front page being a place to ask "ne1 gt dell cupn codz?"
Forget RTFA-- try STFG (Search The Floving Google)
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Isn't it obvious...? (Score:1)
I kid. Actually my university forces students to buy 1500 pages of what they call a "print subsidy". If we don't use it by the end of the semester, we lose it (and don't get any money back). This is counter productive to saving resources, because people will print off books like Dante's Inferno rather than leave themselves with 1400 pages of printable paper at the end of the semester. This is the reason why I don't own a printer.
Plus, I print stuff out so rarely that the place I work a
Lexmark ink (Score:2)
Not sure if having alternative's available for ink will really save you that much money.
-Rick
Inkjets damn you two ways... (Score:5, Insightful)
But if you don't use them a lot, the ink evaporates and the inkjet clogs up and stops working, forcing you to buy even more cartridges, so that a more expensive laser printer quickly becomes cheaper to own.
Buy a laser printer based all-in-one.
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When I had an inkjet, it never worked because it got dusty and the printhead smeared the ink. I bought a laser printer. They are more-or-less impervious to dust. And they are getting cheap now.
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What about a continuous ink system. (Score:1)
http://www.echostore.com/coinksy.html [echostore.com]
I haven't tried it yet but it looks pretty good.
For the lazy person who prints alot. Kodak? (Score:3, Interesting)
None (Score:2)
The cheapest way to print anything else is a laser printer. I have a Konica Minolta which can also do magazine-quality photos, is networkable, and under $400.
Also, generally all-in-one devices are crap compared to separate ones.
how about a portable laser all in one? (Score:2)
Thanks!
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B&W lasers / AIO's can be a lot smaller and lighter.
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Toner: Brother TN-350 $62.99, 2500 pages at 5% page coverage (letter/a4 size)
Drum: Brother DR-350 $108.99, 12000 pages
The one I recommend:
HP LaserJet 1020 (not available with network). Retails for $179.99, but I've also seen this one down to $79.99
Toner: HP 12A $69.98, 2000 pages at 5% page coverage (letter/a4 size)
Drum: Included in HP 12A car
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Ink however.. expect to replace or bleach and redye anything you happen to spill it on.
Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer is Cheapest to Use (Score:4, Insightful)
Getting an inkjet guarantees high prices, lots of maintenance (eg. cleaning) etc. Then, getting an all-in-one printer ensures operating costs will be more expensive still, with a low-end printer, low-end scanner, etc., all in one.
I have a hard time imagining any scenario where space could possibly be that limited, so I have to believe you're just unaware of those problems, or have been sucked-in by the advertising.
IMHO, a B&W laser printer is the best way to go... Cheap purchase price, cheap consumables, far better looking text, and 10X faster than any inkjet printer. Color is unnecessary for the vast majority of people, the vast majority of time, but if you really want it, consumables for a color laser printer aren't much more expensive.
Re:Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer is Cheapest to (Score:2)
A typical sales conversation goes like this:
Me: What kind of printer are you looking for?
Customer: Ooooh I want an All-In-One(tm). [Typical positive response to advertising hype.]
M: I can't recommend one of those unless you really need one. We have much nicer scanners separate for a fraction of the price.
C: My home
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It depends on how overpriced the inkjet is... Epson and HP trys to sell their high-end (still crappy) inkjets printers for $150, more than what a B&W laser would cost, and only $50 off a color laser. You're saving money as soon as you run out of ink. Canon's high-end models run about $100, so you'll get a couple refills before
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On the low-end, you'll get about half the yield from ink cartridges, and so, around twice as expensive. Just look-up the page counts for the different ink cartridges from the same manufacturer.
First off, the fact that you aren't raving about how much better your new printer looks, speaks volumes.
Also, you're just comparing ink to ink.
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http://www.inkdaddy.com/index.php?cPath=2_186_323 [inkdaddy.com]
Basically you are looking for any used or like new printer/new old stock model that uses the BCI-6 series tanks. These have no chip - they are just a plastic tank with ink in it(heads are separate unit). Yes, you're not seeing wrong. $2.99 for black and $3.99 for col
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With a 150-page (black) ink tank for $3, that's 2 cents/page, which is merely on-par with new, brand-name toner and fuser on your average laser printer... You can probably also get quite a deal with refilled toner cartridges and a refurbished fuser, but I haven't actually priced that out (or used laser printers for that matter).
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Canon Pixma IP1500 (Score:1)
It even survived a printing on silly putty experiment by the kids.
ditch the inkjet and go for laser (Score:2, Informative)
kodak (Score:5, Informative)
Their new printers have half the ink costs of their closest competitors.
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Apple Stylewriter II (Score:3, Interesting)
HP PSC 1410v (Score:3, Informative)
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Stylus Scan 2500 (Score:3, Informative)
- inktanks aren't chiped
- there is a lot of good web articles on maintenece.
- provides a flatbet scanner and inkjet.
- interfaces for USB and Parallel
- The downsidse is is is slow compared to more recent machines
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Stylus Scan 2500 cheap older tech and refillable (Score:1)
This was a quality business scanner & printer for it's time.
I disassembled one ink cartridge to understand how the ink feed works. (Hacksaw around seam in top cover plate, wash pieces in sink ). Now that I have seen how the cartridge is arranged, I use bulk refill ink in a bottle with a stainless steel needle tip. I leave the cartridge in the printer, lift up a piece of tape, squeeze in 20 ml, run clean heads three times.
The flatbed scanner is pretty good. Scans
Canon MP830 (Score:2)
Need to Understand his usage requirements.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Once you understand what he's trying to do you can attack this from 2 ways.
1) Get a printer that suits his need.
2) make him aware about how he's using so much ink.
Brother (Score:2)
Anyway, I've had it for 3 or 4 months now and the software says the ink cartridges are about half full. I just ordered replacement cartridges,
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Certainly not the fastest machines on the planet, and not the best print quality, but for general use they're cheap to buy, the ink is relatively inexpensive and they seem happy with refill cartidges.
For $100-150 CDN (watch for deals) they offer OK printing, scanning, faxing, as well as being network capable, which makes them perfect for typical home wireless networks.
Personally I've always defaulted for mid range HP printers, but the
laser printers are the way to go (Score:4, Insightful)
Lexmark? (Score:2)
Dot matrix? (Score:1)
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Incoming faxes are automatically sent to you via email as PDF, or BMP, JPG attachments (usually your choice).
You can also send out, by sending your email to a particular address, with the destination phone number, in the subject line, and they can usually take, word, excel, pdf, and image files as atta
They all suck. But if you must.... (Score:2)
The only snag is that the printhead isn't built into the cartridge and can (if not used regularly) be prone to clogging.
Though to be honest, I am of the opinion that unless you have a very particular need for an inkjet printer today (and I'm hard pressed to think what that need might be...), you're a fool to buy
Fool (Score:1)
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Crap is relative, no?
some of the all in one HP Laserjets to _avoid_ (Score:2)
HP Laserjet 3055
HP Laserjet 3352
HP Laserjet 3390
Avoid these, as HP is saving a few pennies by putting 4 meg roms in, instead of 8's.. to make room they removed PCL5e support.. this makes printing off an AS/400 or with premade forms that rely on PCL5e rather difficult.
Google is your friend... (Score:2)
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Canon? (Score:2, Insightful)
I dunno from the model the OP is describing
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I sell printers daily and, I confess, being a common consumer myself, I bias all my sales towards the best deal for the customer. Based on everything he said about the printer...
...it looks like he meant the Canon PIXMA MP160.
This uses those cartridges that have the cheap head built in. I try not to sell these kind of printers. Instead I show custome
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Canon allege that the types of ink in each tank are different, with
HP L7680 (Score:2)
Continuous Ink (Score:3, Insightful)
I haven't seen anyone mention continuous ink solutions [http] yet. I don't have any experience with them myself, but if you are doing any volume they seem to be the way to go. Not all printers are an easy mod so you might need to do some homework. Also they say you need to print at least once or twice a week or else you'll be re-priming the kit, which is a hassle. These kits are definitely worth a look however if you are a high volume printer.
I've gone with a b/w laser myself with an inkjet multifunction (an Epson RX430 because of their Linux support) for when I need colour copy. Looked at colour lasers, and inkjets beat them on cost-per-copy believe it or not(!!!). If I needed to do high volume colour I would have gone with continuous ink. As a side note - check out Xerox... I seem to remember they have some kind of wax(?) print technology which was pretty cheap for toner.
-Mark
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I don't have a good estimate on the price per print, [read: I'm tired and don't want to do the math] but the site says a typical box of six sticks of black ink [xerox.com] will give you about 6,800 pages for $104.99. Slightly more expensive than your typical toner printer...
If I get
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Large format.... (Score:1)
None of them. (Score:1)
Three words:
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
If you print more than about a page a day, get a cheap used black and white laser printer on eBay. I got a used LaserJet 6P on eBay over two years ago, and so far I have replaced the toner cartridge one time. Sure, the toner cartridges are like $60 each, but they print and print and print, then print and print and print some more. The cost per page works out WAY lower.
If you must have color, the
re: Laserjet 6P (Score:2)
Toner cartridges for the 6P/6MP are often available for as little as $35 or so each, and they last me as long as a year each.
Print quality and speed are pretty good, the printer is physically fairly small, and it even has an
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Well, it's larger than any inkjet printer I've ever seen. Most laser printers are. I consider that a minor thing, compared to the cost per page being so much lower, but nonetheless calling the LJ6P small is perhaps overselling it a bit, in a thread about inkjet printers. At a rough guess from memory I'd say it's something like twelve inches by fifteen inches by maybe nine inches tall. That's not enormous, but it's hardly tiny.
On the other hand, that larger desk
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Anytime I have a reference that I want to mark up (annotations, highlight passages, add postits, etc), I print it.
I'd love to save the trees, but I've never found electronic documentation to be as convenient as having a hardcopy version.
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Other costs of color lasers (Score:2)
Color lasers are not all that cheap, besides the color toner (which is usually double the price of black toner or more) lasers have a bunch more hardware that needs replacement, such as the drum or imager roll, fuser, and fuser roll, then some may also have the charge grid, etc.
Look at the Xerox laser parts list to get an idea, you usually don't see it in the HP list as in the fine print the fuser and other parts fall under service and maintenance (you pay them to replace it).
One that has pretty compe
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Some of the newer HPs that come to mind, specifically the LaserJet 2600 (the no frills color laser printer) has exactly five consumables: Four Toners and Paper. They put the drum in the toner cartridges. This makes them slightly more expensive up front but eliminates a bi-quarterly drum replacement that can cost as much as $190. The toners average about $79 each.
Some of the other ones out there have very in expensive cartridges: the Samsung CLP color machines use a set that