Inkjet printers - argh!

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Not this one.  It's too old to have that 'feature'.

To understand the rationale of this one need only look at razor blades.  And look at how much a pack of blades cost.  Even disposables are 10X what they are really worth.

I still have a Heathkit dot matrix printer (which I assembled).  Wonder if I could find a ribbon and drivers for it? 
 
I'm also in the "Unless you HAVE TO HAVE color, " go with a small, inexpensive monochrome laser printer.

I have 2 nice Canon pixma color ink jet printers taking up space in my garage...haven't used either of them in more than 4 years. When we bought our laptop last year, it came with a low-end HP ink jet printer...haven't even taken it out of the box. (and the 1 year warranty expired already)  ::)

I bought a Canon monochrome AIO printer in 2007 for about $100 (shipped) and have never regretted the purchase. YES, the Canon toner cartridges are spendy...about $85 each, but I buy them over the aftermarket ones just because I ruined a couple of decent Epson ink jets with "best you can buy" aftermarket ink cartridges a few years back. Nowadays, I rarely go through a full toner cartridge in a year, so it's not that expensive for us. We also have a HP AIO ink jet that we got for a "steal"...but it costs almost $100 to replace all the ink cartridges...so it's not THAT great of a deal.

Decent quality laser printers can usually be found for less than $100 if you watch for them on the various computer and deal sites.
 
Ive also been up and down this road with InkJets. The latest is a several year old H-P 8500 that has replaceable jets and separate tanks. I've gone to refils that the entire set is cheaper than a single SMALL HP Blk refill, so that what I'm sticking with. The jets were finally replaced this week for the first time. This printer does background print head wipe downs and maint which probably explains why its probably 10 years old now. Its WAY too big for RV FT IMO tho
 
I'm just kinda bummed because I bought refill kits (bottles of black/yellow/cyan/magenta ink, syringes, etc) for my two inkjets... one Canon and one Lexmark... enough to give me at least a dozen refills.  And now I can't use this stuff on either one because the printers are too "smart". :p  There are fairly cheap (aftermarket) cartridge kits available for the Lexmark so I guess I could try that.
 
BTW, the HP complains they are empty and cant print, so I hit OK and print anyway.

Also, look around on eBay. I have seen inkcart 'chips' that I assume fake the printers into accepting the refilled carts
 
If anyone runs across any dy-no-mite Black Friday / Cyber Monday (which all seems to be combined this year) deals on a reputable laser printer, post it here please! 

I've seen these today:
- Best Buy has the Brother HL-2320D (in store only) for $49.99 through tomorrow "while supplies last."  I doubt I'll make it to the store though.
- Amazon has the Brother HL-L2300D (not sure of the difference from the 2320D) for $59.99 currently, not sure when that price will increase.

 
scottydl said:
If anyone runs across any dy-no-mite Black Friday / Cyber Monday (which all seems to be combined this year) deals on a reputable laser printer, post it here please! 

I've seen these today:
- Best Buy has the Brother HL-2320D (in store only) for $49.99 through tomorrow "while supplies last."  I doubt I'll make it to the store though.
- Amazon has the Brother HL-L2300D (not sure of the difference from the 2320D) for $59.99 currently, not sure when that price will increase.
Click to expand...

I'm working on my checklist for my RV and having a small printer is a must as space is a premium for sure in my RV....I gotta say reading this thread is moving me to a laser printer as our need for color isn't critical and like others have said...can always go to walgreens or walmart or a staples and get color print when absolutely necessary...I like to see what have with small footprint lase printers as well
 
Epson has some new "Ecotank" printers that don't use cartridges. Instead, the have an ink tank for each color. When they run out, you just pour in a new bottle of ink.

The printers cost more, but the ink is very inexpensive. If you do a lot of printing, this is the way to go.

Joel
 
decaturbob said:
I'm working on my checklist for my RV and having a small printer is a must as space is a premium for sure in my RV....I gotta say reading this thread is moving me to a laser printer as our need for color isn't critical and like others have said...can always go to walgreens or walmart or a staples and get color print when absolutely necessary...I like to see what have with small footprint lase printers as well
Click to expand...

While doing a visitor center volunteer job a couple of summers ago I had a chance to make a lot of use of an inexpensive Canon laser printer; considering in was in the ~$200 range I was impressed with its reliability.  It's toner cartridge was relatively small for our purposes then, but in home use it would have been fine.  My biggest problem with a laser printer in the MH is finding the vertical space for it.  My ink jet sits on a high shelf that doesn't have the clearance for a laser.  The footprint isn't all that different just the height and I still need an all-in-one since scanning seems to be needed once or twice a month, at least.
 
docj said:
While doing a visitor center volunteer job a couple of summers ago I had a chance to make a lot of use of an inexpensive Canon laser printer; considering in was in the ~$200 range I was impressed with its reliability.  It's toner cartridge was relatively small for our purposes then, but in home use it would have been fine.  My biggest problem with a laser printer in the MH is finding the vertical space for it.  My ink jet sits on a high shelf that doesn't have the clearance for a laser.  The footprint isn't all that different just the height and I still need an all-in-one since scanning seems to be needed once or twice a month, at least.
Click to expand...

I found a brother  B/w laser at amazon for $60, I'll have tuesday.  I ordered a couple generic toner cartridges for $22 total.  Its a bit larger than a compact inkjet but won't have the issues with clogged nozzles.
 
decaturbob said:
I found a brother  B/w laser at amazon for $60, I'll have tuesday.  I ordered a couple generic toner cartridges for $22 total.  Its a bit larger than a compact inkjet but won't have the issues with clogged nozzles.
Click to expand...

Depending on your needs I think you'll be happy with it.  Before I was retired I used the printer a lot, so never had a problem with dried out printer nozzles.  After I retired I would often go a month or more without needing to print anything.  Every time I'd have to go through multiple cleaning cycles and wasted paper to get it going again.

Finally, I got a laser similar to what it sounds like you bought.  I went with one as simple as possible.  To this point it has never failed to print a good b/w document the first time. 

I hope you have the same level of success.
 
[quote author=decaturbob]I found a brother  B/w laser at amazon for $60[/quote]

Where did you find that?
 
GR 'Scott' Cundiff said:
Depending on your needs I think you'll be happy with it.  Before I was retired I used the printer a lot, so never had a problem with dried out printer nozzles.  After I retired I would often go a month or more without needing to print anything.  Every time I'd have to go through multiple cleaning cycles and wasted paper to get it going again.

Finally, I got a laser similar to what it sounds like you bought.  I went with one as simple as possible.  To this point it has never failed to print a good b/w document the first time. 

I hope you have the same level of success.
Click to expand...

I have a large format cannon inkjet printer I use very sparingly and takes me an hour to get decent prints out and smaller epson we use all the time but chew thru ink cartridges....to me this laser printer I am getting I can easily use at home for 90% of what we print and then put it in the RV...and not have the print cartridge issues.  The challenge in getting our RV is to figure out space allocation and have what we need for a minimum...This is the real challenge of RV ownership and use for sure.
 
Thanks Bob. I must have missed that Brother printer when I was looking. Let us know how it works out.
 
As luck would have it, I found and purchased a like-new condition Canon duplexing laser printer from a private seller (found on Craigslist) for $25.  Seller says it has a newer toner cartridge worth several thousand pages in it too.  It's a monochrome printer but that's mostly what we need at home, so can't beat that price for an introduction to laser printers.
 
Does anyone happen to know what the smallest monochrome laser printer available is?

So far the one that I've seen advertised as "compact" is a Brother one, but its footprint is 14" x 14" and it weighs 15 pounds. UGH. I need to be able to keep it in an overhead cabinet unless/until it's needed.

I'm finding out firsthand just what a bad idea it is to rely on an inkjet printer when you only need a printer about once a month.
 
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