Another printer rant

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Monty

Monty

Group Buy Coordinator
Joined
Mar 4, 2005
Messages
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Location
Pearland, Texas, USA.
(Rant on)
About 2 years ago I got tired of paying the high cost of ink jet ink so I purchased a Brother mono laser printer. It was on sale at Office Depot for about $79 and has served me well the past few years. At first I started buying my toner at OD, but about a year ago I started buying generic ones from EBay. The first of this year, I knew it was getting close to time to replace the drum so I bought one of the generic of EBay. It worked for a few weeks and now the printer is flashing signals that says something is wrong with the drum. I figure that's what I get for being so cheap. Checked the price of an OEM drum from OD and it's $111. The also have the newer version of the same printer for $80. WHAT GIVES. I might as well buy a new printer. It'd be $30 cheaper. I can't really complain about the printer itself as it has worked flawlessly since I bought it 2+ years ago.
I did buy another generic replacement drum off EBay for $24. It will be here in a few days and I guess at that time I'll see if it works any better. If not, I'll probably buy another new printer.
(Rant off)
 
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Same thing with printer heads on Ink Jets - Mine blew out on my cannon mx700 was cheaper to just buy a new printer. I remember back in the day when you bought hardware and it lasted years.

I remember my linksys routers lasting 5 years, now I would be lucky if they last 2. Linksys was bought out by Cisco. Cisco was a brand that meant quality. All about the mighty $$ these days, quality products seem to be a thing of the past.
 
If you ever figure it out let me know.

The HP laserjet printer I have sells for $99. The toner cartridge sells for $115.

Like you I bought replacement toner off eBay, I think I paid $20 shipped.
 
It may be cheaper to buy a new printer but remember that the cartridge that comes with the new printer won't last as long as the regular cartridge. So sooner than later you'll be back to the point of needing a cartridge.
 
With laser printers, an often-effective trick to extend the life of a toner cartridge is to take it out and tap it on a table a couple of times.

Laser toner is a very fine powder, and if it starts to 'cake' up, then the printer will display the 'replace toner' alarm. Tapping the cartridge can loosen caked toner and make it last longer. It takes a firm tap - not hard enough to break the plastic or mar the table, but firm enough to loosen the powdered toner.
 
Printers and many other small peripherals like this are considered FRU (Field Replacement Units). They are cheap and built that way. Most printers in this price range will only last for a few Ink changes. Sometimes it is even cheaper to buy a new printer than replace the ink in older models. I have been considering a Laser printer myself but am waiting for my 6 month old HP to die, which is already showing signs of going out.
 
dexter0606 said:
It may be cheaper to buy a new printer but remember that the cartridge that comes with the new printer won't last as long as the regular cartridge. So sooner than later you'll be back to the point of needing a cartridge.
Click to expand...
Is this actually the case? Nowhere does the replacement toner say it'll last longer than the original. If this were the case you'd think they'd market that the replacements will last longer. This might actually make me consider buying it being the same price as the printer.

My guess is they're made so cheap they want to encourage you to replace it before it breaks when looking for toner. Most electronics are made to be disposable and not last a life time.
 
I've got an HP laser jet 1022 at the shop and at work. Both have served me very very well for several years. I have an HP all in one inkjet/scanner/fax/copier at the shop too and it is a complete POS! I just blew through a brand new set of ink cartridges on a head cleaning. I hate that thing.
 
Andrew_K99 said:
dexter0606 said:
It may be cheaper to buy a new printer but remember that the cartridge that comes with the new printer won't last as long as the regular cartridge. So sooner than later you'll be back to the point of needing a cartridge.
Click to expand...
Is this actually the case? Nowhere does the replacement toner say it'll last longer than the original. If this were the case you'd think they'd market that the replacements will last longer. This might actually make me consider buying it being the same price as the printer.

My guess is they're made so cheap they want to encourage you to replace it before it breaks when looking for toner. Most electronics are made to be disposable and not last a life time.
Click to expand...

HP Printer: LaserJet Page Yields

read the last paragraph before "HP Monochrome......."
 
The original cartridges that come with the laser printers are often just starters. They are not the same capacity as the replacement ones you buy. It usually states that somewhere in the documentation.

I have an HP 1025 colour LaserWriter that cost me $99.00 at Staples. Without going into the whole explanation of things since it is way too long, I'm now on my 5th one. All replacements were under warranty so free. The first 2 replacements the tech gurus couldn't tell me how to get the cartridges out before I sent it back. They supplied 2 sets of the yellow, cyan and magenta cartridges each sent separately by UPS from somewhere stateside plus the new printers. Because I had used some special paper they also sent me a voucher for a decent amount to replace supplies. HP lost big time on this sale and this printer has worked like a charm since. The problems were mostly from poor or incomplete tech support and advice than a bad product.

Michael
 
Russianwolf said:
Andrew_K99 said:
dexter0606 said:
It may be cheaper to buy a new printer but remember that the cartridge that comes with the new printer won't last as long as the regular cartridge. So sooner than later you'll be back to the point of needing a cartridge.
Click to expand...
Is this actually the case? Nowhere does the replacement toner say it'll last longer than the original. If this were the case you'd think they'd market that the replacements will last longer. This might actually make me consider buying it being the same price as the printer.

My guess is they're made so cheap they want to encourage you to replace it before it breaks when looking for toner. Most electronics are made to be disposable and not last a life time.
Click to expand...

HP Printer: LaserJet Page Yields

read the last paragraph before "HP Monochrome......."
Click to expand...
Interesting ... I've never seen that noted. I'll have to keep my eyes open.
 
All printers have several "supply" items.

These include the "ink", print heads, drums, fuser rollers and many others.

The life on a drum can be hundreds of copies or hundreds of thousands of copies. The same is true of fuser parts.

Yes, many units come with "initial supply" of "ink" or "toner" which is much smaller than a replacement unit. There are also "high yield" toners and ink cartridges that will give up to twice as many copies as the "normal" unit.

HP makes a high percentage of their profit selling toner. MANY aftermarket toners are available. Knowing what I know, I rarely use them---BUT, some work---many don't.

A cheap ink can ruin the printhead. A toner that does not quite meet spec can ruin the photoconductor (usually expensive). And, most of the people who sell these machines know little or nothing about any of this.

It is truly a "buyer beware" purchase.

My last purchase was an HP 8500---probably one of the worst performing machines I have ever had. So, even if you "make a study" of equipment, you can pick the wrong one.

Good news: They are cheap to replace. Bad news: you may have to replace them every couple years.
 
Any of you remember the old HP LaserJet 4s...those things were built like bricks. Seems like they just ran and ran and never broke. I still have one that works perfectly. I think it's at least 20 years old. Can't bring myself to get rid of it.
 
I bought a Samsung color laser printer 2 years ago and have only replaced the black toner. I use it as my main printer and it works great. By the way, I only paid $129 for it, the price was cheap enough that I bought a second one for use at home. They are both wireless network printers.
 
Timbo said:
Any of you remember the old HP LaserJet 4s...those things were built like bricks. Seems like they just ran and ran and never broke. I still have one that works perfectly. I think it's at least 20 years old. Can't bring myself to get rid of it.
Click to expand...
I got one also, and it sits out in the garage with a wireless adapter on it so I can print from the networked pc's in the house to it.

I don't know how the thing keeps working it gets up to almost 100 during the summer time out there...
 
Timbo said:
Any of you remember the old HP LaserJet 4s...those things were built like bricks. Seems like they just ran and ran and never broke. I still have one that works perfectly. I think it's at least 20 years old. Can't bring myself to get rid of it.
Click to expand...

"Aftermarket" repair parts are still available. If you don't want color---KEEP the LJ4!!!!
 
There's a couple of HP 9000 laserjets at work that's been in service for at least a decade. One them has somewhere around 1.5 million images logged if memory serves me. they're big and heavy and just keep on printing. Usually needs some service a couple times a year, but they beat the crap out the new stuff on the market.

I also remember the Laserjet Series II's and various versions of the LJ4 models. Also solid printers.
 
Justturnin said:
Printers and many other small peripherals like this are considered FRU (Field Replacement Units). They are cheap and built that way. Most printers in this price range will only last for a few Ink changes. Sometimes it is even cheaper to buy a new printer than replace the ink in older models. I have been considering a Laser printer myself but am waiting for my 6 month old HP to die, which is already showing signs of going out.
Click to expand...

When my Epson C84 went south, I plugged in my wife's HP 8250 to have a printer until it died then I could get another Epson... from the looks of things, because I want it to die, the HP will run forever.... at least the half that does work seems to... shortly after she got the printer the cat knocked a glass of 7UP off her desk into the printer... I cleaned it as best I could but the photo paper feed will not work... this was the main reason we bought the printer.... it's now about 4 or 5 years old and still going strong... dammit........ my Epson only lasted about 5 years.
 
I have a Canon LBPII that I bought in 1988. It still works, but is very slow by today's standards. I have always had my toner cartridges refilled for it at a fraction of the cost for new ones. If you live near a major city, I am sure you can find a recycler.

I now mostly use an Epson photo printer that has separate ink cartridges for each color. Each cartridge has a micro chip in it that is preset to signal the printer that it is out of ink LONG BEFORE it really is out and it shuts itself off even though there is a fair amount of ink left. This is not unique to Epson. ALL printer manufacturers do this. For about $10 you can purchase a printer chip resetter on the internet that will reset the chip and tell it that it is actually full. Then you can use it until it actually does run out of ink. At that point, you will only have wasted a sheet ot two of paper instead of spending big $ replacing an ink cartridge that really isn't empty.

Tomas
 
I am using a HP Office Jet 5610 All-in-One. Many years of excellent service. Print lots of CAD Drawings, prints and plans. Have spent many times more than the cost of the printer in ink cartridges but dependability is super.

Just my penny's worth.

Ray
 
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