Colour lasers sound cool, until you figure into the running costs that it isn't just the four toner cartridges you have to replace. There's also the OPC Drum, the Transfer Belt, the Oil Roller and the Oil Reservoir. The Oil Reservoir alone can be as much as the printer. Couple that with the fact that colour inkjets offer far superior photo-realism, I'd rather have the inkjet. Anyway, I digress, back to the original post: I agree
I paid $80 for my laser printer, probably two years ago now. I only just had to take it off of toner save to have prints dark enough, and the provided cartridge is about a third of the capaicty of the normal ones ($60 or so, I've got one ready just in case). 3000+ pages for $60 isn't bad at all, for what I do. Indeed, about 2c/page. Considerably cheaper than when I print out custom DVD covers. Especially as I tend to do about a dozen at a time. Even at 300dpi draft mode (which still isn't bad quality, albeit a bit light), a dozen or so sheets burns through usually a quarter to a third of the cartridge. Say I get 50 covers per tank, which is probably generous... new ink would run me another $50 or so. Yikes. At least my Simpsons S1-S17 set was only four covers... the 20-disk Bond set was something else. How convenient, though, my photo of an "empty" cartridge has evaporated.
We've got a colour laser - £250 for the printer + free cartridges, £260 for replacement cartridges..... It does about 2500 pages - not bad !
I wound up buying this Bulk Continuous Ink System on eBay (which Dire_Wolf mentioned he uses) and it just came in today!! (it only took 3 business days to ship!) I'm going to install it tonight (taking photos along the way). So any tips on how to do this would be appreciated (I'll definitely mind the angled plastic that connects the piping to the cartridges, and I'll just slap some duct tape in there )
wrong, cartridges with the date programmed into them let the printer driver know what's been used and what hasn't
I'll post photos later, but I just installed the system, and it works Great! So far, I highly recommend this to anyone who doesn't like spending so much on ink. I printed out some borderless glossy photos and they look just as good as with the previous ink. I don't have any fantastic photo software that I know how to use, so I can't judge the accuracy of the colors. I'll post photos of the final setup in here tomorrow when I pull them from the camera. I couldn't follow the instructions too well because they didn't have instructions for my machine (they grouped my machine in with some other "similar" models... but if I followed the instructions, I would have glued a mount over the printer controll buttons!) Anyway, I only ran into one hiccup that had a quick and easy fix... and I think that might be because I didn't follow the instructions (I wound up with "spare parts" from the printer... oops!) But, my advice for anyone else installing these: Wear Rubber Gloves The ink is finally off my hands, but it took a mixture of softsoap, dish soap, and fast orange.
Kewl, glad you like it Duct tape instead of those stick back hooks is definately a must, i've ended up sealing the bottom of my ink resovoir with epoxy as it wasn't the best of fits. I'm still mega chuffed with mine though, it works out WAY cheaper
They sound like a pretty good system - if only they did it for my printer (Canon S820D, awful printer for anything but photos, it chews ink as it uses all colours to print black).
Crazy, wonder if they make em for an hp deskjet 842c? What is the premise behind them, i dont quite understand the difference between them and ink cartridges.
Well, from the pictures it looks like one can keep putting ink into an external tank which is connected to altered cartridges. The thing is, I wouldn't trust it. I've seen comparissons between refilled ink prints and oem ink prints, and oems are always superior. They spend a fortune on designing the inks to work with their papers and other papers, and refill kits can never reproduce that quality. Think about it - a retail DVD costs $15 or so these days (on average), and a knockoff sold in chinatown is 3 for $10. Although both discs contain the same movie, the knockoff will have lousy audio, can be unsyncronized, and might have other features missing. If you care about quantity instead of quantity, a refill kit or bulk kit is good. if you care about quality over quantity, then oem ink is good. Not that I'm trying to put down those who buy refill kits - for most purposes they do the job adequately, but they are not suitable for some people.
You guys should try filling a cartrage with alchohol. A lot of the time the black ink when not used for a while dries up. It will get left in the sponge and if you add alcohol to it it will become a liquid again and it can be used again. Worked for me a couple times..
Stuey83, I'll definitely be comparing them later on to see what I think. I've also thought of buying some Pigment based inks for my next refill, just to increase the quality. I've been printing borderless 4x6 glossy photos, and so far the color looks great! My wife (who knew I was installing this system) thought I had printed the photos we took a few days ago before installing the cartridge. Without having a comparison side-by-side, she couldn't tell. Now I just need to find a photo we printed originally, re-print it with the new ink, and see if she (or myself) can tell the difference. But if you do a ton of photo printing for profit it might be best to stick with OEM inks. For me, I buy cheap frames to put my photos in anyway, and behind the glass I can't tell the difference between a film photo and a digital photo I printed. When I do the comparison, I'll let the new photo dry for a couple of days (so the ink can have the same chance to dry that the old photo has had), and then I'll scan them both in side by side on my scanner's highest setting. Then I'll swap the photos, so if it scans differently in different portions, that won't sway the votes, and I'll take votes on which looks better .
Actually that sounds good. Maybe such a comparisson can be included in the bit-tech page or something. It could make for a pretty decent article. I'm looking forward to seeing the results - I hope the new kit provides superior prints for you.
I think the only printer that has been true and kind too me is my moms, HP photosmart 420. -- I only purchased used refilled catridges there usually a third of the price of new ones and just as good. -- http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=1&threadid=21963 -- I thought this piece was funny. Last comment on the above linked page. "Havent used my printer in a few months..Nice Epson but its out of yellow, so refuses to print even black % white...or scan. So I put it in timeout. "
If you got enough to spend on a computer for a printer I think you can get a deal where you get free black wax for life. Its a thermal wax printer. My moms office uses them and they get free ink/wax on the black for life.
I love my 80$ Samsung B/W laser printer. So much printing and it's still going (after 1year) However when it will run out, it will be cheaper to buy a new one than to change the toner.
I agree this is why i'd only buy a non-colour laserjet if I ever needed a printer again my last canon was always 'out of ink'
