Printer purchase advice

[Bill George]

All of the newer laser printers Brother and HP have chips to read in the OEM toner cartridges. When your printer is online WiFi it calls home and gets the firmware updated and then it checks your toner. If you have printed so many pages or for so long it decides you need a New one whether or not its still printing good. The Epson ink jet with the large tanks prints forever on the factory ink and its not outrageous in price. But I am I not sure about the print head clogging issues they Used to have??

[Jim Becker]

All of the newer laser printers Brother and HP have chips to read in the OEM toner cartridges. When your printer is online WiFi it calls home and gets the firmware updated and then it checks your toner. If you have printed so many pages or for so long it decides you need a New one whether or not its still printing good. The Epson ink jet with the large tanks prints forever on the factory ink and its not outrageous in price. But I am I not sure about the print head clogging issues they Used to have??

The new Brother mono laser I recently bought for Professor Dr SWMBO does not have that "feature" as far as I can tell. The HP InkJet that we returned (after two years...) did and that's what did it in because it refused to print until it authenticated to HP's servers even with new cartridges installed. HP lost our business because of that.

[Dave Zellers]

The HP InkJet that we returned (after two years...) did and that's what did it in because it refused to print until it authenticated to HP's servers even with new cartridges installed. HP lost our business because of that.

We had the exact same experience with our Cannon. It was working perfectly fine one day, then the next, refused to print. Man, was I angry.

[Curt Harms]

The new Brother mono laser I recently bought for Professor Dr SWMBO does not have that "feature" as far as I can tell. The HP InkJet that we returned (after two years...) did and that's what did it in because it refused to print until it authenticated to HP's servers even with new cartridges installed. HP lost our business because of that.

HP is taking a different tack when it comes to printing. They seem to be trying to "sell printing as a service". You pay so much per page, we supply printer, ink/toner, and maybe paper. Certainly not to my taste, perhaps businesses will find it to their taste, they'll likely pay less per page and I would.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/...icts/?td=rt-4a

[Bill Howatt]

For the lower package at $6.99 for 20 pages and a $1 for 10-15 more if over, doesn't seem like a real bad option for a lot of people. I'm trying to be realistic given the anguish many have with their own printing setups.
My feeling is that many, many young people don't print anything, they just keep it on their phones. I gave my stepson and older HP laser and he doesn't even use it or any other printer. Even I, as an old, now octogenarian, don't see the need to print as much although I wouldn't want to be without a printer. In my case, everything is handled on my desktop/cloud rather than a phone.

[Jerome Stanek]

For the lower package at $6.99 for 20 pages and a $1 for 10-15 more if over, doesn't seem like a real bad option for a lot of people. I'm trying to be realistic given the anguish many have with their own printing setups.
My feeling is that many, many young people don't print anything, they just keep it on their phones. I gave my stepson and older HP laser and he doesn't even use it or any other printer. Even I, as an old, now octogenarian, don't see the need to print as much although I wouldn't want to be without a printer. In my case, everything is handled on my desktop/cloud rather than a phone.

That would cost me a fortune as my grandson wants a lot of stuff printed out to color or cut out. He is only 5 and last year we went through a ream and a half of paper

[glenn bradley]

LaserJet dry toner cartridges last for many years without use. Not true for ink jet cartridges. My Canon runs Canon and generic toner cartridges without issue. Generics will not report sophisticated diagnostics and status to the printer's software on your computer like the factory brand but I don't really care. I don't print much and like having a system that will print reliably after months of non-use.

[Tom M King]

We actually use and like that HP Instant Ink deal. I don't do much printing at all, but my Wife does a fair amount with the dog business. Puppy buyers get a small book that Pam prints out with pedigrees and pictures of the parents along with all sorts of training stuff and recommendations about flea and tick treatments, heartworm, etc., etc. that probably totals between 20 and 30 pages. With a few over 40 puppies a years that adds up, but usually just in spurts for that.

Plus she gets 1 to 3 emails a day, on average, about puppies, and prints out the emails from anyone who qualifies to be on the waiting list, so that adds up too. It's a simple system for the waiting list using this method. She has an upside down stack of printed out emails that the newest one gets put on top, so when she's ready to breed a female, she just turns the stack over and contacts the first several in.

She also prints out invoices for everything she buys online.

I don't know how many pages a year we print, but the second cheapest service is more than enough. It's about 10 bucks a month. The boxes of ink cartridges are piles up in a cubby over the printer with four unopened boxes that I see right now. We've never run out under this service, which for me is a lot better than Pam telling me that she's run out of ink and needs to print puppy books.

Just like the yearly service for automatic updates from Microsoft, it's been completely painless, hands off, and everything always works. I don't think it really costs any more than buying retail ink cartridges. The fee is easily worth the lack of hassle.

[Bill George]

The Epson EcoTank models use refillable tanks that last forever, and the ink is cheap. The printer is easily converted for sublimation or decal printing. Look on FB marketplace and Craigslist, people are dumping the cartridge based old Epson printers as fast as they can!!

[Jim Becker]

The Epson EcoTank models use refillable tanks that last forever, and the ink is cheap. The printer is easily converted for sublimation or decal printing. Look on FB marketplace and Craigslist, people are dumping the cartridge based old Epson printers as fast as they can!!

I own one. It works nice and yes, it's convenient to not be bound by cartridges. BUT...as a low volume printer user, I'm constantly having to run multiple head cleaning processes in order to keep it printing clearly when I do want something on paper. Sometimes it takes four or five iterations to get things clear. And that consumes ink. Which goes into a removable reservoir they don't mention all that clearly and when it's full, you're down hard until you have another one to install. That requires tools, too. That said, I'm on my "second year" ink at this point, three plus years after buying the printer. I doubt I'll buy more ink and when it's empty, I'll probably opt for a mono laser with a scanner. I sometimes use the scanner more than I print, honestly.

[Bill George]

Maintenace Box is less than $20 on Amazon cheap enough to keep on hand.

[Jim Becker]

Maintenace Box is less than $20 on Amazon cheap enough to keep on hand.

Sure...once you know you need it...

[Bill George]

Jim you did everyone a big favor by posting that!!!

[Jim Becker]

HP is taking a different tack when it comes to printing. They seem to be trying to "sell printing as a service". You pay so much per page, we supply printer, ink/toner, and maybe paper. Certainly not to my taste, perhaps businesses will find it to their taste, they'll likely pay less per page and I would.

I have no issue with subscriptions for certain software products I use because I like things to stay up to date, but no way would I embrace that model for something like printing. It might be a different situation for a business, particularly one without IT support, but not for me as an individual.

[Bill Howatt]

Being somewhat computer literate, it wouldn't be for me either, but there are lots of people who want to print, are not in a business environment, and are not the least bit computer savvy, could see this service as a good thing.