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Author Topic: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.  (Read 10119 times)

AdrianH

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The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« on: July 02, 2011, 11:03:31 AM »

I have an HP 5940 deskjet, it is a photosmart model.  The ink prices are getting totally stupid so I loooked around for a cheaper alternative supply. The cheapo cartridges which are "guaranteed" compatible are utterly useless and the company sent Jet Tec units as replacements ......... these are equally useless, they simply do not work.

Looking at the HP UK site today I find I can purchase a brand new all in one printer scanner for only £39.00 complete!  That is less than the cost of the original HP cartidges for my printer, so now we are in a place where you buy a machine, the ink runs out, machine goes in bin and you buy another new one as it is half the price of the cartridges!  :'( :no:



( Oops, I stuck this in the wrong section  :-[  )
« Last Edit: July 02, 2011, 11:08:17 AM by AdrianH »
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roseway

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2011, 11:10:18 AM »

It's much the same in many fields - the hardware is sold for a song or even given away free, but the consumables are expensive. There's much more money to be made on consumables than hardware.
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  Eric

silversurfer44

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2011, 11:14:04 AM »

It' been like that for years. On the flip side, it is much easier to dispose of four cartridges than it is four printers. They won't take the printers at recycle shop. Take more than one to a recycle centre and they think you are business and want to charge. Heads they win, tails you lose. So the saying goes.
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AdrianH

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2011, 11:18:12 AM »

It' been like that for years. On the flip side, it is much easier to dispose of four cartridges than it is four printers. They won't take the printers at recycle shop. Take more than one to a recycle centre and they think you are business and want to charge. Heads they win, tails you lose. So the saying goes.

Our recycling centre is run by a contractor and they "love" techy stuff as they make a fortune from it, the site is just around the corner,walking distance, so I can move printers without any effort.

The disparity in prices between machine and consumables is now apparently getting much bigger , it is crazy that an all in one unit is cheaper than 2 cartridges.
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scottiesmum

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2011, 12:07:03 PM »

My printer is an Epson Stylus D68, which uses 4 cartridges; I have always bought compatibles ....with good results, and my last order from my supplier here consisted of  7 black and 9 colour (3 of each) cartridges, including postage ....€19,50  ....   so I'm still  ;D
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razpag

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2011, 12:28:11 PM »

Bill Gates and Alan Sugar openly admit that they basically gave their hardware away for free, and once 'everybody' had bought in to their products, the consumables then made them their multi-millions.
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tonyappuk

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2011, 01:51:55 PM »

 I have a Canon Pixma printer and I always use refilled/compatibles in it. I have had the occasional problem but that's more than outweighed by the saving. A full set of five Genuine carts is £40 to £45 and I can buy the equivalent on Ebay for less than £10. Just my 2 pennorth.
Tony
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renluop

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2011, 03:53:52 PM »

Have you ever done a side by side evaluation of a largish colour photo? Just curious about what you found.
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tonyappuk

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2011, 12:26:26 AM »

renluop
If that question is meant for me I have to say "No, I haven't" but it would be difficult to be sure that all the ink from one set of carts was fully expunged from the heads before you tried the other set. I do use the printer for colour photos taken with my Olympus camera but I'm not super critical of the results. I did have one set of carts which gave me a pronounced orange cast but after changing the three colour carts all was well, and you can do that at less than £2 a cart. A useful forum about all things printer is http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/ which I have used several times. The information about continuous ink systems for printers I found particularly interesting.
Tony
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renluop

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2011, 08:40:16 AM »

Thanks Tony :)

Primarily i was for you, but others' experiences would also be interesting.
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roseway

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2011, 09:46:39 AM »

I did use a CISS system with an Epson P50 for some time. It was certainly capable of reasonably accurate colour reproduction, but the problem I had with it was that is wasn't consistent. I'm sure that this was down to the quality of construction of the CISS hardware, and not the inks. Eventually I got tired of repeatedly adjusting the colour levels, and opted for a problem-free, if more expensive, life with manufacturer's ink cartridges.

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  Eric

geep

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2011, 01:10:48 PM »

I'll never ever buy another Epson printer. I had one with 4 cartridges. One of the colour ones ran out, and the stupid thing refused to print monochrome (a letter) until I replaced the colour cartridge.

Then I wasted lots of ink "cleaning" the heads. The local Epson repair shop told me that you need to use the printer daily else the heads clag up. I used the printer about weekly.
So I bought an HP LaserJet 1010. Excellent. After several years am still on the first toner cartridge, but which now needs replacement.

Dilemma - do I junk the printer, or buy new toner? A new HP laser printer is more expensive than the toner, but not by all that much. I expect the new toner to last another 5+ years.

But - HP decided not to bother supporting it in Win7. Fortunately I have a fairly good workaround by forcing Win7 to load an older (Vista) driver.
(MS's Win7 upgrade checker says that it's supported by HP. But HP say it isn't!).
All the associated hassle prejudices me against HP. Will check which others support older printers with Win7, hoping they will do the same with Win8, Win9... and also have good Linux support.

Cheers,
Peter
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silversurfer44

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #12 on: July 03, 2011, 01:53:57 PM »

I also had an HP laserjet printer, and I have a Linux OS. When I checked up for replacement toner cartridges I also needed a transfer belt.  ??? OOoooWeee! I needed a mortgage for that little lot. So I bought me a Samsung laser 312. Never looked back since. Had row lots of toner in some 5 years. There is support for it in Linux, but Linux printing is not that good in colour. However Samsung have released a driver for it and it prints quite good. I can't say for Windows as I don't use it. As with all printers I could have got another new one when the toner started to run out. but it was easier ordering online and having it delivered.  Next time it will be another printer, if the trend continues, because with a new printer I would get a new drum, fixing unit and all the other consumables. I will never go back to inkjet. :no:
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roseway

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2011, 02:53:17 PM »

I'm a fan of Samsung laser printers too, although I haven't tried the colour ones. My old ML1510 went on for years with no trouble, and I refilled the toner cartridge several times. When the toner cartridge drum wore out  eventually I replaced the machine, although I could have just got a new cartridge.

I like laser printers generally, for their convenience and reliability, but I can't do without a good inkjet for the best photo printing.

« Last Edit: July 03, 2011, 02:55:33 PM by roseway »
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  Eric

CurlyWhirly

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Re: The world has gone mad.......... printers/ink.
« Reply #14 on: July 03, 2011, 06:45:15 PM »

I like laser printers generally, for their convenience and reliability, but I can't do without a good inkjet for the best photo printing.
Crikey I would have thought that laser printers would produce better quality than inkjets !
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Mike
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