Printers. Ink.

[temporal1]

My biggest challenge with technology is obsolescence.



HP 950 PCS
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/se ... odel/34580

HP 832 C

4INKJETS / replacement cartridges
https://www.4inkjets.com/

i’ve had these 2 printers for over 10 years. the HP950 may be 20 years, light home use.
the HP832 is close to unused. both seem to have lots of life left, no problems with either.

The cost of ink is prohibitive, i’ve bought off-brand from 4INKJETS for several years, for half or less than the HP brand. the ink dries out before i use it, within a year or so.

These cartridges are being phased out. i’ve called around, no one is refilling cartridges.

For my low use, i’m thinking of doing without a home printer. It’s a convenience.
This means driving about 20 miles, 40 round trip, to copy-print-fax.
It might not be so bad.

[temporal1]

Welll.
Most likely, i’ll be buying a printer. maybe not immediately.

i had to do some copying and faxing. $$$ that added up, plus driving+gas.

i took the HP 832 to a local shop.
their tech guy told me he has cartridges that are “not new,” he said, if they work, he will give them to me. that was extra-nice of him. if they work, they probably won’t work for long.


Not today’s business model:

[Josh]

Printers from the 1990s that were expensive often still function. Very cheap 10 year old inkjet printers weren’t meant to have a long service life.

You can buy a nice laser printer from HP for $200. Double sides, scans, faxes, too. And that’s probably less initial investment than your old ink jets were.

Most the cost of an ink jet printer is in the cartridges which contain replacement parts for most of what wears down. Mass producing them is cheap but eventually they are obsolete. Producing new ones is an expensive ramp up. Recycling old ones means the wear parts eventually wear out.

[Joy]

My printer advice is, stay away from Brother! Just about everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with mine. I chose the brand because I was told you can get cheap ink cartridges from China. I should have stuck with HP.

[knotdust]

I have had good success with the Epson Workforce series. (Scanner/fax/copier/printer.) I have the model 2630. It was kind of the middle of the price range for the Epson series and has performed well. I do all my check printing and reports for the church plus all my own copying and printing. The cartridges aren't big enough to suit me but are available at WalMart. When I put the last one in I add that to my shopping list for the next trip and get another couple. Although not cheap they are readily available and the printer hasn't given me any problems.

[Neto]

Unless you want a better quality photo printing capability, in my experience, laser is the way to go. Toner doesn't "dry out" like ink does, so occasional use is not an issue. I have a monochrome Brother laser printer that is well over 10 years old, and it still prints well. I do refill the toner cartridges, and I can do this multiple times before the print quality degrades. One time I bought a generic toner cartridge, but it didn't work well - worse than the worn-out Brother one, in fact. At first I thought the printer was shot, but a new genuine Brother toner cartridge got it back to good quality printing.

We also have a Brother inkjet multi-function printer that is around the same age, but it doesn't get used a lot, mostly due to the ink costs. It's huge, but my wife bought a smaller multi-function HP printer about a year ago, and it only lasted some months before it stopped printing correctly. New ink cartridges (genuine HP) did not fix it, so more many down the drain.

In my service business I see a lot of HP inkjets (like the HP 8700 series), and they are cheap & print well, but they do not last long in the business environment. One business I do work for always buys the longest extended warranty possible, and on average will go through around three of them before the warranty runs out. (I think the longest warranty period is 3 years, if I'm not mistaken.)