P
PortNatal
I'm in the market for a new printer up to $100. Which is the best buy,
considering future cartridge costs?
TIA,
Howie.
considering future cartridge costs?
TIA,
Howie.
Wolf Kirchmeir said:After much calculation, and headscratching, and peering at the innards of
birds, and watching straws drift in the wind, and consulting the tea leaves,
I have come to the conclusion that a laser printer is cheaper over the life
of the machine than any inkjet.
PortNatal said:I'm in the market for a new printer up to $100. Which is the best buy,
considering future cartridge costs?
Taliesyn said:The Canon i850... probably the most popular printer in this newsgroup.
It's over a $100, but if you've half a brain, like me, you'll refill
with bulk ink (250 ml bottles) from a respected supplier, like
atlanticinkjet.com (separate divisions in the US and Canada). Their ink
is indistinguishable from Canon's in side-by-side photo comparisons.
Text seems to be spot on too. I've had this printer since March and I
haven't had to clean the print head yet because of clogging or streaking.
Refilling all 4 cartridges costs me about $5. The low cost of refilling
allowed me to buy a better, more expensive printer, and then print to my
heart's delight without worrying about ink usage. A long time ago I use
to do test prints in draft, in order to save ink. Not any more. I now do
test prints in the High Quality setting.
-Taliesyn
tomcas said:I agree the Canons have the lowest ink/cartridge cost but what about
those print heads? I imagine some people will just replace the printer
when they need new heads. Any one out there have a lot of mileage on the
Canon print heads yet?
Taliesyn said:Canon has stated that the print heads on the new "i" series printers
were designed to last the "life of the printer".
Elmo said:Now, have they defined how long the printer is supposed to last?
No.
So, what they're actually saying--boy, these marketers are clever--is
that when the print heads go bad, the printer has by definition reached
its end of life. Time to buy a new one! Which is exactly the goal of
the marketers--to get you to keep buying.
"Last the life of the printer". Boy oh boy. What suckers they take us
for.
Maywood said:Unverified, but a Canon sales rep that happened to be at Fry's said that the
warranty on Canon printer heads was 5 years.