Print head clogging - laser

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marc
  • Start date Start date
M

Marc

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new printer.
As I don't print regularly (sometimes I don't print during a few months)
I'm wondering if it is not better to buy a laser to avoid print head
clogging.

Is this clogging thing also present in lasers or not ?
 
Marc said:
Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new printer.
As I don't print regularly (sometimes I don't print during a few months)
I'm wondering if it is not better to buy a laser to avoid print head
clogging.

Is this clogging thing also present in lasers or not ?
Click to expand...

Marc
Laser printers do not clog. If you only print occasionally and don't need
colour you should look at a reasonably cheap laser printer. There is not much
difference in price now between an entry level laser and inkjet printer and in
most cases the laser is a little cheaper to run with no printhead reliability
issues.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
Tony wrote:

Marc <[email protected]> wrote:



Hi, I'm looking to buy a new printer. As I don't print regularly (sometimes I don't print during a few months) I'm wondering if it is not better to buy a laser to avoid print head clogging. Is this clogging thing also present in lasers or not ? -- Marc



Marc Laser printers do not clog. If you only print occasionally and don't need colour you should look at a reasonably cheap laser printer. There is not much difference in price now between an entry level laser and inkjet printer and in most cases the laser is a little cheaper to run with no printhead reliability issues. Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging


That MAY be very poor advice.  It depends on what you are using the printer for.  If it is just everyday text and graphics then a laser is OK but if you are printing photos then only a good photo inkjet will do the job well..  The question of use was not asks.  Anyway Tony da tiger is in the printing business so who knows what motivated his answer.
 
Marc said:
Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new printer.
As I don't print regularly (sometimes I don't print during a few months)
I'm wondering if it is not better to buy a laser to avoid print head
clogging.

Is this clogging thing also present in lasers or not ?
Click to expand...
Hi,
Laser printer clogging? It does not even have a head. Look into how
laser printer works. Your question is invalid.
 
Tony Hwang said:
Hi,
Laser printer clogging? It does not even have a head. Look into how
laser printer works. Your question is invalid.
Click to expand...

Mr. Hwang
There is no such thing as a stupid (or invalid) question; only stupid, ill
thought out or rude answers.
I believe that people with limited knowledge of printers should feel
comfortable to ask their questions here, otherwise what is the point of this
newsgroup?
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
Tony said:
Hi,
Laser printer clogging? It does not even have a head. Look into how
laser printer works. Your question is invalid.
Click to expand...

I probably phrased my question badly, sorry for that, I'm not a native
English speaker, I'm Flemish.

What I ment was:
What happens when you don't print for some time ?
- when using an inktjet, your printheads probably get clogged
and you get bad print quality

- Is there something similar happening with lasers ?
toner powder getting stuck, or other possible bad things
happening that deteriorate print quality or damage the printer
 
measekite said:
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Tony wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:p[email protected]" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Marc <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:[email protected]">&lt;[email protected]&gt;</a> wrote: </pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new printer.
As I don't print regularly (sometimes I don't print during a few months)
I'm wondering if it is not better to buy a laser to avoid print head
clogging.

Is this clogging thing also present in lasers or not ?
Click to expand...

In fact, I'm looking for a SOHO multifunctional color printer/scanner,
with automatic input tray to scan a number of pages without putting the
pages in manually one by one.
I don't care for photoprinting, so I guess what I need is a small color
laser MFP.

The aim of this topic was to see what is the best printing technology for my
specific needs. I'll open a new topic to ask for suggestions about what MFP
type would do best, and specify there my requirements.

Well, I guess I can put them here as well, and see what reactions I get.
If there is not so much reaction, I'll open a new topic to give it a bit
more visibility

- Printer technology: color laser (no photo quality needed)

- Toner cartridges easily refillable
I don't know about the price of laser consumeables,
but I don't want to pay a very high price like it is for
ink prices for inkjets

- Scanner with automatic paper input tray
I want to be able to put a pile of paper on it,
push the scan button and have it all scanned automatically

- All in one to save desktop space

- Printer & scanner both well supported in Linux
I had a bad experience with a Canon 4200 scanner,
it is useless under Linux because Canon does not provide
a driver, and they also refuse to give info to the open source
community to be able to create a driver.
So I guess Canon is out of the picture here

- Don't care about PC connectivity (USB, paralel, LAN)
unless it has an impact on performance or Linux support
 
Tony said:
Mr. Hwang
There is no such thing as a stupid (or invalid) question; only stupid, ill
thought out or rude answers.
I believe that people with limited knowledge of printers should feel
comfortable to ask their questions here, otherwise what is the point of this
newsgroup?
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
Click to expand...
Hi,
Where did I mention stupid?
 
Marc said:
I probably phrased my question badly, sorry for that, I'm not a native
English speaker, I'm Flemish.

What I ment was:
What happens when you don't print for some time ?
- when using an inktjet, your printheads probably get clogged
and you get bad print quality

- Is there something similar happening with lasers ?
toner powder getting stuck, or other possible bad things
happening that deteriorate print quality or damage the printer
Click to expand...

Marc
Nothing similar happens with lasers except after a very long time (like a year
or probably more). Generally you can leave a laser printer for months without
any concern, unlike inkjets. Please do not apologise for your lack of Eglish,
your question was nice and clear.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
Marc said:
In fact, I'm looking for a SOHO multifunctional color printer/scanner,
with automatic input tray to scan a number of pages without putting the
pages in manually one by one.
I don't care for photoprinting, so I guess what I need is a small color
laser MFP.

The aim of this topic was to see what is the best printing technology for my
specific needs. I'll open a new topic to ask for suggestions about what MFP
type would do best, and specify there my requirements.

Well, I guess I can put them here as well, and see what reactions I get.
If there is not so much reaction, I'll open a new topic to give it a bit
more visibility

- Printer technology: color laser (no photo quality needed)

- Toner cartridges easily refillable
I don't know about the price of laser consumeables,
but I don't want to pay a very high price like it is for
ink prices for inkjets

- Scanner with automatic paper input tray
I want to be able to put a pile of paper on it,
push the scan button and have it all scanned automatically

- All in one to save desktop space

- Printer & scanner both well supported in Linux
I had a bad experience with a Canon 4200 scanner,
it is useless under Linux because Canon does not provide
a driver, and they also refuse to give info to the open source
community to be able to create a driver.
So I guess Canon is out of the picture here

- Don't care about PC connectivity (USB, paralel, LAN)
unless it has an impact on performance or Linux support.
Click to expand...

I can tell you that as a brand, HP printers enjoy excellent Linux
support. The inkjet printers do anyway, and I would expect the same is
true of lasers. Let's see... Looking at the printer database for
Mandriva 2007.0 Linux, for example, I see a very long list of laser
models that are supported, including MFP models. My own HP PSC 2110
inkjet is very well supported, for both scanning and printing.

I'm sorry, but I can't comment on the performance of specific models. I
haven't had anything to do with an HP laser in several years, so my
experience there is no longer valid.

TJ
 
For occasional monochrome printing, laser is the way to go. I
bought my HP Laserjet 4 in 1993, bought my first replacement
toner cartridge in 1999, and my second last month. The only
reason for the replacements was that the drum cleaning
mechanism had deteriorated, causing light vertical smearing. The
toner powder was still in good shape. I only use HP OEM toner.
With a monochrome laser, the main consumable cost is paper.
 
Although I agree with Tony (the bengal tiger/MVP) that people should be
tolerant of questions that may show a lack of understanding of a certain
aspect of printers, since this forum is a question and answer and
discussion board, I think what might be the root of the difficulty is
that the other Tony (Hwang) doesn't have a complete command of english,
and therefore his response may have come out a bit more arrogant and
rude than he had meant it to be.

Art
 
Laser printers, including color lasers are amazingly reliable. Although
they are sensitive to changes of humidity and paper stock conditions, in
terms of repeatable output, the toner powders seem to hold up pretty
well. I have used for rather outdated black toner cartridges without
any real difficulties. Other than giving the cartridges a shake to keep
them from settling and clumping, the toners seems to remain useful far
beyond their indicated lifespan.

Art
 
Art
Once more, you may well be right.
I overlooked the possibility that the other Tony may have diffuculty with the
English language.
Point taken.
Tony
 
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