Inkjet that doesn't suck?

[e_dawg]

Hi everyone,

Looking for an inexpensive inkjet that doesn't suck. I know that's a tall order, but hopefully someone may know a guy who knows a guy whose sister's boyfriend's former roommate has an inkjet that he absolutely loves.

It's for my parents, and that means it's gotta be reliable and not prone to problems like paper jamming, nozzle clogging, and driver crashing, or I'll be over there once a week fixing the thing.

I'm wary of Epsons and their nozzle problems, and can't say I had much better success keeping the nozzles on my Canons from clogging if I hadn't used it in a while. The best inkjets I've had success with were the HP 700 through 900 series, as I rarely had problems with paper feeding or nozzle clogging.

Most cheaper HP inkjets these days feel like they used the bare minimum amount of plastic that would allow it to withstand shipping while still retaining a rectangular shape, but nothing more. Most Canons these days have the dreaded gravity feed paper input tray.

Any thoughts?

 

[Fushigi]

As you noted the earlier DeskJets were decent. A used DeskJet 932 would probably fit the bill nicely if you can find one. That's what I've set up for my in-laws. I had a 990 for a long time (years) until it finally gave up the ghost.

The ink clog issues drove me away from Canon & Epson. HPs aren't immune but seem to fare much better. You can go weeks without printing and have it fire right up.

I currently use entry OfficeJets at home. The scan & copy functions have made the devices far more useful than just having a printer. My wife has a PSC 1610 and I use a 5510.

 

[Mercutio]

The Deskjet 932s are far and away the most reliable of the inkjets I deal with. Unfortunately it's not like you can buy a new one.

Photosmart 7xy0s drive me nuts. There's nothing about them that DOESN'T break.

 

[ddrueding]

The thing that I tell people is that they NEED to print something about once a week. I tell them flat out that unless they print one full-color picture every week, it will break. I also tell them not to skimp on paper, and to have a dust cover.

This doesn't stop the printer from breaking, but it does help, and it reinforces with them that this is a fragile piece of equipment; they are more understanding when it breaks.

I like the HP 900 series as well.

 

[sechs]

The best inkjets that I've used are all large-format -- particularly the full-bleed ones. Not exactly desktop material, however.

With monochrome lasers now so cheap, I find it hard to understand why people feel the need to have colour inkjets. If you need a picture, either buy prints or get a special printer. If need (and I mean *need) a page in colour every once in a while, get it printed up at Kinkos or some such.

 

[jtr1962]

Even color lasers are relatively affordable these days. I've been using a Samsung CLP-510 since last December. It cost me $200 after sales tax and a $70 rebate. Probably not much more than a decent inkjet but far less problems. The toner cartridges last for 2000 pages (probably more if the cartridge page count is reset), I don't need to print something weekly just to keep nozzles from clogging, it prints much faster than any inkjet after a <1 minute warmup, and it seems much better made. The main downside is its physical size.

These days I really can't recommend inkjets with laser printers being as affordable as they are. I know I'll never buy one again. No more clogged nozzles, messy cartridge refilling, or expensive cartridge replacement for me. The truth is inkjets as a technology lived long past when they should have because of the steady income stream they offered to printer manufacturers. Granted, lasers still need toner cartridges, but per page they cost way less to operate than any inkjet.

 

[Sol]

My parents have a monochrome laser and print photos at... Wherever prints photos cheap near them... Works well for them and it's cheaper per print than doing your own even if you don't end up with a clogged nozzle half way through a cartridge...

I just don't print anything... It works great.

 

[timwhit]

I just print everything at work. Works out to be free.

 

[Mercutio]

I print nothing but invoices and receipts.
I have VPN connections to most of my clients. I just send the stuff directly to their printers.

Why can't people who want color do what normal people do and just print the crap out on the fancy printer in their office?

I'm pretty sure the Samsung 510 isn't made any more.

 

[MaxBurn]

I can't stand inkjets personally because of all the above here. I have a NINE year old HP color Laserjet 5 (mfg May 1998, just looked). I just can't kill the thing. It started printing typical laser print big fat black lines on things so I opened it, poked around and ran the corona wire cleaners back and forth = fixed. I put toner in it three years ago. When it does die I will get another commercial class color laser, no doubt in my mind.

My parents just got a digital camera so wanted something that will do photos good and they got a Kodak but I don't know the model, but I do know it is a multi function. Anyone wants to know I can ask. They say the ink is far cheaper and the quality on the prints I have seen are impressive. Before that they had an old Canon that my dad was refillink ink cartridges himself, actually I am pretty impressed with my dad and his computer savvy lately.

 

[LiamC]

Disclaimer: My wife worked as a merchandiser for Canon for a year or so, so we got some kit cheap.

Having said that, the Canon Pixma 8500 we use has been trouble free for about 2, 2 1/2 years now. It gets a reasonable workout.

Don't get me started on the POS Lexmark we had before that... Also, I know a few people with Epsons, and the feedback I'm getting isn't good.

 

[LunarMist]

These days I really can't recommend inkjets with laser printers being as affordable as they are. I know I'll never buy one again. No more clogged nozzles, messy cartridge refilling, or expensive cartridge replacement for me. The truth is inkjets as a technology lived long past when they should have because of the steady income stream they offered to printer manufacturers. Granted, lasers still need toner cartridges, but per page they cost way less to operate than any inkjet.

Perhaps laser printers are great for Powerpoint presentations, but laser printer color is crap.

These are affordable for serious home users.

 

[udaman]

Hi everyone,

Looking for an inexpensive inkjet that doesn't suck.
It's for my parents, and that means it's gotta be reliable and not prone to problems like paper jamming, nozzle clogging, and driver crashing, or I'll be over there once a week fixing the thing.

I'm wary of Epsons and their nozzle problems, and can't say I had much better success keeping the nozzles on my Canons from clogging if I hadn't used it in a while. The best inkjets I've had success with were the HP 700 through 900 series, as I rarely had problems with paper feeding or nozzle clogging.

Most cheaper HP inkjets these days feel like they used the bare minimum amount of plastic that would allow it to withstand shipping while still retaining a rectangular shape, but nothing more. Most Canons these days have the dreaded gravity feed paper input tray.

Any thoughts?

Impossiblé! Doesn't exist at any price, asking for inexpensive so limits your choices. Epson's don't clog anymore than Canon, which is to say, they both clog if now used regularly. HP's with their unified printhead/ink cartridge seem to be less prone to clogging, which is to say you are more likely to have them not clog after sitting idle for months...something your parents are likely to experience?

I don't like any inkjets at any price, all are a compromise of moving parts that invariably are not designed for accuracy in any way. HP has duplex printing attachment, but like with envelopes, due to the unusual front paper well feed mechanism, they tend to jam freqently, don't align paper any better than more typical 'gravity' feed. However, (excepting commercial sheet feeding architectual design printers), the 'gravity' or straight path feeders like Epson or Canon have a distinct advantage in printing on heavier photo/cardboard paper stock; textured artist papers, and the like. HP's really jam on these thicker papers.

Canon supposedly has new 100yr (under ideal conditions that no one will maintain) dye inks. Yet Epson's pigment inks last the longest under more adverse environment conditions (best to use an artists fixative spray on prints you want to last, or frame them all) for photos you want to last more than a few years.

Laser printers still don't do excellent colot photos (except very expensive commercail models), photo inkjet printers are decidedly superior at present, along with pigmented inks, also much longer 'archival' durability.

Last time I checked Epson's print head needs to be replaced by an authorized service center. Canon's printer heads (most, any way) are simple user replaceable items that larger computer stores might have in stock. But in both cases you'll end up spending $50+ minimum fo the part, so keep printing every week...or else .

Laser have always excelled in text quality and speed. Inkjets designed as photo printers vary in speed & quality or photo output...best to check these in person on plain paper and bring along some photo paper too. Photo inkjets almost never output high quality text/graphics, and they tend to be slower. All are compromises of one sort or another.

Canon has a new wide-format pigment ink pringer (the only one, top of the line in their current consumer models), but I haven't seen reviews of it yet, to compare with Epson's simlarly priced $600-800 prosumer photoquality wide format printers. Pigment inks tend to be a little more expensive.

Then you have some inkjet's that print CD /DVD labels. And then you also have AIO inkjets, printer/scanner/copying/faxing models.

I think everyone must have had issues with drivers, none of the manufacturers give a rat's arse about fixing all the 'minor' problems, inadequacies of their drivers. I could never get Canon to update their stupid drivers to allow 'backwards to forward' (last page 1st, to stack of 50pg document is collated with pg 1 on top, instead of having to friggin manually resort all 50pgs...sheesh!)

LM, Epson 24in WF @$3k is not affordable for all but the wealthiest---you're joking, yes; you could get a color laser that does OK photos, and blazing fast output speed for that amount (better get an expensive service aggrement plan, repairs would be like Mercedes in costs after the warrant expires).

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/ProductCategory.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=-8165

Epson R2400 @MSRP $849(which is the updated version of a long series of 2000 models used by serious professional photogs for years, their work exhibited in museums, etc) is more 'affordable' pigment 13in WF. But even that is likely well beyond what the OP is looking at.

 

[Stereodude]

I'll recommend a mid level Canon Pixma. My iP5000 has been fantastic and the ink isn't super expensive, and it doesn't have 8 different colors. But, despite only have 5 colors (2 black and C,M,Y) it has top tier photo output.

 

[e_dawg]

Thanks for the multiple recommendations on the HP DJ 900 series... don't feel that comfortable getting a used one off eBay. I would have no problem buying a New In Box DJ 932, for example, but I'm thinking that a used DJ 932 might not be any more reliable than one of the less crappy inkjets that you can buy new today (thus negating the original reason of going for the DJ 932).

Due to jtr's suggestion (but unfortunately, the Samsung CLP-510 was discontinued), I was seriously looking at a colour laser and found a good deal on a Lexmark C520n at a local store... unfortunately, they were sold out in a couple days due to the great price. Turns out it was on clearance and they were ridding themselves of existing stock. I am considering the HP CLJ 2600n now, which is also going for a decent price at the same store... only a few units left.

As for current inkjets, I found the HP OfficeJet Pro K550 to be a good deal, on clearance as well. The TCO for high volume printing is actually no more expensive than colour lasers. The consumables are much cheaper than their inkjet bretheren -- the cartridges last for >2,000 pgs and are not much more expensive than regular inkjets.

Not sure what I should do yet. Still deciding. I created a TCO analysis with my initial purchase costs, starter cartridge capacities, and replacement cartridge costs & capacities, and have an idea of their TCO's*. It would be simpler if it was a purchase for myself. I know what I want. Buying for others is tricky; the purchase has future ramifications and consequences that must be considered

* if you're interested, using the prices I can get from my local stores, here are the average TCO's per page. Note that my calculations include the inital purchase cost, as well as an average of TCO / page calculations for expected asset lives of 2k pages, 3k pages, and 4k pages (going by their usual usage, I think they will print around 3k pages over 5 years). As you know, TCO follows a stepwise function when consumables are involved, varying discontinuously with the number of pages you print:

HP Color LaserJet 2600n, $0.21
Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500w, $0.22
HP Color LaserJet 1600, $0.25
HP OfficeJet Pro K550, $0.26
Xerox Phaser 6120n, $0.28
Samsung CLP-300, $0.30
Lexmark C520n, $0.31

 

[e_dawg]

Should point out that the above TCO calculations do not include service & support costs, as I do not have that data available to me.

I do know that the Lexmark is bit more of a heavier duty printer than the others, the Samsung laser and HP inkjet may be a bit lower duty, but other than that, there's nothing quantitative to go by except for monthly duty cycles.