Monday, November 08, 2010

Printers

I've finally given up on the ink jet printer. These things are fine if you're using them steadily, but if you're living in two countries and therefore leaving your printer alone for seven months, it ain't so good. I tried the technique of sealing the cartridges in a plastic bag, but they've dried up. Time I think to put away the bottles of ink and the syringe, and time to stop having to bleach ink off my fingers.

The best printer I ever had was an Oki monochrome laser, zero problems with it until the image drum reached the end of its long life. But I wanted colour and, last I recollected, colour laser printers were bloody expensive. Not the case now, so I've ordered a Samsung CLP-325 colour laser printer.

4 comments:

Sean said...

I don't print much so have not run into ink cartridge "freezing up" but my biggest issue with inkjets is the manufacturer game of "expired" ink cartridges. I used to be able to go to our local super store (Costco) and stock up on ink cartridges. Now...if I do that, I find I have to reset the printer clock--by removing the battery--to get the printer to accept the cartridges.

I'm curious as to whether or not they've started doing that with the laser toner. If they haven't, it might to time for me to switch to a laser also, considering the price differential is not all that much anymore.

kai said...

Inkjets are great if you're printing all the time, but they do get expensive. If you're not running prints through them they are worse than useless.

With the Samsung unit, watch out for your toner consumption - Samsung internally refer to their small laser printers as "Toner Dispensers". They are, however, cheaper than the inkjet to keep running.

The other brand that's come a long way in recent years is Brother.

I have no affiliation with either of these companies...

Friso said...

I use the Samsung one myself and am quite satisfied with it. Toner seems to be holding up well after a year (although I don't print all that much). If it runs out, it'll probably be cheaper to buy a new printer rather than new toner.

Neal Asher said...

But Friso, aren't the cartridges you get with the Samsung only partially filled ones?