Due to a toner cartridge explosion that I cant seem to keep from reoccurring in my ~2011 Brother color laser MFC-9970CDW, I’m looking for a new color printer and scanner.
I’m hoping there’s some new tech for ink refilling that doesn’t cost $100+ USD for 1 (of 4) toner cartridges? Is there anything that doesn’t cost a fortune to refill, that also isnt prone to ink clogs/jams/catridge explosions?
Ive read about continuous ink wells but arent they only for ink jets?
Looking for printer no more than ~$750 USD, good print quality, color.
Color printing remains frustrating… flashbacks to disposable printers and searching for cheaper alternatives to $50 ink cartridges. I think I still don’t like the HP brand specifically due to printers in the early 2000’s.
I use HP 400s and an old 4700 at work - the 4700 is still the most reliable, and the 400 has issues with large (in file size) images, but they’ve basically been trouble free. The 400 is a combo printer/scanner with feeding tray. It can’t print 11x17 sizes though.
But it really depends on what you’re printing and in what context.
I’ve used laser forever and just recently got some ecotanks in April (ET4750 $600 ET8700 $999) Epson Ecotank (inkjet abandons razor blade model?) I use ADF and fax function thought. They are okay. Changing ink is easy, and i don’t have to deal with laser toner leaking and fusers breaking and stuff. It doesn’t seem much more expensive or cheaper than laser.
Yeah I abandoned laser because I’m also annoyed at failing toners. Then you change the cartridge ($80), it’s not the cartridge. You change the drum ($200) it’s not the drum. At that point the only thing left is the fuser which is $200-$300 for a technician to change. I could do it myself but it’s gonna be a PITA and I am not sure office can do without a printer while I try to figure it out. Then you decide fuck it, might as well buy a new printer and you’re stuck with the old cartridge and the old drums. Repeat every few years.
Also, toner is probably not helping my lungs and I already smoked enough packs over the years.
This is a tangent off the main thread, but HOLY SHIT, I just discovered dye sublimation photo printers and am I way late to this party.
I used to just print photos on my old HP laserjet on regular paper. They were black and white and on paper, but I don’t like injkets at all. The ink smears easily, you can easily see the color dots upon close inspection, and the colors don’t last long. Plus, the ink cartridge business is a goddamn racket.
Still, I’ve got a big upcoming trip to the ancestral homeland this month, and I decided to see what they have in photo printing. The idea is that I’d take portraits of my extended family on my fancy camera and then give them copies.
I was looking at those tiny HP Sprocket printers. They use zinc-based photo paper, so there’s no ink or toner. The problem is that zinc-based photo paper is pretty shitty in terms of color reproduction. It’s nifty enough for tweens who just want to print their selfies, which is all about what they’re good for, because the photos are only 2x4 inches.
But at the same time, I discovered dye sublimation. Got a Canon Selphy printer and after some tweaks, holy shit. They say it isn’t “professional grade”, but I have a difficult time seeing the differences. Plus, it’s traditional size, so it’s like any other photo you’d get from a photolab. And the media is less expensive than the Sprocket, too. The Sprocket is $10 for 20 sheets of photo paper. The Selphy is $30 for 108 sheets of paper and dye cartridges. Each cartridge is a roll of cellophane that contains strips of colored dye. The printer will take a piece of paper and run it through the printer four times. On each pass, it applies a coat of either magenta, red, or yellow. The final pass is for a clear overcoat the protects the photo. The cartridge has enough cellophane for 36 photos. (3 cartridges per box = 108). So you don’t have to worry about running out of one color or another.
