Comparison between an inkjet printer and a cat

[Neil Waldhauer]

[Martin Iturbide]

 
I hate printers, but I learned to love cats.

[Guillaume Gay]

...And the garbage collector has not even been mentioned.

Don't forget they're planning to conquer the universe!

[Cats will be held responsible of any typo made in this message. ]

[ivan]

I gave up on inkjet printers about the time that warp connect was released and converted to laser printers.  OK, so maybe I don't get quite the range of colours that an inkjet does but I get colour fast prints that if my Newfoundland dog shakes slobber on them it can be wiped off without problems.

[Andi B.]

I gave up on inkjet printers about the time that warp connect was released and converted to laser printers.

The same here.

But I don't missed the huge improvements the last 10 years or so. And now own 2 single line (?) SoHo all in one (scanner, copier, printer) devices. One HP for A4 which serves me well since more than 6 years and a new Brother for A3 sheets. Of course you can stay on your old laser if it still works. But mine are broken since many years. And if you think about a new printer today in the < 1k€ class then laser is a terrible bad choice.

[Remy]

Inkjet printers: ink dries over time
Laser printers: powdered ink does not dry

[Andi B.]

Inkjet printers: ink dries over time

Which time you're talking about? Decades or centuries. Honestly, are you repeating experiences we all made 20-30 years ago. Or do you have made any experience in the last 5 years with inkjet printers in the more than 200€ class? (read - not the cheapest crap you can get but in the price range of cheap laser)

Yes there's still a problem when you cut the power supply regularly with inkjets in comparison to laser printers. But as the all now consume way less then 1W in stdby this is no more than a few € a year. Over an estimated lifetime of 10 years f.i. less than 20€. You'll save a lot more of money with the inkjet in this 10 years cause the ink costs per page are much lower then the toner costs for a laser THESE days. Yes it was different 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. But time has changed.

(Hope my new Brother inkjet with Postscript and A3 will last longer than the latest laser printers I bought. But I'm still very confident)

[Remy]

Inkjet printers: ink dries over time

Which time you're talking about? Decades or centuries. Honestly, are you repeating experiences we all made 20-30 years ago. Or do you have made any experience in the last 5 years with inkjet printers in the more than 200€ class? (read - not the cheapest crap you can get but in the price range of cheap laser)

Yes there's still a problem when you cut the power supply regularly with inkjets in comparison to laser printers. But as the all now consume way less then 1W in stdby this is no more than a few € a year. Over an estimated lifetime of 10 years f.i. less than 20€. You'll save a lot more of money with the inkjet in this 10 years cause the ink costs per page are much lower then the toner costs for a laser THESE days. Yes it was different 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. But time has changed.

(Hope my new Brother inkjet with Postscript and A3 will last longer than the latest laser printers I bought. But I'm still very confident)

I didn't use my inkjet for about 1 and 1/2 year and trying to print a document, some color including black didn't work (the cartradge were full of ink but the ink was drie!)
This never happens with laser printer. I already have one but I have to change the cartrage (expensive but able to print above 5000 pages (one black cartridge:8000pages, each color cartridge: 4000pages ) compared to an inkjet cartridge limited to a few hundred pages max:930pages for the black cartridge) - in my case, the price per page is far lower for my laser printer than my inkjet cartradge and nearly the same using compatible ink cartradge but the resulting quality isn't the same.
(laser printer can use coimpatible cartridge too but never tried yet. My first cartridge into the laser printer)

HP inkjet with (front/back printing option) - print head included into the cartrage
Lexmark color laser printer (front/back printing option too and faster than the inkjet)

When using original manufactured cartridge (with maximum capacity):
For my inkjet: black 70€  (0.0752€ per page)
Lexmark: black 188€ (0.0235€ per page)
The difference is higher using compatible ink cart.

"HP 980Cxi" with duplex option - same as 990Cxi
"Lexmark CD510DE"   

[Andi B.]

My four HP 970XL/971XL Officejet cartridges lasts for 6600 pages (estimation). I've inserted them between 2017-07-23 and 2019 after the included small cartridges got empty. Black one nearly 7 years ago. They last for another 2200-2700 pages from now. I've printed more than 7700 all in all. About 5000 pages with this 5-7 years old cartridges. Just checked this printer is already more than 9 years old from January 2015. I've never ever any problem with the first small cartridges or with the current second XL cartridges. No problem even after a month of holiday without printing a single page. You know inkjets like my HP or my Brother regularly cleans itself if they are not used for a long time.

My Xerox Laser I had before didn't last more than 5 years. Another Laser I bought about 12 years ago couldn't be used anymore cause the 4 toner cartridges are not available anymore from the manufacturer and the compatible ones would cost nearly 400€ together. Way to much for a cheap (<500€) A4 laser without duplex at this age. So it went to trash last year.

I know the HP Lasers we use at our company work >10 years too. But they are in the price region of 2k€ and more. And they get a service every few years which cost the same as a brand new SoHo Inkjet I'm talking about. The Lexmark Laser we used in the company before was an expensive crap which I remember had to spent more time on repairing than on printing :-). The Tektronix Phaser I had (sort of laser) also didn't nearly last as long as my HP Officejet  X476dw now. The last good laser I had was the HP Laserjet 5L which I used about 8 years. But it was only black and white and so don't compare it to the much better and cheap current color inkjets.

Sum up, IMO if you've bought a HP SoHo inkjet (~500€ with PS and duplex) in the last 3-10 years you got a much better device than any <1k laser. Unfortunately HP don't offer PS devices anymore in my price range. So if you buy today something like the Brother MFC-J6957DW you probably get a solid device for the next 10 years (I hope) with Postscript and A3 for a price you can't get any feature/quality comparable laser. The technology isn't bad anymore. Good (not the cheapest crap) inkjets work reliable since 10 years at least.

As said above, it's not allowed to regularly pull the power cord with inkjets as this asks for malfunction. I think that's the only problem with inkjet printers in the middle price range. But very cheap crap nearly always behaves like cheap crap. F.i. you can't expect even the lowest quality level from a 150€ color printer with duplex IMO. No clue which specific HP type you had the problems though. My HP Officejet Pro X476dw MFP works astonishing well. (Knocking on wood).

[Pete]

Hi All

I have a cheap HP inkjet/scanner, Envy Photo 6234, which gets to print a couple of pages now and again - roughly every 4 to 6 weeks.

I frequently find that the inkjet cartridges have become blocked, ink has dried in the printheads, due to lack of regular use.

As the ink is water based the cure is not to replace the cartridges but simply to soak the printheads gently in some water for a couple of minutes then reinsert cartridges in printer and print a Status Report from the printers setup selection which delivers enough black and colour ink to show whether the water treatment worked. I have only had to repeat the water treatment once and never had to replace blocked cartridges.

O course, I do not let dogs,cats or very young humans slobber over any printed photos  :-)

Regards

Pete

[Remy]

Hi All

I have a cheap HP inkjet/scanner, Envy Photo 6234, which gets to print a couple of pages now and again - roughly every 4 to 6 weeks.

I frequently find that the inkjet cartridges have become blocked, ink has dried in the printheads, due to lack of regular use.

As the ink is water based the cure is not to replace the cartridges but simply to soak the printheads gently in some water for a couple of minutes then reinsert cartridges in printer and print a Status Report from the printers setup selection which delivers enough black and colour ink to show whether the water treatment worked. I have only had to repeat the water treatment once and never had to replace blocked cartridges.

O course, I do not let dogs,cats or very young humans slobber over any printed photos  :-)

Regards

Pete

I tried water and other option to get the cartridges (each cartridge has included print head) of the inkjet work again, it start to print 2 or 3 pages at very poor quality and missing lines. Only a full replacement with a new cartridge made it print nively again.
Inkjet has higher definition than laser but out of printing high quality photos, laser has good results. 

[Andi B.]

Are there any color lasers available with Postscript, A3, duplex, Ethernet < 1k€? I few months ago I searched for one but couldn't find any.

[Remy]

Are there any color lasers available with Postscript, A3, duplex, Ethernet < 1k€? I few months ago I searched for one but couldn't find any.

I found a used and discontinued product told been fully checked (has it all ink cartridge installed ! to check  )
https://www.imprireco.fr/lexmark-c925de

(https://www.lexmark.com/en_us/printer/6362/Lexmark-C925de)