After only about 28 months of use, my printer has died. As a user I am not in the "low usage" category. Actually, I print so seldom, and so little, they don't seem to HAVE a category for me.
A couple years ago, when I got this printer, I wrote a short product review on it. At the time, I didn't know anything about the problems, other than there was such a thing as ink drying in the jets. I had no idea at all how big of a problem it could be.
The from what I have read, the manufacture intended this printer to have a life expectancy over 47000 pages. I guess they expected it to be printing about 24 pages a day, which would mean a life expectancy of about 6 years. Ink for that printing, however, would be quite expensive. Using the Epson ink, that would be over $100 a month. Even using the G&G ink from a discount supplier, it would be over $50 a month. Since the printer cost just over $100 originally, I don't think their view of economics is useful.
Because I use it so infrequently, every time I used it, I had to clean it. And I had to run the cleaning cycle twice each time. It would always warn me that this used extra ink. What it did not warn me about was filling the waste ink reservoir. After only about 2000 to 3000 pages, it gave me an indication that the waste ink reservoir was getting full. And then it just died. Not sure if it died from the reservoir overfilling or something else, but I just assume it was the reservoir. The local shop told me it is not worth fixing.
I plan to replace it with a color laser. I am currently looking at the HP 1600. Of course, the color laser costs about 3 times as much, but it doesn't have the problems with the ink drying out that the inkjet has.
In summery, I have to conclude that unless they can overcome the problems with ink dryout (perhaps putting it in an artificial environment, where the ink solvent is in the air?), there is actually NO reason to buy an injet.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
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2 comments:
Wow printers are a hoot. I bought a Lexmark for $50 years ago and lost the receipt for a $30 rebate. It had no color cartridge. That cost $40 and only lasted about 15 pics before it Started losing color. The Black&white filler was cheap but the whole maintenance and cost sent me back to the copy store when I needed to copy stuff. I enjoyed the outing and gave up on printers. But I do not need one for business or would buy and maintain one. A scanner is a must though.
dw
What I have always needed in a printer is three things. First is good economy on blank and white, since that is most of what I print. Second is the ability to print color from time to time.
The third thing, though, is the problem. I run a mostly paperless operation, and I need the printer to not mind sitting for days (and occationally weeks) without use. That is what did in my ink jet. The first printing after sitting for more than 24 hours would require a cleaning cycle, and if it sat for over a week would need two or three cleaning cycles.
The laser I have now is more expensive to buy than I wanted to spend, but it is supposedly the most maintenance free one I could get. Hopefully, it will last more than the two years the old one did.
TRex
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