Disposable Printers?

[Gordon Mackie]

mmm - as my Deskjet 950C (very old) printer's ink cartridges couldn't be refilled again as they were getting worn out..I went to PC world to buy new ones

£52.99 for a pack with 1 B&W and 1 Colour cartridge

So - I looked at the printers and I could have bought a printer with cartridges for £25

But since my old scanner doesn't work on Vista, I splashed out and bought a £49.99 Epson combined printer, scanner & copier

I bet its cartridges will cost more than that to replace..so are printers now disposable items?? :-)

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by Gordon Mackie

But since my old scanner doesn't work on Vista, I splashed out and bought a £49.99 Epson combined printer, scanner & copier

I bet its cartridges will cost more than that to replace..so are printers now disposable items?? :-)

My colour laser cost less than a full set of colour cartridges.

And since the driver is a load of junk (No! It only has A4 in it! No USA sizes in the building.) I can just see it getting replaced when they run out.

[Marky Mark]

Printers are just vending machines for cartridges. hp even supply return envelopes for spent cartridges, to save the world? No to take them out of the refill chain.

MyM

[ratcliffe]

That is the way the industry works these days, in fact it has for many years... the only thing to remember is that when you buy a new printer, it doesn't always come with a new cartridge, very often they come with a "starter cartridge" which is about a third or half full.

Just something to bear in mind when weighing up the options, but I treat them as disposable these days...

[Woz]

If you get an Epson printer with seperate ink tanks then the non-genuine sets are fine to use. Don't get non-genuine if the colour catridge is an "all in one" jobbie.

You can get a full set of non-genuine cartridges for my Stylus Photo 300 for a fiver from the local shop.

However if you can, and you're not printing out photos, get a colour laser. They're bloody brilliant. Best 2nd hand thing I've bought of a YDer.

[David P]

I've just blown £500 on a full set of toners and drum for my little colour laser (pained me, but so be it). Yeah, you could buy a new one for less (though there are usually downsides - the cheap ones are particularly high on running costs, and rumour has it they often supply smaller toners from new), and I anyway object vigorously throwing away a perfectly good printer. Colour lasers aren't cheap on consumables - though the toners should last at least a year or two.

As Woz says, they're brilliant to have for all manner of general printing (I use a proper inkjet for decent quality photos - and only for that - the wait for routine printing is painful in the extreme compared to the laser!). And - having now forced the laser printer back into life now - I'm reminded why I love it. The colour fidelity (I'm printing a batch of DVD covers) is streets ahead of either of the two printers I've tried at work - it's got a decent colour profile - and I know how to tweak it! Happiness reigns... Sad, eh?