Good Printer that works well with aftermarket inks? (1 Viewer)

[CRyan]

Well, my printer died and I need a new one. I hate printers.

Any current model of color inkjet printer ($100 range) that plays nicely with aftermarket ink or aftermarket ink cartridges? And what brand aftermarket ink should I get for said printer? I just want something proven as my luck with aftermarket inks with various printers has been substandard.

I print infrequently and I am completely tired of spending $40 per cartridge only to find it dried up when I go to print two months later - Or it takes draining half the cart to get it unclogged. I would not be so pissed about this situation if I was paying less for the ink.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I would look for last year's Canon printers (this year's models use chipped ink, so the aftermarket ink cartridges don't work in them). Models like the Pixma iP4000, or Pixma iP6000d might still be available on Ebay, and won't break the bank. I used www.abcink.com for the aftermarket cartridge replacements.

 

[Tekara]

What are you primarily printing? A laser printer may be more suitable for your needs, the shelf life of a toner cartridge is typically a lot better than an ink cartridge.

Laser printers are quite affordable with monotone printers around $100 and color printers starting at $300

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Buy an inexpensive laser instead?

You'll pay $399 for a Color LaserJet 2600n but for that money you can print 2500 b/w pages or 2000 color.

For $299 you get the Color Laserjet 1600, but that comes with half-size toner cartridges to start with (which makes the 2600n worth the extra $100 right there) and the 2600n is networked so you can print from multiple machines directly if that is something you want.

You can probably cut both prices down a bit by shopping around, those are MSRP's up there.

Lexmark also has a color laser at around $300, and that is with a network connection.

Of course, if you don't print much, it will take a while before you break even (these cost more to buy but less to operate.)

 

[CRyan]

When I print, I print photos and graphics. I very rarely print BW only. I dont need the best but from what I have seen of laser, it is not good enough in color for my needs - hence why I asked about inkjet. Thanks for the input though.

I have been reading about the newer Canon's. It looks like the new ones will take aftermarket tanks but just wont recognize ink level - no biggie for me.

But I have owned Canon for several generations and while they are nice ( ink is cheaper as the cart does not include the printhead) the printhead tends to die with clogging overtime. This is what happenned to my latest one. At elast with the other printers, you get a new printhead with a new cart.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Inkjets, especially inexpensive ones, will always be costly to operate. The inexpensive machines are probably sold pretty much without making the manufacturers any profit, they get that on the ink cartridges - so of course they don't want anyone to use aftermarket ink.

Consumables costs tend to go down as the printer prices go up, but if you only use the device occasionally that's probably not very important as it only starts paying off if you print a fair amount.

 

[CRyan]

You are correct.

I know a lot of people have been successful with aftermarket carts and inks so I figured I would try to find some good combinations before jumping into another printer.

 

[Scott Dautel]

I LOVE my Canon Pixma MP780 all-in-one printer. It takes 5 ink carts (M,C,Y + 2 blacks) I buy my ink from abcink.com and I pay on average about $1.75 per cartridge. Quite a change from my experience with HP! Indeed, the printhead is separate from the carts, but the head can be replaced as needed.

I have found that the aftermarket ink does a fine job on plain paper, but I am less than thrilled with photographs on glossy Canon photo paper. I want to try some canon ink and compare, but I have not gottten there yet. I would also guess that the "cheap" aftermarket inks are going to fade quicker than the Canon inks ... I'm looking for technical article or camparison.