AtomicCEO Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I'm absolutely fed up with this crap. All I ever need to do is print black text on white paper on very rare occasions. This shouldn't cause me so many problems. Tax time, I need to print some tax pages out. Sometimes I need to print out a form to mail in. Sometimes I need to print out directions. I print less than 25 pages a year at home. Yet, every single time I go to print, my ink cartridge is empty. It must evaporate over time, or maybe it just goes bad due to sitting idle for so long. But I shouldn't have to spend $50-$100 a year on ink the way I use my printer. I swear to god I'm going to go find a dot-matrix printer and hook it up to my computer because they never let me down back in the dark ages. Can someone recommend a printer or technology that will allow me to print 25 pages a year and not dry up or go bad? If it has a linux driver, that's even better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithkt Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 You can get inexpensive laser printers these days. Right around $100 bucks should get you a printer more than capable of handling what you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicCEO Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 You can get inexpensive laser printers these days. Right around $100 bucks should get you a printer more than capable of handling what you do. I was just looking at those on Amazon. Laser printers use some kind of powdered toner instead of liquid ink, right? So they don't go bad over time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ts Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I may have an old Okidata 182 dot-matrix printer up in my attic ... sitting in a box with my 300-baud acoustic modem. Seriously though, a low-end laser printer should be cheap enough & will do the job nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I was just looking at those on Amazon. Laser printers use some kind of powdered toner instead of liquid ink, right? So they don't go bad over time? Yeah, it's powder. I don't know what the life span is but if you're doing that very low level, you'd be better off abandoning printing altogether and taking your print job down to Kinko's on a flash drive or sending it out over Internet printing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_gop_liars Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 If you're not printing photos after your scanner party. Then laser is the way to go. Brother makes a good cheap printer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I was just looking at those on Amazon. Laser printers use some kind of powdered toner instead of liquid ink, right? So they don't go bad over time? I still have my Laser printer from 1995, HP4L. I haven't bought a toner cart for it in more years than I can count. Just printed a page on it and it did a fine job. Once in a while if you didn't use it for a while shake the cart side to side. The way seem to use a printer, the cart will prolly out live you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ts Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 (edited) I have an HP1320 laserjet that I've owned for a few years - no problems at all ... the model has been discontinued, but you can no doubt find a used or refurbished one on line for somewhere between $125 - $200. The HP 2015 is a "newer" model of essentially the same printer - my wife has one, also no problems to report. I think HP may have recently replaced the 2015 with another model change, the 2035 however if you want to buy brand new. E2A: here's the HP2035: http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer.../CE461A%2523ABA Edited February 8, 2009 by ts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 My company buys HP 1319s for us work at home people. I'm assuming it is because of the long ink cartridge life. It's much better than the Epson color one I had (buying cartridges every couple months......). I don't print a ton of documents, but a lot more than 25 pages a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I may have an old Okidata 182 dot-matrix printer up in my attic That'll brint a couple hundred on ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chargerz Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I've had HP inkjet printers for quite a while now. My latest is the HP Photosmart 2610. It's an all-in-one that prints acceptably good photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 If you're not printing photos after your scanner party. Then laser is the way to go. Brother makes a good cheap printer. +1 on Brother. I had an HP before the Brother I have now, and I hated the HP. I think I got mine - an all-in-one (WITH SCANNER!) - for just around $150 I think. Great little machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czarina Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I've had good luck with Canon printers, and you can get them with individual color ink tanks, so you don't have to replace the whole thing when one color runs out. The individual tanks are around $10/each and Staples carries a generic brand that fits in them. They're Canon Pixma something or others. i4000 or some such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keggerz Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 (edited) I have a Brother 4 in 1 and when one of the colors is OUT it wont even let me SCAN to a file I did have a non color Laser by Brother when I had the store and it did a great job Edited February 10, 2009 by keggerz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I've had good luck with Canon printers, and you can get them with individual color ink tanks, so you don't have to replace the whole thing when one color runs out. The individual tanks are around $10/each and Staples carries a generic brand that fits in them. They're Canon Pixma something or others. i4000 or some such. Same with the Brother I have. I have a Brother 4 in 1 and when one of the colors is OUT it wont even let me SCAN to a file Dude, you're totally doing something wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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