New printer. What would you recommend?

D

Dave Stone

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,382
Edit My Images
No
I am in the market for a new printer. My budget would go to £200. Iam not botheredabout it having a scanner as I would have little use for it. If possible I would like it to be able to print A3. Any advice gratefully received.
 
There are major disadvantages to anything Epson. For example, the nozzles are in the printer not the cartridge, and if they get blocked you have to buy a new printer! And even though you're only printing in B&W, your colour cartridges still run out for some unknown reason.:cuckoo:

See the thread yesterday called "Epson Printer Rant"

I'd also be interested to hear from other people on why they chose what they did, and if they are happy with it.
 
and epson ink prices have gone up recently (well for the k3 anyhow)
 
Well can only comment on the epson I recently got and have to say its fantastic and the prints are superb.Its the sx600,has £50 off in some stores at the mo so going for £99
 
I havent read the Epson rant, but I will now, but then I have had Epson printers for years with few problems, and I am a heavy user.

The Canon iX400 is in your budget and gets good reviews. I have had HP printers for years, very pleased with them too but earlier ones tended to wear out print heads, which was OK because I could change them, but not OK because I had to keep changing then at £20 a go ( 6 of them!)
My latest HP works perfectly after 3 years of constant use, and I use compatible inks in it.

I also have an Epson R1400 A3 printer. Fantastic printer which i run with a continuous ink system. I have also had the earlier 1290 printer which was the mainstay ( and still is) of many small photographic print shops. If it broke you couldnt earn, many people swore by them. Mine was fantastic after 4 years hard use and now has a new owner and is still going strong.

I had a couple of earlier ( 1990`s) Epson printers. they were clunky and noisy and suffered from blocked print heads if they were not used for a while or if compatible inks were used. I switched to HP for a while, but went back to Epson because they get great reviews from serious users.
Print heads on many Epson printers can be changed, but, of course, if they fail under warranty, you get them sorted for free. I dont think they are any more susceptible to failure than any other make of printer, certainly not in my experience as long as good quality ink and paper is used.

I`ve heard many bad things about Canon Brother and Lexmark too. I think you have to take such stories sometimes with a pinch of salt.

If you can get an extended warranty, its probably a good idea as long as the cost isnt too high.

Allan
 
I use a dye sub printer. These are great if you are not using regularly as there is no ink to dry out. I wouldn't use inks or cartridges ever again.
 
i use Canon iP5300
stunning piece of kit
 
Thanks allanm for your info on the various printers you have used. It sounds like you've had better luck with epson than I have.

It's cheaper to buy a "reconditioned" Epson R800 from Epson (about £100) than have the print heads changed.

The R800 does good quality colour prints if you can keep it running properly. The advice seems to be to print something in colour every week to stop the nozzles from getting blocked. To me that suggests that there is something fundamentally wrong with the design somewhere.

And using up colour ink cartridges when you've only done B&W printing????:thumbsdown:

It's also interesting and possibly relevant that Epson cartridges can't be recycled.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I would seem that all makes of printer have there faults. I have managed to get a Epson 1400 for a very good price and VERY happy so far. A3 Dragonflys look great :)
 
The nozzles in the printer / nozzles in the cartridge debate will go on for ever. There are big advantages to both.

PRO

It is true that they can get blocked BUT this rarely happens if the printer is used at least every couple of weeks.

Due to no nozzles the print cartridges are cheaper.

You can buy copy cartridges which are dramatically cheaper than the originals.

Often the CISS systems are cheaper and easier to produce.


AGAINST

The nozzles CAN get partially blocked and this then means that you use up valuable ink clearing them

It is possible that the nozzles get completely blocked requiring wiping with unblocking fluid (not expensive if you do it yourself but can be if you get an engineer to)


Now I used to fix printers regularly and it really depends on their use. If you have a printer that you use on an occasional basis such as a A2 printer then I would want one that made head replacement/cleaning easy OR had the nozzles in the cartridge. If you are using the printer as an everyday printer then it does not matter, the nozzles will remain free of clogging and the ink is cheaper.
 
Cowasaki,

Can you account for colour cartridges becoming empty when no colour printing has been done?

I've heard it said there is a chip inside Epson cartridges. Does this just count the number of pages printed, whether b&w or colour, and when it reaches a certain total it decides the cartridge is empty whether there's any ink in it or not?

Apparently the chip in Epson cartridges prevents them being re-used.
 
jerry12953 said:
Cowasaki,

Can you account for colour cartridges becoming empty when no colour printing has been done?

I've heard it said there is a chip inside Epson cartridges. Does this just count the number of pages printed, whether b&w or colour, and when it reaches a certain total it decides the cartridge is empty whether there's any ink in it or not?

Apparently the chip in Epson cartridges prevents them being re-used.
Click to expand...

Yes Epson realised that it was a simple matter to buy ink and then use a normal syringe to refill them and they were as new. They therefore added a cartridge chip. The chip does not always get it right though and on occasion it does say that the cartridge has less ink in it than it actually contains. If you reset the chip then it will continue to print. I found the software on ebay at 99p inc delivery. If you use an Epson printer VERY heavily it is possible to reach the cleaning ink storage tank limit!! This is a small bottle inside the printer than contains a sponge and soaks up the ink from cleaning cycles etc. This is deemed full at 15000 pages so my printer stopped working. I cleaned out the bottle and used the software to reset the pages to 0 and it worked fine again.

Basically with Epson you pay less but do get a little more work to do! With HP you pay more but life is simpler. Its a bit like the Apple/Windows thing :) --- Which on that basis you would expect me to be into HP printers like my Apple computers BUT I actually have BOTH.

My printers are: Epson R300 with CISS fitted (this is now redundant and is not plugged into any computer - if anyone lives nearby they could make me an offer :) ); Samsung CLP500 colour laser printer modified by me (see my web site) so that I can refill it with bottles toner; HP C6280 this is my family networked normal use printer (it produces acceptable photographic output; it is fast; it has a built in memory card reader usable across a network; it has a scanner usable across the network; it will scan to a memory card or straight to print) and it uses INK CARTRIDGES that are seperate from the heads, just like Epson :) LASTLY I have a spangly Epson R2400 A3 which is quite simply breathtaking in black and white and colour. I am still planning on getting a CISS for it but keep finding other things to buy instead so I am using genuine Epson cartridges at the moment.

The point is that its horses for courses! What do you really want? Perfect print everytime; A4/A3/A3+/A2; Cheap to buy; Cheap to Run; Low maintenance; Special features such as scanner, networking, memory card reader, CD/DVD printing; Compatibility with certain cameras or OSes...... the list goes on.

With my experience of the latest HP printers I would probably buy the model above my HP at just under £200 and convert it to CISS *or* buy a set of the refillable cartridges for it at about £20.

If your budget was higher and you had the need for A3 I would look at the new R1900, if the budget was even higher then the R2400/R2880.

These are just my opinions although I have used many of the latest printers and I am never a fanboy. If its good its good, if it isnt it isnt hence my examples are both HP and Epson.
 
Cowasaki,

Thanks very much for that very interesting post. I should think all epson owners would want to get hold of the software for resetting the chip.

There have been several threads about inkjet printers in the last couple of days so I wonder if all the posters will be able to see your reply. (Mods?)

:clap::clap:
 
I've got a Epson R1800 and use the Tec Jet inks £3.99 each and been using them for about 9 mths without problem, great printer and great replacement ink at a good price. I do make sure I print at least once every week though. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top