Printers

Greenow

A while ago I bought an Epson SX515w printer. Its a good printer I quite like it. I used cheap compatable inks (buying a set of "proper" inks costs almost as much as buying a printer and I dont really consider it an option).
After a while the print quality dropped off significantly and virtually new [compatable] cartridges were being rejected. The drop in print quality, after searching the net, I figured was due to the ink jet nozzles becoming clogged up (not necessarily due to using compatable cartridges but maybe a contributary factor). No amount of "head Cleaning" or swapping cartridges helped.
In the end I decided to jetison the printer and bought another one, same model. Now the same thing is happening with that printer.

I stand by buying compatable cartridges - even if I have to buy a new printer fairly regularly, it still works out cheaper than buying the originals. But I'm now starting to wonder whether I can find a better (more durable with compatable cartridges) printer than the SX515W. I'm wondering whether a laser printer is the way to go (but havent really looked into it properly yet)

Any thoughts? Any suggestions?

Important features for me are the wireless network connectivity.
Nice to have is the ability to print in colour and the scanner.
Not important is the ability to print photographs.

Within this, the main criteria is economy - both initial purchase and operation.

santer_2

Which make of compatibles?

Greenow

santer wrote: »

Which make of compatibles?

To be honest, mix and match - no consistency - just whatever I find on ebay or amazon.

The packs I'm just coming to the end of are not labelled with a name at all - I can find no identifier at all (beyond the claim that it is "Ink formulated in USA")

Enterprise_1701C

We switched to a laser because we were fed up with the cartridges drying up and blocking the print head, or the various problems you get when you try to change an ink cartridge. At the time we did not tend to use it very much. We would not switch now, it is wonderful, consistent, ready when we need it. The only problem is ours starts demanding new toner when one of the cartridges is down to about a third, so we just have to put up with the light flashing all the time, last time it was 6 months before we really had to change it. Not good for printing photos on photo paper though, we have a separate printer for that and did before we got the laser.

santer_2

I use pro jet for which ukdvdr and bigpockets are two sites that sell those

http://new.ukdvdr.co.uk/product.php?product=PJ-T715G8&title=

Haven't used these but will do as they have 19ml of ink usually

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/REXTRAS-LTD/_i.html?_nkw=sx515w&_arm=1&_armi=Replace+forT0807+%28Hummingbird%29&_armm=351&_ruu=http%3A%2F%2Fstores.ebay.co.uk%2FREXTRAS-LTD%2FReplace-forT0807-Hummingbird-%2F_i.html%3F_nkw%3Dsx515w%26_arr%3D1%26_fsub%3D1443312014%26_sc%3D1%26_sid%3D859856154%26_sop%3D15&_sc=1&_sid=859856154&_sop=15&_rdc=1

Greenow

Thanks for that - I've decidde to follow Jane.

I went for a Brother DCP-7060D Mono Multifunction Laser Printer at £142 delivered (10% quidco cashback should take it down to about £130).

I decided that I could manage with Mono only and made a compromise on the WiFi (which means that it will have to be connected by USB to one machine and the other desktops will only be able to print when that machine is on)

Mistral001

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

... The only problem is ours starts demanding new toner when one of the cartridges is down to about a third, so we just have to put up with the light flashing all the time, last time it was 6 months before we really had to change it. Not good for printing photos on photo paper though, we have a separate printer for that and did before we got the laser.

I have a Xerox laser printer that did that. I found out, with the help of a detailed google search, that the printer did not actually have a sensor to measure the amount of toner left and just counted the number of prints since last cartridge replacement and of course they were rediculously conservative in their estimate of how much toner is used with each print, hence the very early warning.

I found a fix to disable the counter and thus get rid of the flashing lights and annoying beeps by changing a setting in maintenance mode on the machine. The instructions were not in the manual, but once I found out the procedure from the www it took seconds to sort out.