We've just had two cheapo Dell printers die within two months. Time to switch vendors.
Anybody got a favorite vendor for a basic ink-jet printer, used mostly to print school papers and pictures from Web sites? Durability trumps features.
We're taking a moment ... and we're done.
Oz ,'Chosen'
Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?
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Betsy HP - May 09, 2006 8:28:38 am PDT #8053 of 10003
If I only had a brain...
Gudanov - May 09, 2006 8:32:05 am PDT #8054 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
I really like my Epson R200. It has been rock solid, and has the nifty feature of being able to print directly on printable CDs. I can also get cheap ink that has worked quite well in it.
It's now the R220. Information: [link]
Retail Link (for price info): [link]
NoiseDesign - May 09, 2006 8:40:31 am PDT #8055 of 10003
Our wings are not tired
I've got a Canon that's been nice and reliable. I like the Epson's apart from the way they fuck with you in regards to ink. When the machine reports that any of the 4 ink cartriges is low the entire printer gets shut down until you replace it. There's actually a class action suit against Epson about it. Quite a bit of the time it reports ink cartridges as empty when they are not, and yet it still shuts down your printer.
Gudanov - May 09, 2006 8:47:16 am PDT #8056 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
I have't seen that with the R200, it gives a warning light when a cartridge gets low, but I can keep printing even after it goes entirely dry. It's not a four cartridge printer though, so the others might be different.
Jessica - May 09, 2006 8:52:22 am PDT #8057 of 10003
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
The Epson CX line has a known issue where after about 3-4 ink changes, the discharge tube becomes clogged and the printer will only "print" blank pages. There are many many forums with instructions on how to fix this -- basically you have to dismantle the printer and manually clean or replace the discharge tube. Some people report being able to get Epson to replace printers where this has happened, but it's not 100% guarantee, since they don't like to actually admit that it's a problem.
DXMachina - May 09, 2006 8:53:56 am PDT #8058 of 10003
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
I have a Canon, also, and it's great. Each color gets its own cartridge, so you don't have to throw out everything when you're only out of cyan.
Gudanov - May 09, 2006 9:21:09 am PDT #8059 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
The Epson is like that too, it has six individual cartridges. I've been getting my ink from TechBudget.com and it seems to work just fine.
[link] (The price is like $28 with shipping, but still quite good for seven cartridges)
Actually, I should order some. My yellow is almost out.
Tom Scola - May 09, 2006 2:37:04 pm PDT #8060 of 10003
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
Whoops, wrong thread.
aurelia - May 09, 2006 7:43:24 pm PDT #8061 of 10003
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story. Tell me a story.
I've gone thru 3 Epson printers that drove me crazy with the clogged jets. I'm happier with the cheapo Canon I have now.
Gudanov - May 10, 2006 3:51:31 am PDT #8062 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
Huh, I've had three Epsons and one Canon and have never had a problem that has caused me to retire them. Two of the Epsons are still in use and one of them does print jobs of hundreds of pages all the time. Maybe I've just got less problematic models. I've had an Epson laser printer I wasn't fond of however.