My printer quit working. It is displaying a message that it needs to be repaired. It’s roughly 10 years old
I’m debating whether it’s worth trying to get it serviced or just buying a new one. Is it ever worth repairing a low end home printer? Seems like they are usually loss leaders in order to make money on ink cartridges.
You bought it for how much?
Divide that by 10. That is your yearly expense for printing, plus whatever you spent on ink. It would be great to find a printer that lowers the latter for a small increase in the former.
(Maybe that is why that exercise contraction is called a Toner???)
I think we had this convo with Lucy months ago. A laser printer’s ink doesn’t dry up or something as an inkjet printer’s does. That’s what I got out of it.
Ink? Holy cow just no. Watch for a cheap old model laser to go on sale.
I bought an Epson eco tank years ago and love it. Now, the most expensive item I use is the paper.
It’s slow, but I don’t care. It’s inexpensive to operate. That I appreciate.
Also, I rarely print anything but occasionally it’s necessary or convenient. I don’t care about speed. I do want something inexpensive to operate.
This article just came out two days ago (allegedly):
Can you skip the printer completely and go to a library or office supply store when it is absolutely necessary? I may go that route when my current printer dies (of course I also have the option to print things at work for now). (Not the best article, but it was the first to pop-up on a quick search.)
If you need a printer at home then, in my extremely qualified opinion, I would recommend to consider a laser printer or buy 3rd party ink from amazon or ebay which is often half the price of brand name ink.
i bought off brand ink for the dead model for years, and it was much cheaper than half off the name brand
Usually I’ve been able to make due without the printer for a while. Occasionally lately it’s been inconvenient. Only a few times in the past year has it been inconvenient not to be able to print something at home.
As you know, you get to pick one:
Given how little you print, it might not be worth the front end “investment” of something like an Epson eco tank. Just get the “cheap” printer and since you don’t print a lot, you won’t need to buy a lot of ink.
Generally, no, because…
Yeah. I used to have that problem because I don’t print a ton. Got an HP laserjet thing a couple of years ago and it’s been really solid. But it wasn’t cheap, I think it was $250 or $300. And ink (or toner? I don’t know) isn’t cheap, although you get a lot of pages out of them.
We have this laser printer, although I spent $330 on it, it’s now $430. It’s been solid. I print a fair amount of stuff for quilting. Black toner costs around $50, haven’t had to replace the color yet so not sure about those. The first black toner that came with the printer lasted us about a year.
HP Color LaserJet Pro M182nw Wireless All-in-One Laser Printer, Remote Mobile Print, Scan & Copy, Works with Alexa (7KW55A) https://a.co/d/7m9gFvO
the only consideration is, no colour. If you (rarely print colour) AND (mostly print BW) then this is the way to go. And just run into a print shop once every year or two and spend 50 cents when you need a colour copy.
If you’re printing a fair bit of colour, who does that? then maybe not worth a colour laser since those run about $400 canadian.
But frankly, I have a colour laser as well. It’s been sitting on the shelf, can’t recall the last time I printed using it. It’s been a while, likely a year or two.
Yeah, I’ve got some version of the Brother that SL posted - I think there are multiple pretty much identical printers with slightly different model numbers. I highly recommend it. In addition to be about as cheap as a printer comes - especiallly for a laser printer, it has held up well over many years. It feels about as solid as a cheap printer can be expected to be. It’s B&W and you don’t get a scanner or copying ability. For that, and for when I need color, I also have a cheap Brother color inkjet printer.
Oh, yeah. I think I remembered one of the differences in model number. I believe they offered one with a full toner cartridge and another otherwise-identical, presumably cheaper, one with a “starter toner cartridge”.
I do. Graphs work better with color.
A bunch of the people I have to explain the results/findings from my modeling to seem to need colors and graphics to help understand the results.
If I were allowed to print the PowerPoint decks and summary spreadsheets that pass through my email…
Sadly, IT disabled our ability to print on non-office printers a few days after pandemic lockdowns started.
I got a color laser printer when my prior inkjet started giving me problems. It was extravagant/excessive given my limited printing needs, but I got tired with some of my hassles with ink, and annoyed when ink ran when wet (e.g. when taking notes outside for an activity in mist/drizzle; or when snail-mailing a document with color).
Me doing homework. I construct a diagram with a point at an unknown place on a line, and I happen to put it on one side of X.
Do the problem, show that the point has to be on the other side of X. Note this and point out that we have now shown that the point needs to be on the other side of X and that the diagram is wrong.
Marker: -1, diagram is wrong.
