need a printer advice...

[Aevum]

canons are nice, you do need to find a cheap ink source (i think that inkjed printer ink is around $4000 a barrel) and dont have injector on printer (like epsons), and replacing a cartrige set wont run you around 80-100 bucks like lexmark or HP,

but it depends on how much you print, if you print more then 50 pages a day, forget the inkjet and go directly to laser, but if you just want to print 10-20 pages a day and one day might go and print a 50-60 page document, then yea, inkjet it is,

but just remember, inkjets tend to have problems with standing idle for long periods of time, even if you´re not using it or dont need it, try to print atleast 5 pages a week to keep the injectors humid,

[Don Quichotte]

Thank you all for your replies. I did my homework this time and read about inkjet and laser printers on wikipedia. Considering the warm up time of the laser printers, their power consumption, potential health hazard and the fact that I will need the scanning and copying as well as the color printing features of a multifunctional printer I think I'll go for the Canon. I will have to print some 1000 - 1200 pages at first and then I seriously doubt I will exceed 1000 pages / month on average (95% or more being b&w text on the most economical setting).

Black ink is pretty cheap around here, between 4 and 8 USD / 100ml. I am however a little concerned about this quote from wikipedia:

Many "intelligent" ink cartridges contain a microchip that communicates the estimated ink level to the printer; this may cause the printer to display an error message, or incorrectly inform the user that the ink cartridge is empty. In some cases, these messages can be ignored, but many inkjet printers will refuse to print with a cartridge that declares itself empty, in order to prevent consumers from refilling cartridges.

So, dr dougie and all the other Canon MP series users: have you encountered this problem when refilling your cartridges? Thanks.

[roastpuff]

Originally Posted by Don Quichotte

Thank you all for your replies. I did my homework this time and read about inkjet and laser printers on wikipedia. Considering the warm up time of the laser printers, their power consumption, potential health hazard and the fact that I will need the scanning and copying as well as the color printing features of a multifunctional printer I think I'll go for the Canon. I will have to print some 1000 - 1200 pages at first and then I seriously doubt I will exceed 1000 pages / month on average (95% or more being b&w text on the most economical setting).

Don, I have a Samsung ML-2571 laser printer. I can print a document, and it'll warm up under 5 seconds and start printing then. My two other inkjet printers (Canon i455 and HP PSC2710) takes about the same amount of time to start printing. However, the laser is MUCH faster when I have to print out a 60-70 page political science journal article...

Power consumption is pretty minimal compared to an inkjet, as well. And you're going to run through a lot of cartridges at that amount of printing (1000 pages a month) which is about what I do as a student with a lot of paper research and readings.

I suggested laser multifunction printers, which do scan and copy. Keep a cheap inkjet when you need to print in color. Or get a cheaper inkjet multifunction and print B&W with laser - the savings and speed will be worth it.

The "health hazards" of laser printers are overblown. The only way you could possibly get cancer etc is if you stand right over the printer and start inhaling heavily.

[Don Quichotte]

You all made me curious, so I did a bit of research on laser printers. I must admit that I'm tempted, but the prices here in Romania are not encouraging. The cheapest b&w laser printer from Samsung, for example, costs ~$125, while the inkjet multifunctional Canon Pixma MP 520 is ~$150 (which is about my upper limit). Now, if I can refill its black ink cartridge, given the very low price of the black ink, the Canon seems obviously preferable for its numerous features. I don't care much for printing speed, btw.

So, here I am asking again, perhaps more clearly this time:
1. can the black ink cartridge of this Canon be refilled? (see my previous post)
2. should I expect the Canon to last reasonably enough, or there is a good chance that it would die on me before I print, say, 10.000 pages? - I'm not talking about the cartridge getting empty, of course
3. do all the laser printers (or at least the Samsung ones) allow for cartridge refilling? (same as question1)

[GordonFreeman]

You must be well off, to be able to afford all the tiny ink cartridges you will be buying to print that much. That much printing and you will repurchase your printer over and over many times buying little low volume black cartridges, thus the lower prices on inkjets. Find a laser all in one because if you don't you will go to do all that printing and end up buying a laser printer after learning the hard way.

[scompton]

Originally Posted by Don Quichotte

You all made me curious, so I did a bit of research on laser printers. I must admit that I'm tempted, but the prices here in Romania are not encouraging. The cheapest b&w laser printer from Samsung, for example, costs ~$125, while the inkjet multifunctional Canon Pixma MP 520 is ~$150 (which is about my upper limit). Now, if I can refill its black ink cartridge, given the very low price of the black ink, the Canon seems obviously preferable for its numerous features. I don't care much for printing speed, btw.

So, here I am asking again, perhaps more clearly this time:
1. can the black ink cartridge of this Canon be refilled? (see my previous post)
2. should I expect the Canon to last reasonably enough, or there is a good chance that it would die on me before I print, say, 10.000 pages? - I'm not talking about the cartridge getting empty, of course
3. do all the laser printers (or at least the Samsung ones) allow for cartridge refilling? (same as question1)

For the Cannon

Canon PIXMA MP-520 Ink Refills

For a Samsung laser printer

Samsung IZZI Laser Toner Refills

I've never done refills, so I don't know what's involved. I'm not recommending this site for refills, it's just what came up first in a Google search.

[roastpuff]

Originally Posted by Don Quichotte

So, here I am asking again, perhaps more clearly this time:
1. can the black ink cartridge of this Canon be refilled? (see my previous post)
2. should I expect the Canon to last reasonably enough, or there is a good chance that it would die on me before I print, say, 10.000 pages? - I'm not talking about the cartridge getting empty, of course
3. do all the laser printers (or at least the Samsung ones) allow for cartridge refilling? (same as question1)

1. Yes, however, you will need to drill a hole into the ink cartridge so that you can use the syringe to inject more ink into the cartridge. I think there is a limit as to how many times you can refill a cartridge, as well, but I am not sure.
2. Not sure, though you might have to replace the printhead (what actually prints the ink on the paper - the little thing that moves) eventually because I don't know if inkjet printers have a lifecycle that long.
3. Yes, most do. It's also often a lot easier, because most of the laser cartridges have holes built-in already. I just have to take out two screws on mine, pry off a cap and then spend 2-3 minutes shaking my replacement bottle of toner into the cartridge. After that, I'm good for another 3000 pages, for the cost of $6.

[Don Quichotte]

Thank you all! FYI, I am using a ~4 years old Lexmark Z605 printer at the office and I have refilled its black ink cartridge at least 20 or 25 times. The actual capacity decreased from 17ml to 10 or 11ml and the printer has a mechanical problem, but otherwise it's still going strong.

[lucyrssll]

Stinkyink now offer toner cartridges for the Samsung ML2571 toner. Oh and it's free delivery too!

[Alcibiades]

My experience with inkjets has always been pretty crappy. I find the performance isn't always consistent among the other problems already mentioned in this thread. I also think it has the tendency to jam more though that might have something to do with the fact that it's a cheaper printer.