Looking for a good inkjet printed

[jonathan1683]

Hey Guys,

I made a big mistake purchasing a new Epson xp-410 and it's a pile of junk it prints nice, but every time i use it it requires cleaning and alignments and the ink last I kid you not less than 20 pages of color ink. The printer is slow as hell and if you try to cancel it the printer just freezes. My 10 year old HP ran circles around it till it died finally. So my question is what do you guys think the best printers are now? I didn't think I had to do much research on a simple piece of hardware. I just wanted airprint and that was the only one I could find that had it.

 

[USAFRet]

Laser printers beat inkjets hands down.

 

[jonathan1683]

Yea I know, but the problem is lasers do not print photos in good quality, at least from what I have read. 🙁

 

[USAFRet]

Yea I know, but the problem is lasers do not print photos in good quality, at least from what I have read. 🙁

Generally, you are correct. I have both a good laser, and a good inkjet. The inkjet prints pics better, but on good quality laser photo paper, the Dell laser comes quite close.

And there is always the option of getting prints from your local pharmacy or elsewhere.
I've had inkjet prints look spectacular initially, and then start to fade in a year or so.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

ok, ink jet printers require a decent amount of use to function well. If you only print once or twice a month, then you should get a laser printer. The starter cartridges in a laser printer will probably last you at least a year, and no cleaning heads to waste ink. If you want photo's printer, it is cheaper to go to a photo lab or something to get a few prints done. Epson and Canon are the top 2 brands for printers as far as i'm concerned (and i happen to be a printer tech by trade). IMO HP are not as good in terms of quality, followed by Brother dragging their tails in the mud. In terms of laser printers, just go for one that gets decent yield out of its main consumables, one that has the drums built into the cartridge is more expensive per cartridge, but if you ever have a quality issue, then you can easily change it. If its just a toner cartridge and the drum is a fixed unit in the printer, then its bye bye printer if...no...when it fails.

 

[jonathan1683]

Thank you guys for your help, glad to see mods are actually in the trade. I was looking last night for a laser one and they all seem to have about the same amount of negative reviews. I guess it's hard to find that one that satisfies everyone or everyone is putting out junk. I am understanding that I need one with a drum built in. I think this description is what you are talking about. I saw this printer for only 200 and it seems to be a lot more expensive everywhere else and I could just buy it locally at frys.


http://www.frys.com/product/7252063#detailed

CLP-415NW

Toner replacement is quick and easy with a slide out drawer. And the all-in-one consumables which combine the toner cartridge and imaging unit in one casing means there are less items to worry about purchasing.


I really don't like the idea of a photo lab because every time I have ever needed to print it was something like an emergency situation I don't print pictures for pleasure. It's usually for something else or homework/report stuff I rather not have to worry about taking to a lab. I actually also last night purchased some recycled after-market ink which I am not sure how that will turn out, but they were a fraction of the price. I didn't want to give epson anymore money because I feel like they made this printer to rob us these cartridges are so tiny it's no surprise they don't print long.


http://www.4inkjets.com/Epson-Expression-XP-410-printer-ink-cartridges-toner

 

[USAFRet]

I've never had good luck with aftermarket inks. Either individual carts, or a CIS.

And be careful about 'bad reviews'. In almost all online stores (Amazon/Newegg/Frys/etc)...at least 1/2 the 'bad reviews' have nothing to do with the actual printer and functionality.
Either the user is badly wrong or clueless, or a shipping problem, or not what they wanted/expected....

 

[USAFRet]

And for "homework/report stuff", a color laser is perfect.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

I have seen prints from a lot of laser printers, and the one that surprised me was some of the cheap Xerox colour lasers that are 1200x1200 dpi true resolution, they actually do photo's reasonably well if you get some good coated satin or gloss laser paper, but they only print up to 130 or 150 gsm paper, so nothing too thick. Don't use inkjet photo paper with them it will melt. They do have fixed drums, but just purchase the extended warranty and get 4 years coverage, if they fail the machine will get replaced. Now i am not a Xerox rep trying to sell you something, quite the opposite, i actually don't support their business dealings, but these cheap little things produce a good print:
https://www.fujixeroxprinters.com.au/downloads/uploaded/C215%20Series%20Brochure%20Web_a6af.pdf
Not going to be total photo quality but are good enough for most with decent paper.

 

[USAFRet]

My Dell color laser, with good laser 'photo paper', comes quite close to the good HP (and previous Epson R300), with various photo papers.

Neither, of course, are archival, and will fade. The inkjet sooner.
After my parents passed away, going through old photo albums.....pics of my grandmother partying in the 30's were perfectly fine. Output from any current consumer grade printer would not have lasted 80+ years.

So...it depends on what you want the 'photo prints' for.

 

[jonathan1683]

Thanks for all the info guys glad I could learn some things about printers. I don't really care about printing family photos that what I have an ipad for, but I do like printing HQ thick glossy photos for the reports it makes them look like I put a little more effort into it. I think you guys are also right about having two printers. I think I will just get a laser and be done with it. Put the inkjet the the closet for when I need really HQ prints. I really don't print enough to warrant an injet and messing with the ink every time. I didn't know they had to be used often or they dry up.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Thanks for all the info guys glad I could learn some things about printers. I don't really care about printing family photos that what I have an ipad for, but I do like printing HQ thick glossy photos for the reports it makes them look like I put a little more effort into it. I think you guys are also right about having two printers. I think I will just get a laser and be done with it. Put the inkjet the the closet for when I need really HQ prints. I really don't print enough to warrant an injet and messing with the ink every time. I didn't know they had to be used often or they dry up.

just so you know, putting the inkjet in the closet for high quality prints is not a good idea, if you dont run them at least once a week you do risk the heads drying up and clogging. If your using it mainly for reports and not for photography then a good brand laser from canon, hp or xerox will do the job. I would stay away from the lesser samsung and brother models, after reading many reviews and comparisons their print quality is only really good for documents.

 

[jonathan1683]

Yea I figured but I don't really have much room for two printers maybe I can just clean them with alcohol and a qtip manually instead of using the printer functions that waste a lot of ink. I like Samsung products so that sucks they are not very good with printers I guess I will start looking for one of the listed ones.

Thank you,

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Yea I figured but I don't really have much room for two printers maybe I can just clean them with alcohol and a qtip manually instead of using the printer functions that waste a lot of ink. I like Samsung products so that sucks they are not very good with printers I guess I will start looking for one of the listed ones.

Thank you,

the alcohol will evaporate and will create a crust around the print head. Better to just power it off properly so the head is capped and then store it and just use it every couple weeks.