Printer auto cleans and eats ink

[L_D_G]

I have had a Brother MFC-J435 for a few years now. We got it for its all in one capabilities, but rarely use it. It works great, but the auto cleaning feature ends up using more ink than we do! I'm looking for recommendations for a simple and cheap printer that won't do that. It'd be nice if it can scan wirelessly as well, but that is not a requirement. I just want something that won't force me to buy new ink every 8 months when I want to print a form. Thanks!

 

[dextermat]

Hi,
It is this situation or unplug the machine when not in use but you run chances of clogging the ink feeding mechanism.

Now if you want to keep the printer, you can order cartridges on amazon for dirty cheap (2 $ each)
or ditch it and get a laser printer. (cost more, but more sturdy and no ink waste)
Ink printer are a scam

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Printers that use liquid ink are not and have never been suitable for random, infrequent printing workloads. If you want a printer that does not clog and doesn't need cleaning cycles, consider a low cost color laser. The trade-off will be the lack of photo-quality output and higher consumable costs when getting replacement toner, but cost per page will be lower and the printer can go years between prints without issue.

If you want your nozzles to remain unclogged in your ink based printer, I recommend you print with every nozzle at least once per week. Sometimes this isn't even frequent enough to prevent minor clogging. I consider 8 months out of an ink cartridge to be a fairly good lifespan. What you probably need to do is just start buying cheaper cartridges as dextermat suggests, and just use them more often. Since you're either going to be cleaning the cartridges automatically to force ink through the nozzles, or printing, you might as well just increase the amount of printing you do. It's wasteful, but at least if you're printing, you may get more tangible benefit, and your waste ink tank shouldn't fill quite so quickly.

On the other hand, if you don't need color for your forms, you might even consider a monochrome laser printer. They are reasonably compact and much faster than inkjets.

 

[L_D_G]

Pictures at the moment are low priority. Not worried about picture quality by any means. We've actually thought about a monochrome printer and are not opposed. If they come wireless-even better.