Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)
Hi all,
I'm looking for a replacement for our old DeskJet 610, which has served us
well for many years, but obviously can't match newer models for speed or
quality...
As the subject says, we don't print a lot - mostly CD labels, bits of
documentation I want to keep on paper, drafts of documents to be marked up,
the (very) occasional letter or envelope. Really no more than a couple of
hundred pages a year. The printer probably gets turned on once a week at
most - I've had ink cartridges clog up and die a couple of times after not
being used for months on end.
We have no particular need for high-quality photo output - we can get as
good or better results, probably cheaper, from Ofoto or any number of local
labs. In fact, probably the only thing we really need colour for at all is
CD labels. And the occasional T-shirt transfer
Of course if we had a
better printer we'd no doubt use it a lot more, but never to the thousands
of pages a month level.
So I'm looking for something that's reasonably economical to run, produces
good quality text and 'line art' output, can handle labels and envelopes,
and won't die an expensive death if left idle for weeks at a time. It
needs to work well with my FreeBSD UNIX machines, which for inkjets at
least seems to mean Epson or HP (see
http://www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html). Upfront purchase cost is
less important than running costs - I don't really want to upgrade again
for another 5 years if I can avoid it.
As far as inkjets go, I've narrowed our possible choices down to the Epson
C86 or one of the mid-range HPs - 5150, 5740, maybe the 6540. We have a HP
5850 at work that seems to do a good job. The 5150 appears to be the baby
brother of this, without the Ethernet/WiFi. On the face of it the Epson
looks as if it would be cheaper to run, but they do seem prone to clogging
up. I appreciate that I can probably unclog it myself without much effort,
but I wouldn't want to do that every time I turned the thing on...
An alternative plan would be to pick up a mono laser - with cheap
consumables - on ebay and either keep the 610 or replace it with something
really cheap for those things that do need colour. Or just print those at
work
Any advice or (anti-) recommendations will be gratefully received!
I'm in the UK if that makes any difference to anyone's replies...
Cheers,
Scott
Hi all,
I'm looking for a replacement for our old DeskJet 610, which has served us
well for many years, but obviously can't match newer models for speed or
quality...
As the subject says, we don't print a lot - mostly CD labels, bits of
documentation I want to keep on paper, drafts of documents to be marked up,
the (very) occasional letter or envelope. Really no more than a couple of
hundred pages a year. The printer probably gets turned on once a week at
most - I've had ink cartridges clog up and die a couple of times after not
being used for months on end.
We have no particular need for high-quality photo output - we can get as
good or better results, probably cheaper, from Ofoto or any number of local
labs. In fact, probably the only thing we really need colour for at all is
CD labels. And the occasional T-shirt transfer
Of course if we had abetter printer we'd no doubt use it a lot more, but never to the thousands
of pages a month level.
So I'm looking for something that's reasonably economical to run, produces
good quality text and 'line art' output, can handle labels and envelopes,
and won't die an expensive death if left idle for weeks at a time. It
needs to work well with my FreeBSD UNIX machines, which for inkjets at
least seems to mean Epson or HP (see
http://www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html). Upfront purchase cost is
less important than running costs - I don't really want to upgrade again
for another 5 years if I can avoid it.
As far as inkjets go, I've narrowed our possible choices down to the Epson
C86 or one of the mid-range HPs - 5150, 5740, maybe the 6540. We have a HP
5850 at work that seems to do a good job. The 5150 appears to be the baby
brother of this, without the Ethernet/WiFi. On the face of it the Epson
looks as if it would be cheaper to run, but they do seem prone to clogging
up. I appreciate that I can probably unclog it myself without much effort,
but I wouldn't want to do that every time I turned the thing on...
An alternative plan would be to pick up a mono laser - with cheap
consumables - on ebay and either keep the 610 or replace it with something
really cheap for those things that do need colour. Or just print those at
work
Any advice or (anti-) recommendations will be gratefully received!
I'm in the UK if that makes any difference to anyone's replies...
Cheers,
Scott
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