Color Printer

[j_martin]

I've had an epson NX300 printer for about a year. Ink was killing me, so I bought some refillable cartridges and ink. Now, the cyan print head plugged up. Used half the ink in the printer trying to clean it. Still has about 10% of the ports plugged.

Is it possible to clean this thing, or ......

Where can I buy a color printer I can actually afford to print with?

John

 

[rbh]

Re: Color Printer

The wife/chief shopper/computer person says radio shack/circuit city.
(and buy the big ones)

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Color Printer

Check this link out JM.

http://www.theamericanconsumer.org/2008/11/07/what-is-the-real-cost-of-owning-a-printer-2/

Also, google "cheapest inkjet printer to operate" and you will find a bunch of other stuff.

Ever since the early generations of HP inkjets, refilling cartridges have never worked well for me, especially color cartridges.

I have even purchased 'professionally' refilled cartridges and have has very poor luck with them.

 

[scca vette]

Re: Color Printer

The new Kodak Printers work great and the ink is 10 bucks for them. These work great if you do not do a lot of printing. If you do large amounts of printing then I also suggest to get the big one. As you can see in the photo below we have the Kodak for small things and the big Laserjet for printing large amounts. The Kodak is also a GREAT picture scanner. We used this to scan all our old photos and put them on a hard drive.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p193/KustomDeZigns/FOR SALE/IMGP5511.jpg

 

[lakelover]

Re: Color Printer

I had an HP a long time ago and loved it. It made great printed pages and pictures, and the ink was reasonable. It lasted for years and years. But my son had a low-end HP and it was a piece of junk, jammed all the time, and the ink cost was way too high.

After mine bit the dust, I got my current printer, a Canon ip4300, and the ink cost kills me. Printed pages are only mediocre, but it does do quite a good job with pictures. It's also the noisiest and slowest inkjet I've ever used. It shows annoying "low ink" warnings constantly when the cartrides get down to half full.

Like it was said above, best to research printers with low operating costs. Amazon is a good place to read reviews of particular models you are interested in.

 

[Lion hunter]

Re: Color Printer

Sometimes I think it would be cheaper to buy a B&W printer and a color printer. I don't need color very often but if there is one splotch of color on something the color cartridge gets used for the whole page. I have a Canon inkjet and the cartridges are about $35 but they do last pretty good. I have heard good things about the new Kodaks though

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Color Printer

I decided color just wasn't worth it. I don't print enough so my inkjets always dried out and died. After 3 short-lived ink jets I switched to a (black only) laser and never looked back.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Color Printer

Tip I got from the shop where I get my carteidges refilled is to soak the head in "just enough" windex for about an hour, then dry it and try it.
I used a saucer and stood the cartridge uop witrh the holes soaking in ~ 1/4" of windex.
Has worked for me a number of times.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Color Printer

Never heard of the windex tip.

But what I have always done with the inkjets dried up..

Take a small plate. Wet a paper towel. Not dripping, but wet. Stand the cartridge on the paper towel for a few minutes till you see a nice spread of color..

Then use the alignment/clean tool in the printer settings.
I'll have to try the windex to see if it works better.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Color Printer

The problem with the epson printer is the print heads are separate from the ink cartridges. I wonder if I can get into it and wipe them with isopropanol.

Also I have a HP deskjet 895. Pukes at paper handling, but I use it for printing CD labels one at a time. Color ink ran out, new cartridge is about 50 bucks, and getting hard to find. There were 2 in the supplies, obviously 5 years old, (probably the 895 I have given to me by the business was the last one in the place.) Brought one home, put it in, and I have one color. I'll have to try soaking it in alcohol.

On some inks, water is the solvent of choice. On most it's isopropanol.


John

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Color Printer

For my old Canon inkjet(since switched to BW laser) I found some blank cleaning cartridges that you put Windex in. You would fill the cartridges with windex and run the printer in cleaner mode for many cycles.

The secret to keeping your color inkjet working is to use it at least once a week. In my case, I just never did that so eventually, it got to the point where it wouldn't clean up anymore and it went into the trash can.