Printer on board

[Cowboy Sailer]

If your print cartridge dries out lower the printing surface slightly into a cup of very hot water for a few seconds. Then blot on a paper napkin. You can do this several times over the course of 2 years and get a lot of life out of an old print head.

[Mike OReilly]

Can't you just pop out the inkjet cartridges and store them in a ziplock? Wouldn't that solve the drying out problem?

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by travellerw

Oh easy... Brother.. Thats the brand you are looking for. Solid affordable printers with cheap refills (really cheap if bought on ebay).

DCP-7060D will do single page scanning and 24 ppm printing...

DCP-7065DN has a document feeder and will do 27 ppm printing plus duplex

Either can be had for under $160..

P.S. HP refills can be had for cheap on Ebay as well if you know what you are looking for. I pay about $22 for a toner cartridge for my HP 1212 and its region free.

Yep... got one now. I think it cost me $60, it's a copier, printer fax etc. Cartridges are less than $2.
I never shop for a printer... I "shop" for cartridges first and then get the printer!
I had two of the little mini Canon printers when on board. Really small and really expensive. Neither one lasted a year. I thought the first failure was a fluke but nooo.. the second one wasn't any better. The printger "cartridge holder" kept failing and they were like $80 -129 each.
And of course you are really pissed when you spend that for a new cartridge holder and that doesn't fix it!
Since then my motto is "just say no" to all things Canon.... my new Canon SLR didn't last a year on the boat either....

[autumnbreeze27]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Can't you just pop out the inkjet cartridges and store them in a ziplock? Wouldn't that solve the drying out problem?

Sure, put them in a ziplock, heck put the whole printer in a ziplock, and if they do get clogged, take them to a sauna.

Seems like a lot of hassle to print something. There's no technical reason they couldn't design the things better, it's all about making money.

Just like on laser printers, the toners are getting smaller and smaller, because they want you to have to buy them frequently, because they are greedy.

I bought a Dell color laser printer in 2003 brand new, it came with full size toner, which lasted almost 10 years for just 1 person's use. You buy a printer these days, you get a starter toner that is good for 250 sheets, what a waste of our planet's resources in all that plastic.

Disclaimer: I am an IT professional with 25 years experience.

[boatman61]

Cheech... must be a boat thing.. had mine close on 5yrs now.. no problems and keep the seal clips.. when not using clip n bag.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

Sure, put them in a ziplock, heck put the whole printer in a ziplock, and if they do get clogged, take them to a sauna.

Seems like a lot of hassle to print something. There's no technical reason they couldn't design the things better, it's all about making money.

Uhmmm, thanks for the rant ...?

I fully agree is all about 'da Man' squeezing more money out of us. Believe me, I do. But barring a full-on "storm the Bastille" response, seems to me the simple answer to the problem of ink jet cartridges drying out is to store them in a ziplock. I guess I was asking whether this seemingly simple and obvious solution would work.

I see from Boatie's response that it does. Thanks .

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by Cowboy Sailer

If your print cartridge dries out lower the printing surface slightly into a cup of very hot water for a few seconds.

That works sometimes. I suspect it depends on how far into the cartridge the ink has dried up.

[thomasow]

We started out with a nice Epson ink-jet printer, using water proof ink and all. But given its light usage we spent massive amounts of time and ink 'cleaning the head'. After a couple of years we put the printer into the give-n-take shed and purchased a small Dell B1160W laser printer. It has worked great over the past several years, printing perhaps 10 pages a year.

Watch Amazon, the price swings around - we got ours for about $50 IIRC. Miss the scanner every so often, just use a camera when needed (it is however a poor substitution)

For the light usage this has been a great printer. We have it 'connected' via our WiFi repeater's router - so to use just take it out of the box and put it anywhere. One of the 'I am happy with this' purchases we have made.

[autumnbreeze27]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Uhmmm, thanks for the rant ...?

I fully agree is all about 'da Man' squeezing more money out of us. Believe me, I do. But barring a full-on "storm the Bastille" response, seems to me the simple answer to the problem of ink jet cartridges drying out is to store them in a ziplock. I guess I was asking whether this seemingly simple and obvious solution would work.

I see from Boatie's response that it does. Thanks .

Sorry you saw that as a rant. Maybe you have no experience with inkjet printers? I don't see the answer of making inkjet's work being simple at all.

Simple is the laser: "Turn printer on, hit print".

Not simple is the inkjet: "Retrieve stored inkjet cartridges, check to see if they leaked, remove from ziplock bag, insert in printer, turn on printer, hit print. Did it print ok? If not, turn on the propane, get out a pan, put water in pan, put pan on stove, get out a lighter, light stove, heat the water (and your cabin) until it's steaming. Open your printer, retrieve your ink cartridge, get out your tongs, hold ink cartridge over steam without dropping it in, replace ink cartridge in printer, wait for the printer to do it's print head check, try printing again. Repeat until you get it, or you give up and open new ink."

If I need to print a map, weather report, documentation, I want to print it. I don't want a hassle.

The only reason to have an inkjet is if you print pictures or if you don't have the power to run a laser. I tell people if you want to print pictures, have them professionally printed. It's cheaper and higher quality.

I decided to give up having a scanner because we didn't have the space, and I figured I can take a picture with a camera and turn it into a PDF with a notebook, so I could get by without one.

I spent $100 for a Wireless Laser Printer (Brother). I bought 2 high yield (2600 pages) generic toners for $40. So for $140 you can print 5200 pages. Compared to the Epson All-In-One I had $80, and ink for it was $13 for 175 pages. That's $386 in ink + $80 for the printer, close to $500, and that doesn't count how many inks you'll throw away because they dried out.

The little laser also prints duplex, which saves trees and cuts down on paper requirements without any effort.

If you still want an inkjet I'm not going to try and stop you, there's something about horses and water that would come to mind though.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

...If you still want an inkjet I'm not going to try and stop you, there's something about horses and water that would come to mind though.

So once again, thanks for answering a question I did not ask. Rant on...

[CarinaPDX]

For B&W printing lasers are a no-brainer. I purchased an Okidata laser in 1996 and am still using it. Only (very minor) niggle is that even inside the original sealed plastic pouch the toner can absorb moisture after a decade or so, resulting in too much toner on the page. So I had to buy a new replacement, which was not expensive because it wasn't bundled with a new selenium drum. Admittedly this old printer is a bit on the slow side, but the results are great (it has native PostScript). [Laser output is more water resistant than inkjets as well.]

I find the all-in-ones to be too bulky for my little boat. I do keep an old Canon scanner aboard, which works great and stores easily alongside the laptop.

For photographic color, inkjets (or commercial photo processing) are the best choices. Laser just doesn't do photos as well. For charts a color laser would be great if there is room - they tend to be bulky and heavy. Brother does seem to be the best of the lot for affordable [color] printers.

I absolutely agree with the comments about avoiding HP - they have made a fine art out of messing with customers. They bundled the toner with the drum (drums should last for 10-20 toner refills) so as to increase the price. Then when folks started to use aftermarket refills they added abrasive to their toner so that the drum would be degraded and less desirable to refill. Then they included a chip in their refills which will prevent their use beyond one year after first use or 3 1/2 years after manufacture (at least for inkjets). And as noted earlier they make the cartridges incompatible between countries in order to support the higher prices in some. Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard must be rolling over in their graves...

Greg

[autumnbreeze27]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

So once again, thanks for answering a question I did not ask. Rant on...

Thanks for being so polite, but I don't need your permission to rant.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

............. Not simple is the inkjet: "Retrieve stored inkjet cartridges, check to see if they leaked, remove from ziplock bag, insert in printer, turn on printer, hit print. Did it print ok? If not, turn on the propane, get out a pan, put water in pan, put pan on stove, get out a lighter, light stove, heat the water (and your cabin) until it's steaming. Open your printer, retrieve your ink cartridge, get out your tongs, hold ink cartridge over steam without dropping it in, replace ink cartridge in printer, wait for the printer to do it's print head check, try printing again. Repeat until you get it, or you give up and open new ink."............

Don't forget that you have to go through the cartridge alignment process each time you remove and reinsert them.

I have an HP InkJet printer sitting unused while I print to a Brother Laser. I don't usually need to print in color. If I have photographs to print, Walmart will do them in one hour for $.19 each.

If I really need something printed in color, Staples does it on a color laser printer for me. Much better quality and the option of duplex printing.

[hellosailor]

Also depends on whether you have a DYE or PIGMENT type inkjet. The pigment type render colors better and more stably, in theory. But the finely ground pigment dust congeals and plugs up the cartridges internally (HP says within two years of opening, or by the shelf life date) no matter what you do. If you have a dye printer, cleaning the head is of more help. You can also soak it in a little glycerine or glycol solution instead of using hot water, most of the dye inkjets use a glycol solvent in the ink. Refill kits usually come with an extra bottle of the plain solvent, for that reason.