Laser printer

#1

The laser printer is out of yellow toner. The cost for a new non-brand set of toner is more than the cost of the printer originally, even the self refilling is.

We need to figure out what we want to do to get it working again, also the black toner while not empty is playing up, we need to have a poke about with that.

I’d suggest keeping any eye on printer land for the next sale where they have a Lexmark printer with high capacity 7k+ pages on colour 10k+ black.

Features we need:

  • A4
  • Colour laser
  • Duplex
  • Network
  • Mac + PC support + ideally AirPrint
#2

What are the costs of self refill? Seems criminal to buy a whole new printer simply because the toner has run out

#3

£200-300 depending on self refill, or off brand replacement or on brand replacement.

#4

any further thoughts on the laser printer situation?
(the print quality is much worse now)

#5

Not sure what’s happening here, seems to have 50% of all toners except yellow, which is very low

@2dprinttechs? Any ideas :wink:

2 Likes
#6

I’ve updated the firmware and given it a good clean out, still complaining about the yellow toner but it’s definitely not empty so not sure what’s going on. All the other toners are reporting half full. It still prints if you click “continue” on its little LED screen if prompted.

However black seems pretty atrocious - see image - these should be solid black. The colours all print ok though yellow did thin out in one corner.

You can get round this a little by printing ‘registration black’ (in swatches in illustrator) which prints all CMYK.

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If we ever get another printer I can recommend HP ‘page wide’ - instead of a moving ink jet nozzle, they have a row of nozzles so printing is as fast as a laser but you get ink jet savings on ink. http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/ads/pagewide-technology/overview.html

#7

Works though, more or less.

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2 Likes
#8

@pip for printer president!

2 Likes
#9

Googling suggests a new photoconductor unit might help the black situation

http://support.lexmark.com/index?page=content&id=SO2430&locale=EN&userlocale=EN_NZ

£30 - will get one ordered!

#10

Incase anyone has wondered where Pip has been recently. He has turned up in Ramsay Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Brennan

#offtopic
#sorrynotsorry

#11

ha! Flattered but I’m going for ‘old sea dog’ look these days #greybeard

Printer thingy ordered! #backontopic

1 Like
#12

Sadly experiment didn’t work :frowning: first page of text it printed was good, the rest a bit rubbish and solid blck again a bit hopeless.

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#13

A bit playing around seems OK with text, just not sold black. Use registration black.

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I will stop now.

1 Like
#14

Thanks for working on this! Looks usable again, no!?

#15

just bear in mind that registration black, is not using the black toner…

#16

this one is £299
but with a £130 cashback from HP so works out at £170

1 Like
#17

How many pages of toner are included with the printer is the most important metric over everything else.

Toner costs more than the printer so buying a printer with lots of toner is often cheaper than buying toner alone.

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#18

Yeah I think it’s fine for printing cutting templates and text on to white paper if your not too concerned about the less than pristine end result.

The latest print outs were using normal black. Try ‘registration black!’ if out put is patchy but no promises. Registration black uses all for of the C M Y K inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, black).

I’ve not tested it but guessing this printer won’t serve very well as a silkscreen printer. Though putting odd assortments of dusty acetate through it may have been wot messed it up, at a totally unfounded guess. Something to maybe make members aware of for this and other printers.

#19

comes with
3000 black
1500 cyan,magenta,yellow

10000 black cartridge is £142
7000 colour cartridges are £125

not sure how that compares with others

1 Like
#20

It’s important to get ink up front as it’s expensive and thus companies seem to offer cheap printer up front assuming you’re then tied in to buying ink.

You could possibly spend less money in the long run just buying a new printer everytime. There’s an environmental cost though unless sold second hand, if not and even salvaged for parts, a lot of plastic ends in landfill? Personally I’m happy to refill ink cartridges rather than get a whole new printer for this reason.

This current printer could be saved by buying a new black cartridge though I think that’s more than a new printer, worth considering if it saves it from landfill, any one know the numbers?

From what I’ve read on the Internet ink jet is now cheaper than laser, more so I assume if you get unofficial ink and inject it into your cartridges?