Help me find a printer that doesn’t piss me off

I have a HP and brother inkjet printer. I use my printer at home a couple times a year. I don't think I've ever used up an ink cartridge. It ends up drying out before it's empty. I followed all the tricks to try and get a idle cartridge to work again. Sometimes I can get one or two pages that are decent and then it goes bad again. I end up buying another cartridge for 20 some bucks just to print a few pages and then repeat this again in 3 to 6 months. I only need to print and copy in black-and-white and since I'm not using it very much I don't wanna spend big bucks.
Please tell me there is a better way.

Getting a used small office B&W laser printer might be a better deal for you, it will be more money up front and if the toner runs out, but you won't have to worry about the toner aging out...at least not nearly to the same degree as with an inkjet's cartridges. I've seen ancient laser printers work fine after many years of inactivity.

I use mine about as much. I've heard that printing a page or two every couple of weeks will help. I never remember to though.

I agree with gameboy. Small laser is great. Where are you, I have some spare near Charleston SC. 

I went through several inkjets before deciding that I really didn't need color.  I've had this Brother laser that I bought at Office Max for $99.  I don't know how many years I've had it.  Changed the cartridge once.  Always been great.

I had the same problem.  I fixed it with a out of production Laser Printer.

Prints every time  and no ink to dry out. I have my printer for 5 years.

When I was in school I  printed books for class mates and i am still on my first toner.

Another on the black n white laser bandwagon. My brother Wi-Fi model was like $150, if I ever need toner it'll be 75 bucks.

I made the mistake of buying a cheap color laser. Was great the first year, amazing picture quality, but then the toner started going. $650 to replacee all of them. I said hell no and bought another BnW. 

*laughs in 20 years of IT support

nope, can't help ya.

Yes, absolutely do NOT buy another inkjet, especially if you are an occasional user (and super especially if you are in a dry climate).   If you do print a lot and want to keep the cost down, make sure to look into the cost of the replacement toner cartridges (which can be pricey, but some are very cheap also).

A quick search finds this article which seems to address this:  https://www.tonerbuzz.com/blog/laser-printer-with-cheapest-toner/

(HP has a historically bad reputation for ink and toner, so maybe avoid them)

aircooled said:

(HP has a historically bad reputation for ink and toner, so maybe avoid them)

1000% agree about HP

HP will never get another dime out of me. A few years back i got a refilled ink cartridge for my HP printer. The actual cartridge was an OEM cart that was refilled by a third party. It was less than half the cost of the HP one. I was in a similar situation where due to lack of use the carts would dry up at the nozzle.

It wouldn't print properly with the refilled one. there were segments that were always missing on the page no matter what i was printing certain quadrants would have sections that just would not print. If i printed a page that was entirely black, these segments would still be missing. 

I called HP customer service. They told me that only genuine HP carts bought from an authorized dealer would work correctly and refilled or non HP carts may have issues with printing correctly, because they are not up to HP's stringent quality standards..  Upon hearing this I asked for that persons manager.

I was told the same thing by the manager, to which i replied. Then why does a test page print perfectly every time? 

Long silence, no real explanation. Then a thanks for your call, then click...

In reply to drsmooth :

I'm not a HP fan at all, but getting mad at HP when non HP parts don't work is a stretch. 

Brother HL series b&w LaserJet printer is the ticket here. I've had a very basic one going on 9 years now, and I think I've only put three or 4 toners in it in that time. Never had a problem with it, even though it might sit for weeks at a time, then be asked to print 100 pages of wiring diagrams for a car of mine. Toners aren't exactly cheap, but they last a very long time. You'll get exponentially more pages out of a toner than you will an inkjet.

I was in your exact situation of occasional printing.  I solved it with an old toner printer that my wife brought home from school.  It had to go back and I quickly ordered one off ebay.  

Sample at $140, shipped

• B&W only
• Does not make copies
• Not wireless
• Toner powder does not dry out
• Profesional machine built for more than your residential use will ever throw at it.

If I need to print something, I just walk my laptop to the table the printer is on and plug in the usb cord to the laptop.  

Toner is cheap but one toner cartridge is a "lifetime supply"

Pics of mine

Steve_Jones said:

In reply to drsmooth :

I'm not a HP fan at all, but getting mad at HP when non HP parts don't work is a stretch. 

Is it, though?

Would you be okay if your car became inoperable if you put aftermarket brake pads on it?

1988RedT2 said:

Steve_Jones said:

In reply to drsmooth :

I'm not a HP fan at all, but getting mad at HP when non HP parts don't work is a stretch. 

Is it, though?

Would you be okay if your car became inoperable if you put aftermarket brake pads on it?

If the aftermarket pads didn't stop as well as the stock pads, I wouldn't be mad at Toyota, I'd be mad at the company making the bad pads. It did not become inoperable, the printer still printed, just not as well as with stock ink. The HP parts were working fine, I'd bet if he put a real HP ink in, it would have fixed the issue. 

None of that HP proprietary BS on these old toner printers

He did say is was an OEM cartridge , it had just been refilled.   It printing the test page fine is suspicious (certainly could be a worn out cartridge otherwise, but they are know to last through refills).  HP is known for disabling things when you don't play their game, so it is certainly possible the printer counted what the cartridge printed and knew it was refilled...  and must be punished for its insolence.  HP is the authoritarian printer government.  Everything is great, if you do as you are told....

Along that line, as a note even for laser printers.  I have a laser printer that I use sparingly that said the black cartridge was low... 2 years ago.... still waiting.  (Again, occasional use)  I do have a replacement ready to go when it does actually start to fail.

Another vote for the secondhand laserjet here. I have an old HP 1320 purchased for $50 at a used office equipment store and it's better in every way for simple B&W printing. 

This replaced an all-singing, all-dancing HP inket printer-scanner combo. I was less than pleased to discover that the cartridges for that unit were basically on subscription. Let it lapse, no print. Card expires, no print. Wifi fails, no print. I was okay buying an ancient used HP product to replace it, but won't buy a new HP product again.

In reply to aircooled :

OEM taken apart and filled by 3rd party, and that's the part that was failing. Using the brake analogy it's like having OEM shoes relined, and when they didn't stop as well, getting mad at the OEM....

Like I said, I'm not a HP fan, but getting mad at HP because a hacked part didn't work seems odd. Why not get mad at the guy that sold it to you as a broken item?

A cheap, simple, laser solves all of the "print 6 times a year" issues as others have pointed out. When the toner does say empty, remove it, shake, reinstall. That should get you another few months.

Brother tried the "toner out" by page count vs actually being out a few years ago, there was a tab that popped up on the cartridge after a set number of pages. It was crazy obvious so you simply broke off the tab when it showed up...

If anyone wants an inkjet that not only won't artificially disable itself if it detects a refilled cartridge, but actually works entirely on refills, check out the Epson EcoTank.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I have heard of those and like the refill tank idea, but I am pretty sure it's the print heads clogging is what kills most inkjets (at least in dry environment) and having tanks really does not seem to fix that issue, unless the print heads are really easy to clean (seems unlikely), or cheap to replace (still a pain).

In reply to aircooled :

I have one of those. Use it infrequently. It clogs. There is a nozzle clean routine on the display menus and then a double secret (edit: "power clean") procedure also.

In 4 years I've not had a failure that power clean couldn't correct.

Edit: this printer. 

Another vote for a black and white Brother laser printer here. I have a HL-L23800W, and it's been a real workhorse.

Outside of laboratories, what place does an ink jet serve anymore?

My family used to be real big on printing pictures, like really big, so we did the inkjet thing for a while. Around the turn of the century and birth of consumer grade digital cameras. Then it got to the point it was cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink because there were a million styles of cartridges at the stores, but somehow ours always needed special ordered despite buying the printer there a year or two prior.

But then CVS, all the office box stores, and seemingly everywhere else switched from developing film to just printing digital pics, in any size you need, for way cheaper than a cartridge that will dry up before it's used up. 

Then the cloud and social media came so everyone could share and store photos online, and as an odd side effect or coincidence, the "cheap" color laser printer. Cheap color laser having the same problem as the old inkjet, where it's cheaper to buy new than refill, but with considerably higher print quality. 

People are often surprised when they learn I even have a printer anymore, even more than finding out I have an actual desktop computer, not just a tablet or chromebook.

I'm just surprised there's a market at all anymore for the inkjets outside of labs and hardware hackers that use the cartridges to print not ink things, like graphene or algar. 

To add a bit to the "why even have a printer" question.  One thing they can be very useful for for car guys is you can get paper or create water slide decals and of course stickers (though cutting out complicated ones can be challenging), which can be super useful for restoration etc.

With some skill, all you need is a decent picture of said decal / sticker, and you can create your own pretty easily!