I always use my ink cartridges as long as they can print more or less readable texts. If I want to print a picture, I store it on my HDD until I get a new cartridge. I am still a student, so I dont have so much money. Lexmark doesnt use any kind of chip and you can print until the cartridge is empty. If you reinstall the driver, the cartridge is always shown as full in the printer control program.
Canon is definately the way to go, I use laser printers (both black and colour) for day-to-day printing and only use an inkjet for photos (once or twice a month), the last two epson photo printers I owned both clogged the heads frequently and eventually got to the stage where I would have to headclean before every A4 print (even then sometimes I would get horizontal lines towards the end of the page), these were the photo 750 and then 790, neither lasted more than 18 months before I binned them.
I now have the canon s820 with the 6 seperate ink tanks, I have NEVER had to clean the heads despite it being left turned off in a dusty dry workshop for a month at a time frequently, the inks are available at around £1.20+VAT in the UK and obviously you only replace 1 at a time (the photo cyan and magenta run out fastest here, around 40 full A4 photos), I am on my 3rd photo cyan/magenta and my 2nd yellow, all the others are still the original carts.
I wouldn't buy an epson again if my life depended on it.
Originally posted by AndyK Canon is definately the way to go, I use laser printers (both black and colour) for day-to-day printing and only use an inkjet for photos (once or twice a month), the last two epson photo printers I owned both clogged the heads frequently and eventually got to the stage where I would have to headclean before every A4 print (even then sometimes I would get horizontal lines towards the end of the page),
Andy
Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like Canon has solved their clogging problem.............and passed it on to Epson.
Originally posted by qwertzuiop I always use my ink cartridges as long as they can print more or less readable texts. If I want to print a picture, I store it on my HDD until I get a new cartridge. I am still a student, so I dont have so much money. Lexmark doesnt use any kind of chip and you can print until the cartridge is empty. If you reinstall the driver, the cartridge is always shown as full in the printer control program.
But Lexmark is suing ink refillers under the DMCA.
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I dont use ink refill, because I once tried it, but it didnt work, because my cartridge was already clogged by dry ink and I couldnt get it to work again.
Also, I have heared, that the quality is better w/ the original ink.
About Lexmark suing ink refillers: I live in Europe, so it doesnt have an influence in my area.
ummmmmm, well that site i posted PRODUCES third party cartridges.... they are NOT refilled. Maybe they are for lexmark, i havent read that though....
When i buy from them for epson and canon, they come as NEW cartidges, sealed and all. They look just like OEM, but of course different labeling.
Print quailty?!?! i sure as hell cannot tell a difference! maybe for archiving and all or whatever, but ink is ink for the most part.... And the printouts between an OEM cart and third party one are not noticeable to me.... theyre only about a buck and a half a pack, and theyre STILL making money.... really shows how much of idiots we all are for coughing up $40+ a PACK!!!
Lexmark and HP have the print heads in the replacement cartridges so you can only buy Lexmark and HP cartridges. They have remanufactured HP cartridges but they are just refilled HP cartridges and cost too much.
Epson and Canon have permanent heads. The Epson heads are welded in, but the Canon heads can be removed for cleaning or replacement.
Canon reformulated their ink a couple years ago and went from dead last for ink cost to best by far. Read any review and you will see that the Canons with the separate color tanks are very frugal. That applies to both the 4 color GP printers and the 6 color photo printers.
There isn’t much to choose between the Canon and Epson photo printers for print quality. But the Canons are much faster and less likely to clog. The higher end Epsons have pigmented photo ink which makes them less likely to fade.
If I were buying a 4 color GP printer today it would be a Canon i850. It is fast and has the best photo reproduction of any 4 color printer. It is also easy to refill.
Canon and HP are both easy to refill. Epson increases the difficulty level with having to deprogram the chip. I’ve used ink from www.inksupply.com for years in my HPs and have had good luck. Patent limitations keep even the best ink from being exactly like the original, but they are very close. Just don’t use universal ink.
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