PC Peripherals Printers to Buy from Refill POV

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vivek.krishnan

BLR~ZRS-TX-1-MX
Luminary
This is just a post to help others decide what to purchase from a refilling POV. Others can chip in with other suggestions.

One of the best toners for HP is the 12A toners. This does not come with chip so you can refill without needing to spend extra for a chip reset.

Laser printers only

Laserjet 1020 Plus
Canon LBP 2900

Multi function laser printer

Laserjet M1005

Would suggest to avoid the M1136 since it has a chip enabled toner. The cost of toner chip itself is about 300 odd INR.
 
Bumping an old thread.

My HP 6500 MFP printhead has finally given up. The printer produced a lot of headache on the last one and half year. But I understand that since it is a inkjet and my usage is not regular may be the cartridges clogged up. So I purchased new refillable cartridges from Aliexpress with the hope that I'll refill ink and print a few pages every week to keep the cartridges clean. But even after inserting new cartridges the printer fails to recognise the cartridge. I've been told to replace the printhead (it comes with a separate printhead). But I'm not OK with the cost involved.

I now want to purchase a new printer. A MFP is required as the HP 6500 spoilt my habit.

So please suggest
i) a refill friendly basic laser printer (not MFP) as I can use the scan function of the HP 6500
ii) a refill friendly MFP laser printer
OR
iii) a inkjet MFP with which I can install a CISS and print a few pages every week.

Budget is < 5K.
 
@blr_p @tech.addict

We have used multiple printers. At one point, we had several different types, and we used to have spares for some, and none for the rest. Apart from that, some would have issues after refilling as well.

Generic cartridges are not reliable, since they are essentially used cartridges, bought out and refilled, and you have no idea how many times it has been used. And they pose issues to our printers as well,we ended up spending about 1.5K to repair some drum thing.

Finally, we have made it a policy to buy only HP 1020 Laserjet, and if that is not available, then only LBP 2900B (I hate Canon's stupid driver+software shit)

What we have currently, would be using and going back to HP 1020 if and when it breaks.
 
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Having used several Inkjets of different makes, personally, I would not recommend refilled cartridges or even third party cartridges as far as Inkjets are concerned. Printers quickly get damaged with these cheaper alternatives. Authentic cartridges have become considerably cheaper compared to earlier. You can get a set of authentic HP color and black cartridges for 800 bucks. I use black mostly with my AIO and even the fast draft mode prints looks pretty good for most purposes and they last quite a while.
 
Finally, we have made it a policy to buy only HP 1020 Laserjet, and if that is not available, then only LBP 2900B (I hate Canon's stupid driver+software shit).
HP 1020 is popular going by user comments, my only gripe with it is it doesn't have an ethernet connection, only USB.

How about Brother dcp-7065DN ?
 
HP 1020 is popular going by user comments, my only gripe with it is it doesn't have an ethernet connection, only USB.

How about Brother dcp-7065DN ?
Check the cartridge that hp 1020 uses, find a Hp model with connectivity that uses the same cartridge. You probably wont have any problems.
 
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I would suggest against the Ricoh series for office use since I have heard horror stories of paper jams. Not the best way to save about ~4K, if you have to deal with paper jams every day.

Instead of going with another printer with Ethernet connectivity - instead get a R-Pi, and install CUPS, configure and use. Make a copy of the image in case you need to redeploy to others Pi's. Added advantage, Google Cloud Print/Airprint support can be added with a few tweaks.

Finally, If there are other printers with 12A cartridges, please list them - would be useful for all!
 
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Whatevr you go for. Buy, only an HP printer if you want to have a trouble free printing experience. There ink cartridges, repair and service is more reliable and less costly in the long run. Compared to all other brands in the market.
 
Have the Ricoh one listed above since the past couple of weeks. No paper jamming as of now although it is being used for around 7-8 prints per day. Also took around 30 photocopies and scanned a couple of docs with it. Must say it is very handy. Coupled with official toner refill program, I'd see no reason why one shouldn't go for it. ASS is onsite as well.

Before buying this I saw the thread on DesiDime where a couple of posters did talk about paper jamming. The onsite service engineer though rectified that glitch soon enough after a call, they cited.

As for the printer I have, I'm thoroughly satisfied with the print quality. Photocopying too is a breeze and with the USB slot, you don't need to turn the PC on for scanning anything (the scanned image can be directly sent to the flash drive) . Photocopying as is doesn't require computer to be on. I'm not sure if one can print directly through a flash drive though (but the idea does seem a little extreme).

Am waiting to see how many pages i derive from a single cartridge. 95% of docs i print in the toner-saver mode. The sharpness even in that mode is excellent. With toner-saving off, prints are noticeably darker when looked at closely or under a rich source of light. However, there is no way to tell how much of a difference will this make in terms of the eventual no. of pages printed using the two modes.
Ricoh advises up to 3 or 4 refills per cartridge before changing it for good. Furthermore, they seem to offer two types of toners for refill; high yield and low yield. I'll personally be happy to refill till the time the print quality deteriorates too much for my liking.

A word on the scanner though; it is strictly average. The photocopier OTOH, does a better job for me than what i get with the local shop ones for Rs. 2 per page.

There are also network enabled versions of the above Ricoh model out there.
 
Please feel free to ask any questions about this printer. This is the first time I'm using a laser and perhaps you guys might find me too subjective regarding quality of prints, photocopy quality and other stuff.
 
Checked my bookmarks and it wasn't the HP 1020 that i was referring to. It was the M1005

Quite a few comments mention refill friendly.

Still USB (!)

Am waiting to see how many pages i derive from a single cartridge. 95% of docs i print in the toner-saver mode. The sharpness even in that mode is excellent. With toner-saving off, prints are noticeably darker when looked at closely or under a rich source of light. However, there is no way to tell how much of a difference will this make in terms of the eventual no. of pages printed using the two modes.
This should be an eye opener.

Number of pages per cartridge is rated at 5% coverage. See the link to know how little that is (!)
 
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Ricoh ones are quite cheap online...any ideas about the refillability of these....the price is so low that's why I'm doubtful..
 
Finally, we have made it a policy to buy only HP 1020 Laserjet, and if that is not available, then only LBP 2900B (I hate Canon's stupid driver+software shit)

What we have currently, would be using and going back to HP 1020 if and when it breaks.
How many pages do you print per month on average ?
 
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