PC Peripherals Which ink tank printer?

[superczar]

Need a ink tank printer purely for printing photos.
have an existing ancient laser mfp that works fine for scanning and document prints so any additional features on the new printer are of no use to me.

also, I see only print models from Epson/canon/ HP for as low as 7-8k as well as mfp models ranging from 12-20
Are the more expensive models better at printing photos or is the extra price only for other bells and whistles?

 

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Would it be better to just take it to a photo shop ?

Nobody has answered yet but i've seen reviews for photo only printers

 

[adder]

Look for printers which have borderless printing, looks much better then photo with white borders. epson has them the L805 , its pricey though but is the best with higher quality photo lab level prints thanks to the 6 color tank and fine nozzles.

I have the L850 MFD, with the same tech. I so for had yellow color clog after 6 to 9 months of no color printing, but their nozzle clean function did the trick. I print a RGB pattern every few months now keep the ink from drying out.

 

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Look for printers which have borderless printing, looks much better then photo with white borders. epson has them the L805 , its pricey though but is the best with higher quality photo lab level prints thanks to the 6 color tank and fine nozzles.

6 has to be better than 4 and it is pricey

He mentions you can print ID cards

Says dye based inks are better than pigment based inks which clogs the printer. He still recommends running a print job at least once a month.

I have the L850 MFD, with the same tech. I so for had yellow color clog after 6 to 9 months of no color printing, but their nozzle clean function did the trick. I print a RGB pattern every few months now keep the ink from drying out.

I guess there is no auto-clean like with brother ink tanks ?

And its nearly twice as much as the other :O

 

[adder]

Yes its expensive, at time it was cheaper in SP road I think I bought it for 24k back in 2017, the trick is to look for a shop which has unsold inventory.

 

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Saw this yesterday, there are printers with 9 & 11 colour tanks :O

Post automatically merged: Jan 10, 2020

also, I see only print models from Epson/canon/ HP for as low as 7-8k as well as mfp models ranging from 12-20
Are the more expensive models better at printing photos or is the extra price only for other bells and whistles?

Just bells and whistles, if you pay more you would be better putting it into print quality. More colour tanks etc

How committed are you to home printing ?

 

[superczar]

ended up picking a g3000 tank printer from canon and disposing my old HP laser on olx
i wanted to keep the variable cost per print low to help avoid that “do i want to spend $$$ on spending these 20 pages when I can view them on my tab instead“ feeling

Seems good so far but I guess only time will tell.. FWIW, I printed a grand total of 1110 pages on the old laser in 7 years - realized it only at the time of selling it
Hopefully this one will get used a lot more

 

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ended up picking a g3000 tank printer from canon and disposing my old HP laser on olx

Check if it has an auto clean feature and keep it enabled. Review here says to print at least once a week to keep the heads clear

Don't switch it off.

i wanted to keep the variable cost per print low to help avoid that “do i want to spend $$$ on spending these 20 pages when I can view them on my tab instead“ feeling

hence the previous comment

Seems good so far but I guess only time will tell.. FWIW, I printed a grand total of 1110 pages on the old laser in 7 years - realized it only at the time of selling it
Hopefully this one will get used a lot more

Why did you get rid of the laser ? you will have to learn some new habits now

colour seems tempting but my use of print is quite low, photo copy is more and the scan feature gets used the most.

The main headache with ink jet is heads clogging. An earlier discussion showed this was not an issue with brother due to the auto head clean and it does not use much ink either

 

[superczar]

Check if it has an auto clean feature and keep it enabled. Review here says to print at least once a week to keep the heads clear

Don't switch it off.


hence the previous comment


Why did you get rid of the laser ? you will have to learn some new habits now

colour seems tempting but my use of print is quite low, photo copy is more and the scan feature gets used the most.

The main headache with ink jet is heads clogging. An earlier discussion showed this was not an issue with brother due to the auto head clean and it does not use much ink either

As good as that laser was, it used to get minimal usage because a) it was hooked to a desktop which no one else in the house used
b) which made the whole process of printing tedious and thus something that would be done only if absolutely needed
I know I could have hooked it to a router etc to make it quasi-wireless but the size meant the only place i could keep it was next to the desktop

This being wireless and smaller means the process of printing off a phone become a 1-step process which makes it more user friendly - and while it doesn’t have airprint , simply adding it to a Linux VM as a wireless printer and sharing it enabled native support from phones

Thanks for the tip on clogging, Don’t think this has auto clean. If it gets less usage, I will setup a cron job to print a test b/w and color page once a week or so - and yes, it is meant to be left as always-on

Worst case scenario, I will

 

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As good as that laser was, it used to get minimal usage because a) it was hooked to a desktop which no one else in the house used
b) which made the whole process of printing tedious and thus something that would be done only if absolutely needed
I know I could have hooked it to a router etc to make it quasi-wireless but the size meant the only place i could keep it was next to the desktop

This is the main reason why i prefer wifi printers. I held off until i could get one with that feature. Now it can be placed any where with a wifi signal and locating it is more flexible.

Otherwise you need to dedicate a pc to use the printer. Failing which it then hooks up to the router and i don't like USB for this. Preference is always for ethernet. That port adds 5k extra to the price.

This being wireless and smaller means the process of printing off a phone become a 1-step process which makes it more user friendly - and while it doesn’t have airprint , simply adding it to a Linux VM as a wireless printer and sharing it enabled native support from phones

OEM's software on the PC has more features, more granular control than the mobile app. Granted for print this is less of an issue but with scanning it is.

Thanks for the tip on clogging, Don’t think this has auto clean. If it gets less usage, I will setup a cron job to print a test b/w and color page once a week or so - and yes, it is meant to be left as always-on

Worst case scenario, I will

Does it have a clock ?

Seems odd for a printer to have to tell time but that's how it knows when to do the self clean or maintenance purge.

My laser does not have a clock so no self clean.

This review suggest it does have a self clean. So it must have a clock then. If the intervals are regular, you could set the clock so that the self clean does not come on at night if noise is an issue.

7. At least 2 prints within a week is important to ensure the printer works at its full potential. Also, if printing is not possible, at least switch on the printer once in 3 days to allow it to self clean itself. These practices will ensure your printer wont get any problems.

5. Pretty noisy when the printer head undergoes adjustment before and after printing. Also during its self clean operation.

How about NOT switching it off to begin with. And let it look after itself.

 

[superczar]

This is the main reason why i prefer wifi printers. I held off until i could get one with that feature. Now it can be placed any where with a wifi signal and locating it is more flexible.

Otherwise you need to dedicate a pc to use the printer. Failing which it then hooks up to the router and i don't like USB for this. Preference is always for ethernet. That port adds 5k extra to the price.


OEM's software on the PC has more features, more granular control than the mobile app. Granted for print this is less of an issue but with scanning it is.


Does it have a clock ?

Seems odd for a printer to have to tell time but that's how it knows when to do the self clean or maintenance purge.

My laser does not have a clock so no self clean.

This review suggest it does have a self clean. So it must have a clock then. If the intervals are regular, you could set the clock so that the self clean does not come on at night if noise is an issue.



How about NOT switching it off to begin with. And let it look after itself.

Think it’s settled into a groove
left it always on so there’s no wait time for prints

I got to say i like it far more than the more expensive laser it replaced
Being at a central location coupled with 1 step print fires from iOS and the negligible cost per print not only makes it infinitely more user friendly. but also changed the whole use case associated with a printer

Wife prints her calendar / schedule at start of day / we print off recipes instead of struggling with a phone screen while cooking / kid gets his Hey Duggee/Peppa stickers - what’s there to complain?
(except perhaps the longevity - something tells me it won’t last anywhere close to the old laser)

 

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(except perhaps the longevity - something tells me it won’t last anywhere close to the old laser)

LN has been through a fair few of them, his avg was 4 years of regular use

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Does it have a clock ?

Seems odd for a printer to have to tell time but that's how it knows when to do the self clean or maintenance purge.

It should be fetching the time from a NTP server.

Additionally, I doubt it will be doing on time, rather giving the page clean post X number of pages - the HP we have in our office does so I believe.

 

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It should be fetching the time from a NTP server.

My modem has an NTP query facility not my laser printer

Additionally, I doubt it will be doing on time, rather giving the page clean post X number of pages - the HP we have in our office does so I believe.

The idea of leaving it on to self clean implies it does not depend on page count but rather time lapsed.

 

[lilboy]

Don't go for Canon. Canon e500 and g3000, both died on me. Repairing costs can fetch you another printer. I wonder if their service is run by corrupted people