Computer Related > Printer advice please	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: PhilW	Replies: 32

New Fri 12 Nov 10 19:29   Printer advice please - PhilW

Just got a new computer (no, I'm not telling you what it is because you will only tell me I could have got a different one, twice as good for half the price!!) and would like to get a new printer. Current one is an Epson Stylus Color 760 which I seem to have had for about 10 years. It still works perfectly well but will be moved upstairs with the old computer for occasional use along with the scanner (Canon 600 lide ?) and the 2 million associated wires. Would like a wireless one which performs as well as old one - mostly for documents (colour and b/w) and occasional photos. The scanner could maybe stay downstairs so do not necessary need an "all in one" though I scan/photocopy documents most days. Is separate printer and scanner better than "all in one"? Grateful for any advice - I wondered about a laser but have been told that they are not very good for photos - is that right? Phil Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 12 Nov 10 19:50   Printer advice please - spamcan61

I've got the non wireless version of this Epson:- www.hotukdeals.com/deals/epson-sx515w-wireless-all-in-one-co/797142#comments Which does a pretty good job, and cheap replacement ink carts are available, it is very handy to have a scanner / copier function as well for the odd colour photocopy without booting up the PC. I'm not sure you gain much by keeping printer and scanner separate these days. Lasers aren't good for photos. Last edited by: spamcan61 on Fri 12 Nov 10 at 19:50 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 13:35   Printer advice please - J Bonington Jagworth

"Lasers aren't good for photos." Agreed, but they are adequate, especially if you simply want a poster or something recognisable on plain paper. WRT Epson, they need regular use to be reliable. Once the ink has dried in the nozzles, there is no economical repair (Canon have replaceable heads and HP either have that or include the heads in the cartridges). Having said that, third-party refills for Epson are cheap and plentiful... Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 13:56   Printer advice please - Stuartli

>>WRT Epson, they need regular use to be reliable. Once the ink has dried in the nozzles, there is no economical repair >> As I keep pointing out, I leave my Epson R300 switched on permanently. Therefore no unnecessary head cleaning each time it's switched on and no wasted ink. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 14:03   Printer advice please - Zero

I left mine switched on, and It gummed up. Leaving it switched on does nothing. Its not doing anything or even staying hot Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 17:42   Printer advice please - Stuartli

>>Leaving it switched on does nothing. Its not doing anything or even staying hot >> It stops, as I've mentioned, the inevitable head cleaning routine and thus waste of ink if you keep switching it on and off. My Epson R300 always works perfectly and delivers superb photo prints up to its A4 maximum. It only complains when it is asked to do more humble duties such as printing a page of text - it "huffs and puffs" and then provides the printout with a strong hint of "This is beneath my dignity"..:-) Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 19:28   Printer advice please - spamcan61

The power up head clean routine on Epsons uses a significant proportion of the ink, hence I too leave mine on 24/7. Generally on Epsons the printhead is part of the ink cart, so a new set of carts should cure any drying out problems. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 19:58   Printer advice please - Zero

Not on mine it wasnt. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 20:47   Printer advice please - VxFan

>> Not on mine it wasnt. Nor mine. I stripped down my Epson C40+ once to give the print head a thorough clean. Not sure if all printers do it, but Epson have a very clever way of cleaning the print head which basically comprises an offset cam that 'massages' a silicone tube in such a way that it sucks ink through the head when its docked and into a felt / sponge pad that's concealed around the back of the printer. Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 15 Nov 10 at 20:47 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 15 Nov 10 23:06   Printer advice please - bathtub tom

>>sucks ink through the head when its docked and into a felt / sponge pad IIRC they call that pad a tampon. I had one printer that stopped after so many operations. The good old interweb thingmy told me it had a built in counter that required re-setting by a company trained technician. Further delving enabled me to wash out the tampon and re-set the counter. I've a Canon now. Leaving it turned on has no point, as after a period of inactivity it'll do head-clean when asked to print. Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 16 Nov 10 11:21   Printer advice please - Tooslow

Canon are known for that I believe. After a while a message pops up "ink soaker-upper is full, buy a new printer". Well not quite but near enough. John Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 12 Nov 10 20:15   Printer advice please - Tooslow

I've recently bought a Canon MG6150. It's a scanner / printer, you can connect it with USB or with an Ethernet cable to your router to share it or you can connect wirelessly (to your router). My only gripe is that it uses different cartridges to my previous Canon printer, which mysteriously died after just over 1 year, and there are no compatible cartridges available yet so I'm taking it a bit easy on printing. It's freed up desk space as my old scanner now lives in the wardrobe and freed two USB sockets as I'm using the wireless connection. I can print from my netbook and wife can print from her work pc (though not while she's connected to work network) without firing up the big pc to print via it. The printer market is shrinking as manufacturers tend to offer multi functions. Which means more to go to the tip when something fails :-( John Last edited by: Tooslow on Fri 12 Nov 10 at 20:16 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 09:48   Printer advice please - Iffy

...I'm not telling you what it is because you will only tell me I could have got a different one, twice as good for half the price!!... Phil, I didn't have you down as a spoilsport. I've admitted spending £900 on a MacBook. You can't have made a worse value decision than that, surely? Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 11:35   Printer advice please - PhilW

"a worse value decision" Nearly!! Looked at the Macs and nearly went for a big screen desktop one! Then we saw the price! Went back to the Windoze desktop ones and spent a third the price - it'll do me! Mind you, our son swears by his Macbook and has nearly persuaded SWMBO to get one - seems brilliant at graphics/music stuff and very fast. Phil Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 11:44   Printer advice please - PhilW

Thanks Spamcan and Tooslow - will investigate your suggestions. Last edited by: PhilW on Sat 13 Nov 10 at 11:44 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 11:53   Printer advice please - scousehonda

Phil Don't know if this will be of help but we have just replaced my wife's pretty low spec Epson with a much better spec'd Epson all-in-one, an SX415. They are on offer at the moment in Argos at £49.99. They say that they were £74.99 but can't vouch for that. It is absolutely superb and ideal for home use. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 12:11   Printer advice please - Iffy

...I scan/photocopy documents most days... Were I using a printer most days, I would be looking carefully at ink costs. Kodak claim to be the cheapest, £12 for colour carts, £7 for black. www.kodak.com/global/mul/consumer/print/en_gb/index.html Rooting through the site, produces this wireless all-in-one for under £70: www.kodak.com/global/mul/consumer/print/en_gb/kodak_printers.html?page=printerChooser Last edited by: Iffy on Sat 13 Nov 10 at 12:13 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 12:19   Printer advice please - Zero

I have been converted to Canon printers, Reliable, never clog, cheap to buy, but as most - ink is dear. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 16:11   Printer advice please - Stuartli

If you need good quality Epson or other printers' compatible ink cartridges, try: www.diskdepot.co.uk I have an Epson R300 and have used this company's cartridges for most of the four years I've had the printer; a pack of the six cartridges it uses costs around a fiver or less per PACK and I buy five or six packs at a time to make the most of the delivery charge. The Epson itself is never switched off to avoid unnecessary head cleaning and ink waste each time it would be switched on. But I've always wondered how printer manufacturers can produce all-in-one machines at prices that are half or less of those such as the R300..... Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 16:23   Printer advice please - paulb

We recently bought an HP Photosmart C309G - nudge under £100 from John Lewis, delivered. Was on special offer though. Would recommend - very well-behaved piece of equipment. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 17:06   Printer advice please - Falkirk Bairn

All printers from the leading makers are good - broad general statement but true IMHO. Printer manufacturers sell all printers at below cost - they recoup the £££s by overcharging for ink. This is the same plan as Polaroid had in the 1970's sell Polaroid Instant cameras for £20 and charge £1.00 per print for the film. I noticed a B/W laser printer for sale @ £70+VAT @ Makro - the replacement cartridges were £40 +VAT IIRC. 10 years ago the printer would have been nigh on £500 and cartridges £30.00 so prices for hardware have dropped but the ink/toner is only about 50% more expensive. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 17:10   Printer advice please - RattleandSmoke

That is why we have been running Brother lasers for the past ten years. We can get a 6000 yeild toner for £10 on ebay. Yes the toner is a fake but they work perfectly for the money. On the other hand my HP deskjet can't print out more than 60 receipts before it needs new ink. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 18:46   Printer advice please - PhilW

Thanks for all the suggestions. Went out this aft and plumped for Spamcan's initial suggestion - Epson SX515w. Seemed a very good price (£59.99 and a £5 voucher thrown in) and also got good reviews. As I said above - my old Epson is about 10 years old despite a lot of use and me using non-Epson cartridges and re-filling old ones etc so I'm a bit biassed to Epson. Will let you know if my faith is justified! Thanks again Phil Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 19:06   Printer advice please - sherlock47

Along with my love of older cellphone technology (committed 6310i user), I am committed to buying older HP Deskjet printers. My 2 x DJ970CXi cost about £8 total, and came with some working cartridges. These offer 2 sided printing, easily refilled cartridges, no fancy smart? electronics making you replace perfectly good cartridges. These replaced my fully functional 930c (x2), and reduce the paper usage and thickness of our personal telephone directories. The 930c have been retired abroad and even after occasional 2-3 months breaks in use have never dried up. Ok so I dont print high quality color photographic prints at home any more -more cost effective to outsource any printing. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 19:41   Printer advice please - Stuartli

>>..so I'm a bit biassed to Epson>> Don't forget that Epson is a division of Seiko...:-) Which is why I also have Seiko, Lorus and Pulsar watches... Originally came across the Seiko name many years ago when using cameras with Seikosha between lens shutters; reasoned initially that any company that could manufacture such reliable precision shutters could well prove top class in other fields. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 13 Nov 10 20:22   Printer advice please - spamcan61

>> As I said above - my old Epson is about 10 years old despite a >> lot of use and me using non-Epson cartridges and re-filling old ones etc so I'm >> a bit biassed to Epson. Will let you know if my faith is justified! >> Thanks again >> Phil >> My 1999 vintage Epson 400 still worked last time I checked it a year ago, despite having lived unused in the loft for the previous 3 years. A bit temperamental due to having to use a parallel to USB dongle with it these days. Bought an R300 in a charity shop for 40 quid not long ago ( not sure why..); that konked out shortly afterwards, but one of those 99p off eBay printer reset CDs sorted it out. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 14 Nov 10 12:25   Printer advice please - ....

I've tried HP and Epson printers. The last HP appeared impressive however, it was an Oliver Reed when it came to the colour ink cartridge. We have an Epson DX6000, couple of years old now. The best piece of advice I have read here is from Stuartli. Put the cartridges in, switch it on and leave it on. I tried that this time around and the cartridges are still showing full after three weeks. Normally they go down pretty quickly if you switch on and off, especially if you are a daily user. Last edited by: gmac on Sun 14 Nov 10 at 12:25 Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 16 Nov 10 14:47   Printer advice please - Victorbox

I just go with whatever PC Pro have on their A-list for a particular catagory and I have never been disappointed. www.pcpro.co.uk/alist/inkjet Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 17 Nov 10 21:47   Printer advice please - PhilW

Well, finally got round to installing the new Epson SX515w and it works beautifully except.......can I get it to work wirelessly? Nope, only spent last 3 or 4 hours trying and just going round in circles with same error message cropping up repeatedly - followed advice in error message and it made no difference. In the end just plugged in USB lead and will leave it at that. Whatever happened to plug and play? (or something like that) Phil TT (TechnoTit) Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 18 Nov 10 09:31   Printer advice please - spamcan61

The wireless HP printer I set up for some friends did take a couple of hours of fiddling about; then they switched it off and lo and behold it didn't re-connect when switched back on. Second time lucky, it now seems stable - or at least they haven't phoned me to come and fix it again. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 18 Nov 10 18:53   Printer advice please - Tooslow

Phil, if it works wirelessly is it not possible to connect it to your router with an Ethernet cable? The benefit being that you can then share it with any pc on your network without having to switch on the pc to which it is connected. I must confess I could not see such an option described in the quick look I took. John Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 18 Nov 10 19:12   Printer advice please - PhilW

John, " is it not possible to connect it to your router with an Ethernet cable?" Router is too far away and would need a cable right through house. Printer is next to computer so USB lead no problem. Son is coming to visit next weekend so will probably connect it wirelessly in two minutes and also connect his Mac! I'm sure the answer is obvious and will involve clicking one thing with the mouse (wireless!!)! Thanks for your continued help Phil TT Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 18 Nov 10 19:16   Printer advice please - Tooslow

Phil, the simple solution is always the best! :-) John Reply to this message | Report message