Re: Low Maintenance Multifunction Printer


zakezuke wrote:
kenjisamurai@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Thanks everyone for all the great info. My i250 was the best money-wise
as I could buy a box of 10 cartridgs for $2 a pop and print maybe 100
or more pages, which makes it less than 2 cents per page. Too bad the
head died. The printer head for it is too expensive and I would also
really like a scanner so a new multifunction printer would be the best
choice I guess. They don't sell those mp360/370/390 printers that take
BCI-24 ink anymore so now my decision boils down to this one factor as
the other factors seem to be nil:

Ah, this probally wasn't "canon" oem ink then. But yes a head is like
a $60 to $80 investment in an older printer. It's not "too" expensive
when you take into account the lowish cost of ink, though at this point
one can visit goodwill and pickup a i550 for cheap, a i560 or above if
you are lucky. Odds are it too will need a new head but availablity of
aftermarket ink is high.


My last two Canon printers, the i250 and mp360, would always act
possessed when starting up or printing. It takes five minutes for them
to start up and make wierd clanking noises. When I finally print
something, it makes the same noises for several minutes before it
starts printing. This annoys me greatly. My really old canon bubblejet,
compaq ij200, lexmark z43, HP something or other, and now currently my
family's lexmark p4350 don't suffer from these issues. You just turn it
on, it takes maybe 30 seconds to warm up, and then it prints when you
ask it to. Are these slow startups and printings part of Canon or will
printers from other companies nowadays also do this? I've read several
posts about slow startups and slow print responses from other Canon
users but can't find a general consensus. If Canon does indeed have
this problem, I will go pick a HP, maybe even a lexmark as I like the
name :o)

My ip5200 does also make the clanking noises. These are cleaning
cycles, which the level and time of these cycles depends on how long
it's been since you used your printer
It should not be five minutes. 90 seconds above and beyond normal is
the max at least on the ip5200. 65 seconds above and beyond normal on
the ip4000, and this is if you didn't use your printer for 6 months.
If you don't print for 24hours, tack on another 30 to 35 seconds
depending on model. Two weeks is like 60 to 80seconds depending on the
model.

But canons to take a little bit to start, this is fair comment. HP
head on the cartridge style is probally better in ths regard, less ink
is used for cleaning. Five minutes sounds excessive.

Lexmark is usually a good brand to avoid due to stellar inkcosts. For
low end we are talking 1/3 the price of gold per weight for the black
ink, and nothing special about it to justify the cost. X3470 takes
the #1 cartridge, which i'm having a hard time finding accurate data on
it, but assuming 475p @ $20 it's like 4.2c/page for black, which to be
honest I don't believe. Something like the Lexmark X4270 which I know
takes the #70 has an yield of 600p @ $30 per or 5c/page. The P6250
taking the 18C0034 #34 is $20ish for 475pages or 4.2c/page. The
Lexmark Office X8350 takes the same cartridge I believe. I.e. the $100
printer and the $200 printer take the same ink

I'm not seeing the usual run of printers by lexmark which ran at above
and beyond 7c/page, so I can't justify my prejustice 100%. I can
justify the fact that in HP or Canon spending more than $150 can get
you an all in one printer and lower your cost per page. With lexmark,
at the models i'm looking at, you don't save money by spending more on
the printer.

Ah, here we are the Lexmark X1270, very similar to the dell free
pritner. #16black, 410p yield, $30.00. 7.3c/page. Over double the
price of canon for less yield for their non budget models. About 1/2
the yield of HP at about the same cost for their non-buget models. I'm
not sure if it comes with starter cartridges or not, odds are it comes
with standard yield not high yield. But buying replacement x1270s
might be cheaper.

Thanks for the reply. My canon i250 is to the point where it can print
alright but maybe one out of 7 or 8 lines of text there will be a small
streak where there's a line in the areas where white is and the text on
that line has a white line in the letters like the lines was displaced.
It is fine enough for general crap printing I guess.

Haha, if you have the time or the patience, can I say one more
question? :oP Okay, just a simple one, hopefully. How long are printer
heads designed to last? The lifespan of the printer before it breaks
down? Is it like a notebook battery where every two years you need one
because the capacity declines considerably due to age? Not that printer
heads have capacities, but is it made to be replaced or can it last the
entirety of a printers life, say, 5 years or more?

.

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