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recommend Ink Jet all in one please ?


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Old 03-12-2016, 01:39
srpsrp
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What is the best inkjet that accepts compatible cartridges at the moment ?

My Canon all-in-one printer totally died recently ( MP550) due to a 'faulty print head' error. There is a lot of suspicion online that Canon have put a product obsolescence thing into an update.
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Old 03-12-2016, 14:12
MartinPickering
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I would recommend not buying an "all in one" because if one function fails, you've lost the lot. In addition, since there's more to go wrong, it's more likely to fail than a single-function peripheral.

I've given up on inkjets. I now use a colour laser printer by "Brother". If I need photo quality prints, it's cheaper to get them done by a local shop.
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Old 03-12-2016, 18:02
evil c
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Hey OP,

Why don't you say how much you want to pay, what features you are looking for, e.g. duplex printing, or A3, or automatic feeder, or fax, or memory card slots, or whether you want a screen, or one that's good for photo printing, or cards, wi-fi, ethernet, mobile printing? Perhaps whether size/weight is a factor or the quallty of the scan/copier, your main priorities, and anything else useful. Your question as it stands is pretty unhelpful.

Re the compatible carts I think everyone will have different opinions depending on how they use their printer. It's not that easy anyway because probably all printers will accept compatible carts. Usually too several companies will sell compatible carts for each printer and who can say which is the best?

A further problem is that some printer manufacturers for some models will update the firmware after x amount of time, and if you haven't disabled updates suddenly you can't use your compatible carts anymore.

You're best finding a few printers in your price range that'll do what you want and then see what the situation is re compatible carts, user reviews perhaps, and then make your final decision and hope for the best.
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Old 03-12-2016, 20:23
noise747
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I have never been a fan of all in ones to be honest, you may get a great printer with an Ok scanner, but I can understand how useful they can be for copying without turning the computer on and space saving.

i have a canon printer and it works perfect, I do not believe that Canon have put a product obsolescence thing into an update, how old was your old printer, how often was it used?
My old Canon printer died with print head problem, but it was getting to be a few years old, the one I have now is just over two years old, I just checked and it is used a fair bit and still working fine.

i get my ink from The ink Squid, always been good quality and a good price.

if I was getting an all in one i would certainly go for another Canon.
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Old 04-12-2016, 14:38
srpsrp
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Well I just need a basic printer really. I've had the Canon for a good few years and it was indeed a great printer whilst it worked. It was the way that it suddenly stopped working that makes me suspicious . My old ancient Epson 750 would at least try to print, with a slightly bad quality as it expired. ( the Epson cost £350 !)

The Canon is (was) a good printer and I hardly used it. Probably the thing that caused it to fail, perhaps the ink dried up and clogged the heads. I would probably get another all in one and have £40 of Tesco vouchers so was thinking of buying one on tesco.com.

Must admit I'm thinking it's possibly time to give up on Inkjets, The only thing I really need it for is printing out CV's though since I'm unemployed. I might investigate printing at the library, hopefully they'll have a decent laser printer.

I know there was a scandal regarding HP blocking compatible cartridges a while back which I see they reversed with an update. Are the HP printers reliable ?

There is a very long thread and canon were taken to court in US

http://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Pr...p/65759/page/2
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Old 04-12-2016, 19:20
Tassium
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I assume you have investigated "fixing" the MP550?

Is the head removable? maybe it needs re-seating?
-------------------------
Just done a search and there don't seem to be any cheap mono/colour laser printers available at the moment.
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Old 04-12-2016, 21:11
srpsrp
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I assume you have investigated "fixing" the MP550?

Is the head removable? maybe it needs re-seating?
-------------------------
Just done a search and there don't seem to be any cheap mono/colour laser printers available at the moment.
yes, I've followed Canon's instructions to re-seat the print head about 3 times. I also rinsed it out with water and dried it, which fixed it for a couple of days. I think I only paid about £40 for the printer which was maybe 6 years ago and I've never bought Canon ink. It just seems a shame to throw out such a nice printer. The computer it was connected to is also in pieces at the moment LOL ( but that's another story)
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Old 04-12-2016, 21:36
Tassium
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Did you try dabs of oil on the contacts on the printhead? (leaving on a thin layer of oil)

I suggest this only because the fix you tried worked for a while which does suggest some kind of seating/contacts issue.

Not that I know anything about printers specifically.
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Old 04-12-2016, 22:22
srpsrp
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Did you try dabs of oil on the contacts on the printhead? (leaving on a thin layer of oil)

I suggest this only because the fix you tried worked for a while which does suggest some kind of seating/contacts issue.

Not that I know anything about printers specifically.
hmm, no I actually cleaned the contacts with an alcohol wipe to remove any oil.
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Old 05-12-2016, 00:02
Tassium
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Here's a theory, usage produces little vibrations which wears down the gold on the contacts over many years.

A 'pin' to a 'flat' might well do that.

3-in-1 oil will do, WD40 is fine. GT85 is another one. Just a thin smear is enough.
No need to worry about confining the oil to the pads, just smear it across the whole back plate.
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Old 05-12-2016, 08:39
srpsrp
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Here's a theory, usage produces little vibrations which wears down the gold on the contacts over many years.

A 'pin' to a 'flat' might well do that.

3-in-1 oil will do, WD40 is fine. GT85 is another one. Just a thin smear is enough.
No need to worry about confining the oil to the pads, just smear it across the whole back plate.
well it's an interesting theory, nothing to loose I guess... It's on the way to the tip when I can be arsed other wise. I've not really used it much so I'd be surprised if there could have been enough wear although the gold flash is only a few atoms thick I think, so maybe. Cheers
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Old 05-12-2016, 10:32
Tassium
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Thinking about it, regardless of whether my idea works it's a bad design practice to go with multi-contacts on a unit (printhead) that is designed for the life of the printer.

It smacks of built-in obsolescence. For a removable ink cartridge it makes sense, and Canon used to do that I believe. But it does not make sense for a printhead.


Easily lot's of vibrations at the print head, it will wear down the gold on both the pin and the flat and gradually electrical resistances will build up and could easily stop the thing working.
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Old 05-12-2016, 11:16
Roush
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I recently looked at a 10-year old Canon printer with a print head failure. The contacts on both the head and the printer were absolutely pristine.

No sings of wear at all, so this conjecture about planned obsolescence through 'lots of vibrations' causing contact wear seems a bit far reaching for me.

Are the HP printers reliable ?
I've had an HP OfficeJet 8620 for a couple of years now. It's reasonably good, but I have discovered an annoying trait of modern HP inkjet printers which is that it will shut down the printer function completely if one ink cartridge runs out meaning you can't continue printing in black & white when one of the colour cartridges runs out.
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Old 05-12-2016, 11:41
ihatemarmite
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I gave up on Canon after my all-in-one's paper feed roller failed and Canon told me they no longer support that model - it was 5 years old. So bought an HP 5520. Hate the machine so much - noisy, uses a lot of ink, funereally slow, often turns off its wifi.
I live in a small flat so need an all in one as need copier/scanner.
Have you spoken to Canon and got an idea of replacement part cost or if they are available? I take it from your post that they no longer support your model?
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Old 05-12-2016, 13:09
Tassium
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I recently looked at a 10-year old Canon printer with a print head failure. The contacts on both the head and the printer were absolutely pristine.

No sings of wear at all, so this conjecture about planned obsolescence through 'lots of vibrations' causing contact wear seems a bit far reaching for me.



.
While interesting, the example you give does not disprove the theory in itself.

Was it gold-plated pins on the printer side?
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Old 05-12-2016, 13:42
Roush
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While interesting, the example you give does not disprove the theory in itself.

Was it gold-plated pins on the printer side?
Gold plated on both sides of the connection.

It's not a theory. You have no facts and no evidence. That makes it conjecture or speculation.
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Old 05-12-2016, 14:57
Loobster
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I would recommend not buying an "all in one" because if one function fails, you've lost the lot.
It doesn't matter. They are so cheap, that if it fails, you just buy a new one. Unless you need a photo quality printer, all in ones are great because of the small footprint and high functionality.

Imagine how much space seperate scanners, printers and copiers would take up (and a fax machine, if you need one). You can buy a Canon device that does all of this, for peanuts (I recently picked one up for $60).

As per other posters above - the HP OfficeJets are overrated. Flaky, expensive by comparison, and the software is usually crap. For the last three I've had, I've stuck with Canon and had no issues. My first one was very old and needed to be upgraded, the second one I gave away to a friend when I was moving house and upgraded to a new one when I got settled in the new house.
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Old 05-12-2016, 18:25
noise747
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Well I just need a basic printer really. I've had the Canon for a good few years and it was indeed a great printer whilst it worked. It was the way that it suddenly stopped working that makes me suspicious . My old ancient Epson 750 would at least try to print, with a slightly bad quality as it expired. ( the Epson cost £350 !)

The Canon is (was) a good printer and I hardly used it. Probably the thing that caused it to fail, perhaps the ink dried up and clogged the heads. I would probably get another all in one and have £40 of Tesco vouchers so was thinking of buying one on tesco.com.

Must admit I'm thinking it's possibly time to give up on Inkjets, The only thing I really need it for is printing out CV's though since I'm unemployed. I might investigate printing at the library, hopefully they'll have a decent laser printer.

I know there was a scandal regarding HP blocking compatible cartridges a while back which I see they reversed with an update. Are the HP printers reliable ?

There is a very long thread and canon were taken to court in US

http://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Pr...p/65759/page/2
My old Canon just stopped printing as well when the head died, the light kept flashing on the unit to indicate there was a problem and that was it, never worked after that.
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Old 05-12-2016, 18:28
noise747
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yes, I've followed Canon's instructions to re-seat the print head about 3 times. I also rinsed it out with water and dried it, which fixed it for a couple of days. I think I only paid about £40 for the printer which was maybe 6 years ago and I've never bought Canon ink. It just seems a shame to throw out such a nice printer. The computer it was connected to is also in pieces at the moment LOL ( but that's another story)
Printers are chuck away items these days which is a shame and after 6 years they are deemed to have had their day unless you pay a fortune for one, even laser printers seems to have a 5-6 life span,

My old Star dot matrix many years ago lasted for over ten years, in the end the print head went belly up and I had to bin the printer .
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Old 05-12-2016, 20:25
neo_wales
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Get an Epson, ink is cheap and they work well.
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Old 06-12-2016, 07:12
srpsrp
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Printers are chuck away items these days which is a shame and after 6 years they are deemed to have had their day unless you pay a fortune for one, even laser printers seems to have a 5-6 life span,

My old Star dot matrix many years ago lasted for over ten years, in the end the print head went belly up and I had to bin the printer .
They are actually more like freemium items. The cost of the printer is offset in the hopes of people buying ink. Hence why I want one that works with compatible ink. The HP instant ink seems quite good, although 50 pages a month literally means 50 pages apparently. I might try the 3 month trial for free and then see if I can switch to compatibles.
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Old 06-12-2016, 07:37
Tassium
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You should look into the downsides of Instant Ink.

One downside is that if there is an account problem your printer will be disabled remotely and you won't be able to print until that problem is resolved.

I'm sure it'll all be great during the trial period...


https://blogs.which.co.uk/technology...it-good-value/
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Old 07-12-2016, 12:00
noise747
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They are actually more like freemium items. The cost of the printer is offset in the hopes of people buying ink. Hence why I want one that works with compatible ink. The HP instant ink seems quite good, although 50 pages a month literally means 50 pages apparently. I might try the 3 month trial for free and then see if I can switch to compatibles.
Maybe manufactures should charge more for their printers and charge less for their Ink, then people would not use third party ink. i have been happy with Canon for years, printer wise.

Not sure if i would want a ink subscription, if they go by pages, then there must be a lot of wasted ink and HP uses a system that replaces the ink head as it is built into the cartridge or used to be.
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Old 07-12-2016, 13:58
SkipTracer
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Get an Epson, ink is cheap and they work well.
Not sure about that as my local stores are selling the multi pack XL Epson Polar Bear ink from £70 to £90.

I’ve not been to worried about the cost lately as I bought a cheap Samsung laser printer for general mono printing so now only have to buy a Epson pack once a year.
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Old 07-12-2016, 21:08
noise747
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Not sure about that as my local stores are selling the multi pack XL Epson Polar Bear ink from £70 to £90.

I’ve not been to worried about the cost lately as I bought a cheap Samsung laser printer for general mono printing so now only have to buy a Epson pack once a year.
i think he means third party ink, in which he is correct it is cheap, but newer Epson machines seems top go through ink as if it is going out of fashion and the cartridges are pretty small. My brother have an Epson Xp 442 and he said the ink do not last very long and his old Epson ink used to last a lot longer and a mate of mine also have a Epson Xp something or other and complains about the same thing. I have also seen other complaints online about the same problem with them as well.


A laser printer will always be cheaper to run than an inkjet and is fine for normal printing.
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