Looking for a new printer

My 10-year-old HP LaserJet4+ just quit on me - this time, I think for good. Even the troubleshooting toolkit of last resort (a few good kicks) failed to revive it and I think this one may already be beyond its time.

Believe it or not my most dependable printer right now is my Epson LX-800 dot matrix. This printer is almost old enough to drink where I am (legal age is 18 over here), and it still runs flawlessly without a single missed dot, just like the day it was matched up to its IBM PC XT clone back in '88. Today it is hooked to the parallel port of a 2.66Ghz Pentium 4. That printer sure has seen a lot.

I removed 10 years of dust from it recently, threw in a new cartridge (all of $3) and those of you who have been receiving packages from me recently will have seen it at work - it handles adhesive labels like nothing else on earth. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif Obsolete? Maybe. But it does the job better than anything else - labels nearly killed the Laserjet once before and I spent an evening with a screwdriver and an exacto knife unph$#king it. I honestly thought its time had come. Luckily it hadn't.

I'm looking for a printer to replace my existing laser, though. Key requirements: MUST be able to handle label printing duty, must be waterproof because you never know where your packages end up.

One of the potential candidates I'm considering is the Epson C65 inkjet. They claim their ink is water-resistant. Does this apply to plain paper or do you need special media? I have owned the C40UX before and deployed the C60 for one office before so I know what I'm getting into with regards to Epson printers.

The other replacement for light duty work is the HP LaserJet 1010. 12ppm, 8 seconds to first page output, host based printing, USB. But it retains all the other desirable traits of lasers, including guaranteed waterproofness, some of the sharpest black and white text I've seen, and adequate performance to do the job. As a big bonus, it's cheap. And it has the straight paper path which is important for label work.

Opinions welcome. I am not a big color user and I am looking for something inexpensive that does the job. After all, after all these years, an ageing dot matrix is still kicking all their collective rears.

My only in-depth experience has been with various HPs, and I have never had a problem. The first PC InkJet I bought still works fine and it is something like 15 years old now, and I also have a new LaserJet that gets a lot of use (the 1200SE I think).

I would highly recommend any of the HP Lasers, including the 1010 (or 1012 now I think).

-Mike

The HP 4Ls and 5Ls had an issue with the paper jamming. Was that what failed? The symptom is that it would grab two sheets of paper at a time, then eventually three, then many more and then jam. Fanning the paper beforehand wouldn't help. The only workaround was to feed it a single sheet at a time.

I found a repair kit at PrinterWorks that took care of the problem quite nicely.

Funny this thread should come up today /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I owned the 5L, terrible printer, vowed never to buy HP's low-end printers again. Specifically, nothing without a 'magazine' feed - all the large, serious printers have this, including HP's high end.

Mine is the HP LaserJet 4+, which was one of their workhorse printers (Ethernet JetDirect, 20K pages duty cycle, 7000 pages per cartridge, 12ppm - ten years ago this was haaaawt sheeeet), and I really enjoyed owning it. It's been with its previous owner for 3 years, me for 7. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif unfortunately, now it is dead (old age /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif), and I figure I might as well let it go.

Xrunner, thanks for the recommendation. The 1010 is amongst the printers I'm looking at.


I found all the answers I was looking for today, so I thought I'd share. I have a new Fuji/Xerox 3116 that cost all of $112. For that I get 12ppm, 600dpi - same as the 4+ it is replacing, but the proc is 150Mhz, it's USB, it's NOT a host-based GDI printer (WinPrinter), and it has the straight paper path I need for printing shipping labels. The straight path allows paper to feed in from the front and remain horizontal as it travels thru the printer, preventing labels from peeling off and jamming.

12 seconds to first page output is amazing, since I come from the days of two-minutes-to-warm-up-the-fuser printers. Instant-on makes a big difference. And at this price point I see utterly no reason to buy inkjet printers for anything else other than color (which I don't do).

I'm afraid I'll have to take back what I said about the dot matrix being the king of the label hill, the Xerox stomps all over it.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif (not it's fault - 17 years is a lot of progress in computing!)

The only drawback to the 3116 is that it does not support an Ethernet print server to hook it to the network, which I do happen to use. However, at this price point, heck.. just buy one for everybody!

The other thing - the 3116 may not be available in the US. I believe this is an AsiaPac model for A4 paper but I can't conclusively say so.

Hahaha.....I've bought the exact same printer just two months ago! I've narrowed down the choice to the Minolta which has a higher resolution, Samsung because of the look and Xerox. In the end, I go with the 3116 because it comes with official Linux support! My money always go to companies that support Linux.

As for label printing. If I'm not wrong, the manual warn against running the same piece of label thru it more than once. I've tried printing on the same sheet( different label of course) twice with not problem. But the other label from another company jammed when I tried to print another label from the same sheet twice.

Overall, very satisfy with the purchase. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Dot matrix printers are NOT obsolete!!! As a matter of fact they are now more expensive than ever /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Because they are special purpose devices for printing multiple forms or labels and the like.

Last year I purchased my first laser printer, I was sick and tired of being ripped off for ink and having clogged heads and the like. After much research I picked up an HP 1012. It has gotten very good reviews for an inexpensive laser and I have to give it high marks also. The only time it ever ate a piece of paper was when I was trying to feed in a new stack while it was still using up the old one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Cartridges are available from inexpensive 3rd parties (but I"m still on the one it came with!) uses 300 watts when actually printing, but drops down to (I think) 3 when it's in standby mode, so cheap to leave on and connected all the time. Warms up almost instantly, excellent print quality.

Course, it's only B&W, but I still have my older epson connected if I should need color.

I used to repair and refurubish DOT matrix and Laser Printers. I do have to say, the Lexmark Optra T6xx series are workhorses and very fast. I have an Optra T612N, they are great, unless you need color. All the auto and the insurance industry uses these and HP's. They are also very easy to fix.

The T612N is indestructable. One place that I got a 612 for, abused the crap out of the thing. I've even had to disassemble it once to resolve a particularly nasty jam, but that printer just keeps on ticking. It's as close to bulletproof as I have ever seen. We'd run half a dozen cartridges a month through it and its integrated duplexer.. that is where my respect for Lexmark comes from. Their entry level laser, the E312, is also a really good piece of kit. That was the one that started the low cost laser revolution.

reefphilic: I do BSD UNIX.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I saw the Samsung as well, around the same price locally.

About the labels, sometimes I don't use up all the labels, so I have to put it back into the printer. I understand Xerox doesn't recommend it, but then again I'm a tough customer, and the printer can handle that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif I do however use the straight paper path - open the door in the back.

James: Cool, glad to hear it turned out well. I didn't manage to find the straight paper path door on the HP, so I passed on that one. My colleague had two reservations about it - that the 1010 is a WinPrinter (no onboard CPU, host system does all the rendering), and that it does not have the removable magazine for feeding paper. Glad to hear that's not a huge stumbling block. HP's have always had good print quality. I've handled more HPs than I can remember - quite a number of models from the LaserJet II up to their current 1300. I'll be sorry to see my 4+ go, but it's time is up.

What surprises me is that I can even find cartridges at all for my Epson LX-800. As I've mentioned that printer is almost old enough to drink (if it could) and yet Epson still manufactures official cartridges for it! You're right though, dot matrixes are king when it comes to multipart/carbon-copy forms.

Eeeh...I had bad luck with the Lexmark E series and good luck fixing one, you have to nearly gut the thing to put a fuser in. Then you are lucky to get the laser lined back up /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

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KevinL said:
reefphilic: I do BSD UNIX.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I saw the Samsung as well, around the same price locally.

About the labels, sometimes I don't use up all the labels, so I have to put it back into the printer. I understand Xerox doesn't recommend it, but then again I'm a tough customer, and the printer can handle that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif I do however use the straight paper path - open the door in the back.



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Hmmm..... I don't have enough room at the rear to open the "back door". I guess that's why some labels get jammed( no problem with Avery label thou). Maybe I should relocate the printer.

Avery is great stuff but all the keylights would then be priced at $2.25 if I used it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Try the straight paper path, works great.

I have purchased several Canon D861 copier/printers. One was the main printer/copier in a startup and was used heavely for the several months I was there. Worked like a champ. There is a version with a fax machine option.

5,000 pages per toner cartridge. Couple second warm-up. ~3 Watt standby power. 500 page drawer standard. Atomatic paper feed for origninals. Collating of copies available.

Not a sexy machine--and I wish it would scan too... Don't know why it does not. But it is solid. Just under $500 from Costco Wholesale.

-Bill

[ QUOTE ]
KevinL said:
Avery is great stuff but all the keylights would then be priced at $2.25 if I used it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Try the straight paper path, works great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. I'll try that next time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I have a Laserjet 4L still kicking downstairs. IT is still kicking but the quality sucks. I assume low toner because of lines on the left side of the paper when printing.

So off to Staple's for new toner, OMFG $97.99 for new toner when a new Brother HL-2040 is only $79.99.

I buy the brother and set it up in my room and leave the HP 4L hooked up to my brother's computer (I have a computer in my room but don't got a printer for it.)

So I clear some room next to my computer and set up the Brother HL-2040. Toner at www.newegg.com is $37 for a 2500 page yield at 5% coverage. The starter toner that comes with it covers 1,500 pages.

It had 8MB of RAM, 2400X600 dpi, toner save mode, 250 page capacity, and has a front in put capacity.

This thing is really fast too, one downside is the paper curling a little due to heat. I don't really care for a little curling but to some its a big issue.

I haven't tried printing labels on this Brother so after typing all this, I guess this post isn't much help but rather a heads up on a inexpensive printer that well prints.