We have entered the age of disposable laser printers

[Jim Wynne]

I think we have entered the age of disposable laser printers. My college student daughter, fed up with relatively slow inkjet printers, and the high cost of feeding them, recently wished aloud for a laser printer. I found and bought a (broken link removed) for less than $50 after rebates, and free shipping. The problem is, a replacement toner cartridge costs $60-$70. Although it appears that the cartridge is easily refillable, you can't do that forever, and although the cost per page is significantly less than that for an inkjet printer, sooner or later you'll be faced with the fact that it will be cheaper to buy a whole new printer than to just buy a toner cartridge. Is this something that should be government regulated, given the huge volume of hardware leaching God-knows-what into the ground?

 

[little__cee]

More on printers

I got an ink jet printer in 1999 bundled with my computer purchase. I'd been faithfully buying the color and the black ink cartridges for years.

One day my husband offered to "run into town and get the cartridges" - I should have been suspicious but I agreed. He came home with a brand new laser printer - around $75 with the rebates and we only needed to buy a USB cable to have it up and running.

The old ink jet would still work as long as someone was willing to shell out the $55 for cartridges but who is going to do that when they can buy a new printer for a few bucks more?

So I'm agreeing with you that printers are becoming disposable but as for what the solution should be I really can't say right now.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Absolutely - laser printers are the best value for small scale black/white printing. Many of the big box office supply houses (Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, etc.) have private label toner that works every bit as well as name brand toner for much less money. Cartridges can be refilled to save even more money. Ink jet cartridges can also be refilled, but they are definitely a P.I.A.

For color printing - My next printer purchase will be a color laser! Only reason is I don't make enough copies at home to qualify for the free printer in next paragraph.

The most trouble-free color printer I ever used on a regular basis was a Xerox that used solid ink blocks that looked like square crayons. We used it for about 20% of our office printing, including all product brochures. We got the machine free, just for buying color ink (black ink was free!) Anybody who prints over 2,000 pages per month (color or Black) can get the same deal. www.freecolorprinters.com/ The color reproduction was absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Jim Wynne]

Absolutely - laser printers are the best value for small scale black/white printing. Many of the big box office supply houses (Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, etc.) have private label toner that works every bit as well as name brand toner for much less money. Cartridges can be refilled to save even more money. Ink jet cartridges can also be refilled, but they are definitely a P.I.A.

But we're talking $50 for the printer, Wes. Even the store-brand cartridges will usually be more than that, and not all cartridges are that easy to refill. Add to that the fact that sometimes you also need to replace a chip, and the cartridge can't be refilled indefinitely, and you're back to the big decision--sooner or later you'll have to decide if you want to toss a perfectly good printer.

For color printing - My next printer purchase will be a color laser! Only reason is I don't make enough copies at home to qualify for the free printer in next paragraph.

The most trouble-free color printer I ever used on a regular basis was a Xerox that used solid ink blocks that looked like square crayons. We used it for about 20% of our office printing, including all product brochures. We got the machine free, just for buying color ink (black ink was free!) Anybody who prints over 2,000 pages per month (color or Black) can get the same deal. www.freecolorprinters.com/ The color reproduction was absolutely gorgeous!

In general, the color quality of laser printers is demonstrably poorer than ink jets, unless you're spending a lot of money (at least ~$1000)--at least that's been my experience. We have some Xeroxs where I work and the color reproduction is cr*p. For office/business use, however, the link you provide does present a very attractive alternative. Home users often want to use their color printers for printing digital images though, and for the most part, affordable color laser printers just don't do that very well (nor are they intended to).

 

[Jim Wynne]

BTW, there is a significant difference in the cost of the ink with the "free" printer; $365 for all 4 colors, as opposed to $160 from the first alternate I checked. You only need to do this 5 times to exceed the lowest price for the printer that I found ($925). So this can be a good deal, so long as you don't print too much.

 

[Kevin H]

Here in the US, we haven't really addressed the disposal problem of electronic devices in particular -most states still have plenty of landfill space, or can ship to a nearby state that does. Unfortunately, there are some rather nasty chemicals used in electronic devices and there is always the potential of ground water contamination through leaching even with meeting state of the art landfill construction.

I'm sure no waste haulers or land-fill operators conciously violate state and federal laws to earn a few pennies more - yeah right.

With a parent company that is Swedish, I've been exposed to some of the EU requirements, and unless my memory is totally faulty, they are requiring an added fee for electronic devices upfront to assure responsible recycling rather than disposal in a landfill. Somewhat similar to the current requirements for freon capture from older heating/cooling appliances in the US. I'm not to fond of added fees, but this is an instance where they make sense. The only thing is, how do you apply this worldwide? Basically pollution sooner or later affects us all - even if it occurs in an undeveloped part of the world, there really aren't any boundaries that stop it at a country's borders.

Again, relying on memory, environmental groups are really hitting US industries hard for unintentional release of mercury as a process byproduct (coal burning power plants come to mind) when the largest releases that affect the US I believe actually come from China.

I don't have any answers, but it is a problem in the making.

 

[Howard Atkins]

In Israel there was a company selling "recovered and refilled " cartriges that are substantially cheaper than the OE, who gave you a free printer with a purchase of 4 cartridges.

 

[Jen Kirley]

If it turns out that you can replace the entire printer for less than buying new cartridges or toner, by all means do it.

Then, you hike your old machine (while already out and about, don't make a special trip) to Good Will, Salvation Army, or your nearby school and donate your old machine. All of these can give you a donation receipt which you can then apply to your next tax return. Everyone wins.

Schools often have to go through certain suppliers and can't buy their equipment from the cheapest source, so they wouldn't be able to enjoy the Office Max (or whatever) deal as we might. But, they can order ink and toner. I donate my old computer books to my district's high school library, and they have always been deeply grateful.

Nonworking machines may be happily received by a vocational electronics program.

Same goes for computers. Donate your old computer to a school, Good Will, church, homeless shelter, women's shelter-- lots of deserving places could offer tax deductible receipts. They would probably be happy to receive a working unit and the landfill would be less one or more pieces of toxic waste.

 

[Greg B]

Don't get me started on printers. Oh! you have .

I have a Lexmark 5100 series all in one printer/scanner/fax etc and it is not a bad unit, however, the cartridges cost me about $70 - $80 each. After buying four sets of cartridges I have spent the same as the original printer cost. I often have my cartridges refilled, at half the price, but they seem not to last as long, if they work at all.
I think it would be just as economical to buy a new printer everytime the cartridges ran out. I can't see how a bit of plastic and ink costs $80. I can buy a USB storage device for the same price and it is not a consummable.

 

[JerryStem]

I have an Epson 1200, capable of wide format photos up to 13x19". The ink carts for that thing are getting crazy expensive, not to mention harder to find every day.

The one I want is an Epson R1800, also wide format, photo, AND CD/DVD printing capable (with special disks, not terribly more than regular). That thing uses EIGHT SEPARATE INK TANKS!

Jerry