Thinkpads Forum

What printer brand do you use for your TP? Please indicate why you prefer the brand amongst others.

HP. Because they work and continue to work for a very, very long time!

We've gotten hundreds of original Laserjets, LJ IIs, LJ IIDs, etc. donated over the years with print counts in the high 6 figures that are continuing to give reliable service now that they've passed the 1 million page mark.

They've made some clunkers over the years, like the 4L and the LJ1100 series and it's paper feed problems. But in the main they're reliable and long lived.

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:They've made some clunkers over the years, like the 4L and the ...

Well, sir, I agree with you in general (HPs are great), but I must respectfully disagree on the 4L. It's not because I have one, still running perfectly, but it's because of things like: its truly straight-thru paper path is something that my 4-Plus and 5 don't have. When I need to print an envelope without it being crinkled, I use the 4L. True, I could have bought an envelope feeder for the 4-Plus or 5, but the 4L was cheaper. Also, the 4L also has the "always on" feature, which allows it to wake up and go to sleep as needed... no on/off switch. And, its print quality (of text) is still very good (graphics, not so good... 300dpi...)

... anyway, just one guy's opinion...

Leo,

The 4L doesn't have a straight through paper path unless you're manually feeding the paper and sending the output to the rear of the printer, something you can do on dozens of HP models.

Almost all HP LJs for the past ten years have the "instant on" or sleep feature.

The 4L is an excellent little printer, but it has a weakness in its drivetrain that leads to them dying far too young. The main drive gear cracks or splits on its shaft and the printer begins emitting a "click of doom" announcing its imminent demise.

We got approx. 30 of these donated last year by a local bank, all of which had this problem, and you can't get the parts!

HP used to be very good about keeping on top of these type of "latent defect" problems and would attempt to address them with after-warranty fixes, like the paper feed repair units for the 1100s or the feedwheel cleaners for the early Deskjets, but this type of support disappeared with the arrival of Carly.

Now that she's leaving perhaps we can hope that things might go back to the way they once were, but I doubt it.

Regards,

James

Of course, you are correct about the straight-thru path only with manual feeding and rear exiting.

As for the drivetrain failures, my little 4L doesn't see that much print volume, so maybe that's why it's lasted this long. Thanks for the heads-up on the "click of doom." Hope I don't hear that for a while yet!

As for the capabilities of the newer models, I must plead ignorance, since the newest one here (2 different home office-based businesses) is just an LJ5. So I guess the "uniquenesses" of the 4L aren't terribly unique anymore!

HP was the cheapest without sacrificing print quality.

I have a Brother that I like very much although the footprint is a tad big.
I probably should vote twice since I also have an HP Laserjet that is probably 5 years old or so, still reliable still spits out the copy with no problems, plus now the aftermarket cartridges are cheap .

At work,

HP for our B/W laser printers (all with integrated networking)
Xerox for Colour laser printers (Combo Photocopier/Network Printer/Network Scanner)

Rob.

I used to use an HP LaserJet 4L. Got that printer in 1993 and my family is still using it 12 years later

Right now I am using a Samsung ML-1710, which is IMO an excellent printer. Like the LaserJet 4L, it has a small footprint, internal tray, and discrete microprocessor. It also prints 4x as fast (17ppm versus 4ppm) and has 8x the memory. It even resembles the 4L in shape, though its edges are rounded instead of boxy.

I wish HP made something like the ML-1710. Samsung has definitely beaten them in the personal laser printer market...

K. Eng wrote:I used to use an HP LaserJet 4L. Got that printer in 1993 and my family is still using it 12 years later

Don't get me wrong Brian, the 4L is a great little home printer and will probably continue to work for your family for as long as you can get toner or a fuser for it.

The problem arises when it's used for more printing than it was designed for. I doubt that there will ever be any 1MILL print total 4Ls, something I see every day with LJIIs, LJIIIs, LJ5s and, particularly, LJ6s.

Regards,

James

Epson Stylus Photo 1200, still kicking after 8 years

Can print 13x19" and can't find a reason to fork over 450 for another wide carriage that's a little better.

I suppose someday I won't be able to get ink for it though.

slagmi wrote:Epson Stylus Photo 1200, still kicking after 8 years

Can print 13x19" and can't find a reason to fork over 450 for another wide carriage that's a little better.

I suppose someday I won't be able to get ink for it though.

There are no chips or other "ink-fake-protection", so you will get ink for the rest of your life

HP 940c for colour work (good old 15 & 78 carts) and a Brother cheap laser for text. Nice combo, and I also have the Brother wired into network, so the main PC doesnt have to be on for me to print from the T22.

Refills for the Brother are GBP17, which last me 5m. HP carts, I just keep refilling them, got the knack now... I HATE Epson (and others) due the the print head being in the printer and not the cartridge - thats HP's biggest single advantage IMHO. Print head clogs :-

* HP, fit new cart = new printer
* Epson = new printer !

But some inks are rather expensive as the PC Mag review recently pointed out - HP 300 series ink is the fifth most expensive liquid in the world !

K. Eng wrote:
Right now I am using a Samsung ML-1710, which is IMO an excellent printer. Like the LaserJet 4L, it has a small footprint, internal tray, and discrete microprocessor. It also prints 4x as fast (17ppm versus 4ppm) and has 8x the memory. It even resembles the 4L in shape, though its edges are rounded instead of boxy.

I wish HP made something like the ML-1710. Samsung has definitely beaten them in the personal laser printer market...

Even better, go for the 1750 or the 1510p that have parallel interface in addition to the usb one, so you can free up one of your usb ports. I agree, samsung personal lasers are the best right now.

For General B&W Document Printing
HP LaserJet 2420dn--Does 30ppm, auto-duplexing, and does DirectPDF printing, extremely fast processing CPU, PS Level 3, highly recommended for printing documents in a jiffy. Biggest weakness is that on grayscale images it can be a bit weak and tend to stratify things. In other words, it feels like it is only using 64 shades of gray. If this is your only printer and you try to print something that was originally in color, this could be a problem. Appropriate for someone who prints 350 pages a day.

For color printing:
Epson Stylus C80 + HP JetDirect USB--Serves my general printing needs for color documents, such as PowerPoint slides and things of that nature. I find this to be a very fast printer at doing color pages. I have been very happy with it. Only "weakness" is that it doesn't support PostScript natively. This is not a big deal though as there are CUPS drivers out there that should allow you to use it on just about every platform. If you only use Winblows, then you can ingore the whole PostScript thing. Appropriate for someone who prints maybe < 100 pages/day.

For Photo Printing:
Epson Photo 825--Picked up one of these refurbished for the price of the ink cartridge replacements, and it came with new full ink cardridges, so basically free. This is a great printer and does a stellar job printing photos. Gave it to my mom since she was still using an old HP DeskJet 870Cxi and it was getting really finicky. It is a pretty capable printer for someone who only prints 10-50 pages a day.

FYI: Dont get fooled into buying one of IBM's printers - some of them are really just rebranded lexmarks, which are of course terrible.

I had a lexmark Z52 which was great, until it broke after 3 years. Then I had one of their multi-function printers, and it never printed correctly, and their tech-support couldn't get it fixed.

Now I have a Canon i560 and it's great, but the print quality seems to have gone slightly downhill.

HP BI2250 (4pen)
Canoni9900 (8pen)
HP 7960 (8pen)
Brother P-touch PRO-XL (binary--B&W-- thermal transfer strip label printer)

My HP BI2250 is my oldest and most used. Great for business correspondence. Starting to have problems feeding the next sheet .. probably glazed rubber tires on the roller .. (wonder how to fix that -- any ideas out there?). I use about 2 reams of paper a month .. but very few outbound letters any more .. except for commercial documents. Virtually all my proposals and routine correspondence is via email with attachments .. PDF, DWG, JPEG formats. My printing is mostly for incoming archival, plus temporary internal use and proofing of layouts, CAD files, etc..

The i9900 and the HP7960 are recent photo printers .. the first for larger format CAD prints PLUS rich color photos to 13"x19". The latter for B&W .. great B&W, NO-- perfect B&W photos.

If I could find space in my crowded office I'd go for a high res laser as well -- but maybe NOT.

Oh, that Brother .. its a great PC driven label printer for 1/4 to 1 1/2" wide strip at 360 dpi. More of its output is seen by my customers than the other printers'.

... better quit while ahead.

Frank K-F

A31p, A31p, TP765D

Frank,

FrankK-F wrote:probably glazed rubber tires on the roller .. (wonder how to fix that -- any ideas out there?).

Take them out (see HP for instructions) and clean them up with a green 3M pad (the blue ones aren't abrasive enough).

Back in the pre-Carly days HP would send out an elaborate construct to Deskjet owners experiencing feed problems made up of a flat metal plate with a spring mounted 3M pad on it. You'd place this in the Deskjet in the paper feed tray and run a little DOS utility they supplied to run the feed rollers until they were cleaned.

Regards,

James

James,

thank you for the advice.

Frank

Thread Hijack Alert:
And along the pre-Carly line...please oh please let HP realize that quality is what got them where they are, not selling [censored] TVs. Ugh...why on earth would anyone pick a medieval history major to be the head of a company that had engineers for every single CEO before and was doing quite well.

James,

"Who wishes to give himself an abundance of trouble, let him equip these two things, a Ship and a Woman. No two things involve more bother, for neither is ever sufficiently adorned!" Plautus

Obviously Plautus did not anticipate the PC .. yes the Personal Computer .. and lets throw in Politically Correct.

Frank K-F

Frank,

Politically correct is for wusses!

Servus,

James

I have a Canon i560 and I am very happy with it. The print quality is definitely great compared to similarly-priced HP's and Epson's. Heck, the printing speed is also pretty good! Last but not least, Canon ink is cheap and you can find generic replacements as well. All for under $75.

For b/w I use a trusty HP 6MP laserjet with extra RAM. It's not fast but print quality is good and it will print envelopes that don't smear.
For colour I use a Canon MP730 multifunctional and a Canon i560.
Actually the i560 is now hooked up to a desktop, once I get ADSL and wifi installed I hope to be able to use all printers wireless from the TP.
For mobile use I still have a small Canon BJC-70 inkjet.
The Canons usually print colour quite well and the consumables are not too expensive. The only gripe I had was that I first had an i550, which used the same cartridges for all colours as the MP730 does. After a somewhat extended storage period, it ended up with a clogged printhead that was impossible to clean and too expensive to replace: the i560 cost the same as a new printhead for the i550. But the i560 uses different cartridges for the colour part (its black cartridge is still the same as that of the MP730). Experience taught me that the Canon printheads tend to clog fairly quickly if you stow them away for longer periods of time. I have no idea how this is with other brands (Epson?). Which is why I sometimes just print a document in colour or run off a colour copy on the MP730 even when b/w would do.
I also had a HP 3100 multifunctional (laserprint/fax/copy/scan), which had paper handling problems (typically pulling whole stacks of paper through) and which had horrible driver software. When its modem died after a lightning strike, HP refused to replace it (even though it was no longer under warranty and my insurer picked up the tab) as I had bought it in Holland and had since moved to France. The machine did not have a French telecoms approval sticker (my logic was: why not put in a replacement modem card with a French approval? But no)... I replaced it with the Canon MP730.

i'm using an HP laserjet 1010 for my T42....

My Xerox Phaser 8200 is just the best color laser I've ever owned....