If you buy an #HP#printer and sign up for the optional HP Plus #service, you'll get a #firmware#update that will FORCE you to #purchaseonly new HP #ink cartridges — for the life of your printer. And once that firmware update happens, there is no way to undo it.
@IAmDannyBoling Toner has always been a printer industry racket. I’m sure the other manufacturers will follow suit. As monopolistic money grabs go, that ranks right up there with BMW’s charging a monthly rental fee for seat warmers. Do the oligarchs really think we are that stupid? In the meantime, I’ll appreciate the excellent print quality of my Xerox printer and keep my butt warm in the older BMW that has seat heaters that I own. Capitalism run amok.
@devxvda@IAmDannyBoling@CAman
I'm very happy with my Brother Laser. My Brother Ink Jet doesn't seem to be any better or worse than others (no subscription necessary).
@devxvda@IAmDannyBoling@CAman
I second this!
I love my Brother. Bought a B&W only and it been consistent every time.
My last one was a HP. Swore I'd never buy one again. So many writer friends recommend a Brother, I bought one.
@IAmDannyBoling@devxvda@CAman
Especially amongst writers. Everyone of them that I know said to get one and after listening to them why liked them, I bought one. Even used part of my food budget to afford it.
They also have tons of tutorials on trouble shooting, replace toner packs, etc. Very easy printer to work with.
I hoping I haven't now jinx myself by saying how good they are. LOL
@60pencilgirl@IAmDannyBoling@CAman The one thing I wish I did was buy the more expensive model with a duplex ADF. Because that ONE TIME you need to scan 30+ double sided printouts you will be glad you have it.
@devxvda@IAmDannyBoling@CAman Mine does because I was warned about that by others. I did a ton of research before I bought mine, getting what needed and avoiding bells and whistles I didn't.
I'm kicking myself as the upspend was only 100 EUR. For something that is 4 years old now and on it's first new toner cart (and still on the orig drum), I should have spent the 100 EUR
@IAmDannyBoling this is why I am so against shoving subscription services and DRM into things that were just fine before... A true solution in search of a problem.
I have a #Brother laser printer that takes toner. It never dries out (toner is already dry), it doesn't communicate with anybody except my computer via a USB cable, and it lasts bloody forever. I've had it for almost 20 years now.
The only problem? It's so good it's bad business for Brother I guess.
@IAmDannyBoling it, and the printer/scanner combo I later bought, will probably last me for life. The only thing I've ever had to buy for it is toner. The drum unit has never needed replacement.
@IAmDannyBoling if people want color, refuse to buy a laser, think 50€ is a lot of money, and don't print daily, an HP printer with Instant Ink is the only option that makes sense.
@IAmDannyBoling Given the choice between a 50€ printer and a 200€ printer with cheaper ink and an expected life time of 1-2 years, it quite frankly doesn't make sense to buy the expensive one unless you print a lot.
I made that calculation when my parents last printer died, and the cheap printer had far cheaper TCO even with instant ink. So instant ink it was.
Things took an unexpected turn as the printer is now 5 or something years old, something I've never seen happen before.
@IAmDannyBoling I just looked and this cheap Envy 4522 they have with instant ink has been activated since May 2016. That's 7 years.
Color cartridges fail a bunch of times and instant ink sends new one but otherwise no hickups.
The previous one was basically the same model and lasted a year or so. Never in my life would I have expected an HP crap inkjet printer to last 7 years.
@IAmDannyBoling: As a general rule, it seems that 'tank printers' are free of most of the common inkjets' schenanigans.I was just shopping around for one a couple of months ago, and, well, there's currently no way to include a chip into a pourable liquid, and even if there was, the 'tank ink' is so much cheaper than the 'cartridge ink' that it wouldn't matter too much.
@riley@IAmDannyBoling I have no regrets in taking my hp officejet to ewaste and replacing it with a large format Epson eco tank printer. It’s been great.
@riley@IAmDannyBoling #TankInk is the way to go. You pay more for the printer, but save a lot later. Bought my an year and half ago and have not recharged it yet, with about a quarter of its charge remaining. Domestic usage.
All true, I'm sure. But we print sooo rarely that the added cost just wasn't worth it. I may replace the cartridges three, four times over the life of this printer. I may have made a mistake but it won't be my last lol. Both of y'all make strong arguments that are hard to ignore if you use your printer more than I do, which is only one or twice a year.
I wouldn't connect an HP printer to my computer even if they paid me to do it, and that's been my stance for decades. We recently bought a Canon printer (to replace our previous Canon printer) but with the little printing that we do, I worry about the ink drying up, not running out.
@JessTheUnstill: There's some things that laser printers can't yet do, unfortunately. Edible printing, for just one example, is currently only feasible with food-safe inks; food-safe toner has not been invented yet. @IAmDannyBoling
@riley@IAmDannyBoling Yeah, and for photo printing, laser just isn't as good as ink - at least for any of the affordable laser printers. Still, for most people's home use cases of printing a few dozen pages per month max, ink jets would require a cleaning almost every usage, which wastes a LOT of ink.
@JessTheUnstill@IAmDannyBoling@riley For sure, but HP have that covered too - If I upgrade the firmware of my HP LaserJet, it will stop me using compatible cartridges, so I haven't and it's a bit buggy, but I will have to deal with it :(
@IAmDannyBoling@JessTheUnstill@riley yeah, it seems like it :(
It's a shame, I like their servers, although I guess technically that's a different company now ...
@riley I trust Epson even less than HP. The Epson printer I had only took ink cartridges specifically from Epson (this was before smart printers were common), and those always dried up way too quickly. Plus, it just didn’t work with any computer except ones with Windows 7 installed. Nothing newer, older, or non-Windows.
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