Inkjet printers?

[Jonzjob]

Our printer has gone toes-up! It will print all the colours of the rainbow, shame it don't print black anymore though!

It's an HP Photosmart 8250 and has been pretty good apart from a few niggles receintly. I have tried a new black cartridge, cleaned the cartridge contacts on the printer and removed the memory battery to do a complete reset, but it's still the same. I have trawled the forums and christ knows where else but can't find a solution.

So it looks as if I am going to have to replace it! Can anyone lead me to a site where I can key in what I want in a printer and get a list of said printers?

I want to be able to print good quality A4 size borderless photos and CD/DVDs. I don't want a multifunction and I can't pay the earth for it so something like the HP Photosmart B8850 isn't really an option, domage..

Any help greatfully accepted [:D]

[Pierre ZFP]

Could do worse than try Dabs  (no connection, satisfied customer etc)

http://www.dabs.com/category/peripherals,printers-and-scanners,printers-and-multifunction/11113

It allows you to refine your search by all sorts of criteria

Happy hunting!

 

 

[tuppence]

I find printers in France cost much less than the UK. I recently bought another Epson, the DX7450 model with scanner and copier. Cost 59€ from Darty compared to £79.99 in the UK. Plus the guarantee is French. Compatible cartridges I buy on ebay for a fraction of the price of Epson originals which ARE expensive over here.

tuppence

[Jonzjob]

As in the famous words of Vikky Baby Meldrew "I don't believe it!" The dammed thing has strated to print perfectly again. I have a set of cleaning cartridges for it and I put them in and, without doing the cleanprint head proceedure, it printed a test page better than it had done for ages! Refitted the normal cartridges and hey bruddy presto, perfect print!

If I had the choice of working on an IBM 3800 20,000 line a minute laser printer or a PC printer then give me the 3800 every time. Just for a start it's easier to get the blasted covers off [:-))]

I will keep looking because I don't trust it now! Pierre, the problem with Dabs is that they don't ship to France, although it is a good place to start looking for the detail. I used them a lot in the U.K. and agree that they are good!! So ta for the link...[:D]

[Pickles]

Whilst you are looking at printers, I would suggest that you also consider mono lasers, which can be very cheap to buy and are cheaper to run than inkjets. Of course it depends on the use to which you put them, but in this household, although we have a colour inkjet printer (as well as a multi-function mono laser), it is never used.

Regards

Pickles

[Jonzjob]

Mono lasers are good and quite cheap to run especialy if you refill your own toner, but not a lot of good for colour photos, domage..[blink]

Also, if you are only printing single documents they can be slow, but once you get past the single copy they are fast. The time is taken in setting the print image on the photocunductor and warming up the fixing roller. After that away you go!

Colour lasers are comming on now with the photo quality, but they are very costly to both buy and run.. Inkjets are still the best for photos and I can just imajing what the heater roll would do to a CD or DVD [:-))]

[Will]

Don't know what they are like in France but you can buy a more-than-half decent colour laser printer in England for not much money now (e.g £90). We use them for colour page proofing in professional publishing and the results are very good, though if you really need true photo quality you need to stay with a top-end inkjet. And forget lasers if you want to print on special materials or CDs.

Toners work out much less than inkjet cartridges on a print-by-print basis, even if you use the manufacturers' expensive replacements. You can refill the toners yourself, how easy or effective this is depends on the make, but if you choose a popular printer then third-party toner cartridges cost a lot less than originals.

[Chancer]

Whilst not disagreeing with Tuppence and I have only bought one printer in the last decade, my HP deskjet F2280 recently cost me £29.99 from a hardware store of all places, Robert Dyas I think.

The same model is/was on promo at Leclerc 50% off at €69, at the then current exchange rate it still cost more than double.

The only things that I have found since the fall of the pound that are cheaper in France than England are Velux and Roto roof windows, Oh and I suppose camembert, brie etc [:)]

[Bob T]

The only things that I have found since the fall of the pound that are cheaper in France than England are Velux and Roto roof windows, Oh and I suppose camembert, brie etc

And road tax, diesel, council tax, eating out, electricity, bike insurance, cost of running a microlight and many more.

[tenniswitch]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]

Mono lasers are good and quite cheap to run especialy if you refill your own toner, but not a lot of good for colour photos, domage..[blink]

Also, if you are only printing single documents they can be slow, but once you get past the single copy they are fast. The time is taken in setting the print image on the photocunductor and warming up the fixing roller. After that away you go!

Colour lasers are comming on now with the photo quality, but they are very costly to both buy and run.. Inkjets are still the best for photos and I can just imajing what the heater roll would do to a CD or DVD [:-))]

[/quote]

I print a lot of photos and have been quite happy with our Canon MP530, which has printer, copier, scanner and fax (which I've never used), has 2 feed trays and is quite efficient about duplex printing (which saves time and/or paper).  I've also noticed that photos printed on the Canon seem more fade-resistant than those printed on our previous HP- something about the ink, maybe?