MP610 clogged AND out of ink - how to proceed?

[RFarmer]

Maybe this should be on the laser forum, but anyway, my wife wants a small color printer for occasional use on her desk. We already have a good laser monochrome printer in the office. The question is how to get her a color printer, which may be used only occasionally, thus ruling out ink jets because of the clog problem. I realize that color laser printers are also very complex and thus have many things to go wrong, so I'm not sure what's best for occasional color printing.

 

[embguy]

I don't know the answer. Since she uses the printer occasionally. The operating cost is not an issue. Buy a cheap color laser printer with a credit card that gives you an extra year of warranty. Buy another one if it fails after 2 years. I have seen color laser printer on sale for around $100 if my memory serves me well.

 

[stratman]

Since the usage is "occassional" and the output quality required may be less demanding, one consideration is to use a dye-based inkjet printer that has the printhead built into the cartridge. These printers are the very inexpensive, low end types. The reasoning is that if the printhead becomes unservicable, the cost of replacement of a cartridge is less than a standalone printhead and the time lost is may be much less - just go to the store and buy it.

My uncle had an inexpensive Canon inkjet printer with the tri-color cartridge and the single pigment black cartridge, both with built-in printheads, that he used about once a month and worked well for him for several years. The pigment black cartridge did clog after 3 to 4 months of non-use.

Another consideration is to purchase the inkjet printer of your (her) choice, even one with a separate printhead, and just print a page of "something" that uses all the cartridges every 1 to 2 weeks. A nozzle check may suffice, though others here may recommend something more appropriate.

Also, I have read about small applications that will trigger a print job at pre-set intervals of time, requiring the computer and printer to be turned on but not requiring you to remember to manually print something every week or two. Others on the forum probably can tell you where to find this program if you are interested.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I like your idea of getting a printer with print heads built into the cartridges. If I were to do this, I would check the prices of the cartridges, find the cheapest one and then find a printer that uses that cartridge.

Also, doing a nozzle check once a week is all you need to do to keep the nozzles clear and it gives you an early warning if there is a problem. If you were to print an image, you would have to print two, one for plain paper and one for photo paper to make sure both the pigment black and dye black nozzles are used (assuming you have a printer that has both of those inks). Printing an image doesn't guarantee that every nozzle is used, and, because of multi-pass printing, it is very difficult to tell if any nozzles are clogged.

Also, if you get a two-cartridge printer, one with black and one with three colors, don't be tempted to also buy the photo cartridge that replaces the black to give you six color photos, because if you do, one of three cartridges will always be out of the printer and it will quickly dry up and be unusable.