For years, users have bemoaned the seemingly planned obsolescence built into inkjet printers by major manufacturers. They struggle with questionable universal ink formulations (which might destroy the printer header) and resort to illicit maintenance programs to reset (waste) ink tank counters.
Replacing components is either impossible or involves such high labor or part costs (printer head) that it results in a total loss. The European Union has responded indirectly with a repairability mandate. However, simply being repairable doesn't address the potential for spare parts to have built-in expiration dates.
I realize that millions are spent on development and the devices are financed by inks and spare parts - but today you can get even laser and 3D printers with highly complex mechanics for comparatively little money.
Does anyone know of equivalent alternatives to the major providers? I'm not talking about "fine art", but normal home-use stuff.
Foreign company sets up shop to make the print heads. That factory becomes excellent at making them, and starts making extras for the black market.
(The HP 62 is the backbone of HP's TIJ 2.x platform, which is their OEM printing engine platform for specialty applications. They even sell blank tri-tank 62 carts for you to fill with your own specialty inks and materials to jet with the cartridge since it's got the onboard printhead.)
They can just grab a reference schematic and pcb and tune it a bit and get it manufactured. They all use mostly the same interfaces and protocols, like mipi dsi for lcds, so they can have many almost drop-in alternatives to choose depending on availability.
For printheads, it's likely that there are no common standards, each manufacturer has it's own head-cartridge interface, so it's probably more expensive to remain open to changes, reducing the potential profits
I have owned tons of printers in my life, but never an inkjet.
They're lower resolution, slower, nuch less reliable, and more expensive than any laser in the long term. Are the colors better than a color laser? I've never compared them.
However, I think most people buy inkjets because when they need to buy a printer they see one for $30 and think that will suffice. And you are buying anything but a good inkjet at that price.
I own a colour laser for personal use because I print low tens of sheets a few times a year, and experience has told me that will result in dried up ink cartridges if I had an inkjet. I’m still using the manufacturer supplied laser toners from when I bought the printer 7 years ago
I bought a color inkjet printer after years without a printer (I had one for artistic usages before) because the kids needed one (for school and personal activities, work and fun).
We use it every week now that we have it, for many family usages where color is often needed (but not always). We often go beyond 50 pages a month, but not every month, so it’s a moderate usage.
And many Inkjets are print+copy+scan. To get the same with laser ones, you will have to shell out 3x-4x.
I print too little for my personal needs, sometimes I print several papers going up to ~300 pages in (mostly) black and white. That too, once in 2-3 months.
So, the consumable costs are too little to make a real dent.
In my experience, it’s often not worth it.
I have settled on a monochrome laser printer from Brother. It’s very reliable. Buying a toner cartridge is not exactly cheap but not really too expensive either. They last quite long. The printer itself does what it should, without hassle.
At least for me, I rarely have the need for printing in colour. And AFAIK, inkjets need regular use to not “clog up”. So I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t suite my common use-case.
In a situation where I must have color I can go to the office, or the local library. Or even a print shop if I need something really fancy. But honestly, I think the last time I printed something in colour was over five years ago.
Sometimes my wife print photos, but that can be ordered via Internet, so we haven’t found that to be a reason to buy an inkjet either.
But for color printing or photos, laser printers are simply too expensive (and quality is BAD) and I know a lot of people who buy an inkjet "just to be on the safe side" and keep hearing that they break down after being on vacation, for example.
I live in Germany and with Covid the last copy stores have died.
Sad to hear about the print shops closing down. In our metro are I believe there are some left. They probably charge a lot though, haven’t tried them TBH. Then there’s always Vistaprint and similar companies where you order prints and get them sent home. The quality seems to be quite okay.
School age children and their parents.
I bought an (inkjet) printer because the kids asked and asked! They needed a lot of prints for their school and activities. We use it constantly now that we have it, for many home and family usages where color is often needed (but not always). We have an ink subscription because it’s much easier.
When I was younger I had advanced inkjet printers for creative uses, arts, etc., but then entirely stop using one for years, until… kids.
Color printers are niche now, but for some segments of the population still very much needed.
But the world has been flooded with incredibly cheap electronics for years - some of them highly subsidized. It is apparently still profitable for this market to solder out components from used devices and reuse them in new devices.
And not just for toys or everyday appliances such as flashlights, but also for medical devices or devices with precision mechanics. I'm just surprised that inkjet printers are the exception here.
Is that your intention here? If so, what would be a more suitable market environment to allow for your production of no-name inkjet printers? :)
Sorry, that was in no way meant to be pejorative. I'm not an economist and for sure not a racist.
Ink is open
Drivers are pretty open and full featured
Printers often have quite a bit of open features for accessing directly.
I used to think print heads were pretty common and learned otherwise when looking at apps like Qimage Pro to get different usage out of it
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131
What's 2023's word of the year? Enshittification...
This statement is still generally true of Brother, even if they have a few printers that might not be. I sincerely doubt all of their printers are compromised that are currently on the market.
Considering the number of years someone keeps a printer (5-10-15), finding one that is still not locked in some way is not difficult. It's just up to the buyer to be informed.
It's not new either.
I had an ancient IBM 4019 laser printer for years. Still would, if my better half had not asked if I really print black and white that often. 15,000 pages per toner cartridge which would make people blush. This was at a time where HP Laser printers were cheap, invincible and easy to refill.
The other side of this is to simply invest in an eco-tank/big inkjet tank printer. Brother has them. Epson is really worth considering.
I purchased an Epson ET-8500/ET-8550 after looking at what kin of printing I might be doing long term (more photos than I ever had), and it's been a nice.
Add to that, the market model is mostly a "razors and blades" model where you sell the hardware at or below cost and charge more for the ink and everyone hates you for it.
Counterfeit money
Go find a recent GBP, CAD, or AUD note. Printed on a polymer stock you can't just get at Office Depot, so it doesn't feel like paper. Has clear windows and shiny foil elements in said stock, so if you look at it for 3 seconds, it won't be right.
Although, even throwing the US a bone, they have introduced some better security features, and the intaglio printing process does impart a specific feel that you can detect, it's of limited benefit because they never withdraw notes. I've gotten notes from the 1960s in circulation.
Also, don't ignore the used market. The price of a used printer can be low enough (if you are somewhat patient) that new printers are either an impulse buy or a very carefully researched one. (ie., not in the middle).
I have two of the aforementioned Brother laser printers (older generation), $20 each. If I see another using the same cartridges for a similar price I'll grab it and toss everything except the toner unit and the tray (no space for three printers).
Edit: if you go this route you should be somewhat familiar with the age of the tech (so, you aren't absolved of some research). For me, it's a bit simpler for now, I already have consumables for the TN420, so I just look for that. At some point it'll be old and I'll have to do the roadwork for something newer.
This is same business model as with game consoles, PS5 is also sold much cheaper than cost it's hardware on free market, but people than buying games and paying for subscriptions and Sony earn money from fees.
Unfortunately, game console hardware is not cheap to produce and the same with inkjet printer hardware - they are really complicated.
