5 things to keep in mind when buying a new printer

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 29 April 2010

There is no fixed season for new printer purchasing. Printer manufacturers don’t have any particular time of year set aside to introduce their new models. Some manufacturers introduce a new printer once a year, others bring out several new models a year. The decision to buy a new printer is going to be based on your needs and the condition of your current printer. From what we’ve seen, the average life expectancy of a new inkjet printer is about 2 years. Since inkjet printers are not made to be repaired, if your inkjet printer breaks you really have no alternative but to replace it (and recycle your broken printer). Laserjet printers are designed with repair in mind and replacement parts are usually available. But these days the cost of parts and labor can exceed the value of the printer. In those cases replacing the printer may be a better decision financially than repairing your broken machine. We would generally advise a customer to reuse their old machine, but with an appreciation of financial reality, we understand that doesn’t always make the best fiscal sense. Still, we encourage anyone replacing their current printer to find a way to recycle it rather than throwing it in the trash.

So you’ve decided it’s time to but a new printer. Here are some questions to ask yourself before you commit to a specific model or brand.

1. What type of printing will the new printer be doing as its primary task?

This is the most important question of any you need to consider before deciding which printer to buy.

Will you be printing photographs or color copies? Then unless you are willing to spend a few hundred dollars for a color laser printer you’ll be looking for an inkjet printer. Inkjets produce the best color prints for a reasonable price per page. If you only intend to print out documents and forms and have no need for color printing, then you should consider the various models of personal laserjet printers being marketed today. These are smaller than the typical office laserjet and while the single cartridge may set you back $40 or more, that cartridge will produce, on average, ten times more pages than an inkjet cartridge, so your cost-per-page is a tenth of that printing with ink.

2. How often will you be printing?

If you print something at least every couple of weeks then either an inkjet or laserjet will be useful to you. However, if you’re only going to use your printer for a few weeks every year you’d be better off considering only a laserjet. Laser printers use powdered toner which isn’t subject to drying or evaporating. You can leave a laser printer alone for 3 months, come back and run a perfect print. That isn’t going to happen with the majority of inkjet printers. Laserjet printers are subject to humidity, though. The toner in a laser cartridge kept in a humid atmosphere will clump up and be unavailable for printing. This can be remedied by gently shaking or rocking the cartridge back and forth to break up the toner clumps. At worst clumped up toner is a waste; toner clumps cannot damage your printer. Ink cartridges left too long without being used will most likely form hard blocks of dried ink on the printhead. This can sometimes be cleared up but most often requires replacing the cartridge.

3. Is printing vitally important to you or something you only do once in a while?

The more important printing is to you, the more attention you should pay to all the capabilities of your next printer. If you do a great deal of printing, you want to minimize costs as much as possible while ensuring the highest quality of output available. You’ll want to purchase your printer from a retailer who offers a solid warranty and good service-after-the-sale. If printing is a casual practice and you don’t need all the bells-and-whistles of a high-end printer, watch for sales at the big box electronics retail stores and even scout out your local thrift stores. Older printers and discontinued models may meet your needs and save you quite a bit of money.

4. Where will your printer be located and how many computers will be using the printer?

One of the capabilities being built-in to newer printers, both ink and laser, is wireless connectivity. Previously, if you wanted to connect your printer to a wireless network, you had to purchase a separate print server, a nasty piece of hardware that usually proved difficult to configure and nearly impossible to use without problems. I used to work for D-Link on the help desk, and I’d say the most difficult calls we had to handle dealt with print servers. No one is happier to see the end of these devices. Printers with built-in wireless capabilities are simple to set up and deploy. It’s not much harder than adding another computer to your network. A wireless-capable networked printer is available to any computer within range of the router. You could have your printer in one office and send print jobs to it from any other office in your business or any room in your house.

Another alternative is a wired network printer. Many newer laser printers have an ethernet card built-in to the chassis and can be added to your network by simply connecting a standard RJ-45 ethernet cable from the router to the printer. This means that the printer will need to be located within cable length of the router, usually 6-15′.

One advantage to a wired printer is security. If for any reason you are sending print jobs to the printer that should be kept secure from possibly being intercepted by an unauthorized 3rd party, you’ll want to have a wired connection to the router for both your computer and printer. Any data sent wirelessly to a router or printer can be compromised by being intercepted en route. For the average user this isn’t much of a concern. But if you deal with sensitive data or any information that shouldn’t be exposed to the risk of interception, it’s something to keep in mind.

5. What is going to be the cost of consumables?

The initial cost of the printer is not the only expense you’ll be incurring over the lifetime of your printer. You need to factor in the cost of consumables, primarily ink/toner and paper, as well. With each new generation of printer the manufacturers are shrinking the volume of ink and toner in their cartridges. This makes sense when you consider they make little or no profit off the sales of the printer but instead have chosen to make most of their profit from the sales of cartridges. To increase profits they need to make you buy cartridges more frequently. This is most easily accomplished by reducing the amount of ink and toner in the cartridges so you’ll have to replace them more often. It’s true they have also reduced the price of many of their newest cartridges, but the price reduction doesn’t always reflect the amount of toner or ink in the cartridge. Your new cartridge may cost $2 less than the ones you used to buy, but you’re often only getting half the ink that was in those older cartridges.

While we can’t help you reduce the cost of the paper you buy for your printer, we can help you control the cost of ink and/or laser cartridges. On average remanufactured cartridges from CW San Diego cost from 30-45% less than the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of original cartridges. Our cartridges are filled with quality ink and toner manufactured for your specific printer, and all of our products are guaranteed for the life of the cartridge. We offer you a no-risk way to reduce the cost of ink and toner cartridges.

We encourage our customers to call us before and even while they shop for a new printer. We can let you know our prices for the cartridges required for your new printer, allowing you to make an informed decision about which printer best meets your needs.

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Solving hardware issues with software (drivers)

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 16 April 2010

One practice we frequently employed on help desks was to insist that the caller first go and download and install the latest driver for their hardware before we attempted to troubleshoot their issue.

This wasn’t done to get them off the phone. It was a valid attempt to solve their issue.

The disk that comes with your printer was most likely created months before your printer was packaged and sent to the retail store where you bought it. By the time you go to install the drivers on the disk into your computer they could be over a year old. During that year other owners reported issues they had to the printer manufacturer, the manufacturer’s engineers re-wrote the drivers to correct those problems, and the manufacturer made these updated drivers available on their website. Windows 7′s recent release will also have caused new drivers to be written in order for your printer to work with this new operating system.

This is why we recommend that when you encounter odd behavior or other issues with your printer, before you do anything else in an attempt to fix those issues, go to the manufacturer’s website, look for the Support section and download and install the latest drivers for your printer and operating system. That alone may very well solve your problems.

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Samsung ML-2525 on sale at Fry’s

Posted in: blog, laser by Jack on 2 April 2010

There are often really good bargains to be found at the week-end sales at Fry’s Electronics. I don’t usually recommend shopping at Fry’s as it can be a frustrating experience to find what you need. But for those brave enough to wander the aisles of the cavernous store some good deals can be found.

Samsung ML-2525

This weekend Fry’s is selling the Samsung ML-2525 monochrome (black only) laser printer for only $59.99 after an instant savings of $48.00.

If you only ever print out forms, receipts and documents with no color, you can reduce your costs by a substantial amount over the life of your printer by switching from an inkjet printer to a laser printer. The cost-per-page with a laser printer can be as much as a tenth of the per page cost of an inkjet. In addition there’s no worrying about ink cartridges drying out or leaking with a laser printer.

The Samsung ML-2525 is one of the new breed of laser printers aimed at the home user. They take up no more room than an inkjet printer, they’re quiet and easy to operate. These printers offer no copy function, so if you need a printer with a scanner and copier, this would not be a model for you. These printers are generally easily recognized by Windows, Macintosh and Linux, so no matter which operating system you use connecting this printer to your system should be plug-and-play simple.

If you still want to have the option of printing in color, you can have more than one printer connected to your computer, especially if both connect via USB. The only consideration would be that you should remove the color cartridges (if they are the type with an integrated print head) if you aren’t going to be using the inkjet printer for a while. Keep them store in a cool, dark place with the clip on the color cartridge until you need them.

The cartridge required for the ML-2525 is the MLT-D105S which is available at office supply stores for around $70. Currently we do not have parts available to remanufacture these cartridges but we are looking into the possibility of reusing these in the near future.

The Fry’s site describes the ML-2525:

The ML-2525 mono printer is designed to fit into any workspace. Built for durability boasting print speed of 24 ppm and a monthly duty cycle of 12,000 pages.

Geared to give more print flexibility, the ML-2525 series printers offer a range of features to make you more productive. These include a print screen function so you can print what you see on your screen at the touch of a button.

• Designed to fit into any workspace, this mono laser printer is built for durability
• Print speeds up to 24 ppm to keep you on track
• A monthly duty cycle of 12,000 pages for durability
• Built-in 8MB memory
• 250-sheet paper tray

• Output Type Black and White
• Printer Type Laser Printer

• Automatic Two-Sided Printing No
• Printer Type Laser Printer
• Output Type Black and White
• Networking No
• Paper Capacity Up to 250 pages
• Print Speed Black Up to 24 ppm
• Weight 16.09 lbs
• Maximum Paper Size 8.5″ x 14″
• Dimensions (W x D x H) 14.2″ x 15.3″ x 7.8″
• Maximum Resolution Up to 1200 x 600 dpi
• Monthly Duty Cycle 12,000 pages
• Connectivity High Speed USB 2.0
• Memory 8 MB

I use a Samsung ML-2010 at home and have nothing but good to say about the brand and printer. It’s a solid performer that is always ready to print when I need it to.

If you’re in the market for a basic laser printer for your home or office, the ML-2525 may meet your needs. If you’d prefer to get one that uses cartridges we can remanufacture, check out the following Samsung models:

• ML-1610 CW cartridge price $49.99
• ML-1710 CW cartridge price  $54.99
• ML-2010 CW cartridge price $54.99
• ML-2250 CW cartridge price $69.99

These models may be hard to find at retail outlets; you may have to check Craigslist or eBay.

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Printer Shopping Tips from MacWorld

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 29 March 2010

Every month it seems printer manufacturers are pushing new models with additional features (and smaller ink supplies) onto the shelves of local office supply and big-box retail stores. Every week we get calls from our customers asking for suggestions as to which printer to buy; which printer has the cheapest cartridges, which one most easily connects to a home or small business wireless network, which printer best meets their printing needs.

Our basic advice has always been to get the printer that does what you need a printer to do and avoid buying one that offers additional functions that you have no use for. For example, if you don’t plan on adding this printer to a SOHO wireless network, save money and don’t buy one with wireless capabilities.

MacWorld recently published an article with their suggestions for printer buyers.

If you’re about to go shopping for a printer, whether in person or online, keep the following tips in mind.

• Set your budget
• Decide on must-have features
• Know your ink and toner costs

They break down printer price-points:

What to expect for your money

• $40 to $80: Curb your expectations.
• $80 to $100: Basic functionality.
• $150: Adequate or better.
• $250: Midrange inkjets and monochrome lasers.
• $400: The best inkjets and bare-bones color lasers.
• $500: Basic color lasers and better monochrome lasers.
• $700 to $800: The sweet spot for lasers.
• $1000 or more: First class all the way.

They end up with advice with which we absolutely agree.

Ink and toner costs

The money you pay for any printer doesn’t stop with the hardware purchase; you also have to consider the ongoing costs for replacing the ink or toner supplies. For many inkjet printers, in particular, the cost of replacement cartridges can quickly outstrip the initial cost of the printer. Don’t be tempted by a printer’s features without also checking on its cost of consumables.

(Source-MacWorld)

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Kodak’s claims challenged by printer manufacturers

Posted in: blog, inkjet by Jack on 24 March 2010

Several times a week a customer will ask us our opinion of Kodak printers and cartridges.

Honestly, we haven’t had an opinion to offer. We don’t refill Kodak cartridges due to their already low price and none of our customers own a Kodak printer or we could ask them for their impressions.

In the April edition of PCWorld magazine there is an article concerning challenges being made by other printer manufacturers to Kodak’s claims that consumers can “save on average $110 per year on ink” with a Kodak printer.

According to HP and an independent consulting firm, consumers would have to print four pages per day to save that much money with a Kodak printer–far more than most home users actually do. Last year HP lodged a grievance against the Kodak ads. In December, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that Kodak could continue the advertising campaign if it slightly changed the wording. As a result, Kodak’s revised ad copy now reads: “Save on average $110 per year on ink based on just four pages per day.”

Even with the tweaked text, however, Kodak’s claims are still beguiling to consumers–according to HP, at least. “The average user in the United States prints about half of what Kodak is using as the basis for their cost-savings claim,” says Andy Binder, HP Inkjet & Web Solutions marketing director.

According to Lyra senior analyst Andrew Lippman, Kodak’s cost-savings claims are far-fetched.

In fact, few consumers would ever achieve the promised cost savings. “You have to be printing 1500 pages per year–well above average for most people–to get the $110 savings that Kodak claims,” Lippman says.

Kodak points out that its revised ads are essentially the same these days, albeit with a minor rewrite. “It’s not anything different than consumers have always heard for the last three years,” says Paula Balik, worldwide communications line manager for Kodak inkjets. The only FTC-mandated change that Kodak had to make, Balik says, was to move “four pages per day,” previously buried in the ads’ footnotes, closer to the headline.

PCWorld seems to dispute Kodak’s claims as well.

According to Senior Editor Melissa Riofrio, who oversees printer testing for PCWorld, Kodak’s inks may be cheaper than those of competitors, but the print quality on plain paper is not as good. On photo paper, the quality is excellent, but the money you save on ink is eaten up by the cost of photo paper.

As for the printers themselves, HP was at the bottom of the list among printer makers in our 2010 Reliability and Service survey; Kodak finished slightly higher. We asked our readers, among other questions, whether their printer had problems upon arrival, how satisfied they were overall with the device’s reliability, and how well the company solved any problems that cropped up. Kodak printer owners said that they had good experiences with the company’s tech support, but they gave the printers poor marks for reliability. HP received five below-average ratings–two in reliability, three in service categories.

The portion of the article that caught my eye though is the description of a problem we have highlighted many times, the high cost of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) ink cartridges.

Perhaps Kodak’s biggest offense, at least from its competitors’ perspective, is its willingness to call attention to the high cost of printer ink, the industry’s cash cow. “[Printer vendors] charge quite a bit for the ink, and discount the printer hardware,” says Lippman.

The practice, in fact, has led to outrageous situations in which consumers could save money by buying a new printer rather than replacement ink for their current model. Last December, PCWorld contributor Ian Paul spotted a Deskjet D1660 inkjet model for just $30 on HP’s shopping site. The printer came bundled with a black cartridge and a tricolor cartridge offering 200 and 150 pages of output, respectively. In contrast, the replacement-ink pack, which promised a slightly higher yield (165 pages) for the color cartridge, cost $32–two bucks more than the printer itself.

The conclusion of the article relates how Kodak is following the same practice as every other printer manufacturer, raising cartridge prices while at the same time reducing the volume of ink in the cartridge.

Since entering the consumer printer market in 2007, Kodak has undercut the competition on ink costs. The company’s advantage may be shrinking, however, as it recently raised the prices for its new line of cartridges.

But the change isn’t all that obvious to consumers. The company’s new 10B black cartridge, for instance, costs the same as its predecessor ($10) yet contains less ink. And the new 10C cartridge is $3 more than the $15 tank it replaces, but one Kodak ad implies that consumers are getting a better deal than before: “Now prints 10% more pages,” the text reads. The ugly truth? “The 10C color cartridge has a 9 percent higher cost per page, and the 10B black cartridge has a 25 percent higher cost per page” than the cartridges they replace, Lyra’s Lippman says.

Even so, despite the cost increases on the new cartridges, Kodak remains the low-price leader. “There’s no debate that Kodak’s ink is cheaper on average,” Lippman adds. “The debate is over how much you can potentially save.”

(Source-PCWorld)

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When you click on “Print”…

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 2 March 2010

When you click on a button to print, there is a sequence of events that take place:

1. The software application you are using sends the data to be printed to the printer driver.
2. The driver translates the data into a format that the printer can understand and checks to see that the printer is online and available to print.
3. The data is sent by the driver from the computer to the printer via the connection interface (parallel, USB, etc.).
4. The printer receives the data from the computer. It stores a certain amount of data in a buffer. The buffer can range from 512 KB random access memory (RAM) to 16 MB RAM, depending on the model. Buffers are useful because they allow the computer to finish with the printing process quickly, instead of having to wait for the actual page to print. A large buffer can hold a complex document or several basic documents.
5. If the printer has been idle for a period of time, it will normally go through a short clean cycle to make sure that the print head(s) are clean. Once the clean cycle is complete, the printer is ready to begin printing.
6. The control circuitry activates the paper feed stepper motor. This engages the rollers, which feed a sheet of paper from the paper tray/feeder into the printer. A small trigger mechanism in the tray/feeder is depressed when there is paper in the tray or feeder. If the trigger is not depressed, the printer lights up the “Out of Paper” LED and sends an alert to the computer.
7. Once the paper is fed into the printer and positioned at the start of the page, the print head stepper motor uses the belt to move the print head assembly across the page. The motor pauses for the merest fraction of a second each time that the print head sprays dots of ink on the page and then moves a tiny bit before stopping again. This stepping happens so fast that it seems like a continuous motion.
8. Multiple dots are made at each stop. It sprays the CMYK colors in precise amounts to make any other color imaginable.
9. At the end of each complete pass, the paper feed stepper motor advances the paper a fraction of an inch. Depending on the inkjet model, the print head is reset to the beginning side of the page, or, in most cases, simply reverses direction and begins to move back across the page as it prints.
10. This process continues until the page is printed. The time it takes to print a page can vary widely from printer to printer. It will also vary based on the complexity of the page and size of any images on the page. For example, a printer may be able to print 16 pages per minute (PPM) of black text but take a couple of minutes to print one, full-color, page-sized image.
11. Once the printing is complete, the print head is parked. The paper feed stepper motor spins the rollers to finish pushing the completed page into the output tray. Most printers today use inks that are very fast-drying, so that you can immediately pick up the sheet without smudging it.

(Courtesy of How Stuff Works)

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Inkless Printing and the future of CWSD

Posted in: blog, store by Jack on 1 March 2010

Image by Jared Klett via Flickr

A customer the other day asked if we would go out of business if the major printer manufacturers developed a printer that didn’t use ink or toner.

I told him that no, we would be in no danger of going out of business. We know this because the inkless printing “revolution” began around two years ago and has yet to make any significant impact on consumers.

Zink is perhaps the best known application of inkless printing. Polaroid has also explored the concept of printing without ink. For an overview of how inkless printing works, check out howstuffworks.com.

The problem with the current state of inkless printing is the very thing that makes it possible, the paper. Just about anywhere you go in America there is a store that sells ink and/or toner cartridges. No matter where you live you can buy paper for your printer. But what happens if you’re in need of the special ink-embossed paper for your inkless printer and the only way you can get it is on the internet. No major problem if you’re at home. But what if you’re on vacation or visiting relatives? Will the supplier ship to a temporary address? How long will you have to stay in one place in order to get the paper shipped to you?

And what if the majority of printing you do is receipts, recipes and email? Is it worth paying a premium price for ink-embedded paper for those mundane tasks?

Also consider the inkless printer. Most of the designs envision a 4″x6″ form factor, meaning if you want to make an 8.5″x11″ print you’ll need to export your images to a flash memory card and transfer them to a full-sized printer.

Inkless printing may indeed be the future but it’s not ready for primetime just yet. Even when it is, many users will be sticking to their “old fashioned” ink and toner printers for quite a while. We see this in technology every day. Windows XP is still the most popular version of the Windows operating system in use today even though two newer versions, Vista and Windows 7, have been introduced since XP was released. Many individuals and businesses operate on the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” principle. They’ve gotten used to XP and see no compelling reason to upgrade, especially when that requires buying newer hardware and having to reinstall programs.

CWSD will be supporting those who are still using ink and toner printers for many years to come. We still have customers using some of the very first HP laser printers designed for home use.

If anything our customer base is growing rapidly. Last year was our most profitable year yet, and this year is starting off just as strong. Businesses that once were content to pay for expensive service contracts with office supply stores or printer manufacturers have had to re-examine their budgets and face the fact that they can no longer justify paying a premium price for something that they could just as easily buy from us without sacrificing quality yet save 35% or more in cost.

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Print a lot? Go XL

Posted in: Productivity, blog by Jack on 4 February 2010

Image by osde8info via Flickr

Many printer manufacturers these days are offering their customers an option when it comes to cartridge volume; newer printers often accept both low yield and high yield cartridges. High yield, sometimes labeled as XL, cartridges contain twice to three times as much ink or toner as the low yield version. If you do a lot of printing, an XL cartridge will last longer and reduce the number of times a month you have to come in for refills.

HP is leading other manufacturers in offering high yield ink and toner cartridges. They currently offer XL versions of their #60, #74 & 75, #88, #901, #920 and #940 ink cartridges and many of their laser cartridges (denoted by an “X” at the end of the cartridge number; C7115x, the high yield version of the C7115A). A few other manufacturers have followed suit, but HP has the largest selection of high yield cartridges.

If you print frequently or in large quantities you should consider purchasing XL or high yield cartridges for your printer if they are available. They may cost a bit more up front, but your overall cost-per-page will be lower. You will also reduce the risk of running out of ink or toner in the middle of a large print job.

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Ink costs more than blood

Posted in: blog, store by Jack on 13 January 2010

Ink is the most expensive component in a printer cartridge.

Even our replacement ink, manufactured by Cartridge World specifically for its franchise locations, costs us over $100 a gallon.

Now the price of ink is increasing again, and while we regret having to do this, we are finding it necessary to slightly increase our prices to cover the additional cost.

Up until now we have been able to keep the majority of our prices static for the six years we’ve been open. Even as costs were increasing we preferred to reduce profit margins rather than raise prices. We could afford to do that because of the increased volume of sales we were enjoying, due in large part to the word-of-mouth recommendations from our current customers.

But now we’ve reached a point where we simply have to add a dollar or two to the price of a wider range of our cartridges just to cover the cost of materials.

We still offer a substantial savings over the cost of OEM cartridges from an office supply store or directly from the printer manufacturer. There’s simply no need to pay for your printer over again every time you buy a round of cartridges.

Not only do we offer you cartridges that are guaranteed to work to your satisfaction but we offer you a savings of between 30 and 50% off retail prices, depending on the cartridges you purchase.

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HP opens online store for web-connected printer

Posted in: blog by Jack on 8 September 2009

In June we posted a story about the latest HP printer technology, a printer that connects directly to the internet. The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web, available soon in stores near you comes equipped with a 4.33″ touch-screen and the ability to surf the web like a miniature PC.

Now HP is announcing the opening of their “app store”, similar in nature to Apple’s app store for iPhones. You’ll be able to directly download applications for your printer like maps, weather reports and food and movie reviews. The apps will work with your printer, allowing you to print out movie tickets and dinner reservations. There will even be games you can download and print out.

Justin Yu at Cnet presents an over-view of HP’s app store and has posted a few screen shots as well.

In a similar fashion to Apple’s iPhone App store, HP’s version can also be accessed using the “Get More” button on the large 4.33-inch touch screen. I had a chance to preview the store in a live demo with HP and the layout is very simple, with small icons and a place to submit user ratings, reviews, and suggestions for future applications. The marketplace is already populated with several applications from HP’s partner companies. Some examples include:

• Snapfish: View, edit (lightly), and print your snapshot photos
• Google Maps: Print maps and directions
• Fandango: Buy and print movie tickets
• DreamWorks Animation: Print coloring pages and movie-themed games for the kids
• Weathernews Inc: Print up-to-date weather information
• Web Sudoku: Print out puzzles and games

HP also has the last piece of the puzzle in the form of the HP Software Developers Kit that will eventually give consumers and developers the tools to create their own Apps for submission to the App Studio. In the meantime, HP will continue to update the store with new apps throughout the year.

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