Printer advice

[taylortaylorr]

Sorry - I know this is a boring thread but I’m hoping to get some advice.

I purchased an expensive Epson printer in 2018 which was top of the line at the time. I have barely used it, because over the years I have only needed it for printing shipping labels every so often.

Since last year, my printer has had issues where the black ink gets clogged and I need to constantly run maintenance on the printer settings to get the black ink to run. It does usually work

however this time around I now have an error saying that the bloody maintenance box needs to be replaced. It’s only £10, however with the price of the ink being around £60 a set, I’m thinking to get a new printer. I’m just worried about the black ink getting clogged in the future and just sinking more money into a poor device.

the issue is obviously buying a new printer is much more expensive than the maintenance box, plus I rarely use my printer so buying a new one just seems silly. Any advice appreciated

hope that makes sense - I’m not super technical with printers. Essentially running the maintenance on the printer uses up the ink, and due to how rarely I use the printer, I need to run maintenance every time as the ink clogs up when it’s not in use

Defenestrate. Buy a typewriter.

I only need it on occasion when returning parcels and needing to print labels out

We have laserjets - they cost a bit more initially and the ink drum is expensive (but prints 4000 pages) but you can go for months without using them and then they just work. We also use compatible cartridges as they are significantly cheaper than branded and haven’t noticed a dip in quality or health of the machine. We have both colour and mono - we use the mono more (post labels, the odd document) so will get rid of the colour one which is more of a faff! The laserjet prints really fast too! Always had Brothers at work and home.

If you only use the printer rarely then inkjets are not the best choice. Laser printers will happily sit unused for months and then fire right up and print perfectly. I wouldn't bother with colour laser printers but black-and-white ones are brilliant. Brother is a good recommendation, although I've used Kyocera a lot over the years and they've always done well for me. Printers that connect to your computer over USB are a better idea than ones that connect via wifi unless you really need it to be a long way away from your computer.

Avoid HP. The last good printer HP made was the LaserJet 4 in 1993.

I used to have that problem. Now, most parcel drop of places, Including post office will print the return label for you. Just show a QR code on your phone

I have got Brother DCP-L2530DW laser printer, had it for about 2 years no problem with it.

just bought a new cartridge

Is your printer kept somewhere warm like a radiator or the sun.
My old printers ink dried up if it wasn't used because it lived about 2 foot from a radiator.