Oh, I'd also say avoid Epson. My aunt gave me an a3 Epson that she'd had for just over a year. It stopped working because the firmware said the splashy ink sponge thing was full (she's a photographer so does print a lot). It was going to cost so much for a 'service' to reset the counter and change the sponge that it made more sense to buy a newer, different make printer.


I did find a utility that claimed to reset the counter for a fee, but I ended up stripping it for parts instead.

Ta all.  What do we think of Canons?  Especially for day-to-day printing?

I like my Canon (YJ).

 

I misread this as "what's the best malfunctioning printer?"

The answer to which is, of course, "none of them, they're all b0rked, innit?"

I've had Epson & Canon A3 photo printers (not multifunction). They lasted 2-3 years, the OEM ink was insanely expensive, and clogging and cleaning (which wastes a huge amount of ink) was a constant issue, eventually they became hopelessly, irretrievably clogged and had to be junked. The Canon has a replaceable head, which costs almost as much as a new printer. It might be cheaper and less hassle to send out stuff for printing.

For day to day stuff, I don't think you can beat a good quality laser MFP. You'll struggle to get A3, though :(

Gone for an HP7610 in the end.  For the mixture of business use & artfaggery I do, it ended up being almost no contest - the only other contender being the Canon iX8750.  But the HP came cheaper & had an A3 scanner built in, to boot.

I have an Epson A3 printer and it has never been used to print anything A3 size. I even have paper for it. Inks are a silly price. It's not been used for about a year and I tried to use it last month and the black won't print. Clogged head. Bums.

Yeah you can't let em go for much more than a month without printing or the ink dries out in the nozzles. then it's fuxored. They can do amazing photo-real printing though, and it's great to fine-tune colors if you can afford it. You really have a lot more control than you would in a traditional color darkroom.

It is indeed a fantastic printer. I just wish the ink cost less than it does.

I tried cleaning the heads lots of times with no luck. I might have to look into buying a head cleaning kitten which comes with a syringe and to squirt through the nozzle to unblock it.

A kitten? I'm calling the RSPCA.

Oh no, not again :O

Yes, grind up a kitten, mix it with water, put the mix into a syringe and squirt into the printer. Problem solved.

You have to cover it in clay and bake it in the oven first. This allows you to remove the fur so that it doesn't gunk up the printer head.

You could use depilatory cream, but baking also dries the kitten out, thereby making grinding easier.

HTH

Try a mix of ethyl alcohol (the high proof stuff) and glass cleaner (ammonia) squirted into the nozzles with a syringe and leave it overnight, then run some cleaning routines from the driver. Sometimes it works. After a year though, chances aren't real good.

OK, this may seem gratuitous, but if you make a stupid video of the kitten first and post in the interwebs, um... never mind.

I've just bought a set of replacement carts for my Epson, crazy pricing !

Genuine brand new Epsons £12 each, full set (pack of four) £24.
Tescos own brand (recycled genuine epsons), £9 each or £45 pack of four !!!

How can reconditioned carts cost more than brand new ones, and how can it be cheaper to buy each colour seperately than as a set ?

Anyone know of a cheap printer that doesn't have chips on the carts and can be refilled like the good ol days ? My local refilling place will do them, AT MORE THAN THE COST OF A NEW CARTRIDGE !

Might be different now but I used to have a little chip reseting device for an old Epson printer.

I've got one but not for the printer I have now. I can buy the chips for something like £10 per 500.

I found it. I knew I had written it. Search didn't show up anything.

Very happy with the HP7610 in the two months since I bought it.  It is a behemoth and designed with ugly pencils, but the photo print quality is gorgeous, it fair zips along printing B&W and the wireless communication seems to be stable (which it wasn't on my last HP printer).  Definitely recommended for home or small office, particularly if you need good visuals.