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  #21  
Old 07-23-2019, 09:52 AM
T_om T_om is offline
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Just a heads up for those of you using, or wanting to use, third party inks. I have used inks from https://www.inkjetcarts.us/ for years and years. The owner is Ross Hardy and he excels in customer service

I owned a company that made photo albums for professional wedding and portrait photographers. Our business kept three large format Canon printers going almost all day... we went through some ink. We searched for alternatives, did a LOT of testing, and found the inks supplied by Ross to be excellent in all regards. Color matched the OEM inks by Canon exactly at a fraction of the cost.

When I retired and left the business, I kept one of the smaller Canon 6400 printers (takes 24 inch wide rolls) and use it in my model building hobby. Printing skins and plans for RC models. I still use Ross's ink, just not as much.

Give him a call for inks and printer recommendations. Tell him Tom from the old Shamrock Albums company in Florida said hi.

Tom

PS: I have no financial interest in the ink business, just a happy customer for a LONG time.
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  #22  
Old 11-13-2019, 12:41 PM
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altomentis altomentis is offline
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Well, I contacted Ross Hardy and based on my listed needs, he recommended the Canon Maxify MB2720. I finally ordered it this morning, $99 on Amazon. One point in its favor is that it uses pigment inks which are far less susceptible to water damage.


Like most printers for home/home office it gets very mixed reviews everywhere. For this printer, it seems to either not work out of the box, or work just fine. Every printer I have looked at has 10-20% of reviews where reviewers complain about how hard the printer is to set up. I have to wonder how much that can be attributed to unwillingness/inability to read and follow directions since that seems to be on the rise among an astonishing number of people. That being said, a lot of reviewers for various sites agree that home printers are mostly terrible for a variety of reasons. I did find a couple of interesting articles that discuss why they have become so awful.



I decided to order the printer now because it is driving me crazy to have to get everything printed elsewhere. I would rather print a recipe than have to copy it down or to take my laptop into the kitchen. I am fairly clumsy and I envision a disaster combining the kitchen and the computer. Also, my daughter may be needing surgery on her cervical spine soon and I want to have the printer set up and running before that gets scheduled, if it happens. I am willing to risk the $99 rather than the $200-300 for a tank printer for now.


Once the printer is here and up and running, I will report back if anyone is interested.
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  #23  
Old 11-13-2019, 01:44 PM
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airdave airdave is offline
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This is still a very interesting discussion and I thought I would post again.
------
I can't comment on any of these printers you are referring to, so please excuse my slightly off topic post.
I first wanted to comment on Amazon reviews and how I look at them.

I am a frequent amazon buyer, and I place reviews for just about everything I purchase.
I also signed up to answer questions from buyers about the products I have reviewed.


You'll find that many products receive only a small number of feedback reviews, a percentage of the actual number of sales.
Most people who buy something and are happy with it, move on and don't bother with online reviews.
I think the number of people who wish to be "product testers and reviewers" is small.
And thats okay.

But you hope that the number of reviews received will represent a good cross section of positive and negative reviews.
Unfortunately, unhappy customers are motivated to complain and report their experiences more than satisifed customers.
So the number of negative reviews is often a higher percentage cross section and can skew the results.

Of 1000 satisfied customers, 100 might decide to review the product. (10%)
Of 20 unsatisfied customers, 15 are motivated enough to post a negative review. (75%!)
But in reality the product itself actually has a 98% positive impact if you were to see all the numbers.

So I will often look at a single negative review and think "there are a dozen positive reviews" to balance this.

Every product will have lemons and there will inevitably be some unhappy customers.
What I look for in negative reviews is repetitive comments...repeated complaints.
If all negative reviews are about different things, it isn't a good description of the products failings.
And like altomentis suggests, these customers may have contributed to the product failure by incorrect usage or operation.

--------
Since you have already ordered a Printer, my suggestions will have no benefit to you altomentis, but for anyone else who cares....

I'll be honest, the idea of an external tank has a number of drawbacks, and I have chosen not to ever consider it.
If the printer you wish/need to use requires a much larger supply of expensive ink, then I guess its an important consideration.

Personally, I don't print anything larger than Letter size sheets, so I've gotten away with desktop printers and after-market inks.
As far as Ink is concerned, I deal with refilled cartridges to save money
...and I just shopped around on eBay and Amazon for that.
I tried a few vendors...and when I found one that provided good quality ink, I bought larger supplies of cartridges.

My current Brother printer is the best desktop printer I have owned so far...print quality and maintenance.
I've owned many HP printers, and an Epson all-in-one, and this Brother.

It costs me roughly a $1 per Ink cartridge...it uses four cartridges.
I print only on the highest quality settings and I'm not frugal with my printing.
..and I still get a never ending print supply from each cartridge it seems!
I'm actually worried about the age of some of my unused Ink stock.

The printer cost $50 originally from Staples and I will be replacing it with another Brother printer when it comes time.
There are regular sales and discounts on the Brother website, so I will be shopping there first.
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  #24  
Old 11-13-2019, 11:35 PM
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altomentis altomentis is offline
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Thank you AirDave! I appreciate your contribution. If I had seen your post I might have done something different. If this printer does not work out, I will keep your advice in mind.


I approach reviews much the same as you do. I read both positive and negative reviews and look for consistency/repetition of the problems reported in negative reviews.
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  #25  
Old 11-14-2019, 01:48 AM
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nikischutt nikischutt is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by airdave View Post
My current Brother printer is the best desktop printer I have owned so far...print quality and maintenance.
I've owned many HP printers, and an Epson all-in-one, and this Brother.

It costs me roughly a $1 per Ink cartridge...it uses four cartridges.
I print only on the highest quality settings and I'm not frugal with my printing.
..and I still get a never ending print supply from each cartridge it seems!
I'm actually worried about the age of some of my unused Ink stock.

The printer cost $50 originally from Staples and I will be replacing it with another Brother printer when it comes time.
There are regular sales and discounts on the Brother website, so I will be shopping there first.
I second Dave on the Brother printer. I bought a home office "professional" grade Inkjet printer (MFC-J6510DW) way back in 2013, it is still going strong. Inks are cheap, quality is decent and I've never had an issue with it.

Niki
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  #26  
Old 11-14-2019, 08:07 AM
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airdave airdave is offline
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I'd like to amend my review of my Brother printer (MFC-J415W)...

it has difficulty with some thicker papers and cardstocks.
Some Photo papers for example, will not make the loop through the rollers.
(The printer is front feed with a removeable paper tray, and front exit, so the paper does an upwards U-turn before printing)

Whether this is an issue with my printer alone, I don't know.

There is a rear access, and you can flat feed stock through there, but its tricky to use.
Its very hard to see what you are doing, and difficult to properly center the sheet.

Granted, my printer is a smaller, cheaper, older, basic unit, so I can't expect it perform miracles.
But I would really love to print those pre-perforated Business Card sheets, and it won't!
They get jammed up every time in the roller loop.
They will only feed singly through the rear feeder, and that takes time, and results in a lot of failed prints.
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  #27  
Old 11-14-2019, 09:09 AM
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Vermin_King Vermin_King is offline
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I also have a Brother printer. I got 14 years out of my last one, and it worked like a champ until it went belly up.


My current printer was a gift from my son, MFC-J430w. Probably cost him about what Dave spent, but other than lines when I quick print (test builds), it has been very satisfactory. Like Dave said about his unit, trying to flat print from the back is a pain in the neck, but from the tray, it easily takes 110# cardstock
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  #28  
Old 11-14-2019, 03:38 PM
Ponytail Ponytail is offline
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Well, I'm not that happy about my Brother MFC-J4420DW...
With original cartridges prints had a bit flat colors, not bright.
Now with 3-party cartridges it only prints in the normal mode with some flatter colors, In HQ-mode there is shadowing of the color and therefore unusable.

Considering an Epson Ecotank 2650...
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  #29  
Old 11-14-2019, 04:16 PM
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airdave airdave is offline
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Printing is highly affected by the paper you print on.
Try other types of surfaces before you assume anything.
There are also other settings to change print quality and colour vibrancy.
Did you test those?
Did you install and use the Brother print controls?
Are you printing RGB colours or CMYK? from what source?

Did you try calibration and colour tests to check things?
Maybe the print heads are dirty, or maybe damaged.
Honestly, you should run a few colour tests and then send the results to Brother.
I dealt with their tech support and got amazing feedback.
If theres a problem with the printer, they might help you out.
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  #30  
Old 11-15-2019, 07:33 AM
Ponytail Ponytail is offline
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Thanks for your tips, Dave.

Tried a few in the past, not all though.

I had emailcontact with Brother and the pointed at my non-Brother-cartridges...
They were new then, so I didn't want to change them to test with far more expensive Brother-cartiridges. When they need to be exchanged I'll continue...

One thing: You point at the Brother Print Controls. Is this a seperate program/app? I only have Brother Creative Center and Brother Utilties. For adjusting colors I use the printer-settings in the driversmenues...
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