I have an old Samsung color laser printer. Where can i find information on maintenance? The printouts have developed some stripes etc. I'm sure it's something that can be fixed, hopefully trivially.
Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
131–140 of 213 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just an anecdote: my grandfather passed away a few years ago and he was always into new technology. After he passed when we were cleaning up his home we found no fewer than 11 inkjet printers in his basement. Every time one stopped working (probably ran out of ink, or printed poorly because of long delays between printing) he would go to Best Buy, get talked up by a salesperson about a nice new printer, and buy it. I…
He may have been smart. Cost of printer with starter ink was occasionally cheaper then just getting new ink.
But incredibly wasteful. For sporadic printing it really makes the most sense to go somewhere where you can print by the page like a public library, office supply store etc. I think I've spent about $2 on printing in the past 5 years.
The most common electronics I see being thrown out these days is some shitty inkjet printer. Unlike a CRT or computer nobody wants them and so they sit by the side of the road for several days.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#133Home printers are like coffee pod machines: The money is made on the ink/coffee, and machines are pushed at a discount to dominate the ink/coffee distribution. The market is big and uncritical. Investing in high-quality machines is a long game that many can't justify and so avoid.
> The money is made on the ink/coffee, and machines are pushed at a discount to dominate the ink/coffee distribution. Some years ago Walmart had a HP printer on sale for so cheap that it was more expensive to replace the ink than to get a new printer.
But the ink/toner that comes with new printers now is much less than the refill.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
The brother printer (HL-L2350DW) I have auto-detects when the toner is "low" and refuses to print. It does this even though I haven't noticed any degradation in printing quality and would prefer to continue printing with the old cartridge even if it results in a worse print. I find this kind of infuriating actually. Being able to continue using a cartridge as it gets low was always one the features I loved about lase…
My HP laser will warn its toner is low but it will keep on printing. I keep using a toner until the pages have white streaks.
Having the choice to do exactly this was one of the primary reasons I bought the printer. Hence my disappointment.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#135Avoid ink jet and use laser jet instead. This solved most of the frustration for me. The upfront cost is slightly higher, the print quality is slightly decreased but the long term satisfaction is greatly enhanced. Ink jet in any form is dead in my mind.
> The upfront cost is slightly higher, the print quality is slightly decreased but the long term satisfaction is greatly enhanced. OK but they still stop updating the drivers after 3 years, which is the main problem. Otherwise they would last forever.
I received updates for my Samsung printer for more than 10 years. Now that they finally stopped supporting the latest MacOS i can still use it by printing via a Raspberry Pi.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#136I used to work for Lexmark, back when they were in the inkjet business. They are perhaps most notable for starting and fueling the race to the bottom in printer price. The theory was that if you could lock the users in, the customer lifetime value would be made on selling profitably prices supplies (i.e. the ink cartridge). There were a few big problems with this: - People often could buy a new printer, with supplies…
> - People often could buy a new printer, with supplies included, for cheaper than a new set of cartridges.
I have a relative that does this all the time. Personally, if it costs me more than it cost me to buy a cheap printer to refill it I will likely do the same thing. I just don't print enough to justify.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who makes a quality color laser?
I have a ~$400 HP with a flatbed scanner and sheet feeder, no complaints. Works well with Windows, Mac GUI apps, Mac CLI, Linux, iOS, and Chromebook. Use the generic Post Script driver for Mac CLI printing with lp, not Air Print, as the duplexer won’t work with Air Print and CLI apps (for instance I print groff PS files.) Works fine with Mac GUI apps and Air Print. IPv6 completely locked it up. It would reboot over a…
Even if HP makes good printers, i would never buy a printer from them after their past behaviour. See https://www.npr.org/2021/02/17/968704526/why-printers-are-th...
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#138Noone here has recommended Kyocera. Their printers are a bit more pricy but from what I've seen they are not scammy. Get one with Postscript support so you don't need updated drivers.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just an anecdote: my grandfather passed away a few years ago and he was always into new technology. After he passed when we were cleaning up his home we found no fewer than 11 inkjet printers in his basement. Every time one stopped working (probably ran out of ink, or printed poorly because of long delays between printing) he would go to Best Buy, get talked up by a salesperson about a nice new printer, and buy it. I…
And all 11 of those will still be in landfill when your childrens children are old and dying. It's a pity they didn't make them out of metals that could be easily recycled.
Just curious what metals would be affordable and durable that would not bring the cost of cheap printers up too high?
Re: Ask HN: Why is the printer industry so scammy?
#140Not trolling - but what are y'all still printing these days?
I've literally printed 2 things this year, and one was a boarding pass (I like having a paper backup, call me old-fashioned).
If anything, I've used the scan-to-email function on the printer about 10x more, and I could probably have gotten away with just taking a photo of the documents in extremis.