161–170 of 213 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Printers are the most mechanically complex computer related product. Just think, fans are basically single bearing and motor. Pumps are pretty much same. Traditional spinning disk, nearly closed system with two motors. Printers have multiple times this complexity. And the products bought are bought for lowest price. Or at least reasonable price. You get what you pay for. And what is paid is often very little. Thus po…
But we don't really have the option to buy a good quality printer. We can spend more on a printer, but the printer companies don't say "here we have a cheap printer that is designed to cause you trouble so that it becomes effectively a subscription service; there we have a quality printer that will last". And if they tried, it's unlikely we could reasonably believe them because everyone else lies. Cost is no indicato…
Sure we do. A few years ago I looked for a list of the best printers (I used wirecutter, but there are other comparable options), and got one they recommended. It works great, even going a few months between prints, was easy to setup, and is still running great with just the toner it shipped with.
Not 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.
The per-page cost is relatively high, but still an order of magnitude lower than amortising the cost of a whole printer myself, not to mention offloading the hassle of maintenance and refills, and the money goes to supporting the library - which I'm totally fine with. Yeah, I have to go to the library to do the printing, but it's not that much out of my way, especially if I combine it with other errands nearby.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
We use plastics because they can be moulded into any shape in seconds. Aluminium is used for premium products instead of steel because it's easier to manufacture into shape - you can cut an aluminium beam as large as your arm with a hacksaw in a minute or two. If that was structural steel, you would batrely make a dent in hours. This reflects on wear of cutting and shaping equipment in factories too.
Stainless steel is the king of materials, but a bitch to work with, that's why you only ever see simple shapes made out of it.
Possibly, when a market or a business isn't growing, it's dying, so they make shorter term decisions that ignore conseqeunces and externalities the managers don't believe they will be around for. Detecting scammy behaviour could be a leading indicator of an inflection point in a market or company where its growth phase is behind it. Printer companies are responding to paperlessness by hollowing out the goodwill of th…
Agree this would seem like a good indicator.
The counterpoint is entire VC-backed industries that unnecessarily use scammy biz models from the start, e.g., requiring everything to be an internet-based "service", exfiltrating data and requiring subscription funding when it obviously is not required. Examples: robot vacuums, remotely-settable thermostats [0], security cameras [0], etc...
[0] No I don't need the full "service", at most I need a way to keep track of the external IP address of the device. If you want to offer the extra "service", fine, but it needs to be an add-on, not an obligatory dependency and cost.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 sever…
100% agreed, wish the "printing somewhere" experience was better too. Printed at a print shop, paid 50cts for the prints and $3 to use the computer for 10min trying to print from USB drive Printed at a library and for the printer could only pay in cash and there was a long line.
Earlier 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 would go to Best Buy, get talked up by a salesperson about a nice new printer, and buy it. In a past life I worked at Best Buy, and the standard printer sales tactics were nuts. If a customer wanted to buy a printer, you were supposed to sell them: 2 packs of color ink (remind the customer that the included cartridges are only half-full) 2 packs of black ink 4 reams of regular paper 2 packages of photo paper GO…
It's nice to see the market drive bad practices away through competition.
Printers are the most mechanically complex computer related product. Just think, fans are basically single bearing and motor. Pumps are pretty much same. Traditional spinning disk, nearly closed system with two motors. Printers have multiple times this complexity. And the products bought are bought for lowest price. Or at least reasonable price. You get what you pay for. And what is paid is often very little. Thus po…
But we don't really have the option to buy a good quality printer. We can spend more on a printer, but the printer companies don't say "here we have a cheap printer that is designed to cause you trouble so that it becomes effectively a subscription service; there we have a quality printer that will last". And if they tried, it's unlikely we could reasonably believe them because everyone else lies. Cost is no indicato…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He may have been smart. Cost of printer with starter ink was occasionally cheaper then just getting new ink.
But the starter cartridges are probably only partially filled.
Avoid 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.