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CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

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141–150 of 276 posts

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#141
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Brother laser printer which is used for almost everything, and a Canon inkjet for the occasional color print. I’m pretty sure my Canon inkjet uses more ink when idle than when I occasionally use it to actually print something. Quite sad. I do wonder where it all physically goes tho. After years of seeing my cheapo cartridges just “evaporate” whatever reservoir the printer has for cleaning the heads and purgi…

huge sponges and felt blocks. not kidding.

Yes and the printer has an internal counter keeping track of how much it has dumped into the sponge. After a long time it will stop and require disassembly of the printer and a reset procedure to rectify this.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#142
post #82

I'll always remember when our fairly expensive prosumer all-in-one-printer suddenly wouldn't let me scan pages because there was "no more ink" in the printer right before an important task. A straight up scam. I'm surprised no one has disrupted the sad state of affairs in the printer industry yet even though it's slowly dying.

Unfortunately, with ink-jet an out-of-ink can actually do damage, not merely produce a bad print. They have no incentive to make a reliable ink measuring system, though.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#143
post #76
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brother lasers also have a funky reset procedure (depends on model, but searchable on internet). It’s outrageous. You can get another 500 to 1000 pages out of it.

I have an older Brother HL-2035. It can be convinced to keep on printing by covering two holes on the cartridge with some duct tape.

That's nuts. What's the rationale for that, aside from possibly selling more cartridges? So wasteful!

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#144

The printer industry needs a revolution.

https://www.sakura-house.com/sakura_tips/printing-and-copyin... The revolution has already occurred in some places. If I need a print job there's a printer within five minutes walk from me, I actually have a couple of places I could walk to. It's less than 10 yen for black and white, 50 to 80 yen for color.

Japan is still very paper based, makes sense that they can make this a viable business there but elsewhere? It seems like a stretch.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got kids? All the damn time. Have craft-related hobbies? All the damn time. Patterns, instructions, et c. Despite having a shitload of iPads and extra laptops and such around. Paper's far nicer in many cases, and sometimes cannot be replaced by a screen of any kind.

"Daddy, can you print me something" daily here as well, most time wasted on finding the bloody print-and-cut cartoon best in the world character of the week.

A while back I taught my oldest how to turn the printer on (and get the paper coming out, so I don't have to walk and get it myself) and she also wanted to "learn" how to print, so I explained the 2 mouse clicks needed for that. There is just something special about a kid that has unlocked a new magic ability and excitingly walking out of the room to return gleefully with a piece of paper in their hands. So far she printed recipes for cookies (which she somehow learned how to search for), drawings for her little sister and pictures of cats.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#146
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck with that! Even the EU hasn’t broached that subject. Most of those folks make their money on consumables anyway, so then the manufacturers would Jack up the price on the main product and blame the legislators.

I'm OK with sleazy companies pricing themselves out of the market if that's what it takes to prevent rent-seeking "ecosystems" imposing vendor-lock-in by making their "too cheap to be true" loss-leader products require esoteric consumables.

Sure, but clearly it isn’t on legislators priority list.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#147
post #76
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brother lasers also have a funky reset procedure (depends on model, but searchable on internet). It’s outrageous. You can get another 500 to 1000 pages out of it.

I have an older Brother HL-2035. It can be convinced to keep on printing by covering two holes on the cartridge with some duct tape.

I have an older Brother. I usually have to hit it a few times to get it to print any documents for me but you know how family is.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#148
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an older Brother HL-2035. It can be convinced to keep on printing by covering two holes on the cartridge with some duct tape.

That's nuts. What's the rationale for that, aside from possibly selling more cartridges? So wasteful!

For some of these it may be a quality issue. With less material to deposit in the cartridge it may not apply evenly. Lots of times this could be fine but it might not always be the case.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#149
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes these refill kits sound really dangerous.

There isn't yet enough research on health hazards of toner to really give a good answer here... Black toner for example is mostly polyester plastic and carbon dust. Neither of those are particularly toxic, although they are in a much finer powder than you'd normally encounter them. Basically I'd still steer clear of them, but exposing yourself to them isn't a certain death sentence like say organic mercury.

I would say akin to smoking a cigarette. One time won't hurt you in a measurable way but if your job is refilling toners or dealing with broken laser printers you need some protection.

Re: CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge

#150
post #119
post #41

If you have a Samsung laserprinter with number pad and empty toner / imaging unit try menu # 1904 menu and reset the counter, then happily print thousands of pages more

This is outrageous. Only a small percentage of owners know this kind of tricks. Imagine the environmental damage created by thousands of users throwing away perfectly usable cartridges. I always feel bad about throwing away laser printer cartridges, they have so many components that are working just fine, there should be a way to just refill the toner and reuse it.

If you think Samsung is bad, HP is much worse. Stay away from HP printers including laser
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