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Printer Recommendation

Bures

ULTIMATE Member
Approx 2 months ago I purchased a Canon MP220 all in one printer which takes PG40/CL41 cartridges.
Little did I realise at the time these carts are chipped, I took them out to refill and now the Menu displays, "Cannot recognise cartridges"
Google tells me this is to stop refilling and my only option is to purchase new carts ( £20++ for the 2)
I only paid I think £35 for entire printer from Argos as it was on offer.
I do quite a bit of B & W printing, letters etc and I am not prepared to subside Canon each time they require replenishment.

Can anyone recommend a good spec printer that uses carts I can refill easily.
I suppose with an Epson I will have to buy a "chip resetter" in order to refill those carts.
 
Is that £20+ for third party refills or Canon direct? Admittedly third party stuff is usually only good for full-black replacements as colour ones are usually of a poor quality, but it can still be worth trying.

Why not just get a cheap B/W laser printer, the toner will last a lot longer than Ink and is more cost effective over time. Plenty of cheap ones around and since swapping I've never look back at crappy Ink, which was messy, needed cleaning, costed tons to replace etc.
 
They were for 3rd party.
Canon branded seem to be £17.99 + £21.99 = £39.98
Thats more than I paid for the total machine.

I might as well go back to Argos and get a new printer each time !!

I will have a look at Laser prices
 
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I dont know if this still works, but if you top up the ink BEFORE it runs out, the cartridges still work, it is only when the chip senses they are empty that it disables them.
I had this with HP cartridges, as long as I topped them up before they were empty, it would keep showing them as 1/2 - 1/4 full.
I got one black cartridge to last 5 years by doing this (then the printer packed up).
 
They were for 3rd party.
Canon branded seem to be £17.99 + £21.99 = £39.98
Thats more than I paid for the total machine.

I might as well go back to Argos and get a new printer each time !!

I will have a look at Laser prices

That's the business model of that type of printer. If you want a cheaper CPC (Cost Per Page) then you have to go to more expensive printers.

If the manufacturers is losing money on the printer hardware (and at £35, that's certainly the case) where do you think they are going to make that money back?

As a general rule, HP tend to be more expensive per page, Epson is higher quality and Lexmark is old inkJet technology, so if quality is paramount, don't go there.

Don't know if any of the chip their cartridges.
 
I dont know if this still works, but if you top up the ink BEFORE it runs out, the cartridges still work, it is only when the chip senses they are empty that it disables them.
I had this with HP cartridges, as long as I topped them up before they were empty, it would keep showing them as 1/2 - 1/4 full.
I got one black cartridge to last 5 years by doing this (then the printer packed up).

Yes, that seems a logical system. Certainly one I will use in the future
Trouble is with the colour cart you can only get to 2 of the colours. The 3rd refill hole is hidden under the drive casing .......uugghh
 
I don't suppose this trick works? http://tricks-collections.com/2008/03/canon-pg-40-cl-41-pg-50-cl-51-cl-52-cartridges/

Apparently cannon printers remember the cartridge serial no to prevent refilling! http://www.imagerzone.com/ForumsPro/viewtopic/t=13936/start=0/finish=25/printertopic=1.html

If you do mainly B&W printing then I'd second the suggestion of getting a laser. I use a cheap samsung laser myself as a second printer, only came with a part filled cartridge mind, but was no problem to refill and I still use my old epson stylus 760 for colour printing. I was tempted to get a cheap colour laser recently while it was available for under £70 with extra black toner http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/269712/xerox-6110n-colour-laser-printer-62/ but I'd only just refilled my B&W one :)
 
Last edited:
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I don't suppose this trick works? http://tricks-collections.com/2008/03/canon-pg-40-cl-41-pg-50-cl-51-cl-52-cartridges/

Apparently cannon printers remember the cartridge serial no to prevent refilling! http://www.imagerzone.com/ForumsPro/viewtopic/t=13936/start=0/finish=25/printertopic=1.html

If you do mainly B&W printing then I'd second the suggestion of getting a laser. I use a cheap samsung laser myself as a second printer, only came with a part filled cartridge mind, but was no problem to refill and I still use my old epson stylus 760 for colour printing. I was tempted to get a cheap colour laser recently while it was available for under £70 with extra black toner http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/269712/xerox-6110n-colour-laser-printer-62/ but I'd only just refilled my B&W one :)

There appear to be many fixes on the web but none of them are guaranteed to work. I must have tried them all.
Canon appear to have customers really stitched up, even if one of the carts fail the printer disables both.
Before purchase I read the review on the Printer but I didnt think to look at the cartridge issues.
I always thought it was only Epson that chipped their carts but now Canon have joined in. At least with the Epson you can get a chip-resetter but there is no such thing for the Canon.
I wont be wasting anymore money on their carts although the printer is only 3 months old - the running cost will be exhorbitant.

I have read of cases in an office where lets say Printer A displays "cart not recognised". So the staff eager to get on with some printing borrow a couple of carts from Printer B
They also display "cart not recognised" when installed in Printer A
When they return them to their original Printer B, that now returns the same error message.
So they now have 2 printers disabled !!

Thanks for the links Mel, they made very interesting reading.

alan
 
I have just discovered by having the cartridge error, the scanner is also disabled.
ie, scan to PC
 
I have a Samsung laser, although mine has a tray feeder and alignment issue that would cost more to fix than the printer so I just try to manage it by changing document margins. Otherwise they're excellent and don't believe the BS some assistants give you about the supplied toner running out quickly, they usually last for a couple of thousand prints at least. New toners last even longer.

I think they just say that about Toner because they expect lasers to be for a business environment, which is no longer the case for everybody. Lasers are the way to go.
 
printers

I have a epson stylus cx3200 had it at least 3 years.I do not use original cartridges I buy mine from ebay for quarter the price,a message comes up saying the cartridge you are using is not epson would you like to continue i press yes and have no problems at all

Arthur
 
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I have a Samsung laser, although mine has a tray feeder and alignment issue that would cost more to fix than the printer so I just try to manage it by changing document margins. Otherwise they're excellent and don't believe the BS some assistants give you about the supplied toner running out quickly, they usually last for a couple of thousand prints at least. New toners last even longer.

I think they just say that about Toner because they expect lasers to be for a business environment, which is no longer the case for everybody. Lasers are the way to go.

The part-filled cartridge supplied with mine was supposed to do 1000 pages and managed a little over 1,100 before it needed to be refilled ( A full one is suppposed to do about 3000). Given the cost, I'll probably buy a new laser (probably colour) rather than a replacement cartridge once the original gives out - from what I've read I should get about 3 refills and then I may get a few more if I open it up and empty the waste toner out.
 
I have just bought an Epson from Blue- Apple on Ebay.

They come with Carts 4 Life meaning they can be refilled.

They have altered the software so you don't get locked out with an error message after refilling.

They recommend you buy their own special ink (of course) but you should really buy a least one bottle to obtain the filling instructions and syringes, which don't come with the printer.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/BLUE-APPLE-TRADING_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ0QQftidZ2QQtZkm
 
Hi Bures,

I had the same problem with my Canon IP4300, it took boffins 6 months to crack the chip coding before there was a chip resetter available for it which I got from http://www.patronenhandel.de/ They have not got one for your model yet, but I'm sure they will have in the near future as the encryption has already been cracked.
 
I wouldnt say Epson gave better print quality, it really depends what you are using the printer for, they are often better for the absolute best quality photo printing modes (and also the slowest!!), but my old HP Deskjet 5550 was rated as the best for letters, in any mode and special mention was made of the excellent picture printing on even standard copy paper.
When it packed up after 5 -6 years I bought another HP, I am very happy with the new one, ( a Deskjet 6980), it was not cheap, but is wireless and double sided printing is standard, not optional.
The ability to use refilled carts has made by my HP's far cheaper than the last Epson or Canon models I have owned.
 
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I believe you become "French Connection United Kingdom"ed :eek:
 
ONLY THE ORIGINAL MANUFACTURER'S CARTRIDGES are worth buying.

I have had Epson, HP & presently a Canon printer. Over twelve years I have repeatedly tried non-OEM cartridges, refilled cartridges and refill-yourself kits. ALL of them have failed dismally to work properly. I have got fed up of wasting money and returning cartridges for refunds.:shrug:

My long experience is that ONLY THE ORIGINAL MANUFACTURER'S CARTRIDGES are worth buying (unfortunately).
:nod:
 
kansenji, perhaps you are a Jona?? (or butter fingered)

I HAVE had problems with a "re-manufactured" cartridge ONCE, the company replaced it without quibble.

I have been re-filling ink tanks since my first Canon BJ20 and the only other problem I have had was my fault, I put the colours in the wrong tanks (was looking it it upside down); on average I have been able to refill a non-refillable cartridge 5-6 times before the print-head starts to show wear; one of my (black ink) HP carts was used for nearly 5 years before failing.
The print quality (after running a head cleaning cycle), was identical to the original.
 
I use ~ £2.00 Jettec cartridges on my old epson, without a problem - I figured going for a branded compatible would give more consistant results (I also tried printrite carts but found the heads clogged much less when using Jettec ones).


In fact the nozzels were always clogging up when using genuine epson carts and requiring lots of messy, ink-wasting cleaning cycles, since switching to Jettec ones it is very rare for a nozzle to block, perhaps that's partly down to me printing a lot more pages as I no longer have to worry about the cost of the ink, but if anything it often goes much longer between uses as I now have a laser for general printing purposes.

I couldn't tell the difference between prints using Epson carts and Printrite ones, but felt there was a barely noticable colour difference after switching to Jettec ones. All produced perfectly acceptable prints though and I must have saved enough money using cheap carts to pay to replace my printer several times over!


Admittedly my printer pre-dates chipped cartridges :) , in fact that's the reason I haven't yet replaced it with a better quality photo printer.
 
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