Guide to buying Solid Ink Printer

[onthefence]

I have recently learned about solid ink technology and am very intrigued. I have been reading some articles but it was difficult because I could not find a lot of current articles.

I am interested in finding out if/how they have solved the problems that that technology faces, such as smells, warm up & cool down time, energy consumption, pages sticking to each other, life of print, etc.

It sounds like Xerox is still holding the entire market, am I correct?

If so, is it safe to assume that there latest models are going to address the above stated problems better than previous models. Has the technology plateaued?

How practical is it for the small office where the large majority of the printing is black only?

Thanks for your replies.

[redcow]

It's just as practical as a deaf man spending a small fortune on the latest stereo gear.

I've repaired the Phaser series with the solid ink blocks and have never seen any better output from a colour printer using any kind of paper.

Never heard of a paper sticking problem.

While you're doing research, research the cost per page.

[MichaelTech]

Using a color printer to print mostly black is like using only three plugs on a car. Get a monochrome unit! Save the color for just that! Color printing!

[onthefence]

It's just as practical as a deaf man spending a small fortune on the latest stereo gear.
OK, well we do quite a bit of color printing as well, but the ratio is more like 10:1, but point taken.


I've repaired the Phaser series with the solid ink blocks and have never seen any better output from a colour printer using any kind of paper.
Are you saying the Phaser's print quality is better or worse than the other machine's you've serviced.


Never heard of a paper sticking problem.
Read this on a product review.


While you're doing research, research the cost per page.
Can you rely on the manufacturer's info on this?Xerox claims that a color print costs the same as a black print. Well, I don't buy that especially because the black ink is cheaper per cartridge, but I suppose that they mean that it is close to the price of color.

***

Our current setup is a black laser and a color inkjet. But as you well know the inkjet quality is horrible and we must send out our more professional quality color print jobs to a real printer. I'm just trying to find out if this is worth it once one of these systems breaks down.

Thanks for the reply

[onthefence]

Using a color printer to print mostly black is like using only three plugs on a car. Get a monochrome unit! Save the color for just that! Color printing!

Does this unit use color ink when doing a black only print? I have heard of some Epson machines doing this even though you specify "black ink only".

[MichaelTech]

Yes, there is ink melt on all colors, and will use combination of cmyk for black.
"black only" will be true black. Heating up the cmy ink and not using color, will result in the ink curdling, and separation of of it's make-up. this will cause quality issues, and possible jet clogging.

[onthefence]

Yes, there is ink melt on all colors, and will use combination of cmyk for black.
"black only" will be true black. Heating up the cmy ink and not using color, will result in the ink curdling, and separation of of it's make-up. this will cause quality issues, and possible jet clogging.

I hate to sound so suggestable, but Xerox claims on it's newest line 8860, I think, that color and black printing costs the same. Is this possible/true? And if it is, will this make it obsolete to carry both color and black? Cost is really the issue right? The quality is fine, right?

[redcow]

OK, Xerox is telling you that black printing costs the same a color printing. That's because the solid blocks of crayons cost the same whether it be black, cyan, magenta or yellow.

But, WHAT'S the cost per page?
And what's the cost for the solid colors?

We've gone through 10 replies so far, and you haven't given an answer yet.

When I went to training years ago on the Techtronic(before Xerox bought the company) crayon printers, Phaser 840, 850 and 860, when you printed black you printed black and only melted the black. That's why you replace the black blocks many times over compared to any of the colored blocks.

[fwfranko]

I'm in the same boat as Onthefence. I currently have a singlepass color laser Xerox Phaser 8650, which my 25 person workgroup uses to print mixed black-text-and-color-picture articles from scientific journals. We use perhaps 6 to 8 reams of paper a month in this machine. Realistically, none of the people in the lab would send the b/w pages to a monochrome HP and color pages to this machine- it would result in a mass of uncollated pages that would end up in the waste stream.

My current printer is fast, has a good driver, but is pretty expensive to operate due to high cost of consumables. Also, there's all that blasted waste plastic, which I must ship to Mexico if I want it "recycled" (I also have not much faith that recycling is really happening). Plus, the darn thing tells us that the toners need changing when there is still lots of toner left in the cartridge, wasting even more money.

I have a somewhat valuless onsite service coverage for the machine through Xerox, and have dealt with Xerox tech support on other issues. I can only give them a 5 or 6 out of 10 for helpfullness.

I really would like to have a cheaper alternative to this printer, and the Phaser 8860 sounds good...low cost and little waste, but given my only passable tech service experience, and also given the near-junk-bond valuation of Xerox as a company, i have little faith that the company will keep enough techs on hand to field problems with their newer machines. And I have seen earlier hot ink Tektronics printers (Xerox bought them out) with lots of downtime due to clogs. If Xerox is the only game in town for solid ink printers, I'll wait till I hear some resounding endorsements.

[MichaelTech]

Yes, Xerox is the only solid ink printer out there, and they have toner based as well. Color printing is always about consumables. 3rd party products just are not up to par with genuine Xerox products. They cause more problems with these type of units than anything else. Is this printer left on always, or turned off? Leave on always, and when you do print, make it a large job.
This will insure that the ink is used and renewed in the jet stack, and not subject to repeated heating and cooling, thus resulting in curddled ink.
Mis-use of a unit this high end by not using color often is the biggest problem.
If the B&W printer is next to the color one, then there is no reason for people not to use it for black only.
As for toner based Phasers, cleaning often is the best way to ensure correct readings of consumables. It is a responsibility of the user to implement this.
It is unfortunate that printers cannot do this themselves, as printing is messy no matter what you use. Overall, I think that toner based Xerox are a better bet for most needs. Print shop quality color on your own ink based printer is just as expensive as using a print shop. So save it for the real high end jobs.

[dhorj]

I have recently learned about solid ink technology and am very intrigued. I have been reading some articles but it was difficult because I could not find a lot of current articles.

I am interested in finding out if/how they have solved the problems that that technology faces, such as smells, warm up & cool down time, energy consumption, pages sticking to each other, life of print, etc.

It sounds like Xerox is still holding the entire market, am I correct?

If so, is it safe to assume that there latest models are going to address the above stated problems better than previous models. Has the technology plateaued?

How practical is it for the small office where the large majority of the printing is black only?

Thanks for your replies.

whatever your printer brand preference is:
i just found a website that offers premium compatible DELL ink cartridge (http://uniteddigitalsolutions.com/?page=prcat&cid=72) for your printer, you can check it out at United Digital Solutions (http://www.uniteddigitalsolutions.com).

[dhorj]

i forgot to mention this on my earlier post...

since you are interested with SOLID INK TECHNOLOGY, United Digital Solutions has premium compatible printer cartridges/inks... you can contact them for more information or better yet, visit their website. I believe their best-sellers are their line compatible DELL printer ink cartridges (http://uniteddigitalsolutions.com/?page=prcat&cid=72)

that's all *_*

[onthefence]

Alright, redcow, I punched the numbers, but of course you have to believe that the manufacturer's numbers are trustworthy. Well, hopefully they all lie proportionally so that the numbers mean something.

For the Xerox Phaser 8860:
Cost per color page: 1.543 cents
Cost per black page: 1.543 cents

For my current black laser printer Brother HL-1440:
Cost per black page: 1.267 cents (ah-hah)

For my current color inkjet HP Photosmart 8150:
Cost per color page: 14.059 cents

Going rate for a Professional Color Laser Letter size page at a Print shop:
50 cents

We'd probably see a savings with the Phaser since we would be doing more color printing since it wasn't so expensive. However, the sticker price on the network duplex version is a whopping $2500. While you can get a new black laser printer for about $100. So, it seems that unless you really do a lot of printing of happen to win one in a contest, the startups costs wouldn't be offset by any cost benefit on ink until about the 1,000,000th page.

[onthefence]

Alright, redcow, I punched the numbers, but of course you have to believe that the manufacturer's numbers are trustworthy. Well, hopefully they all lie proportionally so that the numbers mean something.

For the Xerox Phaser 8860:
Cost per color page: 1.543 cents
Cost per black page: 1.543 cents

For my current black laser printer Brother HL-1440:
Cost per black page: 1.267 cents (ah-hah)

For my current color inkjet HP Photosmart 8150:
Cost per color page: 14.059 cents

Going rate for a Professional Color Laser Letter size page at a Print shop:
50 cents

We'd probably see a savings with the Phaser since we would be doing more color printing since it wasn't so expensive. However, the sticker price on the network duplex version is a whopping $2500. While you can get a new black laser printer for about $100. So, it seems that unless you really do a lot of printing of happen to win one in a contest, the startups costs wouldn't be offset by any cost benefit on ink until about the 1,000,000th page.

[jhnharvy773]

i forgot to mention this on my earlier post...

since you are interested with SOLID INK TECHNOLOGY, United Digital Solutions has premium compatible printer cartridges/inks... you can contact them for more information or better yet, visit their website. I believe their best-sellers are their line compatible DELL printer cartridges (http://www.inkjetsuperstore.com/ink-cartridges/dell-ink-toner-cartridges )

that's all *_*

Hi guys, is there any ink cartridge (for Dell printer 720) alternative to the Dell's? I received this free printer when having purchased my Inspiron laptop recently.

Thanks!