Canon PIXMA iP3300 vs HP OfficeJet Pro K550

[Raptor]

I am looking to replace my current Canon PIXMA iP1500. Except for this printer, I have no other previous experience with refilling printers.

I've been looking at either the Canon 3300 or the HP K550. They're sold for about the same price where I live (the HP being slightly more expensive). I'm looking for a good printer that can be easily refilled. I currently print about 100-200 pages per week at most (university stuff).

Looking at the specs, the K550 is better, and some websites recommend it as being the easiest to refill, but reading more about it I've found out they break quite often. It also has the advantage that its cartridges don't have a counter.

On the other hand, the iP3300 has a lot of good feedback on this forum, and is made by Canon (a brand which I like since having bought the iP1500). But I've read that its cartridges are amongs the more difficult to refill because they have a counter that can not be reset. Assuming I can't reset this counter, how many refills can I do per cartridge before it dies?

Which of these two would you recommend and why?

I for one like that the K550 is better on paper. But I would also like to buy the iP3300 because it's a Canon and has a lot of useful information on this forum.


Thanks.

 

[jflan]

If I were buying new I would look at iP4300, but I am not sure what the ink refill issues are with this series.
Hopefully someone here will address that area.

If I had my druthers I would be looking for a lightly used iP3000, iP4000 or iP5000
They are all Hall-of-Famers...superb performance and a dream to refill.
They do text, photo, duplex, direct CD print, speed to the highest standards.

The 3300/4300 are built on that heritage but of course they have the chipped tanks

 

[Raptor]

I can't buy an used printer, it has to be from a retail store.

Are the issues with the new chipped cartridges so big?

 

[jflan]

I can't buy an used printer, it has to be from a retail store.

Are the issues with the new chipped cartridges so big?

I haven't dealt with these particular cartridges, so we will have to wait for comments from someone who has...

Each generation of chipped carts are dealt with in different ways.
Some are easier to "live with" than others.

The obstacles are getting the printer to accept the refilled cart and then to be able to reset the ink level monitor.
Again, there are various methods (with varying success) to do this, all depending on the specific cartridge you are dealing with.

 

[ltsang]

I just bought an ip 3300 and I find the printer very easy to refill ( already switched the 5pgbk cartridge with another empty one) and the refill process is the same as a BCI3e.
The ink monitor is nice to have but if you check physically from time to time and refill at an early stage I dont see it as a problem at all. Only concern will be that if the cartridge has been refilled 10 times you will have to buy another OEM which is not cheap. The quality of the printer is excellent for both picture and text. No problem recommending it. I have never try the HP K550, but the 88 series ink is not cheap, in Vancouver, I got the Canon
for C$59.00 on sale, the HP should be much more expensive printer, around C$150,thats a big difference!