help please - is there an inkjet printer for ONLY b/w, not colour

[newprinter]

I have a beloved old Canon BJC 2100 which I use in America which I can just refill with black ink (as I only print text.) Now I'm in the UK and want to buy similar, but every time I ask in a store they say I have to get a laser as all inkjets these days have a black cart and a colour cart. Does anyone know if I can get a cheap, basic inkjet printer that I can either put one large black ink cartridge in, or two black side by side? or any other creative solutions?
any thoughts really appreciated. thanks a lot!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Here is a link to a similar question:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=8390#p8390

Any of the new Canon printers that use the larger PGI-5BK pigment black cartridge will work for you. As long as you tell it that you are printing on plain paper and not using the duplex (double-sided print) mode, it will never use the smaller dye ink cartridges so they will just be going along for the ride. However, you will have to endure the problem imposed by the newer chipped cartridges that make it difficult to refill because they disable the ink level sensor.

A better solution would be to buy an iP3000 or even an iP4000 on eBay since they use the easily-refilled unchipped BCI-3eBK pigment black cartridge. The iP3000 has three additional color dye ink cartridges and the iP4000 has those three plus a black dye ink cartridge, none of which you would be using.

 

[fotofreek]

To add a footnote to the ghwellsjr post, all inkjet printers run cleaning cycles that use up your color ink even if you only print black text and graphics. As ghw suggests, the only way to beat this is to have a previous generation Canon printer that will take cheap aftermarket carts of are easily refillable at about one dollar per cart. I would stay with a laser printer, especially if you don't print often. You can also get an ip4200 or ip4300 and refill the carts, but you will then lose the ink monitor function and warranty. No problem as long as the printer keeps functioning during the first year of ownerhip.

 

[Trigger 37]

NewPrinter,... I think there is an easier way. There should be some older Canon printers on Ebay that will ship to England,.. or they may be already in England. I'm sure no store over there has one. Here is what I would do. The following printers all use the Canon BCI-3e bk cartridge, which is a very large Black Pigmented cartridge for printing text. It isn't use for Photos. If you are really only after black and white, then don't get anything more than a 4 color printer. You can't avoid the 4 color

BJC-3000 Series,BJC-6000,i450,i550,i560 Series,i850 Series,i860 Series,MultiPASS C555,MultiPASS C755,MultiPASS F30
MultiPASS F50,MultiPASS F60,MultiPASS F80,MultiPASS MP700,MultiPASS MP730,PIXMA iP3000,PIXMA iP4000,PIXMA iP4000R
PIXMA iP5000,PIXMA MP750,PIXMA MP760,PIXMA MP780,S400,S450,S500,S520,S530D,S600,S630,S630 Network,S750.

Any of these can be use for B&W, but you should every now and then print something in color just to keep the nozzles working and not clogging up. You can buy all kinds of refill kits for the BCI-3e bk, and buy your ink in bulk and your can print in B&W till the cows come home without a problem. In all of these Canon printers, you can remove the printhead from time to time and rinse it in warm water to help keep it from clogging up. You could never do that in an Epson, HP, Lexmark, Brother, etc.

Here is yet another option. The following printers use a very small BCI-24 BK black cart as well as a small color cart. These carts are availble in the USA for about $1.20 each. You can't get much cheaper than that. You could also refill these but it is more trouble than it is worth. Here are the Canon printers that use this cart:

i250,i320,i350,i450,i455,i470D,i475D,MultiPASS F20,MultiPASS MP360,MultiPASS MP370,MultiPASS MP390,PIXMA iP1500,
PIXMA iP2000,PIXMA MP130,S200,S300,S330.

Again these are good Canon printers and it is easy to clean the printhead and as I said above, the carts are very cheap. Since you are only printing B&W, and not color, I don't think you have anything to worry about for the quality of ink. Just keep an eye on keeping the printhead clean and the cartridges from getting empty and drying out. You should be able to find one of these older canon printers in some garage sale in England. As people buy new Computers and get new printers they tend to sell and even give away these older printers but most of them will run forever,... if they are taken care of. You'll also find people who can't get them to work because the let the ink dry up in the color section, like,,..."My Magenta won't print anymore". Since you print in B&W,.. this is what you want,... take that printer away from some unhappy person and make yourself very happy.

I'm sure this will help you.