Help to buy a suitable printer

[safai]

Hi Everbody!

I need help to decide between these two printers for my small office:

HP Officejet 6500A
HP Photosmart 5515 (no fax - but it's no problem)

I have 3 specific questions which I hope someone can help me with:

1- Which one's ink cartridge can be refilled with success?
2- Which one's cartridge can be replaced by a refill tank, and whether this is at all recommended?
3- Which printer has a longer lasting print head with the above refill considerations in mind?

Thanks a lot for all the input, in advance

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

They can both be refilled successfully by several different methods. The 6500A uses 920XL cartridges; the 5515 uses 564XL cartridges. These are both similar to many of the Canon cartridges that are favored by many of the users here. The printers will probably come with 920 or 564 cartridges, which have a lower capacity. You can refill those as well, but not all refill methods are applicable. If you want the higher capacity, you will probably have to buy a set of XL cartridges. (You can probably buy used or refilled cartridges, although new HP cartridges will probably be a little safer.)

There are two problems with refilling these cartridges. First, the cartridges are opaque, and some people find it hard to refill if they are working blind. Second, as far as I know, there is no way to reset the cartridges. That means that after you refill you will not have a working ink level monitor, so you can't know how much ink is left without removing a cartridge. You will have to ignore or turn off ink level warnings.

Whichever you get, I recommend that you get an inexpensive scale with 100 g capacity. There are some excellent ones for under $20 on Amazon.com. Weigh each cartridge when it is new, and keep a record. Then with the new cartridges, watch the ink monitor. When a cartridge is almost empty according to the monitor, remove it and weigh it. Now you also know how much an empty cartridge weighs. (The weights will be different for the different cartridge types!, and probably be a little different for each cartridge.)

From then on I just keep track of the pages printed, and I periodically remove one cartridge at a time and weigh it, so I know when it's time to refill. If you remove all the cartridges simultaneously, the printer will probably clean the print head unnecessarily by sucking out a lot of ink. If you remove and replace one cartridge at a time, this won't happen.

 

[safai]

They can both be refilled successfully by several different methods. The 6500A uses 920XL cartridges; the 5515 uses 564XL cartridges. These are both similar to many of the Canon cartridges that are favored by many of the users here. The printers will probably come with 920 or 564 cartridges, which have a lower capacity. You can refill those as well, but not all refill methods are applicable. If you want the higher capacity, you will probably have to buy a set of XL cartridges. (You can probably buy used or refilled cartridges, although new HP cartridges will probably be a little safer.)

There are two problems with refilling these cartridges. First, the cartridges are opaque, and some people find it hard to refill if they are working blind. Second, as far as I know, there is no way to reset the cartridges. That means that after you refill you will not have a working ink level monitor, so you can't know how much ink is left without removing a cartridge. You will have to ignore or turn off ink level warnings.

Whichever you get, I recommend that you get an inexpensive scale with 100 g capacity. There are some excellent ones for under $20 on Amazon.com. Weigh each cartridge when it is new, and keep a record. Then with the new cartridges, watch the ink monitor. When a cartridge is almost empty according to the monitor, remove it and weigh it. Now you also know how much an empty cartridge weighs. (The weights will be different for the different cartridge types!, and probably be a little different for each cartridge.)

From then on I just keep track of the pages printed, and I periodically remove one cartridge at a time and weigh it, so I know when it's time to refill. If you remove all the cartridges simultaneously, the printer will probably clean the print head unnecessarily by sucking out a lot of ink. If you remove and replace one cartridge at a time, this won't happen.

Hi ThrillaMozilla,

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation.
I must say this is quite clever; using weight for ink measurement.

Any recommendation for the other issues?
2- Using refill tanks with these printers,
3- Print head longivity in non-OEM refill environment? To be honest, I don't want to repeat my BROTHER experience, changing the print head every year! Do you favor Canon printers in this respect? How about EPSON with its non-thermal Piezo head?

Thanks
SAFAI

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Sorry, I forgot to answer the other questions.

By "refill tanks" I assume you mean a CIS? Most people do not recommend using a CIS with Canon or HP. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think the problem is that they are not designed for the stress of constantly moving the tubing with the print head. Also, the tubing connection tends to wear and eventually leak. Some people do use a CIS, however. If you are successful, this would solve the problem of monitoring ink.

Print head longevity? Use good ink. For HP most people recommend Image Specialists, InkTec, or OCP. You can actually run the print head dry, according to the manual, but this is probably a very bad idea if it runs dry when you have started a 100-page job. I have run the print head dry without damage, but there's no need to do that. I've never ruined a print head, but they are easily replaceable. And you could get lucky. I actually found a new HP print head for about $25, which I bought as a spare. I have no information on Canon vs. HP. They're both good, as far as I can know, but I haven't used Canon. I don't know which print head will last longer, but I note that the OfficeJet is made for a lot of text printing (large cartridge), so it should do pretty well for that. But that printer lacks a photo black, so it's probably not as good for photos.

 

[safai]

ThrillaMozilla,

Thanks. You've been most helpfull.

By refill tank, I meant non-OEM (transparent) cartridges that can be installed just like the OEM cartridge and be refilled easily; no tubing used here. I'm not sure if such refill tanks exist for HP.

Based on your knowledge and experience, which one of the two models you recommend for a small office with regard to less failure and better service life: Photosmart 5515, or Officejet 6500A?

Is it true that non-thermal technology like EPSON's piezo print heads usually give a longer service life?

Cheers,
SAFAI

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I don't have any experience with non-OEM cartridges, but most people on this forum do not recommend them for Canon or HP.

Which printer to buy depends on your criteria. I'm not familiar with these printers, but the Photosmart is small and very inexpensive. The other one is more expensive, but I have to assume it's designed for heavier duty. Check the specs. and see if you can find a lot of user reviews. Canon users have gotten many thousands of copies out of their printers. I would expect about the same from HP, but it's very hard to know.

One problem I had with my HP Photosmart is that the wireless receiver is not very reliable. I have fried two of them, and the part is not available.

If you aren't printing on photo paper, I would get a laser printer, though. Cheaper copies, and a lot less trouble to maintain. Nowadays even color laser printers are fairly cheap.