Need "Heavy Workload" Printer Suggestions

[Mulsiphix]

I've purchased two HP Officejet Pro L7680's and both have died on me in about one months time. I've contacted HP and they've told me all they can suggest is that we purchase a refurbished unit from them. I've done a little research and honestly just can't find any printers that are advertised to handle "heavy" work-loads (several thousand sheets printed every few months).

I'm hoping somebody here has a printer they have experience with a printer that has been reliable and they have personally used or seen which prints thousands of documents every month or so without breaking down. Finding a printer that is compatible with a Continuous Ink Supply System or has cartridges that can be self-refilled would be a true blessing. Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

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I've purchased two HP Officejet Pro L7680's and both have died on me in about one months time. I've contacted HP and they've told me all they can suggest is that we purchase a refurbished unit from them.

Can I ask what you mean by "died on [you]"? Was it just the black printhead? or has the actual paper feed, etc... gone for a burton?

I've done a little research and honestly just can't find any printers that are advertised to handle "heavy" work-loads (several thousand sheets printed every few months).

Well ordinarily I'd recommend getting a K5400dtn and swapping out the black pigment ink for a dyebase alternative, flushing that through and then using only dyebase black. You'd find the printhead will last without clogging, unlike the pigment which is just not meant for these printheads.

I have a couple of these and a couple of L7780's in a school that is knocking out something like 10,000 pages per printer per half term so the duty cycle is pretty high.

I do have a pretty decent CIS but I haven't had the time to build substantial numbers of kits due to the waste ink side of things taking off so this might be useful instead:
http://www.continuousink.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4194
Note: The HP10/11 is the same cartridge design as the HP88 so it all still applies.

I'm hoping somebody here has a printer they have experience with a printer that has been reliable and they have personally used or seen which prints thousands of documents every month or so without breaking down. Finding a printer that is compatible with a Continuous Ink Supply System or has cartridges that can be self-refilled would be a true blessing. Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This may sound daft but have you considered getting a few reconditioned R300 or similar printers and installing CIS systems and waste tanks on them and then running them into the ground. You won't get the same speed as the K5400 but the Epson printheads are real workhorses and will churn out plenty of pages if you run a few together. CIS's, inks and reset chips are all tried and tested and the waste ink reset is the simplest process there is.

Newer Epson printers apparently don't rate so highly in terms of longetivity from what I've been reading. They are better in terms of less clogging but so long as you avoid the pigment printers (C/D or CX models) you should be fine.


Anyway, would still be interested to hear what killed your L7680's as I may have a fix... or a suggestion or two at least.

Hope that lot helps

Martin

 

[Mulsiphix]

My only real experience with printers has been my mothers old Dell which had a sponge based cartridge that you directly injected ink into. That one wasn't so bad but I had to fill up that cartridge every 150 or so pages and the process took me about fifteen to twenty minutes. The other two printers I have had have both been HP L7680's and both "died" due to streaking. I posted about the problem and included a picture of the problem here: Print Jobs Appearing With Streaks Across Them. I've been looking around and printers and am now seriously considering just buying a monochrome laser printer rather than investing more money into inkjets (do you think that would be foolish of me?). The model I am currently looking at is affordable and compared to Xerox, Dell, Lexmark, Sharp, and Samsung (comparisons based on initial printer price and future consumables and projected maintenance requirements), I feel this is the best bang for my buck; the Konica Minolta Pagepro 5650.

It comes with a cartridge that prints 11,000 pages and the replacement would cost $220-ish and print 19,000 pages. After 200,000 pages I'll need to buy a maintenance kit which is around $150 to $200 but the systems monthly duty cycle is supposed to be 200,000 sheets a month. At least this method I wouldn't have to worry about ink refills. Due to the fact this model has the drum and toner in each cartridge I'm not sure I would want to risk re-filling it with toner. Besides, beyond my large print job queue right now I probably won't need to print more than 20,000 sheets a year after I get this bundle out of the way. Just seems a lot safer. I've contacted HP about the printing and beyond running printer maintenance and running a damp cloth under the black print head, their only suggest is to send this unit into them (for a discount) and purchase a refurbished unit from them for about $100 with shipping. I'm just not interested in going that route given this is my second unit. That thread you linked was absolutely delicious. I can't wait for the reservoir coverage next

Note: One thing I have failed to mention to this point is my needs. It is rare that I need to print a document with color and if I need a photo printed I usually go to Kinkos where I can get a quality borderless print. My needs can be perfectly served through black and white and greyscale conversions of color documents. So a monochrome printer does seem like a good fit. Inkjets at this point seem like a great deal of trouble and the costs are higher over the long run. Then again that is my opinion at this point and I do admit I am relatively new to printers in general. Other than using what is in front of me my knowledge of the technology or inner workings that make up a printer is just about nothing.

 

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My only real experience with printers has been my mothers old Dell which had a sponge based cartridge that you directly injected ink into. That one wasn't so bad but I had to fill up that cartridge every 150 or so pages and the process took me about fifteen to twenty minutes. The other two printers I have had have both been HP L7680's and both "died" due to streaking. I posted about the problem and included a picture of the problem here: Print Jobs Appearing With Streaks Across Them.

I missed the original post but that looks a lot like ink starvation and I'm going to hazard a guess that you were using refillable cartridges or a CIS with your printers.. If not, I'm stumped but let me know if I was right and I'll explain why.

I've been looking around and printers and am now seriously considering just buying a monochrome laser printer rather than investing more money into inkjets (do you think that would be foolish of me?).

Well, I can't comment on specific models but given our needs below it sounds like a mono laser would definitely be better.. If you don't need colour then an inkjet is a waste of time really... Much as I love them.

 

[Mulsiphix]

Yup I'm using a CISS I purchased off of eBay. I would love to hear your theory on what happened with my HP L7680

 

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Yup I'm using a CISS I purchased off of eBay. I would love to hear your theory on what happened with my HP L7680

Oh boy... ok... first things first... don't throw them away... but you probably will want to get a couple of new printheads.

The problem is almost certainly the fact that the CIS units you got do not pressurise the ink sufficiently or at all..
This post provides some rules I learned the hard way about the Officejet HP88 kitted printers and they provide a good basis for the next part of the explanation.

In a nutshell, the CIS kits you get everywhere have been applied as a one-size fits which just does not work... The HP88 requires positive pressure (quite a bit of it) while all the CIS reservoirs provide negative pressure so it stresses the printhead.

Additionally because the printer provides this pressure through the piston -> bulb on cartridge system, because the CIS cartridges completely remove this, the printer is pumping nothing at all.


As if that wasn't bad enough you also have to contend with the fact that the pigment ink in the HP88 printhead is a lot like sticking a bag over someones head and poking a tiny breathing hole in it... They ain't going to be working for long. I've found the best results are with dyebase ink instead of pigment ink, especially in environments where it's hot and/or dry.


That's the short version but if you want to read more on the though process and pain that went into all of this check here:
http://www.continuousink.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4066

There are other threads on here about the HP88 printhead and things I've worked out but hopefully I've condensed it down for you..

 

[Mulsiphix]

I'm quite shocked to find out the cartridges are pressurized though. I find that extremely interesting. A bag full of ink isn't the type of thing I would expect to be pressurized. Very cool

I cannot speak for this printer but my previous printer, same model, "died" the same way. Before I threw it out I replaced both the printheads and inserted four new HP cartridges. I ran all of the maintenance and the exact same problem continued to persist. I assumed the problem at that point was the links inside the printer that carried ink from the cartridges to the printheads. Given that the solution to this problem is to replace the printheads and either use HP88 cartridges or to modify them for self refilling, like you've shown how to in a thread you've linked, I'm thinking the printer would probably be too expensive to fix and for future upkeep to justify the cost. Don't get me wrong, I love my HP L7680 when it works, but at this point it seems like a large risk (given the previous printer experience) with a decently high chance of failure.

I really appreciate your feedback on this. I feel much more at peace having a solid idea of what went wrong. Thank You 8)

 

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No problem at all... I can well understand your concern...

My advice would be, in that instance to sell the printer on eBay, just don't include the cartridges and mark the B/Y printhead as faulty..

You'll then at least get some cash back for the replacement you're looking at now.

 

[Mulsiphix]

I definitely plan on doing that this time around . Thanks!

 

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I definitely plan on doing that this time around . Thanks!

You're more than welcome... Let us know what you decide on with the laser and how that works out as I'm always interested in that sort of stuff and strangely *looks around at other forum members* I'm not alone