The answer is NO!  If your printer is meeting your needs there are many reasons to keep it:

1. The quality of printers these days are very flimsy compared with the printers of a few years back.  Most inkjet printers last from 6 months to 3 years.  Laser printers are more robust than inkjet printers and tend to last longer.

2. Your older printer cartridges hold much more ink or toner than the new ones.

3. The OEM’s (original equipment manufacturers) have been reducing the amount of ink and toner year over year.  Check for page yields of the newest cartridges and you’ll be astonished.  Yes, the price is low, but you are getting what you pay for.

4. A new printer comes with starter or setup cartridges which have a minimal ink and toner.  Refilling your cartridges is your best bet to reduce costs.

5. The incidence of electronic failure on a more recent cartridge is much greater than with an older cartridge.  HP 60, 61 and 901 series are particularly vulnerable.

6. Newer cartridges have chip technology which prevents the ink level read from working on refilled cartridges.  All HP cartridges except #88 and #02 series, all Dell and Lexmark, Epson series 69 to 99.  Canon cartridges can be reset and Brother does not have chips.  Toner cartridges are not affected as new chips are readily available.

7. There is so much electronic waste these days, you might want to think twice before sending your working printer to landfill.

We recommend Canon and Brother inkjet printers as they don’t make it difficult for consumers who are environmentally conscientious and want to be green. But if you have questions about printers in general, feel free to contact us here at Cartridge World Newmarket!

What has your experience been? We’d love your feedback. Don’t forget to leave a link back to your own blog via the commentluv feature here on the site if you opt to fill in the comment section below.

Until next time,

Karen

Although it isn’t particularly fast, 12ppm black and 8ppm colour, and its paper handling is limited, it stands out from the crowd, and is well worth considering for a micro or home office.

One great feature is a color touch screen control panel that makes copying, faxing, scanning to a USB memory key, and anything else you need to do from the front panel, very easy.

Touch screen control panels are common in floor standing copiers and MFPs, and they show up on some inkjets, but they’re only now starting to migrate down to the kind of laser printer you might find in a small or home office.

The CM1415fnw is not only the first color laser with a touch screen that’s suitable for a micro office, it’s the first with nothing but a touch screen for the front panel.

In addition to being able to print, scan, and fax, even over a network,  this printer works as a standalone fax machine and copier, which are the two functions where the benefits of the touch screen count most. Other useful features include a 35-page automatic document feeder for scanning multipage documents and Wi-Fi support.

The input tray holds only 150 sheets, duplexing is strictly manual, and there are no paper handling options available. The 150 page input should be sufficient if you print up to about 30 pages per day on average — including printing, faxing, and copying. If you print more than that, however, you’ll be adding paper often.

Output quality for the CM1415fnw is much better relative to other color laser MFPs . Text quality is easily good enough and most people would judge the graphics as good enough for marketing materials like one page handouts and trifold brochures.

If the CM1415fnw offered faster speed and better paper handling, it could be a stellar choice. As it is however, if the speed and paper handling are sufficient for your needs, the combination of output quality, wealth of MFP features, and ease of use—thanks to the color touch screen—are more than enough to make it worth considering. It’s certainly a good fit for relatively light duty use as a shared printer in a micro office, or relatively heavy duty use as a personal printer in a home office. And of course, the fact that these cartridges can be refilled, is a huge bonus and good for the environment.

If you have one of these printers, I would love your feedback. And don’t forget to leave a link back to your own blog too via the commentluv feature here on this site.

Until next time,

Karen

Xerox is known for its business laser printers and although some at the lower end of its range are suitable for use in the home, most are at least SOHO devices. The Phaser 6280 is a similar machine to the Xerox Phaser 6280V/DN, though this one has no duplex print and entry-level pricing – entry-level for a fast colour laser printer, that is.

First impressions of this machine is that it’s tall; so tall that if you’re short and you stick the printer on a desk you could have trouble reading its LCD display, particularly if you also invest in the optional 550-sheet extra paper tray. Given that it already has a 250-sheet main tray and a 150-sheet multi-purpose tray, which folds down from the front, perhaps there won’t be too many people adding extra feed capacity, though.

It would be a shame to have difficulty reading the display, as Xerox uses it intelligently to provide feedback and status information and, although it only has two lines of 16 characters, it’s backlit and easy to read. The rest of the control panel features four navigation buttons, a big Cancel Print button and an illuminated Wake Up button, which does just that; wakes the machine from sleep mode.

At the back are sockets for USB and Ethernet and Xerox markets an optional wireless adapter if you want to cut the wires. Other options include extra memory and a 40GB hard drive if you’re installing the printer into a busy office.

One of the main reasons for the height of the Phaser 6280 is its colour print engine. Each drum and toner cartridge slots in above the next and a transfer belt attached to the inside of the front cover moves the paper past them as the machine prints. The cartridges are supplied installed, but you have to remove each to pull sealing tapes and paper wraps from them before starting.

Drivers for PCL in emulation and genuine Adobe PostScript Level 3 are provided on CD for both Windows and OS X, with Linux drivers also being available via download. There’s support for Pantone-approved colours, too, and PrintingScout is a network-enabled utility that can show the status of any installed Xerox printers.

The Xerox Phaser 6280DN is a good buy in our view for quick and crisp double sided prints.

Let us know what you think of it! We love getting feedback. And here on this site, you’ll get commentluv, so don’t forget to leave a link back to your own blog via the commentluv feature.

Until next time,

Karen

We recommend HP and Canon models of monochrome lasers.  Some considerations would be the speed, functionality, duty cycle and page yield of the cartridge. We have found the best colour on the HP, Canon and Xerox colour printers.

Laser printers are available in monochrome or colour.  The most affordable cost per page is with a monochrome laser.  These printers are available with multi-function capabilities such as fax, copy and scan, which make them very versatile.  They are quite quick as well, with average print speeds of 25 to 30 ppm.

Do you need a colour laser?

If you do plan to print in colour some of the time, but mostly in black, a colour laser could work for you.  If you print mainly black and rarely in colour, you might be better off with a monochrome printer.  If you print photos, you would want to stay with an inkjet printer.

Some popular models , at the moment, are HP Laserjet Pro CM1415nfw which is a very versatile machine but not the fastest kid on the block. It prints 12ppm black and 8ppm colour, but the colour is exceptional.  This unit also offers network capabilities and is wireless.  Many of our customers have this machine and they really like it.

The HP CP1025 is a relatively inexpensive, entry level colour laser.  The cartridges are very tiny with yields of 1,200 pages black and 1,000 pages colour.  This would be suitable for home use as it is not that robust.

Some good entry level monochrome printers are HP P1102w, M1217mfw.  Canon MF4450 is a good entry level multi-function (pictured above – I actually use this one in my office). It can be connected via RJ45 connection but is not wireless.  Canon Imageclass MF4570dw is the wireless version offering duplexing capabilities.  Lexmark E-260 is a very robust and quick printing model.

No matter, what your choice of printer, your first call should be to your local remanufacturing store to get their opinion and find out the cost of the printer cartridges.

I’d love your feedback! Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv so don’t forget to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment!

Until next time,

Karen

Here at Cartridge World Newmarket, we get asked all the time which printers we consider to be the best out there on the market today. From the perspective of refillable cartridges with no issues, hands down, we would recommend Brother or Canon multiple cartridge printers.  Why?

Brother printers have a 4 cartridge system.  These cartridges are always available on an exchange program as they are just ink tanks….the important part, the printhead, is in the printer, so it is recommended to use the printer every week or two to keep the printhead clear of clogs.  Cartridges LC-51, 61, 71, 75 and 79 are refillable and 75XL, 79XXL are high capacity, which is new for Brother.  Refillable cartridges range from $15.99 and up for black and $7.99 and up for colour.  All Brother inkjet printers are wireless, a bonus for laptop users.  Some current models to look for are MFC-J625DW (duplex, wireless) and MFC-J430w (wireless).  These are the entry level models, which, in my opinion, are good enough for home use.

Canon has two types of cartridges a printhead cartridge (e.g.PG-40, 210, which can be a little sensitive with a refill, and the ink tank style. We prefer Canon ink tank style multi-cartridge printers with cartridges 220, 221, 225, 226).  These cartridges are also available on an exchange program.  Some models to consider would be Pixma MG5320, MG5220.  Canons print awesome photographs.  Some models have 6 or more cartridges, which includes photo magenta and photo cyan for a broader range of colour as well as grey for black and white photos.

HP produces an Officejet printer which is also a tank style multi-colour printer.  Officejet Pro 8000 is a wireless which prints very quickly, at 35ppm black and 34ppm colour.  It takes #940 black, magenta, cyan and yellow.  An XL version of all cartridges is also available.  With the printhead in the printer, it is important  to print regularly to avoid blockages.  Some of the newest HP models, such as Officejet Pro 8600 are e print ready, meaning you can print to the printer from any mobile device!

We don’t recommend any new Epsons (cartridges are not refillable) or Lexmark and Dell (cartridges are expensive and tend to dry out easily and the introductory cartridge is programmed not to be fillable).

I hope you have found this post interesting and helpful.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or leave a comment right here on the site! Don’t forget to leave a link back to your own blog via our commentluv feature!

Until next time,

Karen

A doctor’s office called us about a problem with their Brother multi-function printer not printing well.  Once the printer came in, we determined that their fuser was finished as it was totally wrinkled up. The fuser is what heats the toner onto the paper.  What caused this problem?  Using the incorrect toner cartridge.

Toner is a complex powder that a laser printer or copier uses to form an image. Laser printers and copiers force toner powder to form the image you want on paper and as a final step, the toner image is melted onto the paper. Toner formulations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from machine to machine. Typically formulation, granule size and melting point vary the most.  What started off as a powder then passes through being a fluid and ends up as a solid – toner bonded to your page. Toner particles are melted by the heat of the fuser, and bind to the paper.  Toner is a very complex forumulation.  Like cars, they’re designed down to the smallest part.

This office had the wrong toner cartridge in their printer.  Unbelievably, someone in the office managed to fit a TN-580 cartridge into a DR-620 which is meant for a TN-620 or TN-650 cartridge.  Using the wrong formulation in their printer, caused the fuser to disintegrate.  Fortunately, we were able to source a replacement fuser, installed it and the printer was back up and running as good as new.

Moral of this story?  Choose a trusted source for your remanufactured toner cartridges and don’t use the wrong cartridge.

At Cartridge World Newmarket, our technicians assure quality products.  We use toner specifically formulated for each cartridge, not a generic brand and this assures the best quality product, risk free.

Share your stories with us. We love getting feedback! And here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is an opportunity for you to leave a link back to your own blog too.

Until next time,

Karen

In our case, we were backing up on an external hard drive every night. Have you heard the old adage “fail to plan and plan to fail”?  Well we failed to plan appropriately, with only one backup device and not regularly checking our backup, we ended up with lost data.

Hope this does not happen to you.  I thought it would be appropriate to give some tips on developing a backup plan.

Backup Tips – Prevent data loss with a good backup strategy

A comprehensive data backup strategy is vital to your data security. Too many people wait until disaster strikes before they think about a backup. A good backup is an excellent way to protect against viruses, deteriorating hard drives, disasters and human errors. If it would not be cost effective or even possible to re-enter data, then you need a backup strategy.

Step 1: Plan for data backup

• Think about where you keep your backup.
• If you live in an area that can flood, don’t store your backup in the basement.
• If the storage location for your backups is protected by sprinklers, what will the water do to the backups?
• If there is an earthquake, will you be able to get to your data. An off-site copy or online backup is an excellent idea.
• Store a full backup at another location to protect against fire, theft, or other disaster.
• If your data is critical it may be a good idea to have a quarterly and yearly backup as well so that you can recover files that may have been deleted, but not discovered until months later.

Step 2: Begin a backup routine

• Make backing up a part of your normal scheduled daily tasks.
• Don’t count on anyone else to back your data up for you.
• Do backups of your own critical data.

Step 3: Tailor your backup strategy to your needs

• To determine the best schedule for your data backup, it is important to know how often your data changes. If your data changes weekly, a daily backup might be overkill. If you have critical data that updates every hour, you may need to back up several times a day.
• It’s a good idea to have at least three different backups of your data.
• Full backups can be supplemented by incremental backups. An incremental backup will only back up files that have changed since the last full backup, and is normally much quicker than a full backup.

 For example, If you run an incremental backup at the end of each work day, it protects all your newest data if anything happens overnight, and all of the data not backed up by the incremental backup is still protected by the full backup you may run every weekend.

Step 4: Be sure to test your backup periodically

Don’t simply rely on backup software to get it right 100% of the time, no matter how good you think your backup software is. To ensure that your backups are protecting you, periodically test the backup jobs by attempting to restore them to an alternate location. This will bring out any flaws or corrupt data before it is too late.

Also, most backup applications also have a “backup log” or generate a “backup report” that can quickly identify any problems or skipped files in the backup job. Be sure to review these logs every time your backups complete for anything suspicious.

Step 5: A backup of a backup of a backup

Many people think a backup is simply moving their photos, videos, music, financial documents, or other important files off to an external hard drive or removable disk. However, simply moving data from one location to another isn’t giving you any extra protection in case disaster strikes. If there aren’t at least two separate copies of your data, it isn’t a backup at all.

However, even though a single backup may be a good start (two copies of your irreplaceable files), there is still some risk for data loss, especially if both copies are kept in the same location. (Think about things such as fires, theft, floods – if any one of these happened, they could easily damage or destroy both copies of your data.)

For the best protection against data loss, especially from catastrophic events, having at least three copies of your data (the original files, an easily-accessible backup, and a protected copy of your backup) is recommended. While some large companies may use dedicated off-site data storage services for this, you don’t have to be a big company to have three copies of your data. Even something as simple as using an inexpensive online backup service to keep a 3rd copy of your data will be sufficient.

How about you? Have you experienced a major computer failure? I’d love your feedback. Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a wonderful opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Karen

A few days later, the customer called and brought his printer in. This customer was convinced that he was having a very serious printer problem and that he would have to purchase a new one.  Upon examination of the cartridges, it was easy to see why the colour was of such poor quality.

The cartridges were remanufactured by a company and sold by one of our competitors.  The problem was the inconsistency of products used.  Two of the cartridges had OEM drums and the other 2 had their OCP drums changed, however, they were from a different manufacturer, evidenced by the variation in colour.

The most important thing in remanufacturing colour cartridges is consistency.  Any remanufacturer should be using toner from the same source in all cartridges.  Also, the OCP drum should be changed for best printing results.

We prepared four new cartridges for the customer and test printed them in his printer….beautiful……the colours were crisp and clean.

When you bring your toner cartridges in for refill or you are ordering over the phone, always ask your supplier about their process:

• What components if any are changed
• What brand of toner are they using (we use Static Control…very high quality)
• Is the cartridge test printed for quality control
• What is their guarantee if the cartridge fails mid-cycle

Having these questions answered will help you to determine which toner supplier would be the best for you.  Here at Cartridge World Newmarket, in addition to being environmentally friendly, we strive for excellence both in product and customer service.

I’d love your feedback! Here on my blog you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Go Green and Save Some Green!

Karen

I considered the Brother MFC-J615W printer, which is pretty cost effective to run, but I decided that I wanted a laser printer so that I could print letters and other businesses documents while at home.

I came across the Samsung CLX-3185FW printer on sale for $199.00 and decided to give it a try.

The unit is surprisingly quite compact and fit perfectly on my computer table.

The setup instructions were very clear and I had the wireless setup complete within about 15 minutes.  I was also able to set it up on my husband’s Mac with the touch of a couple of keys, once I had shared the printer on our network.

My first project was a mail merge of labels.  The Samsung took the labels with no problem and was quite quick, printing the black labels at 17ppm. They were ready in no time.

I also did some colour photocopying and this was at 17cpm, a very good speed for colour copying…and the colour quality was very good.

The unit also scans up to 4800 x 4800 dpi enhanced and faxes up to 33.6 Kbps

Some of the other unique features of this printer are:

• One touch wi-fi setting lets you connect quickly and easily
• One-touch eco copy button lets you combine four documents into one document, saving you valuable time
• Easily fits onto any size of desktop while leaving plenty of room for you to get your work done. Dimensions: 13.55”(H) x 16.38”(W) x 14.88”(D)
• One-touch eco print button saves paper while the default toner mode makes saving toner effortless
• Engineered to be whisper quiet, generating a noise level of as low as 46 dBA while it’s printing
• Samsung’s AnyWeb Print software lets you easily select, drag, and drop content from different web pages onto a printable scrap board
• Always know the status of your print job with navigation feedback LED pattern

The toner cartridges are not the largest, nor are they expensive.  The black cartridge yields 1,500 pages and a remanufactured cartridge is only $37.99.   Colour cartridges will give you 1,000 pages each and a remanufactured cartridge is only $33.99.

This is a pretty good printer for the money and the cost of the consumables.  With an acceptable print speed, wireless capabilities and size, it is perfect for a home office setting.

Does anyone else have this printer? Share your thoughts on it with me! On this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Karen

I have heard from several customers who were having connectivity problems with similar models.  One customer who had the same model as me, went on vacation and he could no longer print wirelessly.  We decided to try to get to the bottom of this problem.

Our technician did some troubleshooting and found a solution for both our printers.

If you are having the same issues, your printer may somehow be disconnected from your  Wi-Fi network.  You can verify this by using the following steps:

1. Go to the front panel of the printer, click on setup button
2. Select Network option
3. Under Network, select print wireless network test

The printer should print a diagnostic page.  Check that it passes everything on the diagnostic summary.  In the configuration summary section, Network Name (SSID) should be the SSID of your router and it should have a valid IP address.

If your printer is disconnected from the Wi-Fi network, you can reconfigure it using the following steps:

1. Go to the front panel of the printer, click on setup button
2. Select Network option
3. Under Network, select Wireless Setup Wizard
4. It searches for wireless routers
5. Select your router
6. Enter the password

If you try to print and nothing is happening and there are no error messages, follow these steps:

1. Take the IP address of your printer that you got from the Wireless network test report and type the IP address in your browser on your computer.  This would test if you can talk to the printer and make sure that your computer and the printer are on the same WiFi network.

Then, print a test page:

1. Go to Control panel -> View devices and printers
2. Double click on the printer
3. Go to Printer menu option and then choose properties
4. Click on Ports tab
5. Select Standard TCP/IP port and then click on the Configure Port button
6. Make sure the IP address in the “Printer Name or IP address” field matches with your printer’s IP address from the diagnostic report
7. Try to print a test page to see if it works

This problem can also occur if your printer goes into sleep mode.  If this happens to you, follow these steps:

1. Go to your printer
2. Select the arrow key to see the next menu. (it should be on the right side of the LCD  panel, looks like a sideways triangle)
3. Select Setup –> Network –> Wireless Network Wizard
4. The printer will begin to look for wireless networks
5. Choose your network (or the network that you use…  it should be the same one your laptop/computer is on)
6. If it is password protected, enter the pass key/password
7. Your printer will print out a network status page
8. Your computer should “recognize” the printer on the network on its own. Your HP help window may display a large green check (that’s a good thing!)
9. Print what you desire!

Hope that this helps!  I’d love your feedback. Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Go GREEN and save some GREEN

Karen