On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:59:12 +0000, Owain
wrote:

Tim S wrote:
Couldn't help noticing how many bubble jet printers there were at the
tip yesterday.
I've had my Epson Stylus Photo 890 for about 6 years. I've stripped it twice
and cleaned with isopropyl and it prints as good as the day I bought it.

I'll have had my IBM laser for 12 years in June. The print is now
getting a little blotchy despite agitating the toner (I'm on my second
cartridge). It cost almost £1k which I think has turned out to be quite
good value on a TCO basis. Hopefully (!) the replacement colour laser
will be as good.

Owain

I have a good old HPLJ4 (or two, one with a Jet Direct card) but they
need roller sets now.

After many years with HPDJ's I've gone onto a Canon ip4000 and so far
it's been brilliant. New (copy) carts cost me 3 quid each, it's prints
duplex, has a decent sized (covered) A4 paper hopper (at the front not
sticking up the back collecting dust and paper clips) and prints
directly onto CD's.

It's quiet (it goes to sleep if not used for 10 mins), prints quickly
and my daughter has set it as her default printer in spite of having
an Epson C44UX connected to her own PC ("because it's crap Dad" ..
sigh) ;-)

I'm not into printing 'photograps' as a photographer as such (just as
reference shots / interest etc) and when printed onto unbranded 'photo
paper' it's good enough for me (us). ;-)

I was given the C44 by a guy who owns a PC shop because a customer had
got it home brand new, (forgotten the shop had said they had 'set it
all up for him') and ripped the head ribbon cable out thinking it was
part of the 'packing' .... sigh ;-)

I managed to repair it by using the ribbon from another faulty machine
but it's not as good as my first inkjet (HPDJ 500C .. £350 as a staff
discount ditect from HP!gulp)

But the OP is right .. more and more of these things (along with CRT
TV / Monitors, HiFi, kitchen appliences, cars, bicycles, garden
furniture etc etc) are being thrown away rather than repaired or
re-cycled (www.freecycle.org).

Few fix their own stuff any more (and at the current money (not
environmental) cost why would they bother) and the current generation
wouldn't even think to try. ;-(

But "every cloud has a silver lining" and I have much that I wouldn't
have had in the first place had someone else not declaired it 'beyond
economical repair' or un-repairable (the last being a Dell Inspiron
8100 laptop with a faulty display (new CCFL, sorted g) ) or 'still
got' because I was able to fix it myself (the last of which was the
AEG washing machine tripping the RCD and that turned out to be carbon
dust in the motor) ;-)

I believe the newer stuff is probably more economical to run, but I
bet the difference in consumption between old and new (over the rest
of it's life) isn't as much as the energy / materials needed to make a
new one ... ? shrug

All the best ..

T i m