Last year or so I asked here about which printer I should get and was pointed towards the Canon series and got an IP4000. It was great for me, but due to a warranty issue, they offered me a new IP4200 as a replacement. I took it and have been using it for the last month.

Now comes the clincher: you can only use Canon branded ink cartridges in the IP4200, unlike the IP4000. And they are over 15 times the price! The refill sets don’t do it for me, since you never know how long the chip can be reused or how often hte cartridge can be refilled—plus you lose the ink monitor function anyway!

So now it’s time to get another printer, and I am looking for something other than Canon. I mostly print black text (95%) and only occasionally print colour. What brand or model would you recommend?

Forgot to add one thing:

I don’t need a “3 in 1” or scanner or copier or anything. Just a colour printer.

Also, separate ink tanks are a must.

Thanks!

http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a162726.html

Hi Sony Vaio,
thanks for the suggestion, but I am trying to get away from the new Canon series because it only allows you to use proprietary ink catridges and doesn’t allow you to refill them. The IP5200 is no doubt great, but I don’t want anything to do with Canon, as I stated in my original post. Thanks!

afaik, there are chips on the cartridges, several suppliers have refills with overrides, otherwise if youre lucky to get your hands on one of the pre-series of ip4000/ip4200, grab it, compatible without any problems.

I prefer Epson printers and the latest Claria based printers are pretty good. The R260 or R380 are great printers and use their new inks. They use 6 color separate inks so it’s easy to change them out. They also sell high capacity ink cartridges.

Regarding 3rd party inks…I would highly suggest staying away from them. Yes, you’re “saving” money but you end up damaging the printer, getting worse quality, and less durability. 3rd party inks are often one of the number one causes of causing clogs on heads since they’re not formulated properly. You end up wasting a lot of ink (and paper) trying to clean the heads so I don’t think it’s worth it.

A hint. If you’re not going to use your printer for a while, pull out the ink cartridges, put them in a ziploc bag, squeeze out as much air as you can, and store them in a cool place. This will help keep them from drying out.

Groovy,
thanks for your great advice, I always appreciate your experience!

Regarding 3rd party inks, are they always of really bad quality? I have seen some “premium” generic cartridges for a price in between the 1 EUR cheapies and the 16 EUR Canon ones. Is there a difference or a way to spot some quality? I’m just trying to see if there is any other option than the extreme of saving your printer and getting gouged, or saving your cash and wrecking your printer. As I stated earlier, I almost exclusively print black text stuff for personal use and am not concerned about anything more than legibility.