Hi guys, have a second hand brother mfc-j5910dw that I grabbed years back. It came with empty'ish ink tanks but upon cleaning and alignment tests on the machine I got perfectly fine black and white on the 'odd' document or flight itinerary printout over the year or two so never replaced anything. Recently - as these things always happen - I had an urgent job related document that I couldn't print. Was getting the colour cartridge errors that required replacing. I tried various prints and cleaning etc to no avail. Finally bought some cheap 20 for $18 sorta ebay refills from funstore - and they've just arrived (i got the mrs to print at work then).
However, I've had problems since installing the replacement ebay ink tanks. At first magenta and cyan tanks would show in the 'cleaning' quality tests albeit with alot of missing squares (brother tests print a square made up of multiple small squares of each of the 4 colours: black, yellow, cyan and magenta - not sure if this is common across all printers?). Shortly thereafter the cyan disappeared and the yellow was feint and hit and miss on showing. Black non existent.
After many cleaning tests run I finally got a cleaning sheet with pure black text showing up perfectly fine and nearly all perfect colour squares - albeit the odd smaller square not showing colour in the relevant colour's box area. I did more 'cleaning' to get the last bit out and have since done more than 6 cleaning functions but the black disappeared and cyan too. So i've now gone backwards?
I'ma bit confused given how the print quality 'improved' suddenly to nearly having perfect colour squares, and perfectly fine black sentences. Now if I print grayscale i get nothing, if i print non grayscale i get mostly magenta text. I've tried sending 20, 30 pages of just grayscale and still blank, no more black has shown up.
I've since done some googling and discovered that a) it was bad trying to run printing on the empty tanks prev and b) running cleaning functions more than a few times also dries out the printer heads. Alternatively i've heard that c) the excessive cleaning and printing could cause too much black ink and the like to be smeared over the print head, and causing no printing, or becuase the 'pads' are full the ink wont draw out?
So it leaves me with the question: being unsavvy with this thing do I have dodgy ebay replacement cartridges? They're dirt cheap at $18 for 20, considering a legitmate ink costs an arm and a leg. Or is it merely running cleaning too much had changed the 'nearly working' quality test into a dried up head? I've never cleaned a printer head but it seems to be a big pain the behind. Any advice on what to do to troubleshoot if its cartridge or printer?
On a segue to another point - just wondering if I should consider a laser printer (stuff they use at workplaces?). I print the odd thing out every few months or longer during the year, so I need something that doesn't dry up like this when you take that annual holiday, or print that odd document a few times a yr only (Rest of time you print at work). I heard the laser printers are more expensive upfront but longer term cheaper to run? And supposedly they don't dry up right? So I could buy one and keep it for years and still expect it to work when i turn it on for an urgent printout?
Are the generic replacements toners off ebay just as good, given inkjet replacements are so cheap on ebay in comparison to their originals?
And lastly what would one recommend?Is a monochrome laser printer alot cheaper upfront and re: ongoing costs than a colour laser printer? Something that can fit on your table or desk (so quite boxy) - nothing business or home business and office like in terms of size and volume. Just your average family printer size. Keen to also have wireless printing from your laptops/computers over the wifi network, or even via usb or other inputs (wired).
I am after scanning too - preferably feeder tray if it is doable without getting one of those huge beast size of a multi function printer? I would consider a single purpose scanner though, one that can feeed through docs than having to scan one at a time on the glass lid… mainly as I'm keen to do a project per a website that involves electronically backing up all paper forms to 'declutter' and move everything electronic. And hence a glass lid style approach to scnaning would eat up alot of time. I take it duplex printing is a 'given' in all printers and not really an unique thing. Should I stick with brands like Brother or Canon when it comes to affordable laser printers? Jus twant something easy to find cheap replacement ink or parts and even just little things like being able to continue printing when 'low' toner than being forced and unable to continue printing.
I'm thinking something sub $200, preferably sub $100-150 given how cheap inkjets go on sale….any recommendations? Although it would be good to see if i can salvage this inkjet printer given I only just got the ebay ink… I am hoping it isn't too late and I haven't buggered it with all the cleaning cycles. I mean i did nearly get full black and colour ink so for it to now disappear perhaps it isn't clogged?? Any ideas?
Yes for occasional use lasers are much better than inkjet.
Colour laser will cost more than mono but they're not too bad these days. I got our brother colour laser around 8 years ago for $200 so I suspect they are cheaper now. I have noticed a premium for laser multi-function devices so if you can make do without scanning (I just take a pic with my phone or camera when I need something scanned) then you can save some money.
As for generic cartridges I would buy them locally from cartridgeworld or similar as you'll at least have some recourse if they don't work. Unless you have a trusted supplier on Ebay you don;t really know what you're getting. Life is like a box of chocolates as they say…