[RndTbl] big scanner

Tue May 26 15:01:33 CDT 2015

Funny, I have a Lexmark Pro 4000 at the office here, and we don't 
experience that problem.  Of course, it does get used fairly often, I'd 
say at least once every 48hrs.  I don't know how often we replace the 
ink in it... office manager says each set of 4 inks lasts about a year 
to a year and a half.  Note that the Pro4000 has a lot of options to 
fine-tune power savings mode, accessible only through the web gui.

The Brother definitely does the same thing, as will every 
"office"-quality printer; otherwise, the ink or the printheads dry out 
and when you go to use it, it won't print no matter how much ink you 
have left.

I don't print often at home (although I do tend to use large volumes of 
ink at a time), and I replace the ink cartridges about once a year.  I 
don't think you'll find anything new and feature-rich that will hold on 
to its ink for more than a year.  My parents have a slightly newer model 
than I do, and they replace the ink about every 18 to 24 months, so far.

Some inkjets have a "storage" mode which tries to prevent drying out, I 
don't think the Brother does... not sure what would, nowadays, or even 
if it's still a thing.

-Adam

On 05/26/2015 02:43 PM, Kevin McGregor wrote:
> Adam,
>
> I see that Brother now has the MFC-J6920DW and -J6925DW printers. They 
> look pretty good. I'd buy one based on your comments, but my previous 
> experience with an MFC was the Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro4000, which while 
> free (I won it) BLEEDS INK CONSTANTLY. The ink is not cheap, and the 
> unit seems to do a cleaning cycle of some kind daily while on standby, 
> which I guess uses a ton of ink.
>
> This is in contrast with my old Canon iP4500, which apparently could 
> go for a year or so of disuse and still print fine and without losing 
> any ink. Do you find your Brother holds on to its ink fairly well? I 
> don't do a lot of printing, and I don't want a printer that goes 
> through ink when I'm not using it!
>
> And what did you pay for it? The newer models are listed as $300 and 
> $350, but that's probably $US. Not outrageous, but I'd probably want 
> to shop around for a sale.
>
> Kevin
>
> On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 4:17 PM, Adam Thompson <athompso at athompso.net 
> <mailto:athompso at athompso.net>> wrote:
>
>     On 2013-09-28 09:16, Adam Thompson wrote:
>
>         On 2013-09-28 06:19, Trevor Cordes wrote:
>
>             Does anyone have big (like tabloid or bigger) scanner they
>             want to
>             sell?  Even an ancient SCSI or parallel one might be ok. 
>             I just want
>             *big*.
>
>             Do they even make scanners bigger than legal or tabloid?
>
>         I have a tabloid-size scanner built into my Brother
>         MFC-J6910DW (which didn't cost very much).
>         If you need wider, either use a camera or hack something up
>         like this
>         http://www.mpetroff.net/archives/2013/09/25/scanner-modifications-to-scan-large-documents/.
>
>
>     To be a bit more specific (and laudatory), my Brother MFC
>     1) only costs around $300-$350 new
>     (http://www.pricebat.ca/search.php?q=MFC-J6910DW)
>     2) prints/scans/faxes; has all the various slots and ports and
>     features you could want
>     3) has both WiFi and Ethernet and USB
>     4) scans to USB-attached PC, SD/CF/etc slot, NFS(?), FTP, SMB,
>     SMTP(email) - very handy.  (Oh, it also can print from POP3!)
>     5) prints AND scans up to 11x17" (tabloid)
>     6) prints AND scans double-sided (all the way up to 11x17",
>     including from the ADF!)
>     7) has a B&W cost per page comparable to most mid-sized lasers
>     (it's cheaper to run than my HP LJ2200DN even using remanufactured
>     HP toner cartridges!)
>     8) has a Color cost per page WELL BELOW most color lasers
>     9) automatically runs head-cleaning/flushing operations so the
>     heads don't dry out
>     10) has XXL-sized ink tanks; I'm only on my second set of ink
>     tanks after a year, even with item #9 above!
>     11) two paper trays, both can hold up to 500pp of 11x17"
>     12) can "snoop" on your phone line and intervene if it detects an
>     incoming fax
>     13) has drivers for Linux (not open-source, though)
>
>     Bottom line: although this printer isn't perfect, it's a darn good
>     deal and after about two years with it, I'm very impressed with it.
>
>     I wish it had three trays, not two.
>     I wish it could multitask better (one thing at a time, mostly).
>     I wish it had better photo output.  (But it's only 4-color, and
>     it's not Epson or Canon, after all.)
>     And I wish it either had open source drivers or supported PCL3 or
>     PS or something standard like that.
>
>     FWIW, I've also been quietly impressed with *every* *single*
>     Brother laser printer I've ever seen - I know of an HL-6 from
>     ~1990 that's still working (although barely).
>
>     I don't understand why they're the Rodney Dangerfield of the
>     printer world when everything they make mostly just works. (One
>     issue: their small/cheap MFPs tend to be unsupported for newer
>     versions of Windows.  Just like every other manufacturer's small,
>     cheap MFPs.)
>
>     YMMV; mine mostly hasn't.
>
>
>     -- 
>     -Adam Thompson
>     athompso at athompso.net <mailto:athompso at athompso.net>
>
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