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submitted 2 weeks ago by cm0002@lemmy.cafe to c/memes@sopuli.xyz
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[-] Meron35@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

People love laser printers (and rightfully so compared to inkjets), but ink tanks fix most of the issues with inkjets.

Ink tanks are refilled with generic ink, as opposed to proprietary cartridges. They thus have vastly cheaper running costs, even more so than lasers, which still needs replacements for their drum units every few years.

Also, laser toner is literally fine microplastic powder, and printing works by depositing and "baking" this powder onto paper. Laser printers result in terrible indoor air quality without adequate ventilation.

[-] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

First off, inkjet printers have way more issues than the ink being expensive.

Secondly, the average household isn't going to be printing enough to have to replace the drum every few years, or for toner dust to have an actual impact on indoor air quality.

My laser printer is nearly 20 years old, and I've only ever changed the drum because it came packaged with the toner cartridge, and I've only had to change that once.

[-] antyk@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I'm printing at home and I had to replace toner cartridge twice over 10 years... still way better in the inkjet.

[-] jimmux@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

I'm unfortunately very sensitive to those particles from laser printers. They're really good at triggering migraines, so I could never have a laser printer at home.

[-] AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Holy shit. I'm going to have to pay attention to the next time I print a bunch and headaches...I'm beginning to think there might be a correlation that you just solved for me.

[-] Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

You guys still print your stuff on paper? In the year 2025?

[-] oftheair@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago

What should we be printing it on?

[-] Bongles@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

Sometimes you gotta.

[-] argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org 5 points 1 week ago

I've never used an ink-tank printer, but I've read that they have “pads” that wear out, and some ink-tank printers require you to throw away the entire printer when that happens. Doesn't sound too great.

Also, inkjets suffer a lot of clogging, smearing, and other such problems stemming from the use of liquid ink. These problems go away (temporarily, at least) when you replace the ink cartridge, but how do you solve them when there's no ink cartridge and the print head is part of the printer?

[-] Meron35@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Ink tanks have a waste ink pad, which is essentially a sponge that soaks up ink, which may be replaceable depending on how shitty the manufacturer is.

Canon Megatanks don't have a pad at all just dump the ink randomly, so you have to throw the printer out.

Epson's Ecotank pads are replaceable, but have a DRM chip for a sponge (though quite cheap).

In a rare W for HP, their smart tanks have user replaceable pads (albeit labour intensive).

Print heads for ink tanks also tend to be fairly cheap, around $50 for a colour set. Issues with clogging etc are also overblown, with most modern models with auto clean cycles.

[-] argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org 1 points 1 week ago

Soaks up ink? I'm confused. How does ink end up somewhere other than the paper being printed on?

[-] ThatKomputerKat@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Head cleaning. Modern inkjet printers shoot some ink out every so often to keep the heads from clogging with dried ink. They also pump a bunch through if you run the manual cleaning function to fix an existing clog.

this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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