My resin printer was powered off with resin in the vat for about 7 months. Last night I turned it on, gave it a job, and I woke up to a successful print.
My inkjet printer was powered off for 2 weeks. Last night I turned it on, gave it a job, and was instantly disappointed with a streaky, blotchy output. Running a clean cycle just made the output worse.
Why are 2D printers so terrible despite decades of development? What are some 2D printers this community has had good interactions with/would recommend?
I currently have a Brother 3-in-1 that I’ve had for 5 years and it’s great. Sometimes the print head needs a deep clean but generally it prints and has survived some paper jams. Before that I had an Epson which was DRM’d and I despised it. It used to reject cartridges, even Epson cartridges for no reason until I got sick of the money I was wasting and dumped it. Had a Canon before that which was not DRM’d and worked fine but it just got old and started misbehaving.
Moral of the story. Do not buy any brand or model which uses DRM cartridges.
The best inkjet printer I ever owned, possibly the best printer I ever owned period, was an old Canon Pixma iP5000. It had no screen, no wifi, no networking at all, no DRM, and took ink cartridges that were literally just clear boxes of ink. I never bought a single cartridge for that thing; I just drilled and refilled the ones it came with for years. The print head itself was removable – without tools – for cleaning or replacement. You just flipped a little lever on the side and it popped out. Got a clog? Just toss that bad boy in your ultrasonic cleaner full of isopropyl alcohol and you are good to go.
I wore that thing out. I printed absolutely anything and everything with it. Flyers, handbills, advertisements, stuff for work. I used it so much I literally abraded the face of the print head off, so I bought another print head and used it until I wore out that one too. By then parts weren’t available anymore and I had to junk it.
Every inkjet I ever touched since then was bullshit. Cartridge or not. You can read my other comments in this thread about my experience with the fucking thrice-damned Epson EcoTank. I have a laser printer now.