Re: Color solid ink printer eating up ink!

Carolyn and Gary -

This is something that you should have been warned about in Xerox's
guidelines for appropriate printer choice. The solid ink color
printers are designed for workgroups with a certain minimum threshold
of printing. I remember the literature giving the range of copies
per month. It's the technology, not the brand.

My recollection is that the solid ink is continually being heated,
and if it isn't used in printing, the system is prompted to do a
cleaning cycle to clear the ink feeding paths and waste ink recycles
into a bin. Printing a certain number of copies every day keeps
those paths clear, and so you don't have a cleaning cycle that dumps
way too much waste--and the waste ink does cost a lot. Also the
printers break down because they are not being used enough. Again
those repair charges were an onerous cost burden.

I too abandoned solid ink color printers (two Tektronix Phasers)
because our research center simply does not print color very often
after our 1998-2002 transition from overheads to digital
presentations (cheaper and much more eco-friendly).

At this time the most sensible alternative I have found for light
print demand workgroups generating a color print demand of, say, 100
pages or less per week, is ink jet.

Mind you, I sure wish the ink jet color cartridges were not so much
the profit center for the companies! And I wish there were more
ethernet-friendly ink jet systems that are rugged enough for "small
workgroup" use.

We haven't found a perfect solution ourselves, and are experimenting
with print servers that work smoothly with our current ink jet. But
we certainly find the quality of the prints and print speed AFTER the
spooling is complete to be excellent.

If there is any way that you could expand your user group for the
color printers, and thereby spread the costs, you might want to
consider that. Also, I don't know which rep sold you the Xerox 8400
(that person should have asked what your monthly print requirements
were), but you might check into whether you can trade them into Xerox
for another technology. They DO have trade-in programs, and I
suspect your distress might motivate them to work with you to find a
better color printing solution.

- Marilyn

At 8:17 AM -0700 4/21/06, Carolyn Sell wrote:
>Don't get me going. I have two Xerox 8400 Phasers and have never
>been able to get the service people to tell me how to bypass the
>cleaning cycle. In addition, the printers spit out probably 25-30
>sheets of blank paper randomly all day long and that hasn't been
>fixed either. I recently had service done and was presented with a
>bill for over $1500, far more than the printer cost. I am disputing
>the charges since we were not given even a verbal estimate in
>advance. I will never buy another Xerox product for my department.
>
>--Carolyn (Physics)
>
>At 8:40 PM -0700 4/20/06, Gary Hsueh wrote:
>>Dear Magnetters,
>>
>>About two months ago, my office bought a Xerox 8550DT solid ink
>>printer thinking that the solid ink would cost less in the long run
>>because it had less consumables - no toner cartidges and drums to
>>replace. However, it has consistently eaten up more ink by running
>>cleaning cycles on a daily basis, than it has used ink to print on
>>paper! Each ink block is supposed to run more than 1,000 pages but
>>we've already run through 4 blocks of each color - $200+ worth -
>>with a total print count of less than 1,000.
>>
>>Has anyone experienced this kind of problem before?
>>
>>Gary
>>for ATDP at the School of Education
>>
>>
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>
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Received on Fri Apr 21 11:45:26 2006