• argv minus one
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    fedilink
    56 days 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
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      fedilink
      36 days 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
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        fedilink
        16 days ago

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

        • ThatKomputerKat
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          fedilink
          7
          edit-2
          6 days 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.