Americans waste $10 billion each year on name-brand ink. So we tested low-cost options including remanufactured cartridges, ink injection kits — and even making our own.

Washington Post: Americans waste $10 billion each year on name-brand ink. So we tested low-cost options including remanufactured cartridges, ink injection kits — and even making our own.

My advice: get a mono laser printer. Printing is handy but relatively infrequent for a lot of people these days. If that’s your use case, mono laser is the way to go. Toner does not dry out or go bad.

One caveat: there were some reports of health effects of inhaling toner fumes, so make sure wherever you keep your laser printer is reasonably ventilated.

@MDKAOD@beehaw.org
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41Y

Commercial printer here! There’s some validity here, but health risks for at-home printing would be minimal in my opinion unless someone is printing a lot. Toner machines tend to release ozone from the corona wires that are used to charge the drums.

Chahk
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41Y

Toner machines tend to release ozone from the corona wires that are used to charge the drums.

I’m doing my part to plug that hole in the ozone layer!

@dallas@beehaw.org
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11Y

There is a safety concern that you shouldn’t clean anything involving toner with ammonia-based products (window cleaners, etc.) It reacts with the plastic in the toner. Isopropyl alcohol can be mixed with a smaller ratio of water to use as a cleaner. I do agree with the original message and always recommend people buy laser over inkjet for most tasks.

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