13 years, 1 printer

posted by Jeff | Wednesday, July 30, 2014, 5:07 PM | comments: 0

After 13 years, I retired my laser printer. It was an HP 2550Ln, and I'm giving it away to anyone who will give it a good home.

Think about that... an electronic device that was actively used for 13 years. I don't own a single thing that uses electricity that has lasted that long (not that I can think of, anyway). I initially bought the printer to handle the printing of CoasterBuzz Club cards. In those days, color laser printers were not cheap. You also paid extra for ethernet connections, and even the deep paper tray. I think it cost me around $700 back then.

Usually we only complain about products that suck, but all things considered, this printer had an exceptional run. I'm letting it go because the toner cartridges are getting more rare, the card stock I (still) print cards on slips a little, and every once in awhile it will choke on that stock and print wrong. I have to hand it to HP, for as crappy as the series of ink jet printers were that I owned back in the day, if not as crappy as their competitor's products, this thing was mostly a tank.

I replaced it with an HP 400, which was relatively inexpensive compared to the last one (under $300). Mind you, the toner has not dropped in price ever. I think this one has the imaging drums built in with the toner cartridges, which is a change from the old days where I had the four carts plus the drum (which I replaced just once during that time). A package of toner for all four cartridges costs more than the printer, but they're good for 50% more pages than the "starter" cartridges that ship with the printer. Meh, the printer business is still a rip-off, but on the bright side, I don't print much outside of those damn cards.


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