22 November, 2007
Lexmark Printers deserve a Special Kind of Loathing
Lexmark Printer Loathing
Lexmark’s US patent # 6099101 – which describes their method of rendering inkjet cartridges useless by frying its own brain or head out, once it senses that the ink has ran dry. It’s a fully self contained process that will work even when the cartridge is out of the printer, powered by its own miniature battery.
The cartridges that come supplied with Lexmark printers are special ones… they only have a dribble of ink in them to get you started; you’ll maybe print three sheets of A4.
Lexmark cartridges cost two or three times as much as the actual printer. Lots of them get binned when owner’s find this out.
They actively discourage recycling, by employing a prebate scheme. Prebate is their system of selling cartridges at a discount, if you promise to either throw it away or send it back to Lexmark. The seal across the box says that by opening it, you agree to abide by their scheme. Yet another attempt at stopping recyclers getting their hands on the empties to remanufacture.
They’ve taken or threatened many small companies with court action. They ‘win’ cases by either exhausting their funds or scaring them off with the thought of costs and perhaps losing the case, clearly they oppose people recycling their cartridges.
Lexmark make printers that take cartridges (#2 #3) that they exclusively supply to the Dixons group of companies. Price fixing by controlling who can sell them.
Their number 1 cartridge is a joke, it’s got three colours, cyan, magenta and yellow. When you print a letter (with black letters) it mixes all three colours to make black, obviously these don’t have a high page yield.
In some of their black inkjet cartridges – they mix ink with a chemical that reacts when it meets air to gunge up the printer head. Another attempt to sabotage empty ink cartridges from being re-used.
Their inkjet printers are really flimsy and designed to work just a day or two longer than the warranty period.
Comments on Lexmark Printers deserve a Special Kind of Loathing »
ronbailey's weblog @ 1:36 pm
Hmmm……
This is unconscionable - Lexmark actually discourages recycling by incorporating technology that destroys an ink cartridge when the on-board micro-processor realizes the ink has dried out. They also have a program that promises to give you discounted p…
Phil Beaver @ 7:27 pm
Arg! I hate printer scum. My last 2 printers came with ink and cost less with the ink than buying refills. I really hate doing this, but when my printers run out of ink I throw them away and get new ones. $50 for the newest technology with ink cartridges or $50 for ink cartridges.
I generally despise regulation, but I think this scam could use some.
Uncle B @ 3:14 am
If you can catch it before it gets more than half empty by weighing it on a sensitive balance, a Lexmark cartridge will go a long way before clogging. My old Epson black and white cartridges lasted three years - same method, weigh and estimate, weigh and estimate. You can actually catch and re-use the overflow ink using model airplane fuel lines and a great deal of patience. I now use laser and found complete instructions on how to successfully restore laser cartridges on the web! A little messy the first time, but now that I am familiar with the process it is easy. Someday someone from China will see this dilemma and send us an easier, cheaper solution - in the mean time, go laser for cheap black and whites anyway.
Mr. Candid @ 6:30 pm
Beyond that fact Lexmark printers are crap!, I work as a service technician for a large retail company and they use Lexmark laser printers in thier pharmacy departments, I get 5 times the calls for lexmark printers than I do with HP printers even though there are twice as many HP’s, I wouldn’t advise anyone to get a Lexmark, HP printers cost more but there’s a good reason, they’re much more reliable