--- On Tue, 8/19/08, Mr Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com> wrote: > --- On Tue, 8/19/08, Curious George > <jorge234q at yahoo.com> wrote: > > > Does anyone know what, if *any*, differences there are > > between the ink sticks for the various (incompatible) > > Phaser printers? (the solid ink printers, that is) > > > > I figure the prohibition on using sticks for model X > > in model Y must be one or more of: > > - they want to sell you more/expensive ink > > - the melting point, flow or drying properties of the > > ink is different > > - the *colors* are slightl different which would result > > in color distortion in the resulting images > > You're right on most counts. They definitely like to > sell you ink. Yeah. At OUTRAGEOUS prices! :< > From what I have been able to tell, the ink > actually _is_ different. It's not much different though. > > First, there is the earliest Phaser ink, that worked in the > old 300 series Phasers. This is much waxier, and seems to > have a lower melting point. It _will_ work, when forced into > 800 series priners, but you won't like the output, and > it tends to smear and stick to adjacent pages. Ah. I hadn't ever considered that problem! I've never used one of the 3XX's. > With the 840, the ink was reformulated. It's better, > slightly harder, and has better color. > > The 850 ink, is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as > 840 ink, only in different shapes. The 840/850 share almost > all of the same parts too, and it's possible to > interchange almost all the parts of an 850 into an 840. My > "850" at home is a weird hybrid, built on the > remains of an 840. It uses the original 840 head and power > supply, but with an upgraded 850 logic board and some random > replacement clutches from other machines in the line, and an > 850 ink loader, 850 tray guides and release gates. OK, so the reason for this "difference" is just that they want you to buy more *new* ink instead of using any OLD ink you had on hand. Though I am sure that if you aasked *them*, they would claim "<mumble mumble> image quality <mumble mumble> void warranty <mumble mumble>..." > The 860 ink is also pretty much the same. I think the cyan > got a little brighter, but it might just be me. OK, so same as above. > The 8200 ink is harder still, and seems shinier. It's > more resiliant to remelting once it's on the pages, and > the printouts hold up better in hot cars. It works in the Ouch! I hadn't thought of that (though it makes sense). I've never left anything printed sitting in the car. Would probably be worth trying with something disposable... > older machines, and vice versa. I haven't seen any > problems, but don't work with these machines much. > > The 8500 introduced new shapes and sizes to the ink. > It's possible to break the older ink sticks up and make > them fit, but there are extra sensors in the bottom of the > ink loader in these new machines, so it's tricky to make > it work. Also, the older ink doesn't seem to work very > well in these machines, even if you can get it to melt in. > It'll be kinda uneven, and seems to discolor. Best not > to use the old ink in 8500 and newer. > > > E.g., why is 840 black different from 8200 black? > > Because the 840/850/860 black ink is free. The 8200 black > you have to buy. The free black ink for life program went > away after Xerox bought Tektronix, and doesn't apply to > these newer printers. The black ink for the old machines is > still free, and still available though. Ah, OK. > > [as an aside, I think it would be hilarious to meet > > the guy who comes up with the various shapes of these > > sticks at a dinner party: "What do you do for a > > living, Joe?" "Oh, I make sure square pegs won't fit > > in round holes..."] > > Yeah, and he also made sure that the square pegs now only > fit _one direction_ into the proper holes. The new ink is > keyed on all four sides and the bottom, and can only be Bastards. Sort of like Medeco locks... :< > inerted one direction. The old ink was only keyed on the > long sides, and could fit either direction. Yes. And, you could easily remove the keyed portion of the ink holder/feeder and swap it with one of a different shape to accomodate other ink sticks. > As expensive as the ink is, resist the urge to buy the > third party ink. It can destroy the print head. I've > seen it happen. Even though I've swapped ink between > models in the Phaser line, I have never had it damage the > machine, although with the 8200/8500 and newer machines, I have an 840, 860 and an 8200 (also a 560 but that's a different beast entirely). Stocking ink for *each* machine is outrageously expensive. So, I either have to pick one machine and let the others run out *or* find ways of sharing ink (e.g., I just inherited a batch of 850 blacks) > I've done it very little. Your mileage may vary, and > I'm not responsible if you screw up your printer. The > print heads in these things are pretty sensitive, so take > good care of them. Yeah, the quality of the resulting pages is absolutely delightful!