Epson WF-7310, can handle up to 13" x 19" sheets of paper, vinyl, labels, etc. It has ream trays for two sizes, so it can stay stocked with 8.5" x 11" and 11" x 17" paper, since those are commonly used sizes. It also has a rear single-sheet feed tray for labels, vinyles, and other “don’t bend me” materials.
I’ve included one extra ink cartridge of each color, opting for the XL high capacity options, as they last a lot longer. We can replace these on the warden budget as they get used up ($30 each for the colors, $40 for black).
I have a similar model (WF-7720) at home, and it has been extremely reliable, even when left unused for months between prints, so if your last experience with inkjets was in 2002, please have faith that things have gotten better.
I vote no for now. We have an existing high end printer that could be perfectly usable that Brad is in the middle of testing. It is possible it only needs the consumables that all inkjet printers will need, Ink.
It is my understanding that the current printer’s print head is thoroughly clogged and we are not sure if it can be cleared. The one proposal I saw for attempting to clear the nozzles involves buying a full set of cartridges for the printer, and then repeatedly running the self-cleaning cycle in a hope of clearing the nozzles. This may use all the ink in a new set of cartridges.
There was a suggestion we might be able to use a nozzle cleaning product, but I am not sure how we would run that through the printer since it doesn’t have refillable cartridges.
I think there is uncertainty, expense, and effort associated with possibly fixing the current printer at the hive. We could spend a couple hundred dollars on ink, hours of time, and not fix the problem.
The current photo printer uses more, smaller cartridges than the proposed printer and is geared primarily towards printing high quality photos. In my experience, photo printers drink ink. I reserve using mine for photos to conserve the ink, and uses a more consumer grade printer for everyday color prints. Even though the cost of a set of cartridges is similar between the two printers, the photo printer will go through those cartridges faster since it uses smaller cartridges. I think the operational expense of the photo printer will be higher if it is used for everyday things.
At this moment I think having a more general purpose color printer is probably a better long term investment than trying to fix the current printer.
I’ll still look into the printer we have but I think Paul said it best, the risk of things not working out is high. If it can be resurrected, perhaps we will use it just for high quality photo prints. I burned through two sets of cartridges to resurrect that other printer I sold.
Although we may have to start a donation can next to a printer for ink, if people start doing full bleed prints.
I also agree with Brad that as a side project it would be worth trying to resurrect the photo printer. Similar to how we manage other consumable areas we could put up a sign asking for donations to fund replacement ink and printer maintenance flyer the photo printer.
I vote YES.
Brian Conn had proposed buying cartridges for the donated printer to keep trying to make it work. This vote seems like it makes more sense. See the Slack #discussion channel for more details.