portable printer

[pcatterall]

Thought it may be worth having one.
would be nice to print some stuff off now and again. Was stuck recently needing to print off boarding passes for a Ryanair flight, no printer in the capitainers office and 28 euros for the 2 passes at the airport ( fortunately the nice madam at the tourist office did them.
Has anyone any experience with them and any recommendations please?

 

[alteredoutlook]

I have had an old canon bjc80. It was ok but slow. The thing I noticed most was that it had to be used - the ink jets were dried out every time I occasionally wanted to use it

 

[Thepipdoc]

Thought it may be worth having one.
would be nice to print some stuff off now and again. Was stuck recently needing to print off boarding passes for a Ryanair flight, no printer in the capitainers office and 28 euros for the 2 passes at the airport ( fortunately the nice madam at the tourist office did them.
Has anyone any experience with them and any recommendations please?

Cannon IP100.
Ive used this model for years - expensive but they do what they are meant to do.

 

[Neil_Y]

I used an HP (battery/12v)inkjet printer on board a few years ago, very useful, we used to print off charts from our laptop charts for each passage. I guess the Cannon BJC-55 will be all you need the old HP was still parallel port so it's now been binned.

 

[nigelmercier]

I used to use a portable Canon, but the cartridges dried up every few months. Now using an HP Deskjet 1000 Printer J110a which was the smallest footprint at the time. I modified it to run on 12V, it has been faultless. If you have mains available, and only use it occasionally, a laser might be better.

One of my future projects is to modify a thermal fax machine, but other things get in the way.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

personally i'd not pay a premium for a portable printer.... printers aren't power hungry, so i'd just find a small standard printer and run it off an inverter.... almost certainly cheaper overall, and easier when on shore power.

 

[GrahamM376]

Had a small Brother portable printer and it was a nightmare, the ink was always dry and cartridges cost a packet. Have used an HP 3 in 1 for 4 years now, powered through small inverter, with no major problems. If not used for a while, damp tissue soon revitalises the print heads on cartridges.

 

[SteveTibbetts]

We had similar ink-drying issues with portable printers some service vans and they print something on most days of the week, ended up using a small laser printer with an inverter. Cheaper as well I think

 

[Poignard]

If the printer is not used much, would it be worthwhile taking the cartridges out after each use and storing them in minigrip bags or wrapping them in clingfilm?

 

[GrahamM376]

If the printer is not used much, would it be worthwhile taking the cartridges out after each use and storing them in minigrip bags or wrapping them in clingfilm?

Depends on the printer. With the HP, the print heads are on the cartridges and some come with a dock whch seals the head when cartridge removed. Other printers such as Epson have remote heads and the ink dries out in the tubes. Also had problems with the Epson at home drying out after months not being used so changed that for an HP as well.

 

[nigelmercier]

One thing worth noting: never turn off the power to an inkjet printer at the socket, always use the off button on the device; this puts the heads into their parking position.

 

[winsbury]

Good advice from Nigel but inkjets are designed for low volume regular use otherwise are very likely to clog/dry up. Lasers use a heck of a lot of power for the heater element and the optical drum wont like any damp. A thermal printer is your best bet but it will be monochrome, somthing like this: http://www.take2teq.com/planon-printstik-ps900-400dpi-portable-thermal-printer-planon-ps900-p-2541.html. Paper is expensive and of course you need to keep it cool to prevent discolourin but for low power, small footprint, rare use it should be ideal.

 

[pcatterall]

Good advice from Nigel but inkjets are designed for low volume regular use otherwise are very likely to clog/dry up. Lasers use a heck of a lot of power for the heater element and the optical drum wont like any damp. A thermal printer is your best bet but it will be monochrome, somthing like this: http://www.take2teq.com/planon-printstik-ps900-400dpi-portable-thermal-printer-planon-ps900-p-2541.html. Paper is expensive and of course you need to keep it cool to prevent discolourin but for low power, small footprint, rare use it should be ideal.

Thanks all. I note plenty of concerns about ink drying and as my use would be low I guess this is a significant factor. The thermal printer looks favourite for what I want so that is probably the way I will go.
Thanks again