Canon BJC 2100

...impressed very much on my Canon BJC-2100SP, a 720 x 360 dpi color bubble jet printer. I have been using it for about 3 years!

It is really a nice printer with a good endurance with no maintenance cost at all! Some of you must have known that I am a programmer (software developer); most of my time is spent in front of my personal computer (PC) - and sometimes I work till down. I do my projects, and in certain circumstances I have to ...
...some bugs of an application. When I have finished a project, certainly I have to print an operational manuals or guide for my end-users. To improve my skill or knowledge on programming, I also print some materials from ebooks which consists of texts and colorful graphical illustrations (I prefer reading printed materials to reading the materials on my PC). Based on this fact, I think you could imagine how busy my printer is! It is really a hard-working ... more

I am impressed very much on my Canon BJC-2100SP, a 720 x 360 dpi color bubble jet printer. I have been using it for about 3 years!

It is really a nice printer with a good endurance with no maintenance cost at all! Some of you must have known that I am a programmer (software developer); most of my time is spent in front of my personal computer (PC) - and sometimes I work till down. I do my projects, and in certain circumstances I have to print the lists of my source-codes, such as to trace some bugs of an application. When I have finished a project, certainly I have to print an operational manuals or guide for my end-users. To improve my skill or knowledge on programming, I also print some materials from ebooks which consists of texts and colorful graphical illustrations (I prefer reading printed materials to reading the materials on my PC). Based on this fact, I think you could imagine how busy my printer is! It is really a hard-working one.

The results of printing are satisfactory. The printed materials are readable. The colors show well. Certainly it depends on the condition of its cartridges. Though officially the manufacturer recommends the original cartridges for best results of printing and guarantee, I use ink-refills to inject the empty cartridges with the same quality of printing.

Why am I using refills? I could not stand buying the original ones; The price of a set of original cartridges is about 1/3 of the price of a new printer set! Here is the calculation based on my observation in my local markets in Indonesia. A set of new BJC-2100SP is about Rp 600,000 or GBP 42.85 (GBP1 = Rp 14,000). And the price of a set of the original cartridges (BC20 and BC21e) is about Rp 200,000 or GBP 14.29.

Using refills might harm the printer itself. Yes, that is true. Frankly telling you, I have ever bought a pair of new original cartridges to replace the broken ones. By the time I did not know how to refill the cartridges "properly". I made holes on the cartridges to inject the refills. It was a big mistake! I did not realise that it would affect the fallacy of the air pressure in the tubes. It is an expensive lesson for me.

"Then, what is the proper way to refill the cartridges?" might be the next question. It is simple. Don't make any holes on the cartridges. Just drop (not inject) the ink into the holes where the ink comes out when printing. Yes, just drop the refills into each hole patiently in accordance with their colors (Note: there are 3 holes found on the color cartridge - namely: cyan, magenta and yellow; and there is only one hole found on the black cartridge.) Another thing you should know, never unplug the powercord of the printer. When your PC starts, the printer starts, too. Let the printer have a warming up daily. Then, please make sure that the cartridges are not empty. It is the main screet of using refills on this printer. Since I have found out the proper way of refilling, it does not harm my cartridges anymore!

If you need a printer for personal use and if its performance could fulfill your requirements, I would like to recommend you to have this one.

You might think that nowadays there many sophisticated printers are available in the markets with competitive prices. That's absolutely right. But, remember that I have ever seen some new printers come with low-prices while the printers do not allow the consumers to do refills. They put a kind of chip to detect if their cartridges are refilled or not. It reminds me of Coca-Cola's marketing strategy. They give a refrigerator to each agent, and Coca-Cola must be the only product in the refrigerator! By this analogy, they sell their printers with low-prices, but on another hand, they make their consumers depend on their cartridges. What a cruel business world!

Oh, I almost forget. This printer comes with a 240 page manual and a CD-ROM consists of its driver. The manual is a nice reference, written neatly and supported with graphical illustrations. And this printer supports most operating systems as it comes with complete drivers.
Well, I think this is enough. I have tried to avoid using technical terms to tell things about this printer as I realise the main purpose of this consumers' forum is to tell things based on consumers' perspectives, not based on a technical reviewer's perspectives.

However. whenever you feel like to know more technical specifications of BJC-2100 SP, feel free to dive more with your search-engine by typing "BJC-2100SP".

Thank you.  

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