Thanks for reading the question! However I will be printing 1 page B&W per day, but not colour. So the colour jets are liable to clog. (Also I do want wireless, which the portable printers tend not to have).
Years ago, canon used to produce small black ink only printers. Im not sure if anyone makes a portable black ink only printer nowadays. If that is the case and only black and colour are available, you'd be recommended to do a colour test print at least once a month to make sure the colour printheads dont clog.
You can buy cleaning cartridges although different people report different success with these.
As for the colour jets, there are a number of possibilities and I should probably just pick one and live with it:
A: overriding decision: do I ever want to print colour, or not? No "occasionally", but either Yes or No.
B: if Yes:
I believe that e.g. HP printers have the head unit with the cartridge, so every time you buy a new cartridge you get a new jet.
Generally, HP have the printhead on the cartridge. Others such as epsom and brother, use ink tanks with fixed printheads in the printer. Either system is just as reliable and the dots per inch determines the print quality not the cartridge system.
Or I could schedule a regular cleaning cycle even if I happen not to print anything in colour that month/week/whatever.
TBH, if using a printer infrequently, Id recommend a cleaning cycle once a month (more if one prints a lot of colour pictures). You shouldnt have any probs with the black (text?) printing. As you say you'd use the colour infrequently, I'd recommend a colour print clean at least once a month though.
If you use HP colour cartridges, you can gently clean the printhead using the steam from a kettle and piece of clean paper kitchen towel. Hold the cartridge printhead in the steam for a few seconds then gently swipe the cartridge down the paper towel in the direction of the printheads so you can see 3 lines of colour. Repeat with steam and swipe if one or more of the colours isnt strong on the towel.
Or I could just replace the printer if it gets clogged up
Or maybe I could force B&W printing to use colour inks??
Portable printers tend to be more expensive so the model of chuck the printer away once the ink runs out isnt a good one! Even when printing in colour, the black ink is used so all cartridges are used. There's no black & white ink btw
if No:
Just let the colour jets clog if they like, and never attempt to do a good colour print. I currently have a mono laser so that's actually No Change.
It is always best not to let printheads clog and quite easy to avoid but yes, that's a possibility.
Actually it shouldn't be a daunting requirements list. All I want is a small wireless prrinter for B&W, that won't eff me about (by refusing to: print black if yellow has run out; or use a Tesco cartridge; or keep going after a predetermined "obsolescence" page count). I really don't like being taken for a mug.
LOL! If I could make and market one of those printers, I might stand a chance of a plan B. Manufacturers spend lots of money to stop re manufacturered or non OEM cartridges being used in their printers despite them all claiming to be 'green' and into re cycling!
