Does anyone use a portable printer to print estimates on site? I’m looking for some feedback on what kind I should get. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Ken
portable printers are junk. Slow, and the ink is 2x as expensive as regular printers.
Just buy a new compact desktop printer, and get a power inverter. a decent one that will run a printer and a notebook computer is about $25-45.
If you really think this is necessary, go to Frey Electronics, Best Buy or whatever is near your area and look for one of the blow out specials where you can get one for $39 or so. As Jason said, get an inverter to run the printer off of.
I’d take it inside when it gets extremely hot or cold. I suspect freezing temps for an extended time would affect the ink, hot/humid would be tough on the electronics.
At $39, when the ink is gone or you tear up the printer, throw it away, go back and buy a new one.
At $39, when the ink is gone or you tear up the printer, throw it away, go back and buy a new one.
I Bought one portable printer never worked right. for the conditions we put them under. throw away printers are what i use $ 30-50 compared to $ 250-300.
I bought a hp from wal mart for $29 bucks and a 100 watt inverter and it works great just look at the price of the ink for whatever printer you get plus how many pages one cartridge will print
I have an Hp Inkhet 8500 printer(Double sided printer) (for warranty provisions) I bought for $300. I have been using this for over five years and love it. Been through a few inverters.
It is best to get 2 separate inverters-1 for printer wired straight to battery and the smaller kind, like 75-100 watt for the labtop that you just plug into a cigarette lighter.
I have been through about 4 or 5 printers in 5 years.
I do have problems here and there with temp changes. I try to park in the garage in the winter. It takes little time for the ink to unfreeze.
It is nice to be able to make copies of their insurance summary too.
I also have the police car setup with my labtop.
Paid $375. for that baby installed(Not the crappy kind that adjusters use).
I have xactimate, gps,internet, fax(income and out via efax) Print
I will print pictures out on site to show people problems with their roof. Good to show them pics of warranty leaks that are not my problem(Like mortar missing all over their chimney) It helps them see that I am not blowing smoke up their ass.
I used since i hand wrote the estimate a Kodak picture printer to show the damage and stand out. Ink was cheap and made an impression
I use a smaller laserjet. It only does black and white, but you get about 2500 pages before you have to change the toner, plus your ink won’t smeer. Cost me about $100.
i used to all this. now i just show pictures on my digital cam (i dont print them) & i had cabonless 3 part copies made of my estimate forms. i just fill in the blank. much cheaper & quicker. Still professional. Much cleaner truck. But i dont do insurance work.
I don’t know about quicker for me doing it old school way. But I fill out 1 excel spreadsheet and 9 sheets are filled out. Takes 5-10 minutes and I have my estimate,job cost,work/material order,invoice,warranty sheet,fax sheet filled out to fax ins,gutter order,siding order.(took my over a year to build my personalized excel spreadsheet)
Saves an enormous amount of time. And I can read it all. My handwriting looks like sh&t.