Home printer recommendation?

[Marty Gulseth]

Hi All,

I need a new printer. I've had two, multi-function types, they seem to last about 3 years. Maybe my expectations are too high.

Anyway, it's time to replace. I'd prefer a multi-function although I could maybe be talked out of going that route. I print, scan, copy pretty frequently. Duplex printing is strongly preferred, duplex scanning is handy for me. Color (photo) printing less often but nice. I prefer a network connection, but Wi-fi is not absolutely required. Less expensive is better but not a hard limit.

So - what'cha got? If mentioning specific brands or models here is problematic, please shoot me a PM. I appreciate any and all help!

Regards,

Marty

[Joe Kieve]

I'm pleased with the Canon I picked up at Wallyworld for $49 several years ago. It copies, prints, scans well for me. Ink isn't cheap tho.

[Duane Meadows]

Two Epsons here. One is about 10-12 years old. Other is an all in one a little over a year old. I have had better luck with them than most other brands.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I came --><-- (this close) to getting a B&W laser printer when my HP multifunction croaked.
I weenied out though and bought a Canon ink jet at WalMart for under $50.
It copies, scans, faxes and prints both B&W and color.

I agree w/Joe - ink is expensive.

[Jim Koepke]

Marty,

What is wrong with the old printer?

My HP was giving me problems. Their tech support seemed to only have one answer, "You need to buy a new printer."

After checking some on line sources I cleaned my print head and replaced what was showing as a low yellow cartridge.

Turns out if the yellow cart is low on some printers it will stop printing. The supposed reason is the yellow cart for some printers prints a code on every printed sheet so it can be tracked back to a specific printer if need be by law enforcement.

A secret code embedded in many colour laser jet printers allows the US government and any other organisation capable of reading the cipher to identify when the copies were made and on which particular machine, according to research conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

http://www.democraticunderground.com...ss=104x5100834

jtk

[Steve Brest Sr]

I have been through 10 HP's....worked ok...too expensive buying cartridges. tried the Kodak....ummmm...unplugged it and in the recycle bin. Amazon had a deal on a Canon that used the 5 color separate cartridges...I was leary....well I have been extremely satisfied with picture quality ...looks like Fotomat. I even bought an extra for under 100$ and for 3 years have not been ripped off buying ink. I then bought a 13 x 19 canon printer ix6520 to print huge borderless photos....very pleased. same cartridges too.oh model of first all in one is Canon mx892....cannot go wrong...good luck...I am not influenced by anyone nor have any relation with any company. I deal with facts and the truth only..Steve Brest

[David Masters]

If you're doing heavy printing, a laser printer is the only economical choice. I bought a refurbished Lexmark duplex office printer for about the same cost as a multifunction inkjet printer. I get over 5000 pages out of a cartridge. My wife was finishing her Masters degree last year and we would have gone broke if we had to use an inkjet for all the printing she did. Otherwise, I've had good luck with the Epson all-in-one printers over HP and Canon. The HP printers were the worse. They barely lasted two years and HP wouldn't sell you the parts to fix them.

[Gerry Kaslowski]

I had the same problem with my Epson ink jet printer. Too darn expensive to buy cartridges. I bought a Brother HL-2270DW laser printer. It has one of the least expensive replacement toner cartridges. It has WiFi and does an excellent duplex print. The originial cartridge lasted me over a year. I bought the large replacement cartridge on Amazon ($45). Based on 'theoretical' page calcs, I should get 2-3 years of printing out of this cartridge. It has a big brother that does scanning, etc.

I do also have an Epson Photo printer R2880 for printing a color print.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Lasers all the way - toner is cheaper than ink, and if you go a while w/o printing, it doesn't dry up in the cartridge. Business models often can be made to work for decades with maintenance. We have a Brother B&W laser in one room, and because we needed color prints so rarely, we sent those to the Kinko's a downtown. My wife's needs changed in regards to color printing, and we grabbed a refurbed business color laser from a local recycling place for a song.

Paying a little more upfront can often get you something that lasts a heck of a lot longer, and save you a lot of money in the long run on ink costs.

[phil harold]

I have an epson (34 bucks) for scanning and colour printing, just had to buy new ink for printing pictures 84 dollars with discount
brother Laser (99bucks) is the default printer and used the most, one refill cost me $55 dollars 3 or 4 years ago
it has been telling me it is low on toner for over a year now

[Kev Williams]

My wife got me a Canon something, prints, scans, has the 5 cartridges... I use it about twice a week to print one or two pages in color. It prints fantastic, but I have never seen a printer go thru $14 ink cartridges like this thing does. Every 4 months I'm needing another cartridge, and I swear I don't print 20 pages in that time. FWIW, one time I had an Epson and I calculated the cost of the ink as installed in cartridges-- it was around $22,000 a gallon...

I've never seen a color printer that was cheap to use, nor have I had one I really liked all that much, mostly to do with the cost of ink. That all said, I must give a nod to the HP Laserjet 3050 sitting behind me. My sister bought it in 2007, just prints black, it copies, scans (not flatbed), will save faxes to the computer as PDF's so I don't have to print spam faxes... It probably prints an average of 15 to 20 invoices/po's/faxes etc. a day. A $70 black cartridge lasts 9 to 10 months. My favorite part, when you press "print", it prints, RIGHT NOW. And FAST. 7 years of daily use and it still works like new...

I don't think I'll ever buy another inkjet printer... (sorry I'm not much help!)

[Myk Rian]

Canon Pixma iP4920. I bought 2 complete sets of ink from SophiaGlobal on Amazon for under $23. Also bought a cartridge resetter so I can refill them.
It's not a scanner, but I bought it because it also prints CD/DVD discs.
Printing both sides is a snap as it turns the paper over as it prints, so you don't have to print all the first sides, turn the stack over, and print the other side. Really nice feature.

EDIT: It prints better than my Samsung color laser.

[Matt Meiser]

If you need color, we're real happy with the quality of our Epson Artisan 837. Easy to set up and it continues to just work when we want to print. After about a year, the Kodak we had before required fiddling every time we wanted to use it seemed. Before the Kodak we'd had HP's since I was in college. Bought another HP first, then took it back after hours of fiddling and bought the Kodak. Then I thought maybe a fluke and bought and returned another HP before the Epson. The only negative on the Epson is that it has six or seven colors of ink so replacements aren't cheap but it does a beautiful job. If it matters to you, the Epson support AirPrint for iPhones and iPads. Its got wifi capability so you can put it anywhere and the only connection needed is a power cable.

B&W volume, definitely laser. I wouldn't even look at anything but Brother there due to good luck with a super-cheap printer in my shop and an all in one work supplied for my home office. The only complaint I (and several other coworkers) have is that the Brother sheet feeders seem to almost universally skew the image every darn time! Occasionally we have to route documents for signature by 3-4 of us and they look ridiculously skewed by the time everyone prints, signs, and rescans. But still its a reliable sheet feeder for utility work, and I'm sure the flat bed is good--I just never use it. I've had the work one for almost 7 years now and I wasn't its first keeper. I think its 8-9 now. I changed the toner the first time it complained after I got it, and someone had changed it once before. It started complaining again about a year ago so I bought another and found the message comes and goes. I figure I'll wait to change it until I notice it printing bad. I just checked and that printer has printed over 8600 pages since new.

[William Adams]

Another vote for a Canon Pixma --- bought an ip6700d and was very pleased w/ it --- still buying cartridges for it every so often since my daughter took it to college.

Current home machine is an Epson WorkforceWF-7010 which works well, except some of the jets get clogged every so often and require cleaning --- this despite being in a basement, and a problem which the Canon never had, even when it was moved upstairs. I wish we'd use it enough to justify getting an ink tank system for it --- I've wanted to go back to printing and binding books by hand, but the print quotes I get, and the cost of ink / paper even w/ a tank system argue against that.

Two datapoints.

[Curt Harms]

I have two Brother inkjet MFD's. I bought refillable ink cartridges and ink from here:

http://www.inkowl.com/?C=10&S=25&B=1

They have refillables for certain models of other brand printers as well. If you print quite a bit, this brings the cost/page down a good bit although Brother doesn't gouge for their cartridges like some others do. One thing with my setup though, it's a good idea to print something at least once a week or the print head tends to partially plug. Cleaning has fixed any issues to date. If your printer use is intermittent, lasers don't have the plugging issue though initial cost for color lasers are a good bit higher.