Any printer experts here?

[PapaDave]

So, we've had just about every brand out there and seem to have problems with all but the HP the wife has in her sewing room.
Just wondering if anyone has had good luck with a particular brand and can recommend something.
At this point, I'm not sure I'll be worrying about how many pages we get or any of those things.
Just want something that works.
Our last one decided to stop pulling paper in w/o scrunching it all up, and the one before that had ink missing in the print. Cleaned the heads....yadayadayada until I was blue in the face.
Looking for wireless, color, and fax ability. Nothing too expensive (doesn't seem to matter if we get cheap $50, or $250 models) that works.
Any help is appreciated.

 

[seige101]

For years i always bought cheaper home use printers, until i bought the Epson WP-4530 it's listed for small office use. I have to say i freaking love it! Hasn't missed a beat, ink seems to last forever (only changed black and cyan so far) and is cheap to replace. I have numerous times ran 500-1000 fliers in black and white and the ink level barely went down a tick! It is wireless, i can print for both desktops, the laptop and my Galaxy S4.

One thing i really like is i can scan a document and right from the printer and tell it which device to go to. No more place document in scanner, go to computer open scanner software etc.

We paid 225 for it 2 years ago i see on amazon they are 190 ish. Highly recommend it
Epson WP-4530 on amazon

 

[fossil]

I have a Canon iP3600 color ink jet and I love it. Mine's wired, and I don't use it as a fax, but the Canon lineup is worth a look, I'd say. Had nothing but HP's for years and years...until the last color ink jet that I hated. It took ~20 minutes to start up, run its diagnostics, and initialize. Then it was just paper jam after paper jam. The Canon has performed perfectly, it's much quicker to start, and it's a lot quieter. Has two places to load paper, so I keep plain paper in the front cassette and photo paper in the rear loader. Very convenient. Very reasonably priced.

ETA: I imagine my model has been superseded, but Canon has a big selection of color ink jets, including wireless office all-in-ones, and whatnot.

 

[PapaDave]

Rick, our most recent printer was a Canon. Maybe we just got a dud, but that one decided to quit pulling in paper w/o getting jammed. Prints were the best I've seen when it did work.
hat was the $50 special.
The Epson before that had lines through text.......missing ink. Not sure how to describe that.
I'll check out those models.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I used to love the Epson printers but like so many, they finally went cheap. The last one we bought we had to send in 3 times for fixing (under warranty). We found out that each time we sent one in, we'd get a different one back. Finally we got one to work just past the warranty. We then switched to HP. On our second one now and no problems yet.

 

[Swedishchef]

I am a big fan of Brother printers.
Here is one I have in my home office: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Print...8885272&sr=1-1&keywords=brother+color+printer
It works like a charm.

I no longer buy inkjet printers unless absolutely necessary. A printer like this has enough toner to last 3-5 years if you print regularly. No cleaning heads, etc etc.

Andrew

 

[PapaDave]

Hmm, a bit outta' my price range, but that looks like a nice setup. Maybe in a couple years.
Got a brother in law who does lasers at work and home.
I think I found a decent HP at Sam's (have a membership) with all the features I want/need. Looks like the ink won't be too bad to replace either.

 

[Swedishchef]

Brother make nice combo inkjets. I simply hate having to change the cartridges

 

[fossil]

That Brother unit looks darn nice. If I didn't have a fairly new ink jet and an old reliable HP laser, I'd be in the market for something like that. Geez, I rmember when color laser printers cost many thousands of dollars.

 

[semipro]

I'd heavily weigh the cost of consumables in your choice. Many printer will do what you want to do and most are built similarly. The thing that really seems to set them apart as far as cost of ownership is the cost of ink/toner.
Many printers now come with partially full ink cartridges.
Heck, many times you'll pay more to replace the "full" cartridges than you did for the printer with small cartridges in it.
Some websites will rate printers on cost per printed page. I'd seek that info out.

We've had the best luck with laser printers overall.

 

[Swedishchef]

That Brother unit looks darn nice. If I didn't have a fairly new ink jet and an old reliable HP laser, I'd be in the market for something like that. Geez, I rmember when color laser printers cost many thousands of dollars.

You're right! I used to be an IT technician for my University (while attending) and I can say this: prices have dropped significantly. Getting a color laser printer used to require spending $2500++++. Now you can easily get one (printer without fax) for $200+.
We just got this printer at my ofice but it costs quite a bit. However, it is supposed to be good for 120 000 pages.
http://h20386.www2.hp.com/CanadaStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=CE708A&opt=BGJ&sel=PRN

 

[semipro]

Papa,
I noticed you didn't mention "scanning" as a need. Is that because you don't need a scanner or because you have one already?
Maybe you mean by "faxing" that scanning is implied?
If not, and you do have a separate scanner, you can probably use that for faxing with the right software and wouldn't need that feature in your printer.

 

[PapaDave]

We don't print a ton anymore.
We also only fax maybe a few times/year, so that's not an absolute need, but it's nice to not need to go somewhere to fax something.
Scanning is nice, but my wife has a scanner hooked up to her desktop in the sewing room. I don't go in there very often, unless she needs help moving a bin full of fabric or something.
I used to concern myself with not just the printer cost but also the consumables, but it's not nearly the issue it used to be.
I haven't pulled the trigger just yet, so maybe I'll look at a laser.
I had actually mentioned that to the wife. Might be a better option considering our low use needs. Do the toner cartridges dry up or anything like that if not used often? No real experience with lasers.
Thanks for all the responses so far. I've been doing this stuff quite a while, but printers seem to be a weak link in the chain lately. so I thought I'd ask. It would be nice to not have to replace the next one within the next year.
Very helpful.

 

[fossil]

Who prints (at home) in the kind of volumes where that (the costs of consumables) would make a real difference? Certainly not me. I buy paper every once in a while and a laser toner cartridge about once every 3+ years, and ink cartridges maybe once/year or less frequently. I dunno, I don't keep track, I'm not concerned about it.

 

[Swedishchef]

We don't print a ton anymore.
We also only fax maybe a few times/year, so that's not an absolute need, but it's nice to not need to go somewhere to fax something.
Scanning is nice, but my wife has a scanner hooked up to her desktop in the sewing room. I don't go in there very often, unless she needs help moving a bin full of fabric or something.
I used to concern myself with not just the printer cost but also the consumables, but it's not nearly the issue it used to be.
I haven't pulled the trigger just yet, so maybe I'll look at a laser.
I had actually mentioned that to the wife. Might be a better option considering our low use needs. Do the toner cartridges dry up or anything like that if not used often? No real experience with lasers.
Thanks for all the responses so far. I've been doing this stuff quite a while, but printers seem to be a weak link in the chain lately. so I thought I'd ask. It would be nice to not have to replace the next one within the next year.
Very helpful.

Dave: toner doesn't dry out. In fact, it is dry! It's powdered ink. Long story short: electro static chages place the toner on the paper and then it gets fused onto the paper (when it goes through the fuser...two high temp rollers). Normally toner cartridges are good for much longer than ink jet ones.

I don't like paying $75 for an inkjet printer and then $50 for a replacement color cartridge....

Andrew

 

[BrotherBart]

I ditched HP lasers after a ton of years and got a Brother copy/scanner/printer. Love the thing. I had the fax line taken out ten years ago. The printer scans documents to a PDF file to attach to an email and if whoever wants the doc doesn't have email I ain't doing business with them anyway.

 

[PapaDave]

I ditched HP lasers after a ton of years and got a Brother copy/scanner/printer. Love the thing. I had the fax line taken out ten years ago. The printer scans documents to a PDF file to attach to an email and if whoever wants the doc doesn't have email I ain't doing business with them anyway.

That's a good point BB.
Most places can accept PDF files (who doesn't have at least the free adobe reader?), so shouldn't be an issue.
Thanks for that.
I was looking at a review of lasers a bit ago, until I noticed it was from 2008.
Jeez.....slightly outdated.
I'll keep looking.

 

[semipro]

Who prints (at home) in the kind of volumes where that (the costs of consumables) would make a real difference? Certainly not me. I buy paper every once in a while and a laser toner cartridge about once every 3+ years, and ink cartridges maybe once/year or less frequently. I dunno, I don't keep track, I'm not concerned about it.

The problem we've had with ink jets is that we don't print often. But it seems like every time we go to print we need a new cartridge. I've found our cost per page is outrageous for seldom used ink jet printers. Much less so with our old HP laser as the dry toners doesn't seem to "evaporate" like ink.

 

[semipro]

Who prints (at home) in the kind of volumes where that (the costs of consumables) would make a real difference?

We used to when we were into photography and framing. We have many friends that go through lots of ink and expensive paper printing their own photographs, especially those with younger children.

 

[PapaDave]

Considering the fact that our usage is very low, which would be the better choice?
When the grandkids were around, WHOA, watch out!
They liked to print anything and everything.
I think my wife is eyeing another $50 special, and I'm moving toward a laser in the $250-300 range.
I hate looking at these as throwaways.

 

[Dave A.]

But it seems like every time we go to print we need a new cartridge. I've found our cost per page is outrageous for seldom used ink jet printers.

That's why ease of refilling the inkjet cartridges was an important factor for me when I got my Canon Multipass (Multifunction) several years ago. More recently inkjet mfrs have gone all out to prevent users from refilling the cartridges with standard inks and is one of the reasons that when I replace this printer it will not be with another inkjet but rather a color laser multifunction one.

 

[Swedishchef]

I always found that the quality of printed images from home isn't the same as taking your pictures to get developped elsewhere on a USB stick at $0.15/picture. That's just my opinion..especially with the cost of a printer and injet cartridge in mind.

Papadave: do you need a color laser printer? Would black and white do? Here's an awesome black and white, wireless, laser printer from Brother.
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-2270DW-Compact-Wireless-Networking/dp/B00450DVDY

The toner cartridges are $10-$15 each if/when yours runs out. I once had this printer and it printed over 2000 pages before my "low toner" message started popping up. And it still printed for like 6 months (just take out the cartridge and give it a little shake....). It prints 20-25 ppm (pages per minute depending on if it is writing or an image) which is wayyyyy faster than ANY inkjet out there. Not too shabby for $50.

Andrew

 

[PapaDave]

I think we'll really want the color, although I could probably do w/o most of the time.
Wow, a laser for under $100.
We've still got some pics of the grandkids at the beach done with an inkjet from several years ago. Some are starting to fade, yet some aren't.
My wife makes collages with them and has one from each of the last 10 years.
Here's an inkjet I can get for just over 100 from Sam's.......http://www.amazon.com/HP-Officejet-6700-Premium-Wireless/dp/B006M1MSKG

 

[Swedishchef]

That printer seems nice to look at but it isn't a bad idea to read some reviews from various sites about it first.
If you're looking at printing pictures than don't bother with a laser. You would need something around $200-$400 range to print nicely (on paper).

 

[PapaDave]

I don't generally buy for looks, it's just the way they built it.
When printing pics with these, ink is used like we use firewood in extreme temps......a lot.
I'd forgotten about the collages, so now I'm back to needing color no matter which type printer we go with.
The Canon we had recently did a very nice job with text, but I didn't get a chance to print any pics before it crapped out.
Lots of great info and insight from you guys.