Can't repair home office printer, so need a new one

If you got 10 years out of it, you're doing well. Most people buy a inkjet printer, use it till the ink runs out, finds that the ink costs as much as another printer, and they toss the printer in the garbage and buy a new one.

Reply to
Paintedcow
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I'm going cross-eyed looking at ads for home office printers. Every time I look at the customer ratings and comments, it seems I'll see mixed reviews, many good ones and then some awful ones, which makes me want to go look at the next machine.

My current printer is an HP Photosmart that keeps having an ink error. In the past I've been able to do a master reset, which allows me to print in black only, because that's all I need right now, but a 3rd color cartridge ran out of ink and set up that ink error again. The master reset hasn't worked this time, and I've tried it about 10 times thus far.

I can buy the color ink cartridges and install them, but it's no guarantee that it will them allow a master reset. It had been leaking one of the color cartridges, and that started all of a sudden, but allowed me to print in black until now.

So, I'm thinking it's time to chuck this printer that's at least 10 years old and get a new one.

Any recommendations? I like inkjet, color, and all-in-ones (printer/scanner/copier...)

Reply to
Muggles

We have two of these inkjets in the business and they perform admirably.

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My personal preference is black and white lasers for 99% of our printing and for the occasional color job, we have a shared color laser.

Reply to
Stormin' Norman

you prefer B&W lasers, but give a recommendation for an inkjet.

What is your recommendation for a B&W laser?

Reply to
Taxed and Spent

Obviously you are confused, the OP indicated she preferred color, inkjet printers.

Reply to
Stormin' Norman

We have an Epson Workforce 635...even does 2-sided printing (slicker than sh*t). It has never jammed in 6 years and we use it a fair amount for church and technical stuff. 3-color does excellent photo printing and they're not dinky cartridges. *****5-stars

Reply to
bob_villa

Brother HL-L2340DW

By and large, Brother laser printers are your best bet. Extremely reliable, easy to set up, not at all temperamental, very affordable printer and replacement toner cartridges/drums.

Amazon frequently runs them on Gold Box deals. The model above is typically $99, but will run on sale for as low as $69-$75. Seems like they'll have a Brother laser printer sale every 6-8 weeks or so, and more often in November-December.

Reply to
Moe DeLoughan

No, I'm not confused. I wanted a recommendation for a B&W laser.

Reply to
Taxed and Spent

I tend to agree.

I'm on my 2nd Brother B/W laser printer. The first still works, despite having been in 2 car accidents, stored in sub-zero shed, and works ona Linux setup. My second is a FAX2840, which I needed cuz a lotta govt agencies still demand docs be sent by FAX. Beware or whether or not you have a 32 or 64 bit machine, as many Brother drivers are 64 bit only. ;)

nb

Reply to
notbob

What EVERYBODY forgets is when you buy a new printer you do NOT get full ink cartridges. You get "starters" Buying the replacements, even when it excedes the cost of the printer MAKES PERFECT SENSE.

Only a fool with no respect for either his wallet or the environment throws away a perfectly good printer just because it ran out of ink and on the short term it's cheaper to throw it away and replace it.

Likely the same people who'd vote for Trump and for the same reason. Ignorance of facts.

Reply to
clare

I am also a fan of having two printers (though I have three*). With fax almost dead, does one really need a full all-in-one? I agree with the Brother recommendation. For the B&W laser I have the Brother HL2280. It was much cheaper three years ago. What it gives me is a convenient flatbed copier in addition to a laser printer.

Over seven years ago I bought a color laser printer. Long since discontinued. I rarely print in color. I only turn it on when I need it.

For my all-in-one I bought the older model of the Brother MFCJ6920DW:

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It gives me the feeder if I want to scan a stack. And most important to me, it gives me an 11"x17" scanner for a reasonable price (it was cheaper back when I bought it). I have never bought 11x17 paper and with the color laser I don't use it to print at all.

  • four if you count the Seiko label printer.

Don.

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Reply to
Don Wiss

My current unit is a Canon Maxify MB2020 - no complaints so far but do NOT try to use aftermarket ink. Any HP Officejet Pro unit will be decent. Their home printers are pretty iffy.

Reply to
clare

That is correct. You can also get more out of a toner cartridge by searching the web. The cartridges and/or printers have something that makes them stop before they are out of toner. This means you never get streaky output, but you lose many copies.

Some you put tape over a sensor. With my Brother there is a sequence to key into the keypad. That keeps it going until you get the streaks, but then you take the toner catridge out and shake it back and forth. That gets you a little more.

Don.

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Reply to
Don Wiss

I would recomend a printer with separate ink tanks if you are doing any volume at all - and field replaceable print heads are also a big advantage. I have some (somewhere around 25?) officejet pro printers some with over 600,000 prints on them but most around 20,000 more or less. They are 8000s and I refill the ink 8 or 10 times a year each and replace them when the date runs out or when they stop being accepted by the printer. I get about 4 years or so out of each printhead.

If you do very little printing the HP combination cartridge/printhead with several colors combined are OK, particularly if you have a good ink refill company nearby who can refill them for you at a reasonable cost. I just HATE it when you run out of, say, yellow and the other 2 colors in the cartridge are still half full.

Reply to
clare

Okidata LED printer - hands down.

Reply to
clare

$600-900 is a bit expensive for a home office printer.

Don.

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Reply to
Don Wiss

We have 5 of the following personal b/w laser printers, one in each manager's office. I have been extremely satisfied and impressed with the machines.

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Reply to
Stormin' Norman

Have not been happy with my HP all in one. Could not get the fax set up and scanner recently started giving me fits so I still use old fax machine and scanner. There is a paucity of instructions coming with new machines of all type (not just printers).

Over the years, HP's have evolved from accepting cartridges that you could re-ink yourself, to others re-inked cartridges that cost much less to only accepting cartridges of their own manufacture. They learned what old folks working at Eastman Kodak told me when they said they made no profit of their cameras but made a bundle on their film. Don't know about other brands but while HP makes good printers, ink cost may be far less with others.

Reply to
Frank

Brother lasers.

Reply to
John Albert

I gave up on inkjet printers years ago. They're slow, the print bleeds if it gets wet, and the ink cartridges dry up if you don't print regularly.

I also don't like all-in-one devices (printers, tv/dvd players, etc.). You have to replace the entire machine even if a single part fails, and you can't pick the best of each device (a standalone scanner is usually better than what comes in the all-in-ones).

With that in mind, I highly recommend Brother laser printers. My main printer is a Brother HL-5240DN with a second paper tray. It's fast, produces great output, and can print to both sides of a page. Toner lasts a long time also.

I also have a Xerox 6022 color laser that I have been very happy with. It won't replace a photo printer, but for general office flyers, brochures, cards, or generic color printouts it works great. It also takes up very little space. My only gripe is it only comes in white. :)

My scanner is an Epson V500 flatbed scanner that also does a great job with negatives.

Anthony Watson

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Reply to
HerHusband

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