My old HP printer/scanner has died and I need to get a new one. Will be ch ecking Consumer Reports, but also wanted some opinions from this august bod y. I don't need any fancy features such as double-sided, just good basic c olor and BW printing and scanning. Polite opinions invited.
If you don't much need to print photos, look at small color laser printer. Best decision I made buying Brother MFC color laser. It does NFC, Air print as well. Scan, copy, fax. Just for home use I still use original toner cartridges. I bought the printer about this time last year on sale. No problem whatsoever.
I too have been served well by a Brother MFC 240C scan / copy / fax. But it is a faily old USB inkjet, not a laser. I also have a Brother Laser HL-3170CDW (double-sided, no scanner) via Wifi upstairs in the 'school-work' room.
I've had no problems with either. The only complaints I've seen on the web is when someone uses 3rd party cartridges.
I'd go a step farther and advocate a MONOCHROME printer.
I just discarded our color laser (along with a complete set of spare toner carts and two fusers) as it was seeing so little use that it wasn't worth the space it occupied!
Likewise, discarded an Epson R1600 (wide carriage, photo) as it was used so infrequently that it was a chore to keep the printhead clean, etc.
We have a Kinko's within a 15 minute walk (takes almost as long to start the car, drive there, park and walk in!) that we use for color printing and photo printing. Alternatively, Costco is 2.5 miles door to door and on our weekly shopping trip. Let other people deal with maintaining the printer!
We have an HP LJ5p (on this "isolated" machine) and an HP LJ6p shared on the other machines that handles most of our "low volume" printing. They are on 24/7/365 as they draw relatively little power. An HP LJ4m+ handles our high volume, double sided (monochrome) printing -- but it dims the lights (I think it's 12 ppm) and we seldom need to print the hundred page jobs that it is best suited to printing.
The 5p/6p toner cartridge is ~$100 retail (without shopping around) and we get more than 5 years of usage out of it (I think 5000pp?).
I think I paid $10 for each printer. Mad at myself for not buying another one that I stumbled across a few months ago -- any toner left in it is probably worth the $10!
I rely on separate scanners for that sort of work. A pair of A-size scanners with document feeders, a B size scanner (tabloid) for engineering drawings and a film scanner for 35mm film, slides and oversize negatives. The latter may find its way into the discard pile as scanning film/slides is *so* tedious that I think I'd prefer to pay a service bureau for that effort!
I switched to Epson (XP-400), because ink seemed to be cheaper and they make a well regarded, high-end photo printer. It was nothing but trouble. Ink dried out. The cartridges were cheap but held very little ink. The machine refused to do anything at all when it claimed the ink was low. I suspect the low ink report is also based on some combination of use and time. I was getting very few pages out of a cartidge, and colors were running out without my using them. In short, Epson negatives went from the sometimes irritating level of HP, with their ink that costs nearly as much as the printer, to blood-boiling outrage at their audacious sleaze.
I've recently switched back to HP. An HP Envy 5660 for $80. Prints nicely. Provides an option for draft printing. (Epson draft was high quality, wasting ink.) HP has never been troublesome for me in terms of ink drying and has never refused to print.
Like you, I don't need anything fancy. Printing photos well requires an expensive machine and lots of expensive ink, so I don't try it. I only need a printer on an occasional basis, to print contracts, business receipts, etc. I probably use the scanner function more than the printer. The HP scanner applet could stand to be a bit more professional, but it's serviceable.
But I'm still unsatisfied in terms of cost. For someone who does occasional printing, the per-page cost is just far too high. And at $62 for ink vs $80 for a printer with starter ink, I have to seriously consider whether it might be at least as cheap to just treat printers as disposable.
You still print stuff?
On Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 10:54:23 PM UTC-6, snipped-for-privacy@att.net wrote :
checking Consumer Reports, but also wanted some opinions from this august b ody. I don't need any fancy features such as double-sided, just good basic color and BW printing and scanning. Polite opinions invited.
I have the Epson Workforce 635 (about 4 yrs) no issues, even with 2-sided p rinting. I would stay away from Lexmark (Dell) printer/scanners.
| You still print stuff?
Lots of people print all sorts of things. A digital world is a long way off. Next week I'm starting a new job. State law requires that I use a 2-page contract and also provide 2 copies of a form allowing the customer to cancel. That's 6 pages. If it weren't a fairly new house I'd probably also need to provide a lead paint test report -- on paper. When the job's done I might email a PDF receipt, but some people like to get them on paper. I also print my business estimates. And I print return address labels.
This week I had to scan in a receipt, to make an image to go into a PDF, to send to my insurance company. I also like to scan in photos sometimes, to provide graphic stock or convert old photos to digital.
All that and I'm a person who really doesn't use a printer regularly. If you don't use a printer or scanner at all then I'm guessing you don't actually use a computer, except for email and maybe shopping.
Using a Canon MX492 in a 3 person dental office for printing statements, scanning insurance claims, etc
I don't need any fancy features such as double-sided, just good basic color and BW printing and scanning. Polite opinions invited.
Good luck with the ink monsters. I bought an inexpensive multi-function black and white laser and wouldn't go back. If you *must* have color be prepared to pay out the nose for timed and/or dried out cartridges.
John
Suggest A nice Brother MONOCHROME laser printer and a seperate scanner.
I got a Brother laser printer with a WIRED Ethernet port.
Wired it to the my router. Setup was easy.
Both Wired and wirelss devices on my netwrok can print to it.
Seperate usb based scanner.
M
(snip)
My Epson c4700 seems to do okay with ink, and such. Does flat bed scanner, also. And BW or color copies.
OTOH, my fax machine (not going to go look to see which one it is) ran out of ink, and it was almost the same price to buy the entire machine. I let it stay dry, and use it only to send fax, not receive.
Yep, An inexpensive laser printer sure has saved me a ton of money. I bought a $100 Samsung and did not even realize it was network-ready.
Easy to get all the computers in the house to print to it.
We have one high quality ink jet that's used only for photos.
The funny thing was that the OEM ink cartridge for the Samsung was $80 so I bought some inexpensive re-filled. The cheap ones worked fine and actually lasted about twice as long as OEM.(Over a year)
I have an HP Photosmart C4180 All-in-One Printer - Scanner - Copier. It does a decent job, but sometimes the paper feed misbehaves.
I had one of their 4400 series all in ones . At less than two years old it started doing the phantom paper jam thing , which rendered it useless . What REALLY pissed me off is that we'd just found OEM cartridges for it at a very very good price and stocked up . I'm now using a black only Samsung laser unit that happily uses toner that I refill myself . Messy but cheap - oh , and the printer was given to me .
I've been thinking it could be the average printer paper I've been using.
IME, a *lot* depends on how much you print and what types of things you print -- and quantities.
Inkjets don't like to be left unused for long periods. Carts dry out, nozzles clog, etc. You spend a fair bit of time getting
*a* print, let alone the print you are actually HAPPY with!Lasers tend to be more tolerant of "non-use". Though they can also suffer from long idle periods (mechanisms tend to get gummed up, scraper blades get brittle, etc.).
Inkjet colors tend to be more vibrant than laser (IME). Inkjet is much slower than laser; you'd not want to print out a LOT on an inkjet!
And, of course, inkjet ink is pricier than laser toner.
Most of our printing (and I suspect most of MOST FOLKS' printing) can easily be accommodated with B&W. Those things that you really want to see in color you probably want to see in *good* color! You don't want to wonder why the "reds are funny" or the faces are a bit yellow, etc.
I've kept a Sony photoprinter: for the few times when I need a photo (4x6") and the trip to Kinko's is impractical (after hours, busy doing something else, etc.). But, when I run out of "print cartridges" (paper+"ink"), it will probably get discarded; I think the cartridges are too expensive compared to what I can get "up the corner".
I cling to a Phaser 8200DP: for printing proof copies of my publications. The colors are rich and vivid, the (solid) ink doesn't degrade over time and the prints have a "magazine like" finish to them. But, mainly, I've color calibrated the printer (along with my monitors and scanners) so I can KNOW what the actual colors will be when reproduced by a commercial service bureau (print shop).
It'll be a tough decision to decide what to do with it when I run out of ink blocks! :<
[And, the "melted crayons" scent when printing is hugely nostalgic!]
Canon Maxify MB2020. Id does duplex, but for the price you sure can't beat them. Since the HP8500 Pro is no longer available.
The one in my wife's room is a MFC295cn. It's been working well - she doesn't use it much - and cheap aftermarket ink cartridges have been no problem. Bought them on EBay from China for something like $6.00 each including shipping, 6 or 10 at a time.
Never overlook local surplus equipment auctions! Schools, cities/counties, businesses, etc. frequently have them! Many bargains to be had!
But, they usually aren't "full page ads in the Sunday paper" so you have to know where to find them.
The local university has a surplus equipment auction every two weeks. Amazing to see how much stuff they "discard": Your Tax Dollars At Work.
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