Hi all. I want to buy a cheap all-in-one colour ink-jet. The only essential is that it must be a tray feed and the paper pick up is better than 98% reliable. I'm not going to be printing photos but some colour documents to make reading practice matierial for
5 year old daughter.Any suggestions based on experience?
Thanks.
Arthur
I have an HP 3300 series one. Meets all of those requirements.
Don't.
Get a laser.
Unless you don;t mind forking out 60 quid fir something that will work for a month, need new inks thereafter at 80 quid, need its cartridge (s)cleaned every time you use it, and be obsolete (i,e, inks unavailable) in 3 years.
+1
My canon has worked through pretty well a whole set of colour cartridges just in cleaning the heads when turned on (to print in black). And at nearly £40 a set :-( Mind you, it prints very nicely (2 paper trays, cd tray, automatic double-sided too); but I hardly dare turn it on now!
None of those problems with my Lexmark P700 series (don't recall the exact model).
I think it was a lot less than =A360 (maybe you're paying too much!).
Lexmark are not the cheapest for ink but new photo and colour inks about =A340 for both or you can just use the colour cartridge with a black cartridge in place of the photo one and save a bit.
Works every time without cleaning.
Inks still available and it's probably 3+ years old (can't remember).
MBQ
I would agree for black and white but one the the OP's requirement was to be able to print some colour. This might work out an expensive option. I was looking at a cheap colour laser in Staples. 299 for the printer, 400 for a complete set of colour cartridges. Ouch!
Andrew
Look at the HP Photosmart All in One printers. They recycle their ink in a totally different system from other printers. Then add in an external ink reservoir system from Inkjet Revolution. Will be a bit more expensive initially but the ink costs thereafter are virtually nill.
Mine gets spasmodic heavy use and when I am wanting the odd page it will wheeze and huff a bit as it cleans its jets and recirculates the ink, but it so far has been extremely reliable and cheap to run, including excellent quality photo printing at A4.
Rob
I might have said this five years ago, but it's definitely unfair to HP 1200 series (which include a scanner)
I've been pretty happy with my Brother MFC 5840CN. I suppose I'm not that demanding a user, but it just sits there and spits out printed paper as required. Can be connected to a network which could be handy if you don't want to use it in the same place as the computer - a fairly unusual feature on machines at the cheap end of the market. I think my favourite feature is the proper internal paper trays, unlike the upright chutes on most cheap inkjets. The (OS X) driver seems to diferentiate automatically between envelopes and normal paper, so if I print a document consisting of a letter and its envelope they come out on the right things without messing about (I have envelopes in the small tray and paper in the big one). I did price up replacement cartridges before I bought it, and guess I wouldn't have done so if they were silly price. But they haven't needed replacing yet, and I can't remember what the prices were. They are single-colour ones though which helps avoid waste.
Pete
I replaced a Lexmark 5500 (cartridges an arm + leg) with a HP F2180 all in one. Cartridges a quarter of the price & I'm well pleased with it. Wasn't that expensive either.
Whats this Inkjet Revolution thing?
The HP CISS type printers (not sure what CISS is but Continuous Ink Supply System seems to fit) can take an external pack of inks which are enormous in comparison to the tichy cartridges the manufacturers normally sell. The pack sits beside the printer and is coupled in by a neat bank of flexible tubes. The system was easy to fit and has given absolutely no bother. Search on Ebay fro 'CISS ink'
Rob
Nor my HP930C - about 7 years old, cartridges are about GBP 15 and GBP 5 for colour and black - for re-manufactured ones. still easily available, doesn't need to clean all the time - hardly ever AFAICS.
Anyway, I don't think a colour laser (the op wants colour) is a sensible option in this case - for mono it would be.
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