Printers (again) Uncomplicated Inkjet AiO?

[Adrian C]

I've received for repair from a family friend a 6yr old Canon iP2000 Inkjet showing all the signs of soiling its nappy, i.e. the "waste container" is full. Like a fool, I accepted the job of repairing it and had my hand guilded with 60 notes for my trouble. Yup, most of the cost of a new one ...

So off with the covers and a partial strip down, I take a rapid assessment that cleaning congealed multi-manufacturer inks out of the mucky thing out would cost me more than 60 quid in time, soap, bleach and other personal body care products, so it's time to tell the owner about better replacement options.

Or, rather the owners battleaxe wife....

I whimper on the phone,

"your husband has a choice, buy an expensive to run inkjet or a cheap to run laser"

She shrieks,

"a LASER??!!! Oh No!, that sound's horribly expensive and complicated! He's not that good with complicated things as you know. Nope, we will NOT have a laser in the house."

Bah, I blame James Bond and that movie :(

[As an aside, her retired ex-hack husband is (surprisingly) not really too Windows GUI literate, only has application skills in "Windows Mail" and hasn't yet got the hang of cut, copy, drag, paste, minimise, maximise, restore, right click, double click or performing accurate mouse manoeuvres to follow a straight line of text. Hopeless in fact.]

So after calming down, and I've drained my diet coke & vodka glass, she asks questions about the ink jets and I stray onto the All-in-One features that are common nowadays. "Oooo, a scanner - Oh, he'll like that!!"

-&-

Damm, I know once installed - this ink jet AiO is going to be the cause of further 'friendly' support grief, as I don't think I've seen one that is really user friendly when it comes down to basic use. The software dialogs can be complicated and mouse accessible only. Which has given me a name of 'Mr TeamViewer' when they phone with other issues, and I end up doing their 'work' for them.

So probably I'm going to be shopping for one with heads built into the cartridge (used in a hot room), a low sticker price, and hopefuly long life and moderately priced consumables. Probably talking of 1000 A4 sheets a year (mostly of printed jokes from email...)

Really, I should cut my losses and suggest they visit PC World for advice...

Canon MP280?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Think of a new name for a laser. I bought an el cheapo Samsung B&W only from CPC several years ago and it's just great for printing off the odd bit of text. Or even quite a bit. Re-filled it with a bottle of toner off Ebay for 20 quid. Got seriously fed up of the cost of an inkjet - and that they never work if left for a while.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

I've been running a Canon MP600 for a couple of years of very sporadic use, and it's been perfectly reliable with no ink trouble at all. Apart from running out, but even then it does things like say "I'm out of the big black tank, shall I fake it with the other inks?" and carries on printing.

Cheers - Jaimie

[Bob Eager]

Hear hear. I too bought a Samsung at 50% off a few years ago. B&W, on Viking special offer. I only bought it as a replacement low volume photocopier, but the scanner is also useful and I occasionally actually print on it (most printing is done on HP LaserJet 4M+, which I've had for about 12 years).

Just tell her it's photocopier too and avoid the laser part.

[treblesix]

Same here ... and on cheap chipped compatible carts. Quality piece of kit for the money!

[Dave Liquorice]

LED? Though they don't seem quite as common as they were a few years back.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

"Toner printer". Give it a go.

Cheers - Jaimie

[dennis]

You can leave them for months and they work.. provided you leave them plugged in. My Brother AIO just sits there in standby waiting for a network job to arrive. Periodically it wakes up. does a quick cycle and goes to sleep. This keeps it going while using almost no extra ink.

I can recommend it as it will scan to PDF on a USB stick/SD and print from usb/sd so a computer isn't needed.

It uses very little power on standby.

[Raj Kundra]

Old trustworthy Samsung ML-1610 about 6 years old, still on original drum kit.

Toner kit is about £10 from E bay. Prints about 500/700page/pm

Also got HP Colour LaserJet 5550 Printer set as network printer in workshop

Came from large corporation upgrade surplus, just serviced with new drum and full toner set. Cost me £45 for pallet delivery.

Been using it for last 12 months, trouble free.

When run out of toners, it will just go on E bay.

[Mark]

Inkjet printers are not at all expensive to run if you are prepared to refill them. but doubt mrs battleaxe would be up for any of that. Canon were great printers but the new ones are imho crap and the ink expensive. A ?Brother DCP-195C would be the best choice between cost of purchases and replacement ink cost, carts are not chipped so ?compatible ink is easy.

-

[Ron Lowe]

That will come back to haunt you.

Yep.

That will *really* come back to haunt you.

Depends what they use it for. If not photo, then just get them a laser. Don't call it that. Just call it a 'printer'.

[R D S]

I've got a Multifunction Canon, I think it's an MX330.

I've seen similar on sale for about £40 in Lidl. Can't fault it, the scanner and fax are good, standard print is OK, photo prints are very impressive and it prints 100's of sheets per day without any hassle (unlike every HP i've ever had)

I got a CISS for it from City Ink Express, not cheap at about £80 because the cart is the printhead but i've had 4 CISS kits from them now and each one has performed perfectly.

[John Rumm]

Or just "page printer" - tell em its faster and costs less to run.

[John Rumm]

The canon ones are not bad - especially if you go for the higher up the model range ones - some have replaceable print heads that are not part of the cartridges - in theory[1] getting the best of both worlds.

Brother do some quite nice laser laser AIOs that are network aware. Many include sheet feeders on the scanner as well which can be handy.

[1] The theory falls down when often the print head spare is a substantial fraction of the price of the machine in total.

[Dave Liquorice]

He he I like all those but I suspect when they read the manual or saw the "laserjet" badge on the front... Faster with some cheap lasers might a close thing from a stanby state start, certianly cheaper and even a cheap B&W laser will have far better and more durable print quality than an inkjet. I remember bing given some technical requirements printed by an inkjet, it was raining and a few (and mean only a few) spots of rain got on the printout washed the ink clean away. 'tis a few years ago now. I think the inks are a little more water resistant now.

[Chris Whelan]

[...]

Not much...

Chris

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They seem to be more water resistant when trying to clean the printer, but not on the page...

[funkyoldcortina]

You can get the HP 6500A Plus for under £100 and then HP are running an online cashback redemption offer to get 40 quid cashback on it. I've done cashback on HP products before, it's quick and simple.

See

[Chris Whelan]

:-)

Chris

[Adrian C]

Battle-axe has just been on the phone and sense has prevailed.

Got the green light for a B/W laser and so a Brother HL-2240 has been ordered... :-)