Home printer recommendation?

[Marty Gulseth]

Hi All,

I need a new printer. I've had two, multi-function types, they seem to last about 3 years. Maybe my expectations are too high.

Anyway, it's time to replace. I'd prefer a multi-function although I could maybe be talked out of going that route. I print, scan, copy pretty frequently. Duplex printing is strongly preferred, duplex scanning is handy for me. Color (photo) printing less often but nice. I prefer a network connection, but Wi-fi is not absolutely required. Less expensive is better but not a hard limit.

So - what'cha got? If mentioning specific brands or models here is problematic, please shoot me a PM. I appreciate any and all help!

Regards,

Marty

[Joe Kieve]

I'm pleased with the Canon I picked up at Wallyworld for $49 several years ago. It copies, prints, scans well for me. Ink isn't cheap tho.

[Duane Meadows]

Two Epsons here. One is about 10-12 years old. Other is an all in one a little over a year old. I have had better luck with them than most other brands.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I came --><-- (this close) to getting a B&W laser printer when my HP multifunction croaked.
I weenied out though and bought a Canon ink jet at WalMart for under $50.
It copies, scans, faxes and prints both B&W and color.

I agree w/Joe - ink is expensive.

[Jim Koepke]

Marty,

What is wrong with the old printer?

My HP was giving me problems. Their tech support seemed to only have one answer, "You need to buy a new printer."

After checking some on line sources I cleaned my print head and replaced what was showing as a low yellow cartridge.

Turns out if the yellow cart is low on some printers it will stop printing. The supposed reason is the yellow cart for some printers prints a code on every printed sheet so it can be tracked back to a specific printer if need be by law enforcement.


A secret code embedded in many colour laser jet printers allows the US government and any other organisation capable of reading the cipher to identify when the copies were made and on which particular machine, according to research conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5100834

jtk

[Steve Brest Sr]

I have been through 10 HP's....worked ok...too expensive buying cartridges. tried the Kodak....ummmm...unplugged it and in the recycle bin. Amazon had a deal on a Canon that used the 5 color separate cartridges...I was leary....well I have been extremely satisfied with picture quality ...looks like Fotomat. I even bought an extra for under 100$ and for 3 years have not been ripped off buying ink. I then bought a 13 x 19 canon printer ix6520 to print huge borderless photos....very pleased. same cartridges too.oh model of first all in one is Canon mx892....cannot go wrong...good luck...I am not influenced by anyone nor have any relation with any company. I deal with facts and the truth only..Steve Brest

[David Masters]

If you're doing heavy printing, a laser printer is the only economical choice. I bought a refurbished Lexmark duplex office printer for about the same cost as a multifunction inkjet printer. I get over 5000 pages out of a cartridge. My wife was finishing her Masters degree last year and we would have gone broke if we had to use an inkjet for all the printing she did. Otherwise, I've had good luck with the Epson all-in-one printers over HP and Canon. The HP printers were the worse. They barely lasted two years and HP wouldn't sell you the parts to fix them.

[Gerry Kaslowski]

I had the same problem with my Epson ink jet printer. Too darn expensive to buy cartridges. I bought a Brother HL-2270DW laser printer. It has one of the least expensive replacement toner cartridges. It has WiFi and does an excellent duplex print. The originial cartridge lasted me over a year. I bought the large replacement cartridge on Amazon ($45). Based on 'theoretical' page calcs, I should get 2-3 years of printing out of this cartridge. It has a big brother that does scanning, etc.

I do also have an Epson Photo printer R2880 for printing a color print.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Lasers all the way - toner is cheaper than ink, and if you go a while w/o printing, it doesn't dry up in the cartridge. Business models often can be made to work for decades with maintenance. We have a Brother B&W laser in one room, and because we needed color prints so rarely, we sent those to the Kinko's a downtown. My wife's needs changed in regards to color printing, and we grabbed a refurbed business color laser from a local recycling place for a song.

Paying a little more upfront can often get you something that lasts a heck of a lot longer, and save you a lot of money in the long run on ink costs.

[phil harold]

I have an epson (34 bucks) for scanning and colour printing, just had to buy new ink for printing pictures 84 dollars with discount
brother Laser (99bucks) is the default printer and used the most, one refill cost me $55 dollars 3 or 4 years ago
it has been telling me it is low on toner for over a year now

[Kev Williams]

My wife got me a Canon something, prints, scans, has the 5 cartridges... I use it about twice a week to print one or two pages in color. It prints fantastic, but I have never seen a printer go thru $14 ink cartridges like this thing does. Every 4 months I'm needing another cartridge, and I swear I don't print 20 pages in that time. FWIW, one time I had an Epson and I calculated the cost of the ink as installed in cartridges-- it was around $22,000 a gallon...

I've never seen a color printer that was cheap to use, nor have I had one I really liked all that much, mostly to do with the cost of ink. That all said, I must give a nod to the HP Laserjet 3050 sitting behind me. My sister bought it in 2007, just prints black, it copies, scans (not flatbed), will save faxes to the computer as PDF's so I don't have to print spam faxes... It probably prints an average of 15 to 20 invoices/po's/faxes etc. a day. A $70 black cartridge lasts 9 to 10 months. My favorite part, when you press "print", it prints, RIGHT NOW. And FAST. 7 years of daily use and it still works like new...

I don't think I'll ever buy another inkjet printer... (sorry I'm not much help!)

[Myk Rian]

Canon Pixma iP4920. I bought 2 complete sets of ink from SophiaGlobal on Amazon for under $23. Also bought a cartridge resetter so I can refill them.
It's not a scanner, but I bought it because it also prints CD/DVD discs.
Printing both sides is a snap as it turns the paper over as it prints, so you don't have to print all the first sides, turn the stack over, and print the other side. Really nice feature.

EDIT: It prints better than my Samsung color laser.

[Matt Meiser]

If you need color, we're real happy with the quality of our Epson Artisan 837. Easy to set up and it continues to just work when we want to print. After about a year, the Kodak we had before required fiddling every time we wanted to use it seemed. Before the Kodak we'd had HP's since I was in college. Bought another HP first, then took it back after hours of fiddling and bought the Kodak. Then I thought maybe a fluke and bought and returned another HP before the Epson. The only negative on the Epson is that it has six or seven colors of ink so replacements aren't cheap but it does a beautiful job. If it matters to you, the Epson support AirPrint for iPhones and iPads. Its got wifi capability so you can put it anywhere and the only connection needed is a power cable.

B&W volume, definitely laser. I wouldn't even look at anything but Brother there due to good luck with a super-cheap printer in my shop and an all in one work supplied for my home office. The only complaint I (and several other coworkers) have is that the Brother sheet feeders seem to almost universally skew the image every darn time! Occasionally we have to route documents for signature by 3-4 of us and they look ridiculously skewed by the time everyone prints, signs, and rescans. But still its a reliable sheet feeder for utility work, and I'm sure the flat bed is good--I just never use it. I've had the work one for almost 7 years now and I wasn't its first keeper. I think its 8-9 now. I changed the toner the first time it complained after I got it, and someone had changed it once before. It started complaining again about a year ago so I bought another and found the message comes and goes. I figure I'll wait to change it until I notice it printing bad. I just checked and that printer has printed over 8600 pages since new.

[William Adams]

Another vote for a Canon Pixma --- bought an ip6700d and was very pleased w/ it --- still buying cartridges for it every so often since my daughter took it to college.

Current home machine is an Epson WorkforceWF-7010 which works well, except some of the jets get clogged every so often and require cleaning --- this despite being in a basement, and a problem which the Canon never had, even when it was moved upstairs. I wish we'd use it enough to justify getting an ink tank system for it --- I've wanted to go back to printing and binding books by hand, but the print quotes I get, and the cost of ink / paper even w/ a tank system argue against that.

Two datapoints.

[Curt Harms]

I have two Brother inkjet MFD's. I bought refillable ink cartridges and ink from here:

http://www.inkowl.com/?C=10&S=25&B=1

They have refillables for certain models of other brand printers as well. If you print quite a bit, this brings the cost/page down a good bit although Brother doesn't gouge for their cartridges like some others do. One thing with my setup though, it's a good idea to print something at least once a week or the print head tends to partially plug. Cleaning has fixed any issues to date. If your printer use is intermittent, lasers don't have the plugging issue though initial cost for color lasers are a good bit higher.

[Harry Hagan]

Since retiring, I rarely need to print a hard copy for personal use unless something needs to be mailed or handed to someone else. I go the digital PDF route these days.

I’ve saved a bundle on HP ink cartridges, paper, and postage. It’s also a lot easier organize and search for digital files.

[Gordon Eyre]

I have had a HP laser printer for 18 years now and it is still going strong. It is an office model and doesn't do all the things like scan, fax, etc. but it is a great B&W printer.

[Chuck Wintle]

Since retiring, I rarely need to print a hard copy for personal use unless something needs to be mailed or handed to someone else. I go the digital PDF route these days.

I’ve saved a bundle on HP ink cartridges, paper, and postage. It’s also a lot easier organize and search for digital files.

I am all for the digital PDF route but sometimes one needs a paper copy as these do not require batteries, do not break if dropped and can be marked up if changes need to be made. Somehow paper will be here for a long time in my opinion. That said I have an inexpensive brother laser printer that suits my needs. If I need a color print then a trip to the local staples takes care of it. The cartridge that comes with the printer is a "starter" cartridge that will print maybe 500 sheets. For $25 i bought a refill kit with the toner and the parts, plastic gear and a spring, to make it refillable in the future.

[Scott Donley]

I have an HP that I never use and last time I tried it the ink had dried out, that was it, 50 for new ink. I bought a Brother HL-2270DW laser printer about 2 years ago, pluses, it's wireless has never not worked, never needed any "fixing". I tend to not need a printer often, sometimes as long as 3 months between printing, but when I do it seems to be a lot.
The only negative is it has to be connected to the computer to set it up, if I change routers not sure what I am going to do.
If I buy anothe printer, it will be a Brother.

[Jason Roehl]

I'm going to toss out another name I haven't seen here, yet: Samsung. We have a B&W all-in-one that's been going strong for 6ish years. The only hiccups have been external to the printer--my wife tried to print an iron-on transfer (doh!--don't tell her I mention this in public!), which cost us a new drum, and I had to replace the power supply board after a lightning strike. Both required some major surgery, but it wasn't that bad in the end. I think we gave ~$150 or so for the printer, and I would definitely go with a Samsung laser again. We homeschool as well as chair a homeschool cooperative, so my wife does quite a bit of printing, and the toner costs are negligible.

[Rich Enders]

HP Officejet Pro 8600. Multifunction, 2 sided printing and scanning, low ink usage, reasonable footprint, Wi-Fi, user friendly software, automatic software updates, we have 4 in continual office use for years.

Probably all of the manufacturers are getting better, but this design is measurably better than our past experiences with Brother, and Epson, and ....

One added point. If you will be doing a lot of scanning, the new stand alone scanners can take a pocket full of completely different sized receipts and deal with them in seconds.

[Jerome Stanek]

I still use a Panisonic Dot matrix printer for some of my stuff. I know it is old school but it prints my 5 part copies and 3 part tax forms.

[Jim Matthews]

+1 on the Pixma line.

Price per copy isn't cheap, for any of the quality printers.
They're basically giving you the box at cost, so you'll buy their ink.

I've got my older M620 on the home network, wireless.
Setting it up requires a cumbersome hardwire connection, first.

It's quiet, scans 11x14 and prints fast.
3.5 years and counting in a home setting -
so, light use.

FWIW - I suggest printers with few lids and louvers for an office setting.
Staff won't treat your equipment like it's theirs...I'm just sayin'

282536

[Curt Harms]

I have an HP that I never use and last time I tried it the ink had dried out, that was it, 50 for new ink. I bought a Brother HL-2270DW laser printer about 2 years ago, pluses, it's wireless has never not worked, never needed any "fixing". I tend to not need a printer often, sometimes as long as 3 months between printing, but when I do it seems to be a lot.
The only negative is it has to be connected to the computer to set it up, if I change routers not sure what I am going to do.
If I buy anothe printer, it will be a Brother.

I'm not really up to speed on Windows networking and Brother - I use Linux 99% of the time - but the I.P. address of the printer shouldn't change assuming the printer's I.P. address is static. Would changing routers make a difference? Maybe note the I.P. address of your current router and assign that I.P. address to any new routers if needed? One reason I prefer Brother is their support for Linux. Brother & HP are very good there.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I'm going to toss out another name I haven't seen here, yet: SamsungI used to repair those a long time ago!
AFAIK, they were the only manufacturer that still did component level replacement.
Thankfully, there weren't that many of them around.
The one laser printer I worked on had a bad transistor on the mother board & it took the better part of two days to find out which one it was.
Heck, it took nearly half a day just to find the leads to the o-scope in the shop!!!
I finally tracked it down, ordered it ( a whopping $.25 part) and soldered a new one in place.

Samsung paid us a whole $20.00 for the warranty claim.

I told the owner he should drop Samsung since it cost us so much money for one small repair.
He just shrugged his shoulders and gave me a funny look.

[Gerold Griffin]

Had to get a new printer last week. I had a large amount of paperwork that had to be scanned into PDF and sent out. Looked around on line at the various printer scanner copier combo's. Found a Brother at Office Max that looked good and a couple of others. Only problem is Office Max is about 2 Hours away and no one else locally carried it. Went to Best Buy and told the sales clerk what I wanted the machine to do. She took me to my number 2 choice, a Epson Workforce 3540. It prints copies scans and faxes. It can be used wifi. After getting it set up we scanned in over a ream of paper with no problems. This may not be the best in class but it works and I am very happy with it. Best Buy had it for $140 and another 30 for the extended warranty.
Hope this helps.

[Len Henkel]

Had to get a new printer last week. I had a large amount of paperwork that had to be scanned into PDF and sent out. Looked around on line at the various printer scanner copier combo's. Found a Brother at Office Max that looked good and a couple of others. Only problem is Office Max is about 2 Hours away and no one else locally carried it. Went to Best Buy and told the sales clerk what I wanted the machine to do. She took me to my number 2 choice, a Epson Workforce 3540. It prints copies scans and faxes. It can be used wifi. After getting it set up we scanned in over a ream of paper with no problems. This may not be the best in class but it works and I am very happy with it. Best Buy had it for $140 and another 30 for the extended warranty.
Hope this helps.

I also found a Brother DCP-7085DN laser at Office Max on sale for $149. It's a printer/copier/ scanner with duplex printing. I've only had it for about 3 weeks. Since I do not need color very often black and white is fine with me. Everything works fine. the only issue I have is that it was manufactured/assembled in North Viet Nam. So I will deep six it at the first sign of malfunction.

[Dave Atkinson]

We're happy with our Epson Workforce 3540. Duplex printing and duplex copy/scan/fax. Print quality is quite good (except for draft-mode which is rather lumpy). Wifi works well. I've been impressed that scanning can be initiated either at the printer or at any network computer - older all-in-one we had could only scan to a locally-attached computer. Only potential drawback is that it's a pretty large unit.

[Marty Gulseth]

Wow! A lot of info, thanks to all.

Someone asked what was wrong with the one I had - well, ultimately I broke it. It had taken to not feeding on regular printing, I had cleaned, as best I could get to them, all the paper pick-up drums, etc. Several times, each time, it worked for a little shorter time. Then the copy/scan feeder started not picking up the paper in the in-tray. I cleaned those parts, same game - worked shorter time each cleaning. Then the watershed event - our daughter was home for the weekend, had a single sheet she needed scanned (some sort of document for some of her grad school work.) We put it in the scanner, pressed "GO", and the sheet jammed in the mechanism. Not wrinkled, just locked up tight. In the process of trying to extract the paper, something gave way and the entire copy/scan drive mechanism came out in pieces. Oops...

Right now, I'm kinda leaning toward a laser multifunction, if I can find one on sale. They ain't cheap.

Thanks for all the insights! Regards,

Marty

[Matt Meiser]

Last I looked Costco had the latest version of the Brother I have and the price wasn't bad (for a laser multifunction.)