We don’t do a lot of printing, but need something basic. Really only need B/W as well.

Recommended brand/model?

Wal-Mart had a HP 38$ got one hooked up to wife's phone. Printed taxes that's all we needed. Use one maybe three times a year. All wireless.

I'm completely happy with my HP Envy 6055e

Print/scan deal. Has color but it's not expensive. Sits on my desk under my cat most of the day. He likes laying on it.

I got a Brother Lazer. It only does b/w but you’ll get a lot of prints off one cartridge. I gave up on ink jets. The print heads dry up and they’re junk if you don’t print a lot. Cartridges are expensive as well. I never printed colors much anyway.

It’s a L2395lw I think.

I've had the best luck with HP's over the years.

The issue with HP printers is that you MUST use their brand name ink cartridges. They have a chip and the printer will not work without it. HP inks are not cheap.

I highly recommend Brother or Epson printers. Both can use aftermarket ink cartridges from places like needink.com (the source I use for my Brother.) I seldom print colors, and my carts tend to dry up and clog. I'll be looking at a B&W only printer when and if this Brother dies.

Wife has an Epson tank model because she prints a LOT.

If monochrome is all that's needed I'd go laser if doing much printing, the cost per page printed is about 1/5 of inkjet.

We have 5 factory refurbished Canon monochromes here and have never had any issues with aftermarket cartridges or the printers themselves[some are 10 years old now].
All 5 are MFC's

These are the cartridges I have in my HP. Works fine. Made by Abfray, sold by Amazon. 25 bucks a pair.

I'll never allow an HP printer over my threshhold again. Screw them and their bullshit software and ink cartridge tricks.

I bought an Epson Eco-Tank printer and have been very pleased with it the last couple or three years. Ink is very reasonable, and the thing pretty much will print when I want it to instead of clicking and clacking and spewing ink all over the place to waste as much as possible. It wasn't cheap up-front, but for the trouble and aggravation saved and ink money saved it was money well spent. I'd have used six or eight sets of cartridges by now and the money saved on the initial cost of the printer would be long gone.

HP can go to hell.

We gave up on ink jet printers a few years ago. The darn ink would try up in the pens and turn print jobs into crap. We went with an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw Wireless Monochrome All-in-One Printer with built-in Ethernet & 2-sided printing. Print, copy, scan, and fax. We love it, but it's not cheap like the OP is looking for, $800. There are some basic laserjets out there that will fill the bill for you. Call it up on Amazon and see what's available and what they cost.

.
1) First clue "We don't do a lot of printing."
So this rules out an inkjet printer. Inkjets need to be "exercised" (used) at least once a week to keep the printhead from clogging.
2) Second clue "Really only need B/W" which means a low cost laser printer is on the table.

The best, low cost laser printers for home use and light office use are by Brother.
I like their printers with a built-in scanner so I can copy receipts, blueprint details etc.
If you buy a model that can use aftermarket toner cartridges, you can print for pennies.
Laser printers can sit unused with no harm to the printer.

This is similar to what we have been using. Printer with "flat bed scanner" combo.
There are other models with more or less features.
Before you buy and if you want to use aftermarket toner cartridges, make sure that they are available.
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Monochrome-HLL2395DW-Cloud-Based-Replenishment/dp/B0764NWFP8?th=1

Teal, is that an older HP? It's the newer ones that have the "chip in the cartridge" requirement.

Yep, A Brother Laser is what gets used mostly here. HL-L2395DW for the b/w stuff. The wife also has a color laser Brother HL-L3270CDW after our issues with the ink jet stuff. Brothers are always highly rated by Consumer Reports. Ours have been perfect.

Recently picked up a HP laser jet MFP M232e. Best, fastest printer I have ever owned. B/W only. About $100

They've always had the 'chip'.
Most IJ cartridges have a expiration date due to liquid ink.
The problem is with the re-manufacturers not fixing that portion of the chip.

The computer/printer reads the chip and it throws a 'out of date' code, then the printer won't run with it.

Haven't had any dealings with him myself, but I've heard that some guy named Gutenberg does good work. Only drawback is that he seems to be located in Germany.

Have a 10 y/o Brother all in one laser (B&W) works great, toner lasts a long time

I recently got a Brother printer/scanner that I am happy with so far as a replacement for a POS HP that I tolerated for only about 6 months.
I found the reviews on the Brother printers to be very good when I researched a replacement. I would go with a Brother or an Epson.
I've had good luck with HP computers but their printers suck.

be careful with HP inkjets. If the color runs out the B&W won't print.

I bought it June of last year. 2023 so sorta new and they're still avail I guess.

I put these cartridges in Jan 15 or so and have printed about 80 pages since.

That ain't just with HP's

IMHO the best deal for the consumer is:
Epson
Canon
Brother is dependent on model

Those 2 have the lowest mark-up[cost to retail] and start with a lower retail price.

Toners & cartridges are where they[all] make their $$'s as you can look at a cartridge[either style] that costs anywhere from $25 to $100 for ink and on up for laser.
There really isn't that much to them.
Once they've covered the R&D they have to be 90%+ profit

My sentiments exactly.

When my 20 year old HP inkjet died, I replaced it with a Canon MF462 laser. No ink to dry out or clog up.

There are ways to work around HP's chip gimmick, but I don't have the inclination to deal with that nonsense.

duhhhhh rrrr can I have the old one….

And send me some .22 shorts with it

There printers with tanks now that you refill

HP printers down right piss me off. They force you to pay confiscatory prices for ink, The ink always seems to run out at the worst possible times. The printer will not work unless ALL the ink is reading not empty.

the other thing I hate is I hit cancel print on the printer and all that does it just cancel THAT page. It keeps just printing more and more crap. I believe this is intentional because if it prints the other pages you of course end up using MORE ink!! The all in one scanner that is attached to the machine frankly SUCKS, after getting a dedicated scanner I found holy crap, this is how a scanner is really supposed to work!

all I can say is there is no good solution. They practically give you the machine, then want to rape you on the ink

The tank type printers cost a little more but ink is very cheap. Fill them and that's all you will use for a year or more. The only problem is when you use them so seldom that the heads dry up. There's an easy prevention for that. Find a full color photo and keep it on your desktop so it's easy to find. About once a week, print it, both in color and b&w. That will run fresh ink through the heads. You should be doing that with cartridge printers, too, although it'll cost you more in ink.
Ink is a graft. Someone calculated the cost of the ink in those cartridges and it came out to more than $1000/gal. The tank printers cut the cost by 95%.

At the very least, get a printer with separate cartridges for each color, including a black, so you don't have to throw away all of your red and yellow when blue runs out. Printers with 3 colors mix them to get black. A printer with a black cartridge will also mix them unless you set it for b&w. Then it uses black, saving all the colored ink. One pass with black will replace 3 passes with the 3 colors cutting the ink usage by 2/3. That's why your printer will be so much faster when printing in b&w. It's only printing 1/3 as much.

I despise HP printers with a passion. Bought a few for my business, and every one of them had problems within a few months of purchase. One I could never get to communicate with my PC. I use Epson now exclusively, one of which prints at a guess a ream of paper every 3 weeks or so. It is about 12 years old and shows no sign of quitting.

THIS ^^^^

Ink jet printers are yesterday's news. The printer itself is cheap but the cost of ink is a rip off over time.

I have a couple of Brother laser printers (B&W) and I've been very happy with them.

This is my newer one of the two that I own:

Brother HL-L2350DW
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L23-50DW-Wireless-Monochrome/dp/B09961WKKS/

I don't own own one these but it is less expensive than my HL-L2350DW:

Brother HL-L2405W
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L2405W-Monochrome-Subscription-Replenishment/dp/B0CPL7HRQN/


Brother offers a variety of models:

https://www.brother-usa.com/home/printers-fax

Cheers! Bob

Thanks all for the recos.

Current printer is an HP 4500. It’s been a great printer when it works and I can get HP ink. Black cartridge is one from local Chinese embassy. It gives a cartridge error message after 2.5 pgs. Shut off/restart, rinse &repeat. Like many said the jets dry out. An easy fix has been to pull the cartridge and wipe the jets with and alcohol pad. But again, we don’t print like we used to.

I’ll look at the brother and epson offerings.

Obliged.

Old one is spf to slum. You pay the shipping. 😂

See the gungizzard for .22 ammo. He hoards it.

Inkjet printer ink is the most expensive fluid on planet earth. I got tired of it, of the cartridges drying up, the print heads clogging up. I ponied up for a color laser printer. The thing absolutely rocks! Printing costs are 1/10 of inkjets and they look far better too.

I couldn't agree more. Bought an Epson Ecotank a few years back and we are very happy with it. No more high priced ink cartridges to buy and the thing will print for months before you need to fill the tanks. Best investment ever!

Ordered this:

Brother HL-L2405W

Supposed to be here Tuesday. Thanks again.

best is made in chinee

I don't print much either, and always tired of no ink or nozzles drying up. I bought a Brother HL-L2390 lazer printer for under $200 at Best Buy about 2 years ago. It works great for my use and it's b&w.

This made Vietnam gi.

I hope it rove me rong time.

For all of the HP bashing it seems like they are still doing a bang up business. BUT I agree I won't buy another IJ of any type.

I have an HP Envy 7855 that has been good so far, after a PIA setup, mainly due to minimal instructions.

MM

HP at one time had color printers set up to intentionally use up ink---and not just during the cleaning cycle. Even when printing black text only, it would print each and every character using all three colors and then print over each character with black ink. They were taken to court over that cute little trick. Not sure what dirty tricks they're using now since I threw my last HP out in the driveway about three years ago, but nothing would surprise me except those assholes cleaning up their act.

Good deal! I think you'll be happy with it.

Cheers! Bob F.

confucius say no use chinee aftermarket toner or bro techy say no to servee

I've been using these non-Brother brand toner cartridges with my Brother HL-L2350DW printer without a problem.





For the price, notice that this is a 4 pack of cartridges.

https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Compatible-DCP-L2550DW-HL-L2370DWXL-MFC-L2710DW/dp/B0C2Y7JKY6/

Cheers! Bob F.

EPSON eco tank.

LOL. I can sure relate to that!

I had an HP printer in my shop for years because the folks who approved purchases were too hard headed to ditch them. I think it was printer number four, or maybe five that was still there when I retired last July. I was hoping it would die before my last day so I could take it out in the parking lot and jump up and down on it and inflict every indignity I could imagine on it (and that includes pissing on it). Unfortunately, it was still "working" the day I checked out. What a POS that thing was...

Brother works for us.