I despise computer printers. The ink costs to much and every time I buy a new cartridge the printer $hits the bed and dies. I'm done with it. I refuse to spend one more minute dealing with a non functioning printer. I do not want or need a new printer. My wife thinks she needs one. I only have one rule. No Hewlet Packard. No HP nothing. It has to be reasonably cheap but dependable and the ink cartridges need to have lots of ink and not cost and arm and a leg. Most of all my wife has to be able to use it. Any suggestions from the fire ??

kwg

There is another printer group from Epson that uses a different kind of ink cartridge. I can't recall much about it but it touted extra low ink cost.

Went through this a while back. Apparently, home printers are sold at a fraction of what it costs to build them. The manufacturers recoup that loss by selling the half empty ink cartridges. You can buy a high dollar printer that takes bulk ink. Price wise it's a wash for the casual home user. I ended up not buying a printer.

I "print" a lot of things to pdf files instead of paper and save them electronically, I rarely use our printer anymore. If our printer takes a dump I'll probably just pick up a cheap one at Walmart. The other option would be put the electronic files on a USB stick and print a few sheets off at work.

kwg020: Before you pick one answer these questions?

1) Do you need color or just black and white?
2) Do you print more than a few hundred pages a month?
3) Do you need it to fax?
4) Do you need it to scan or copy?
5) If yes to 3 and/or 4 would it be multiple pages?
6) Do you need to print on both sides of the paper?
7) Do you need wireless access?

Let us know and you'll get better suggestions.

Thanks - tnscouter

It's true; there is a HUGE markup on ink. I have my ink cartridges refilled at Costco at a considerable savings.

I have a couple of printers; a Canon and a Hewlett Packard. Both print fine but I find the Hewlet Packard less finicky and it has worked fine for probably 4 or 5 years now; maybe more. The irritating thing about the Hewlett Packard printer is that occasionally it sends popup to my computer wanting me to buy ink or telling me I don't have original factory ink cartridges installed (duh, I knew that). On the up side, when I've ordered ink from Hewlett Packard, I can have it on my porch with "free" shipping the next day.

As far as being able to print a lot with very few cartridge changes, a laser printer is hard to beat if you only need to do black and white printing.

On more pitch for Costco. If you by stuff from them and it doesn't work out, they are very good about giving you a refund.

Yeah, I know you said no HP.

Mine is an HP Office Jet Pro 8610 with copier, fax, etc. Pretty large black ink tank. Prints decent pics as well on photo paper.

The big thing with ink jet printers, is they need to be exercised regularly. Print a test page or something about once a month. Otherwise the ink will dry in the print head and plug it up. When that happens, it is cheaper to replace the printer than to have it repaired.

My present printer has the print heads in the ink cartridges, if I remember correctly. If one print head fails, I do not have to purchase a new printer.

I agree Idaho shooter about using the printer more often. She will go weeks without using it and she's upset when it won't print. Squidge says he puts his on a thumb drive and prints it at work. I do something similar. My wife does like to print pictures of the grand kids but she doesn't do it very often. Mostly she will copy and print the kids school pictures.

Any suggestions are welcome.

kwg

We don't fax tnscouter and we don't multi page. We do scan and copy.. We just don't do a lot of it.
kwg

My advice:

Print pictures at Walmart or Walgreens’s or similar. Upload from her phone, go pick the prints up an hour later. They’re setup for printing pics. It’s easy on their apps. Multiple size options etc.

For printing documents at home......I’ve never been happy with a printer after the initial purchase time period. Always eventual failure.

Epson ET-2720.

Without a hard copy the data could disappear forever. Electronics break and need power. Sometimes the format changes. Printers never you just fill the ink in the tank in the printer.

Several brand name printer manufacturers market models with refillable ink tanks nowadays that represent a substantial savings in ink cost over cartridges but the printers themselves cost a fair bit more than typical big box store bargain printers. If you need/want a printer that prints on both sides look one that says "Duplex".

As to reliability and lifespan I've gone through 4 printers in 4 different brands so far, most averaging about 2 years of service. The first was a entry level HP printer/scanner/copier. It was the simplest to operate of all and lasted the longest at 3 years.The scanner went out on it but the printer still worked.

Using a Cannon 3 way now I bought on sale for $19 at Walmart a couple of months back. Its already more than paid for itself printing out coupons. Each ink cartridge though cost more than the printer did.

I was constantly buying ink for my wife's color printer, finally I bought a Epson ecotank printer thru Costco came with two bottles of ink in each color and 3 black, cost more up front but have not purchased ink in 18 months and have only used less than half of what came with it.. I figure I have saved $200 so far and will save double that long term, it more than made up for the higher purchase price already.

I've got a Brother's Ink Jet printer sitting here on the desk, that has to be at least going on 20 years old, if not OVER 20 yrs old...

buy an ink cartridge for it about every 4 or 5 years... and they are refills so they don't cost that much. to operate.

I’ll second a Brother. I have had a MFC-8860DN for 15 years and it is still going strong. It will copy, print or fax but it is a black and white printer, no color. It is a small laser printer.

I have a Brother All in One laser printer. It has been excellent!

Fixing to upgrade to a Brother color laser All in One.


I'm DONE with the inkjet cartridge scam. Forever.

I'm looking at the Epson Eco-Tank models, but I prefer laser printers.

I bought a laser all in one last November. My ink would dry up between print jobs. I have used it more than I thought. I understand the higher cost, but it does not dry up.

Myself & several I work with all have Brother 6545/6945 all in ones which have been reliable & easy to use for going on 3 years. These models are larger all in ones that handler ledger sized paper but there are equivalents that handle letter size as maximum and are cheaper to boot. Ink tank life is excellent as well.

I went from an HP (it lasted for years and years) to a Brother about two years ago. MFC-J4800W, but they probably don't make that one any more. I buy extra capacity ink cartridges online. I print a few things a month, checks and stuff. Mostly black ink. I can copy or scan if I need to. Fax, too, but nobody faxes anymore.

If I printed photos, I'd go to Walmart. Keeping a photo printer at home is ridiculously expensive and wasteful, IMO.

I have a couple HP Laserjet 4's that I pulled out of the dumpster over a decade ago. At the time KYHillChick was working at a large hospital and they had a "Free to a good home" deal on toner cartridges and no one was picking up the LJ 4's. She snagged half a dozen, and brought them home. Free printing for life!

My advice on B&W is to go on EBAY and get an older laserjet and then buy a toner cartridge for it. Per sheet costs are down around $.08/page.

Be careful with cheap recycled toner cartridges. I had a deal going years ago with a company that recycled toner cartridges for our company's laser printers-- had over 20 in the main building. This company did great things for us for 3 years and then one day started stuffing cheap copier toner in the cartridges. We turned 3 high-end laserjets into doorstops before I caught on.

If I've got any kind of printing to do, I send it to the local Fed-Ex/Kinko's store and it's there when I pick it up.

I use an HP 7525 and have good luck with it

Only use B&W printing though....no pics

Worked for HP as an R&D engineer in the LaserJet cartridge group. Was involved with printer development teams for decades.

Printers are not sold for a loss, as mentioned above. Some models are sold at a low, non-sustainable profit where the more feature rich products make up the needed profit to support the program. There is an enormous benefit to producing large volumes of product.

For low monthly printing users a Laserjet is more economical than an Inkjet - at least when I was calculating the total cost of ownership 8 years ago. The Inkjet regularly spits some ink through the orifices to keep them open. So it is a use it or loss it scenario. The LaserJets perform similar operations at a lower frequency and cost.

DON'T power cycle your printer daily. Each power cycle initiates a calibration cycle that consumes several pages of cartridge life. This is a legal requirement since the printer company is required to deliver error free print quality on the first page out.

B&W prints are about 1/4 the cost per page of a color page. BUT if you don't do any color printing the ink/toner will be consumed by the calibration and overhead processes.
LaserJet cartridges have a life determined by and tracked separately by toner consumption AND number of rotations. The photoconductor, aka print drum, is a polycarbonate coated aluminum sleeve that operates as a capacitor and the polycarbonate layer is abrated during rotation. Print quality is reduced to an unacceptable level when this layer becomes too thin.

We commonly tested LaserJet printers to 1 million and more pages and still delivered acceptable print quality.

When I needed wanted an additional printer after I retired I went on line and found a local seller of a used HP LaserJet that came with a complete set of toner cartridges. A set of toner cartridges cost more than a new printer. Only issue is print drivers but there is generally work arounds for this issue.

Excellent post and info.. Thank you..


In my little shop I've had an HP Officejet Pro 8600 for over 10 years now and it's been excellent ('course, now it'll probably take a dump in the next ten minutes ... ) For an "all-in-one" printer it's behaved well..

Don’t buy ink cartridges, it’s cheaper to buy a new printer than ink. Give the old printer to Goodwill or Salvation Army.

New printers come with "starter" cartridges good for maybe 50 sheets, Swifty.

I get cartridges from NEEDINK.COM and so far they've been perfectly compatible with both an HP and a Brother printer, work fine, and cost a lot less.

Canon Pixma.

If you need color get and Epson Eco-Tank models,If you just need black and white get a laser printers

"The ink costs to much and every time I buy a new cartridge the printer $hits the bed and dies."

A friend just bought his wife an inkjet printer that doesn't have ink cartridges. It cost around $300, you add liquid ink as needed and they both like really like it. Next time I talk to him I'll ask what brand and model #. My Big Brother commercial printer just quit after 10 years of heavy use and I bought an inkjet HP Office Jet 6978 printer from Staples because it was so cheap $97.41 ($90 off regular price). It prints great but it's for home use with small ink cartridges.

Interesting, my brother printer is a year old, printed more than 50 sheets. Black that came with it is 1/2 full, colors went dry cost me 35.00. Brand new Canon Pixma on sale Wally World 29.00. Anymore home printers are throwaways. Use them till the ink runs out then chuck em.

Refilling ink cartridges is also an option, kind of a pita but better than paying high prices to replace them every time.

I've got to printer's, both photo printer's, both Canon.A 13" and a Small 8.5". Have always used manufacturer ink. Checked it years ago and as I recall it cost's less than $.01 per sq inch for ink. Recently I decided to cut a fat hog and got some after market ink for my 8.5" printer. Printed up an 8x16" photo and it looked good. About a week later the ink started fading badly. Not sure what the life span of a photo is supposed to be with after market ink but a week just isn't all that hot. I have enlargement's made around 20yrs ago here on the wall's and they look great, OEM ink. But I do need to say that after market stuff was really inexpensive! I did try a second 8x16 with the after market stuff over a week ago and it still look's fine. I think for what I use my printer for, I need to rely on OEM ink at about $.01 per sq inch!

Look for used small business class MFP's. Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Cannon. Don't buy color unless you really need it. These small machines are sold by the thousands and are not throw away units so they can be serviced/repaired. They may not be as easy to connect but will be much more reliable. I'm a production printer tech and personally despise inkjets in any form. HP/Samsung support sucks.
I've helped the logging industry for 38 years and proud of it.

Lase printers are cheap enough now that there is no reason to deal with ink printers. There are secondary sources of toner cartridges that are a fraction of the manufacturers branded toner. I have been using laser printers for years, and they are much less trouble and much much cheaper per page to print. My printer is hooked to my wireless network and allows me to print from phone or laptop from my recliner. Good luck with your search!

the printer I have now will not let me print B&W if any of the color cartridges are empty (the 3 n 1 type)

Correct, new printers ship with starter cartridges. This is done to keep the initial printer cost lower. Starter cartridges, as they are called by the industry, have about 1/3 the capacity of new cartridges.

We, I mean HP, ran extensive testing of aftermarket and refilled Laserjet cartridges and our test concluded they delivered a higher overall cost solution when you measure the actual cartridge life, include failures. Failures are expensive in both time and materials. OEM cartridges delivered the best option for businesses, home users are more willing to absorb the additional time and overhead associated with aftermarket and refilled cartridges. This information is about 10 years old and of course some things may have changed.

Cartridge life is calculated on a 5% page coverage using a scrolling E pattern. Some manufacturers, like Lexmark, cheated the yield test by printing with excessively large borders. There was no industry standard for measuring cartridge life when I retired. Toner yield is a linear response; directly proportional to coverage - within the limits of this discussion. There are some nuisances that will affect this but they are at the limit of use.

Throwing away a printer when it runs out of ink is a costly decision. Cost per page will be higher than replacing the cartridges. We do look at this option before ever releasing a new printer.

Canon laser printers are the same as HP except they have different controllers and software. HP's image rendering has been consistently better.

Epson makes an excellent liquid ink printer with superb image rendering. The trade off is image accuracy. People see things different than they really are, preferring a more colorful rich image. Facial recognition is used to pump up the facial color. Business graphics need to have lots of punch. Memory colors like grass and sky are 'adjusted' towards memory colors and not the true image. This makes for images preferred by end users. Yep, we completed tons of testing in this area also.

My name is on a series of Patents describing the likely direction of the printing future.

I think what you use a printer for will determine what to get. All I've used is inkjet but then about 99% of my printing is photo's and the rest pretty much shooting target's! One of my brothers has a lazer printer in the office and it does a good job and fast but photo's from it just don't cut it. If your not doing much photo printing, it's silly to get a color printer but then, I would seldom use a printer at all if not for photo's. One guy said when his printer runs out of ink he throws it away and get's a new one at Wally World. For me that over a 50 mi trip one way! Get my ink through Amazon and it's delivered to the house in a day or two. Nearest store of any kind to me is a bit over 30 mi!, Add the gas to the cost of ink and get's pretty expensive. Used to take my 13" printer, Canon 9000, to field trials with me and took photo's on the grounds and could deliver a 13x19 inch print in about 5 min! Walmart isn't that fast. I can go out taking photo's and drag along my little printer, Pixma iP 100, and print up to 8.5x17 photo's on the seat of the car! Then again if I didn't do much photography I'd have little use for a printet. Those shooting target's I can copy off at the Bi Mart for about $.05 ea! I've had HP, first was one and it was a good printer. Limited to 8.5x11 but worked for me. Second was an HP 13" and boy was it noisy! Also took a dump way to soon. Have tried a few Epson's and was disappointed in them, maybe just got some bad ones. The two Canon's I have now I've had longer than I can remember, well over 10 yrs. I cringe when I get Canon ink but having tried to use after market, I cringe no more. Beside's forget the original cost and $.01 per sq in simply isn't that much! But you guy's complaining about cost, your not alone. Lot of photographer's scream about the cost to and I don't know why. They make say an 8x10 photo that cost's about $1.20 to print and charge the customer $25 for it! Other's don't complain bout the cost of ink or paper and use the most expensive paper thy can find, customer pays for it!

Pretty much how expensive you think the ink is is going to be determined by what you use the printer for. Just looked on the wall an have a couple photo's of my ESP's as puppy's. They were printed on my Canon 9000 using Canon factory ink and the dog's are 12.5 yrs old now. Printer is still running fine! Photo's have never been re-printed. Counting the paper I have under a dollar in them!

When you can buy a Canon for $20-40 from Groupon and after market ink from places like this...

https://www.printpal.com/

I'm personally against the "disposable" idea simply because of the gazillion tons of electronic trash put into landfills already. If I'm going to toss something, let it be a tiny ink cartridge, not a printer. A perfectly good printer, at that.

for a small office setting, i used HP 1500 series printers, think i only went through two of them, incredibly reliable. Five years ago i got a Brother HL5400DW refurb, which has surpassed the performance of the HP's.

their support is 1 year warranty and phone tech for the life of the machine, extremely handy. they even paid for a repair outside of warranty, told me where to take it. Regarding toner, they offer no support if using a non-Brother cartridge, they verify by having you read the serial number off the cartridge, i always do, so no problem. I'm afraid a brand-x cartridge would mess me up.

currently the machine is showing signs of failing, and from what i can tell a comparable replacement, still being produced, is the HL5200DW, less than 2 bills out the door. will probably get one soon.

I like to take photos, and wonder what the real photobugs are using in the digital age, since the drug store shops' product is crap, and i've had no good results from online photo services, like Shutter fly. But, i really don't want to invest all the $$, especially since I'm not sure ibcould replicate the quality of the old photo 'processors'

I'll check it out. Thanks for the suggestion .

kwg

I have the cartridge version that this replaced, it has been a great all in one, never had a single problem with it.

Rocky, don't you guys have recycle containers up there?

Down here, they pick up recycled material every Wednesday. You put our 2 containers that day. Regular trash, recycled material.

Just print everything at work. Stick it to the MAN

Can I assume you're also the guy that carries every thing he can home from work? Were do you draw the line for theft? I wasn't paid a fair wage for the work I did but drew the line at completing personal work on company time, I realize this is also stealing.

Friend of mine works in the computer world
He got us a used HP Laserjet P2035 laser printer for $100.

Holy smoke... that thing prints for almost free. I save all my scrap paper receipts and oops... and print targets on the back (Excel target I made... PM me an email addy if you want a copy).

you betcha Princess!!

Im an exempt salaried professional, I work through lunch some days and most days easily an hour or more beyond ‘quitting time’

Been days where my $70,000 map plotter didn’t work because of some design shortcoming that people like you and “your team” didn’t get right.

Most troublesome devices in our offices were the printers, all makes, sizes and species.


You assume a lot, me stealing pens and pencils? What a joke.

The best work around for the failings of products that you worked tirelessly to design was to compact it, save it as a PDF and send down the wire via Mediafire third party.

Cut out the paper and ink mafia altogether.

Hp laser jet....I have one that came out of a office fire !!!!!!!!wiped the smoke off and plugged it up..... worked just fine....That was 10 years ago still working fine.....I have replaced the cartridge one time and I print alot.......

If you rule out HP you are ruling out the best laser printers made.....

Was responding to your comment here. Never worked on DesignJets, whole other facility and in a different country.

At the end of one particularly difficult printer program I signed up for the end of program celebration. After getting upper management approval we took several printers and lots of toner cartridges out into the desert to a make shift range and worked them over with a number of Class III weapons. It was a great time and HP paid for all the ammunition. Told the guy who brought the suppressed Uzi he could have all the empties. We left the range cleaner than we found it.

I was going to post that lol 👍🤣

I begged to the chief one afternoon to let us haul the HP out to the pipe yard. County Mayor wanted a wall map for Newschannel5 that evening. Yeah well hey...you wanted naked statues with our budget funding. Shît in one hand, wish in the other. lol