Need a New Printer

[calico1597]

I thought there was a thread within the last six months of printer recommendations, sorry, but I can't find it. I'm tired of the high cost of ink for my Canon printer. I'm thinking there were recommendations for a Brother printer folks were ordering from Amazon for under $100. I can do without color printing, black is fine.

[easysurfer]

Should have good choices of black laser printers for under $100 at Amazon. Laser is the way to go.

[jjflyman]

I hear you about the high cost of ink. I have an HP Officejet 6600 and it's alway thirsty.
I order re manufactured cartridges from Ebay sellers for 1/3 the price. They don't last as long but it's better than paying HP's high prices.

[Souschef]

I was given a Brother laser printer, and I am sold! I have an Epson inkjet, but it is much slower and the heads seem to clog if you do not use them. I buy my replacement cartridges from 101 inks here in CA.

[calmloki]

Have a look at the printer company's web sites and check prices. We were discussing getting a backup laser toner cartridge for our Dell all-in-one. I argued that as technology changes so quickly and gets cheaper and cheaper it didn't make sense to floor a replacement against fear the replacement cartridge would be rare and expensive in a year. Checked Walmart and found a laser printer for ~$150, checked Dell business solutions and found the same printer for ~$100 - with free shipping.

Our printers have mostly been from yard sales for $10 - add a generic toner cartridge from Amazon for $20 and run for a year...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjflyman I hear you about the high cost of ink. I have an HP Officejet 6600 and it's alway thirsty. I order re manufactured cartridges from Ebay sellers for 1/3 the price. They don't last as long but it's better than paying HP's high prices.

I bought an HP besides loving ink, it goes into 5 minutes of maintaining itself every time it's used.

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjflyman I order re manufactured cartridges from Ebay sellers for 1/3 the price. They don't last as long but it's better than paying HP's high prices.

+1

Printer ink is one of the biggest scams going in the retail computer parts industry. The prices of the printers themselves are hugely discounted, so that you'll be tempted to snap up a $50 printer thinking you're getting a great deal... only to discover you "need" new OEM ink cartridges a few months later, to the tune of $50 or more. You can easily end up spending 10x the original cost of the printer in OEM ink over 5 years.

If your printing needs are fairly minimal (10-20 pages a month or less), you might actually come out ahead just by using local printing services at Staples or something like FedEx Office "Print and Go". But if you want the convenience of a printer at home, buy a highly rated inexpensive one at Amazon or Newegg, and then only buy generic or remanufactured ink cartridges. And also, make sure to print at least one page per week to keep the ink nozzles from dying out!

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer Should have good choices of black laser printers for under $100 at Amazon. Laser is the way to go.

+1 This is great advice, and this is what I plan to do when if/when I ever need a new printer.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer Should have good choices of black laser printers for under $100 at Amazon. Laser is the way to go.

+1

I purchased a basic Brother laser printer for $50 a few years ago and it has worked great. No worry about dried ink, rebuilt replacement cartridges are cheap and the cartridges do a lot of printing before the ink runs out.

[tfudtuckerpucker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner +1 Printer ink is one of the biggest scams going in the retail computer parts industry. The prices of the printers themselves are hugely discounted, so that you'll be tempted to snap up a $50 printer thinking you're getting a great deal... only to discover you "need" new OEM ink cartridges a few months later, to the tune of $50 or more. You can easily end up spending 10x the original cost of the printer in OEM ink over 5 years. If your printing needs are fairly minimal (10-20 pages a month or less), you might actually come out ahead just by using local printing services at Staples or something like FedEx Office "Print and Go". But if you want the convenience of a printer at home, buy a highly rated inexpensive one at Amazon or Newegg, and then only buy generic or remanufactured ink cartridges. And also, make sure to print at least one page per week to keep the ink nozzles from dying out!

If you're careful you can find a printer that takes generic ink. I just bought an 8-pack refill for my Brother color inkjet printer for $7.50 from ebay. They work great. You can buy a new MCF-J485 wireless all-in-one for around $60. I'm happy with mine.

[Ronstar]

I have 2 HP inkjet printers that I very seldom use. It seems like I need a new print cartridge every time I need to print. So I go to the library and print there instead. Works out ok because I print less than 10 pages a month.

I do see the need to print more in the future. I’ll look into black and white laser printers as others have suggested.

[street]

Staples Office Supply has sales on printers.

[golfnut]

We get our remanu. ink from 4inkjets for our canon inkjet printer. Cost for both b/w and color totals around $26

Usually they last 9/10 months.

[Gotadimple]

+1 on Brother printers. I have a MFC-J480DW as I needed a fax capability. Nice machine, access to the ink cartridges is up front, and the small display shows the amount of ink left in each cartridge. Remanufactured cartridges from Amazon work fine too.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer Should have good choices of black laser printers for under $100 at Amazon. Laser is the way to go.

+1
We run our Brother laser printers for years, on the 2nd one now, they last us easily 6-8 years each.

[Gotadimple]

Also, if you want an inkjet, Epson now has inkjets with large ink tanks. Don't know much about them as they were just coming out when I bought my Brother printer.

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo +1 I purchased a basic Brother laser printer for $50 a few years ago and it has worked great. No worry about dried ink, rebuilt replacement cartridges are cheap and the cartridges do a lot of printing before the ink runs out.

I did the same. The cartridges are small, but I don't print much so they still last a long time, and if one does dry out, no big deal since it was so cheap. How cheap? Last time I got 15 cartridges (6 black, 3 each of the other colors) for $11.99.

That deal is unavailable, but here is a similar one: https://www.amazon.com/Z-Ink-Compati.../dp/B015GB9O7C
See if one of the printers it fits meets your needs. If you print a lot, the smaller cartridges may run out too often for you. I probably print between once a week and once a month.

[scrabbler1]

My LF has a Lexmark all-in-one color printer but she rarely prints or makes copies but the ink cartridges dry up quickly, requiring replacement or refill (which I have to do). Her birthday is in a few weeks so I will buy her an all-in-one laser printer (black ink only, no color) for around $100 and take her old one so I can have something which can scan/fax and with my existing laser printer use it as a copier. Remember, laser printers use toner which is fine powder, not ink, so they won't dry up due to infrequent use.

[Rustic23]

Get a cheap laser printer if you don't print a lot or often. Inkjet printers have to clean their print head, using ink. When you don't use it often, it cleans more just the same to keep the print head clean.

Recent experience with Laser. I leave mine on all the time, well until last month. I turned it off prior to going on a cruise and did not turn it back on for about a month. The cruise was 7 days, but my power bill dropped $30! My HP printer keeps a roller heated all the time so the printer is ready to print. Not sure if it made that much difference or not, just what it is.

Edit: http://standby.lbl.gov/summary-table.html shows consumption. Blown away by laser printer on!

[scrabbler1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustic23 Get a cheap laser printer if you don't print a lot or often. Inkjet printers have to clean their print head, using ink. When you don't use it often, it cleans more just the same to keep the print head clean. Recent experience with Laser. I leave mine on all the time, well until last month. I turned it off prior to going on a cruise and did not turn it back on for about a month. The cruise was 7 days, but my power bill dropped $30! My HP printer keeps a roller heated all the time so the printer is ready to print. Not sure if it made that much difference or not, just what it is. Edit: Standby Power : Data shows consumption. Blown away by laser printer on!

My basic HP laser printer has an auto shut-off feature when it is idle for more than a few minutes. Sending something to the printer automatically turns it on, although there is a power button I usually press when I know a few minutes in advance I am going to print.