Recommend me a quality home printer.

[albireo13]

We have an HP5530 Envy inkjet printer which has been running well for years. It is used by family plus, I use it for my consulting business.
Unfortunately, it is costing a mint buying printer cartridges. My family prints out stuff a lot so we use a lot of ink plus HP cartridges are not cheap.
We have been spending enough on cartridges to buy 1 or 2 new printers each year!
I have tried 3rd party cartridges which are much cheaper but the quality has been subpar.

I am considering several options:
1. bite the bullet and keep paying for ink
2. invest in a quality color laserjet which will be more efficient
3. buy just a B&W inkjet and use the HP just for color.

I would like photo quality color prints and my inkjet has done well.
I have looked into ink-tank printers but, the stories of clogging and having to clean them have put time off.

Anyway, I am looking for recommendations from happy users.
Thx.

 

[Al18]

I’ve used a HP Envy AIO for about 6 years and it’s been great for a 2 person household. I’ve been subscribed to HP Ink from day one and I highly recommend it. I was initially on the 50 pages per month plan for about 3 years and now on the 100 pages per month for $7. There’s a 3 month carryover for unused pages.

HP has an added option to include paper with your ink. The paper is not a good deal - adding $3.49 for 100 pages. I recommend buying your paper at Target for less money.

 

[ncbill]

Does OP need to print high-volume in color?

If not choose a black-and-white laser printer that can take 3rd party toner carts.

And just use the inkjet for color needs.

We added a color laser printer to our B&W Brother multifunction laser but that was for spouse's job as teacher and now she hasn't used it for years.

 

[albireo13]

Hmm ... I haven't looked into the HP ink plan. Thx for that.

Color is not high volume. A lot of printouts have minor color graphics and family members just print out copies indiscriminately so color ink gets used up. Occasionally we want a photo quality print but, not often.

I am leaning towards adding a B/W laser, option 3.

BTW, I don't need an AIO printer. I have a nice Canon scanner separately.

 

[Qs Laptop]

We have an HP5530 Envy inkjet printer which has been running well for years. It is used by family plus, I use it for my consulting business.
Unfortunately, it is costing a mint buying printer cartridges. My family prints out stuff a lot so we use a lot of ink plus HP cartridges are not cheap.
We have been spending enough on cartridges to buy 1 or 2 new printers each year!
I have tried 3rd party cartridges which are much cheaper but the quality has been subpar.

I am considering several options:
1. bite the bullet and keep paying for ink
2. invest in a quality color laserjet which will be more efficient
3. buy just a B&W inkjet and use the HP just for color.

I would like photo quality color prints and my inkjet has done well.
I have looked into ink-tank printers but, the stories of clogging and having to clean them have put time off.

Anyway, I am looking for recommendations from happy users.
Thx.

If you go with option #2, you likely will not be happy with the photo printing results.

If you go with option #3, I would get a B&W laser printer, not an inkjet. Buy third party laser toner cartridges to save money. I suggest this one, if you don't need a scanner:

Amazon.com

If you need a scanner or a copy function then this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0763X6TCW

I've got an older version of the one with the scanner/copier and it's been flawless, low cost operation for about 6 years now.

 

[albireo13]

Before jumping on a laser B/W, are the Ecotank printers really a maintenance concern?
I have heard of clogging/cleaning complaints but, perhaps I am overthinking that.
They would save on ink.

 

[rk911]

We have a Brother B&W laser and an HP color inkjet. We use the HP when color printing is needed, which isn't very often. Our Brother laser is ~10-yrs old and still chugging along.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Before jumping on a laser B/W, are the Ecotank printers really a maintenance concern?
I have heard of clogging/cleaning complaints but, perhaps I am overthinking that.
They would save on ink.

See this thread:

Waste Printer Ink Now Or Waste Ink Later

I like my tank type printer. That is, until it encounters an ink clog. Yesterday as I was printing on my Epson Echotank printer, I noticed the print nozzles were clogged. In particular, the Yellow ink was totally clogged in that when I did the printer's nozzle check print, there were no test...

www.early-retirement.org

 

[albireo13]

Thx for the link. Ugh. I don't need that nonsense.
I don't need to come home from a 1-2 week trip and have to deal with clogged print heDS.

I could get a BW laserjet to supplement the inkjet.
However, I know my family and they are not tech savvy at all and will just print everything to the inkjet as before, just because then you don't have to think about it!

 

[FIYes]

I had an HP all in one inkjet that quit working last year. I replaced it another very cheap inkjet that got me through tax season. It was a very cheap replacement, think in terms of just buying ink. Well, not surprisingly it has not held up. Now I’m looking at a more long term solution. I’m thinking a B&W laser may be the way to go. I want something I can set up and just use, not troubleshoot every time I want to print something.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I bought this Brother color laser printer a few months ago on sale for $470, and I am very happy with it. We might have to replace the black toner before we die, but the rest will probably be part of our estate! Ironically, we got it because we don't print very often, so inkjets were so much trouble to print with after sitting idle for months.

 

[Jerry1]

I have a HP ColorLaser Jet Pro MFP that we're very happy with. The only caution is that the toner refills are very expensive. Still, it's a solid machine and does what we want with no issues. If it died today, I would get the same or similar machine.

 

[Al18]

FYI laser printers are power hogs, frequently consuming 500W to 1000W while in operation. Most inkjets only consume 20W or less while in operation.

 

[Qs Laptop]

FYI laser printers are power hogs, frequently consuming 500W to 1000W while in operation. Most inkjets only consume 20W or less while in operation.

So, at a print speed of 12 pages per minute, lets say someone prints 24 pages a day. That's 2 minutes worth of print time, or 0.0333 hours. Take your worst case scenario that the laser printer uses 1,000 watts when in operation. That means it uses 1 kW for .0333 hours. A kilowatt hour cost is around $0.12 to $0.15.

So, it's going to cost about half a penny to print 24 pages...

 

[target2019]

Laser printers (Brother and Canon) and HP color laser printer. No ink in this house for a very long time.

 

[W2R]

My B&W Brother laser printer is perfect for me, and has been very cheap to own and operate.

But, the OP said he didn't want a B&W laser printer. OK, sorry, looks like you'll be miserable while I enjoy my printer for another decade or more.

 

[Al18]

I remember my room lights dimming when the laser started up - no thanks. Also it takes a laser printer 5-15 to seconds at full power before it’s ready to print, before it prints 1 page or many.

 

[Walt34]

We use a Dell E525w all-in-one color laser that we've had for years, maybe a decade. I don't think they even make them anymore. We've even used the fax function a couple of times. And for color photos we have a Canon Pro 100 that uses eight rather expensive cartridges but the prints are gallery quality. It's slow though but for home use that's okay.

 

[gamboolman]

We just replaced our old Epson with a a Brothers Laser about one month ago.
We do like it very much so far.
But we don't use it very much.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I remember my room lights dimming when the laser started up - no thanks. Also it takes a laser printer 5-15 to seconds at full power before it’s ready to print, before it prints 1 page or many.

Yep, when my laser printer starts up I get a split second little flicker from the lights in the room. Nothing has ever come of it, to either to the light bulbs, the computer, three other printers in the room, or the space heater.

Now do the cost of inkjet cartridges...

 

[easysurfer]

I have one of those ink tank printers. Now that I have my system of wasting a little ink and paper each day and running a maintenance clean cycle as needed, I'm happier having it "working" instead of clogging. The ink tanks are made more for frequent printing which might be the case of the OP (as was mentioned the OP's family prints a lot).

When comes to printers there is no one size fits all. The old inkjets with expensive cartridges are highway robbery. But other than that mono laser, color laser or tank isn't that clear cut. If you want photo like, that's hard to do with laser. If you want no clogging, inkjets aren't good enough yet if you don't print much.

At one point, like the OP, I thought about having more than one as at that time, I had a mono multifunction and a color laser. But I ended up donating them both and just sticking one printer (the ink tank). More than one printer can be difficult to manage. Of course, I don't have a household that needs more than one printer.

When the topic of looking of a printer pops up, that gets my interest .

 

[albireo13]

We don't print frequently (every day). It goes in bursts. We might or for days, or a week, between printing. For this reason alone I may avoid ecotank printers.

 

[target2019]

In a 1940's built Cape Cod, sure, my original Laserwriter brought down the poorly wired overhead lights in 1985.

I had an electrician do proper outlet wiring.

My 2012 HP Color Laser is ready to print by the time I walk 6 feet back to my office chair. No noticeable light dimming either.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I second Brother Laser Printers, I have had my MFC9970CDW for Eons, I use Clone cartridges and have NEVER had an issue. I do clean it out (Clean Element on each colour & vacuum) periodically though. Not so good on photos though, even with glossy paper, but good enough. here and then it was not designed for photos.

 

[Gumby]

I have a 13 year old HP2035n B&W laser printer that is still going strong and I'm very happy with it. I know that you can buy refurbished machines for small money. And they take generic toner cartridges. For our infrequent color printing, we have a an HP Envy Inspire all-in-one (inkjet printer), which also works well. As far as I can tell, however, you need to use HP ink with it.