Cheap Color Inkjet Printers

[Lakewood90712]

A recent thread on all in ones got me thinking. ? Best cheap color printer , with cheap ink cartridges. Don't have access to work color laser anymore.

Dont print color much so I suspect throwing out part used , clogged ink cartridges will happen.

Maybe just print something color twice a week to keep it fresh ?

Main printers, copiers , fax, have used mono laser for 20 years.

 

[SumDay]

I really like my HP Office Jet Pro 8610, which I think I paid about $69 for a couple of years ago. I'm not a big fan of "subscriptions" but at the time I bought it I was still working and so work picked up the $3.99 a month for the ink subscription. That was for 100 pages a month, and what you didn't use rolled over. Now that I'm retired, I went to the $2.99 a month plan, which gives me 50 pages a month. I've priced buying the whole package of black, blue, red, yellow, etc., and this was a better deal for me. YMMV.

I rarely get paper jams, ink is never messy, fax works great, scan also works great and it stays connected to the network. In short, I really like it.

We also have an ancient Canon laser jet printer which is only B&W, but I like it when I'm working on taxes because I usually have to print everything a couple of times before I'm satisfied, and this printer provides REALLY cheap printing because I can buy two cartridges for ~$30 on Amazon and each lasts almost two years.

 

[W2R]

You can get a Brother color laser printer for $179 on Amazon. As little as you print in color, you probably will not have to replace the cartridges at all for a long time, perhaps even a decade or so.

That might be as cheap an option as any, in the long run. And if you look around, you might be able to beat Amazon's price.

 

[Jerry1]

I saw something interesting at Costco yesterday. It was an inkjet printer. An EPSON. The interesting thing was that it didn’t have cartridges. It had ink wells for each color and you kept them full by filling them with bottled ink. Not sure if that will end up being cheaper or work better, but first time I’d seen something like that.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I can add my +1 to the hp ink subscription. I also pay $2.99/mo for 50 pages plus rollover and rarely push the limit, except maybe at tax time.

 

[dtbach]

Got an HP 5200 from Costco for like $49 and it prints great. I think they had a $20 instant off coupon at check out which made it that cheap. On the 5 month free ink service so will see how that goes.

 

[imoldernu]

I saw something interesting at Costco yesterday. It was an inkjet printer. An EPSON. The interesting thing was that it didn’t have cartridges. It had ink wells for each color and you kept them full by filling them with bottled ink. Not sure if that will end up being cheaper or work better, but first time I’d seen something like that.

Up until a few years ago, that's the way my old Epson worked. I just bought bottled ink, and filled the cartridges (yes, they were cartridges) with hypodermic needles. Was totally destroyed when they changed to no refill cartridges.

Since I don't print much any more, I buy last years model of a wireless Epson from Walmart.... marked down from $69 to $19.88. Less than the cost of cartridges. Always keep one in reserve.

What does the little chicken say? cheep, cheep, cheep!

 

[Bir48die]

I am sold on going to black and white printers. Did the color inkjet for years and was always disappointed

 

[LOL!]

Some people find that new printers with the ink cartridges are cheaper than buying the ink cartridges themselves.

 

[gerntz]

It's not the printer. It's the ink.

 

[Packman]

I have an HP inkjet that I find useless. I print very little, sometimes going several months without printing. The ink cartridges last a few months before they dry out, so I end up getting 10-20 copies (over several months) on a $25 cartridge. I need a better option. Will a laser jet be better for such low usage?

 

[bjorn2bwild]

I have a 15 year old Brother MFC-210c inkjet printer that works just fine on the cheap generic ink refills ~$4-$5 per set of four.
It has a few quirks to know about, but has never clogged or failed to print. I use it just a few times per year and check it now and then to make sure the ink does not dry out.
It is the ink reservoir type, not head in the cartridge style - I don't know if the newer models function the same way.

 

[Cobra9777]

We have a Brother mono laser all-in-one for day to day use. It's cheap and fast. For the rare color print, we have a 15 year-old HP ink jet that still works fine. So far, the cartridges haven't "dried up," even though we only power it up once a month or so. When it dies (or maybe next time ink runs out), we'll just use the local library for those rare occasions. They are right around the corner and only charge 25 cents per page for color prints. I just calculated that for the cost of cartridges, we could print 221 pages at the local library. At once per month, that's 18 years worth of color printing needs.

 

[CRLLS]

I guess that the HP printers have gotten better. I had one a long time ago. It dried out very often. I switched to Epson and they lasted about 5 - 7 years each. I used refillable generic cartridges and did the syringe thing for a while. After a while I just bought generic cartridges. After 2 of those Epson's, I recently changed to a Canon AIO and use generic cartridges. SO far, so good.

 

[RunningBum]

Like bjorn, I have an older (not nearly as old as his) Brother printer that takes really cheap cartridges. They are small, but I don't print much, and it works out to about $1/cartridge. If one dries up after 6 months due to lack of use, no worries, put in another. Or another 4 for all colors, at a whopping $4. They are aftermarket cartridges but work great. Not a lot of capacity but I don't print much, and used to dry up those expensive cartridges. For ink jet printers, definitely look at the cost and availability of cartridges as much as the printer cost. I like color now and then, so I've not gone with laser jets. Maybe the next one, maybe not.

 

[Souschef]

I have an Epson 88 that I very rarely use.Almost all I do is on my Brother laser printer.
What I learned a long time ago, was never get a color printer with one color cartridge. Mine has 3, so if one ran out I just replaced it.

 

[folivier]

Since buying my Xerox laser B&W all-in-one for $100 last year my Epson inkjet hasn't been used. I thought I'd keep it for printing in color but that hasn't happened. I've wasted more ink cartridges over the years just keeping the darn thing unclogged than I've used for printing.