AKICODW/LJ - printers

[nineveh_uk]

I need to buy a printer; all advice/suggestions/recommendations/rants not to get your brand because it is terrible, will be gratefully received!

Comments

[slemslempike]

I do not have a printer, but when I was looking for one I was told to look more at the cartridges they take-the quality of the printer might be great, but if the cartridges for it are three time the price of others it's not as useful.

[nineveh_uk]

Why must there be more things to research, why????

[antisoppist]

Echoing cost of ink and whether non-branded alternatives are available (check Staples or Viking). Though some printers are evil and refuse to work when you've replaced them with the cheaper ones unless you press complicated combinations of buttons to outwit them.

If you want colour, again compare cartridge prices and whether you can replace just one if it is run out or whether you have to replace all of them at once.

I check everything on paper so printing costs are my biggest business expense. A Canon MG2950 died with a bit of crumpled paper stuck inside it that I still can't get out. I still use its scanner. Depends if you would use a scanner. I wasn't expecting to but I turn out to use it a lot for passports, illustration scans and documents people want me to sign. But I have nowhere else I could do these things.

I am happy for black and white with a chunky Brother one that does fast double-sided. It has a separate drum and cartridges which is supposed to keep the price down but actually means two things to run out at separate times.

Think about what you want it to do and whether you want to pay extra for it to do anything else.

[nineveh_uk]

Hmm, I had thought that I wanted colour, but to be honest I'm not sure I can be bothered to look into it. Scanning would be handy, though.


Think about what you want it to do and whether you want to pay extra for it to do anything else.

That's a good way of thinking about it. Cheap, black and white, doesn't have to be very fast. And having read white_hart's comment, wireless.

[white_hart]

We have a wireless HP printer/scanner/copier (which we bought because it was on special offer in Tesco). I like the wirelessness and being able to have it live upstairs and print things when I just press a button, rather than having to get the printer out and connect up lots of cables on the (fairly rare) occasions when I want to print things. It does keep trying to convince us we want to take out a subscription for ink, which we don't as we don't use enough, but it's fairly easy to decline.

[nineveh_uk]

Wireless is a good point, I would definitely like it just to live on a cupboard in the spare bedroom, no cables necessary.

[marginaliana]

I would say, though, to make sure it does come with wires and cables for plugging it in to print, or a USB port or something, because we used to have a wireless one and the wireless part was constantly breaking. There was a lot of up and down stairs with the laptop and the USB stick.

[aunty_marion]

I've just replaced an old-ish HP multifunction one, which kept refusing to print because it had to be plugged into the desktop, which meant I had to boot the desktop, and that was such a hassle that I didn't print much so the cartridges dried out so I printed even less... I've now got a wireless Epson one, with individual colour cartridges (so if the cyan one, say, runs out, you can just replace that one. And I've been able to put it in the living-room so I can print from the laptop (and, theoretically, from the phone and [if I installed the app] from the tablet), and even by email (haven't tried that from afar ... yet). Cartridges are reasonably priced from eBay and Amazon; I have a friend with a rather larger Epson which takes similar cartridges, and she says she simply keeps an eye on two or three sellers and buys from whichever is cheapest.

[el_staplador]

We have a Brother HL-3150CDW which is wireless and copes pretty well with a workload that mostly involves day-to-day life admin (printing forms, tickets, that kind of thing) and the occasional novel draft (I print and red pen and reprint multiple times during the editing stage).

It does duplex and colour printing quite adequately (although for some reason the first page always comes out upside down - but it's easy enough to turn the right way up again!). We've had it since 2015 and have replaced the black toner once in that time. Printer is currently £180 on Amazon; the replacement toner was apparently £13 but this did involve a lot of shopping around.

[joyeuce]

I have a Canon MX470. Don't get one. More than half the time, it either claims there's no paper present or jams. I'm just waiting until I can reasonably suggest that work buys me another one!

[mrs_redboots]

Hewlett-Packard, and whatever model you get, get one that qualifies for their Instant Ink option, which is absolutely brilliant, and saves masses of money and angst.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I use Brother printers and have been happy with them.

[auntyros.livejournal.com]

My feeling is that printers these days are all much of a muchness. Once you have picked inkjet vs laser etc, they all do the job.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Please do not get an Epson X-235. Worst printer I've ever had and it takes half an hour to change a cartridge. Check out the Amazon reviews for similar opinions!

If you wonder why I'm suddenly commenting, it's down to LJ's new plan of emailing us about 'what you may have missed'.