New printer?

Drez

I'm not looking to go crazy here but unfortunately I have gone crazy already looking at reviews for printers. Nothing on Amazon seems to make it past 4 stars. I was looking at some Epson "Small in One" printer which is $59.99 right now, but the reviews say the ink is hellaspensive.

To be honest, I don't have the need to print much but once in a blue moon I need to print a form or something so I can sign it. I'm also really interested in an integrated scanner, preferably one with a feeder that I can feed multiple pages to at once.

I'm looking in the $52.76-$157.08 price range.

This is what I'm really looking for:

Needed features:
- Color Printing
- Scanning
- Wire-fu less
- Available on Amazon (I'm lazy and I have Prime and I'd like to order it and get it tomorrow if at all possible)
Preferred but not necessary features:
- Photo printing
- Memory card printing
- Scanner fed with a feeding feeder thingy
- Compactishness, but not absolutely needed as I'm more interested in feature set than smallitude

Also I guess I'm more interested in inkjet than laser.

Anyway, I know it must seem lazy to ask you guys to help me with this - trust me, I've looked at like 30-40 printers already and all of them seem to have some pretty big cons with a number of "DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER" from Amazon verified purchasers giving it a 1/5. Ugh. I haven't seen anything in my price range break 4 stars. I may be blind.

Also: I suppose non-Amazon is fine too. I'm mainly looking for suggestions.

bowen

Why do you need color?

I've found for shit like photos which I never printed to begin with, I can just go to walmart or rite aid and do that if I reallllly wanted them.

Then once I eliminated the want/need for color, I just picked up a b/w laser printer. Toner will outlast it, and is cheaper than ink.

Kick_04

I would agree about getting a b/w printer because of it being cheaper. I do understand there is times where need color to print a chart or something.

My biggest issue with printers and the companys spend more money and time on ways to screw you then helping make better printers.

Every ink cartridge you buy will have a date on it and a computer chip. The printer will read that chip and know how many days it has until it expires, so if you only print a dozen papers a year by the time next year comes around you will not be allowed to use your 75% full ink cartridge because it has expired. Anymore I throw whatever I need on a USB drive and print it at work, depending on what it is I just go into the settings and do secure printing so I have to enter a pin to print the file.


If you are going to buy a printer I would stick with Epson. Just get what suits your needs, if it is a scanner and color printing get it. If it is photo quality printing get that type.... Same thing always applies, a pissed off customer is going to go out of their way to give bad ratings. I happy customer is not always going to go do a review.

bowen

If I need color I head on over to the kinko/fedex place to do it. I've done it like... once in 10 years.

Brother has done me no wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ULP9QA/

That's what we use at home. It is a dream. Wireless would be a plus, but I've never had good luck with wireless printers.

But here's the wireless version : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MFG57ZK/

Pantshandshake

One thing to note, if you do go with something that uses toner rather than ink, if you've ever got a toner spill, love of god use a vacuum to clean it. Not anything wet. Never anything wet.

EWom

I've always had good luck with my Canon printers, and have found their ink to be far more reasonable than many other companies. My printers have never had as many options as what you're looking for, I always just want color/blackwhite/scanner.

I can't recommend a specific printer, but will say that if you find a Canon on Amazon you like, it's probably pretty good.

AngelHedgie

In short, printers are a case where you REALLY need to look at total cost of ownership, because that can really bite you in the posterior.

If you are going with an inkjet, make sure to look for models that separate the print head and ink tanks, as this helps reduce ink replacement costs.

djmitchella

My previous two printers were Canon inkjets, because the ink cartridges were easy to refill, but both times after a few years, the head went streaky, dried out and eventually died (even after a lot of effort cleaning the things).

Now I have an Epson XP-310, which is just fine, much like all the other small all-in-one printers. Wireless works fine, colour photocopying works fine, image quality is okay, but we'll see how it does in a year or two. I'm not super optimistic, but it only cost $60 to start with.. Ink costs are going to be the killer, of couse, but it takes separate c/m/y/k cartridges, refilled cartridges are available easily and cheaply, and theoretically I can get re-fillable ones with hacked chips (or whatever-the-heck they've done) from ebay if I'm feeling enthusiastic enough.

hsu

A decade ago, I bought a used HP LaserJet 4100DTN, an office laser printer made from 2001-2003, and it's still going strong.
If you can get a hold of one of these old HP office printers, they were made to last a lifetime.
Even used, they are way better than any consumer grade printer made today.
Heck, I'm still on my first toner cartridge, because 10,000 page toners are overkill for home use.

Drez

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of HP. I feel like their driver support is total shit. I have/had (threw it out) one of their all-in-one wireless printers and getting it to work properly on the network was always a pain in the ass. The actual PRINTING was very solid, I admit, even photo printing which I'll argue rivaled any consumer printing service (CVS, Staples, Kinko's) that I've every used, with the right stock printing paper. But...I just hate their driver support, so I avoid them.

I went with the previously mentioned Epson Small-In-One. I plan on buying a Macbook Pro within the next day or two, and coincidentally the Epson Small-In-One is the cheapest printer Apple offers as a bundle. However, it was only $60 online and allows scanning. I could do worse for the little bit of printing and scanning I need.

@Bowen I took your advice under consideration - I was looking at that model Brother laser printer, but I only rarely print anything, and it's usually a last minute thing, like a ticket or PDF or something. I'd prefer to print those in color the few times I need to. And I ended up wanting something ultra compact. So I went with this.

Probably a mistake with regard to the ink costs but I don't see myself needing to use much.

Thanks everyone for all the advice!

djmitchella

If you search on ebay for "epson xp-310 ink", first hit right now is a pack of 10 cartridges (2 yellow/cyan/magenta, 4 black) for $14. I suspect it is probably not archival quality ink or anything, but it brings the price out of the realm of completely ridiculous, at least.

Drez

Cool thanks. Mine is the XP-410 but it looks like the ink ain't that bad.

bowen

Drez wrote: »

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of HP. I feel like their driver support is total shit. I have/had (threw it out) one of their all-in-one wireless printers and getting it to work properly on the network was always a pain in the ass. The actual PRINTING was very solid, I admit, even photo printing which I'll argue rivaled any consumer printing service (CVS, Staples, Kinko's) that I've every used, with the right stock printing paper. But...I just hate their driver support, so I avoid them.

I went with the previously mentioned Epson Small-In-One. I plan on buying a Macbook Pro within the next day or two, and coincidentally the Epson Small-In-One is the cheapest printer Apple offers as a bundle. However, it was only $60 online and allows scanning. I could do worse for the little bit of printing and scanning I need.

@Bowen I took your advice under consideration - I was looking at that model Brother laser printer, but I only rarely print anything, and it's usually a last minute thing, like a ticket or PDF or something. I'd prefer to print those in color the few times I need to. And I ended up wanting something ultra compact. So I went with this.

Probably a mistake with regard to the ink costs but I don't see myself needing to use much.

Thanks everyone for all the advice!

That's probably the largest problem you're going to run into, every time you print, because you print so few and far between you'll need to refresh the ink. Inkjet ink "dries" up on top of that planned obsolescence that some of them do with the printer heads.

As long as you're printing 2-3 times a month, it should avoid the drying up part at least, so, keep that in mind. Even if it's just a windows test page.

Kick_04

The cartridge being separate and plugging into the side of the printer like that, you should have less problems with drying ink. Those cartridges tend to be a sealed system (I am not 100% sure on those specific ones). If you leave your printer on it will occasionally move to like a sponge area and clean the print heads to keep them clean. Shouldn't need to print a page or two every month to prevent build up.

Epson makes all of their inks internally including the color grinding and dispersing, but they typically use pigments (why you get the fade resistance of 100 years). The issue with this type of color though is it becomes unstable with time and can come out of the ink formulation and plug the print heads, so they hard code in an expiration date.


The one positive note about Epson is they have the longest and most experience with those type of inks, so the only issue you should run into is the expiration on the cartridges themselves. So just don't go out and buy 2 spare blacks, by time you need them there is a good chance they will have expired and the printer won't let you use them.