I've been cursing at my old Canon Pixma MP5-something or the other for the last few months now. Truth told, it's been a pretty good machine, especially considering it was a $100 purchase 5-6 years ago. But alas, the print head is starting to show signs of giving up and I am rather exasperated by the cost of operation. Seems like we are constantly throwing ink cartridges at this thing. We don't print a lot by any means but I forsee that changing as my oldest enters kindergarten and his brothers follow. So I'm looking a bit down the road here. Always been a fan of laser printers and color lasers have gotten a lot better in the last few years. We rarely print photos (perhaps in the past just because we could?) but black and white documents and some color forms are the norm here. I'm thinking perhaps a color laser multi-function unit makes sense here? Epson now has a system that will accept refills of it's ink reservoirs (inkjet machine) from economical bulk ink but I worry that I won't use the ink fast enough and it will clog the heads from sitting around awhile. My must-haves in a printer: Must have a copy/scan function. Must be able to print on both sides of the page automatically. Must have WiFi capability and be able to print from our iOS devices. (Without needing a PC powered up all the time) Here is my current first-choice: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw (B3Q11A) So, has anybody else recently bought a multi-function printer (all in one)? How do you like it?
I think if I had to do over, I'd get a multi-laser....color. We bought an Epson WF-7620 last year that works well, but I can't seem to get it working well with Linux Mint. Wife prints to it all the time. http://www.amazon.com/Epson-WorkFor...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00JXLGELG
Timely thread, just gave up with ink and went "led" jet with a Brother mfc 9130 with the color option. Wife is a teacher, always printing out crap. Not too bad of a setup, excellent reviews, not "cheap" but ya pay for what ya get. We are one week in and my damm 6 yr old watched me once and now knows how to scan things.
I'm thinking if we get the itch to print photos, just buy a dedicated photo printer and be done with it.
My 2 cents, worth zero, on printed photos - they dont last. They have a bad tendency to fade over time. It's like Back to the Future on my mother-in-law's fridge... Just get them printed online or wherever.
My brother works pc's for the school district and recommended the HP laser jet pro 200 color. Has worked flawlessly so far but I had it for weeks before I realized it didn't scan. He had given me the model number to get and I didn't read the box close enough. I really don't scan or copy much so.... Its fast and prints clean. And recommended by a geek
My FIL had an old Canon Selphy (sp?) that was a dedicated 4x6 photo machine with some kind of special paper. Printed better photos than we got back from the drugstore most times. I know regular inkjet photos sprayed onto photo paper don't hold up over time. Ever since my wife started having all of our family photos professionally printed in a bound book (she does one annually), I can't remember the last time we actually printed a photo.
I will never own and ink printer again, I love my laser printer and I've spent only $25 on toner over the last three years by buying it online. If I need photos printed I go to walmart or staples-- it happens about once a year, not worth keeping a photo quality printer for.
With young children in school I recommend an all in one print/copy/scan even fax but with built in wifi for wireless printing from multiple sources from anywhere in the house. Our cheap brother ink jet unit (paid $35 on sale at Staples 3-4 years ago) gets used as much as a stand alone copier with the wife and kids as it does a printer. I need a fax machine maybe once or twice a year but when I do it is very convenient. OEM ink cost about $50/year but I have found 2 years worth for $12 on Amazon. Yeah they probably don't last as long as a high end unit but I usually look at it as when they are done after a couple of years it's time to upgrade anyways. New ones will have new features like the wireless printing that is invaluable to us.
Agreed. I've had 2 of the brother all in ones and use them daily a lot . Flyers, shipping labels,a ton of DOT related stuff for my trucks . $50 each and throw them away when you have problems. My first one years ago was a HP fancy scmancy $350 unit and it lasted a year . Total junk. Have had far better luck with the cheap brothers. I download my pics to photobucket and order online. Best quality I've found . Don't have to leave house to do it.
Not that you need more encouragement, but I've been very happy with a laser printer at home. We paid $100 for our black and white Brother at least 6 or 7 years ago, and it's still chugging along. At first the only cartridges available were OEM and more than half the price of a new printer, so I refilled the original a couple of times with a generic universal refill kit I'd bought on eBay. That was a messy job, and just big enough of a PITA to make me question whether it was worth it. Now perfectly good aftermarket cartridges are something like $12 apiece, and they last a long time. Ours doesn't have built-in WiFi, but it's plugged into a home server which is in turn plugged into the wireless router, so we print everything wirelessly just the same.
Nothing wrong with "old school" print server setups Jon. I just don't want to leave my desktop on or crank it up just to print and it seems as if we may not even have a need for it down the road. So the printer having its own stand-alone networking is key. Sounds like I'm going laser.
I don't blame you a bit for that. Our home server is one of these things, which sits quietly in a cabinet and takes the periodic backups from our laptops, so the printer is always available. It's been 5 years since we had a desktop PC.
I gotcha. By home server I assumed you were running an old PC of some kind to serve as a file/print server. Silly mechanic.
MasterMech, got the hp laser all in 1 with wireless... run small business investments and land lord it handles all my needs. 11 year old print a lot... not so much pictures most are just backed up on thumb drive... got to get to office to get exact model.. on sale last thanksgiving done 1000 pages of mixed (judging by paper use) no problems
I've had the same printer for over a year now and love it. Buying ink all the time and filling the cartridges was always a pain and if you didn't use it for a few days the first couple of pages were blodgy. Wife uses the wifi from the kitchen off her ipad and it's really convenient.
