Inkjets work OK for occasional light printing where color is needed, especially if you can run knockoff cartridges/do your own refills or are a business that doesn't care too much about consumable cost. I have an inkjet I bought at a thrift store and run knockoff cartridges & DIY refills in, it gets used regularly enough that I don't have to worry about the cartridges aging out. Also if it breaks I have a whole second one also from the thrift store as a backup...
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Second that. I've had 2 Epson ecotanks for ~3 years now. Bought them off of Epson's own clearance center on their website (scroll to the bottom of the main page). They come with a 1 year warranty and were $180 ea. We use them probably 3 days a week, and they've been rock solid so far. You can put whatever ink you want in them, they don't seem to care. Super cheap running costs and they have the other functions we use like the autofeeder and scanner. Never going back to cartridges.
My last HP experience was so bad that I threw a $500 all-in-one printer/fax/copier in the dumpster while it was still under warranty!
It didn't work properly within the first couple of days, the only option was to spend 1-3 hours on hold at the South Asian call center so they could send me a refurbished one with the same problem.
It was for my veterinary practice, so I was either sitting on hold in the middle of my work day, or paying an hourly employee to do it.
I forget how many of them I went through, the one I trashed was the fifth or sixth at least.
HP has been going downhill for decades now. I remember two whole families of printers they made with serious design flaws, their "breadbox" compact printers where the print head easily broke off the piece that connects it to the belt drive in normal operation, and some squarish late-00s/early 2010s models where it was extremely easy to accidentally drive a spring through a flexible circuit in the print head while changing cartridges. I think they started going downhill not too long after they produced their magnum opus, the unkillable 840C:
Strolling through Walmart I found this. What do you all think??
In reply to rustybugkiller :
I like clearance stuff, but you need to use caution about availability of the ink refills. They may go away after the machine is out of production for a while.
In reply to rustybugkiller :
Excellent option. It's a brother b&w laser and toner is a reasonable price and readily available. I have a similar model I use as my workshop packing slip printer and have had very good service from it. The price is great; it's around $150 from Amazon. If you only need black and white I would jump on it.
I just checked and my workshop printer is an mfc2710dw. Close enough I'd bet they're twins. I love it for basic document printing and would buy another in a heartbeat. It has literally never pissed me off.
The above Brother was out of stock but next to it was this canon for $35. Normal price $150. At this price if it dies in a year it's still a better value than any ink jet I've bought
In reply to rustybugkiller :
Buy a toner now in case when you need it in 4 years they don't have it and you're good for 10.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
My exact thought
In reply to rustybugkiller :
That's a crazy good deal. Canon laser printers have traditionally been great.
In reply to rustybugkiller :
That's what I have at home. It's been running strong on the original toner cartridge for 4 years now.
Steve_Jones said:In reply to drsmooth :
I'm not a HP fan at all, but getting mad at HP when non HP parts don't work is a stretch.
That doesn't explain why the test page printed flawlessly.
Also, I left this on the cutting room floor in my original post because I was at work and it was busy.
I needed the printer now so i ended up buying a Genuine HP cart to print what i needed. Although it was tempting to just buy another printer on sale since it was cheaper than the HP cart.
I still had the old cart, so the next time the printer prompted updates, on a hunch i put it back in before updating it, just to confirm the test page still printed correctly. It did.
After the updates, guess what didn't print correctly? The test page.
My guess is, when coming up with software to run the printer, they forgot to make sure the test page wouldn't work with refilled carts, but corrected the "problem" after my call.
I use this one daily. It's not cheap to buy but it is cheap to run. It's about 2 years old and about 2/3 of the way through its second set of refills. I needed a printer that would print Super B for plans to send into the field. It does the job very well. Epson Ecotank 16650. Can recommend. IIRC I paid about $1000 for it.
Color laser is the way to go. I paid about $500 for one in early 2000 for the home. At the time we had three ink jet printers and all needed new ink. Replacement ink at the time was going to be about $300 or so and it seemed like it only lasted a couple months at best. I just replaced the toner on the laser about a month ago for the first time.
If you need color, enterprise color laser printers can be had fairly cheap second hand.
rich911s said:In reply to GameboyRMH :
Second that. I've had 2 Epson ecotanks for ~3 years now. Bought them off of Epson's own clearance center on their website (scroll to the bottom of the main page). They come with a 1 year warranty and were $180 ea. We use them probably 3 days a week, and they've been rock solid so far. You can put whatever ink you want in them, they don't seem to care. Super cheap running costs and they have the other functions we use like the autofeeder and scanner. Never going back to cartridges.
Same experience with our EcoTanks.
We needed one for Kelly's job whe she got mandatory WFH duty during Teh 'Vid. We bought it with a warranty, her employer reimbursed us for it, first one acted like it was failing initially, replaced it under warranty and somehow Epson sent us two. We asked for a return shipper for the extra unit and the guy was like Keep it, it's too much hassle"! Four years later we have the replacement one still running strong as well as the backup in a box brand new.
In reply to Toyman! :
$895 plus tax and shipping from Epson if I remember correctly.
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