Way offtopic -- printer recommendation(s)?

mhardy6647

Good morning! :-)

Thanks to a big thunderstorm coupled with some inexplicably bad karma, we find ourselves in rather dire need of a new printer or MFP at my house.

I haven't bought one for a long time, so I'd appreciate any and all suggestions and/or advice! I know there are folks here with significant experience in this arena.

What I am looking for:

* Easy installation on a network.
* WiFi.
* Inexpensive (imagine that!).
* Reliable. :-)
* Built in, automatic two-sided printing capability.
* Low per page cost (i.e., I get tired of buying inkjet cartridges)

Nice to have:

* Backwards compatibility (if at all possible) with old OSs (ahem, WinXP, ahem)

I am pretty much agnostic in terms of inkjet vs. laser and color vs. black printing; I do need something that would be suitable for low-volume "business" use (as I am now a very PT consultant who has to generate occasional paper output).

FWIW, our previous printers were HP OfficeJet 6000 and a 6500 MFP. I liked these but the former snuffed it in a storm on 3 July and the latter has gotten to the point that it refuses to print in black for more than a day or two with a new cartridge (and I've tried most of the remediations suggested both by HP and some of the more extreme measures that may be found by perusing teh webs).

I've got an old, dump find HP C4280 printer/scanner cobbled up as an interim solution (again, FWIW)... so I am pretty desperate ;-)

Thanks for your consideration & suggestions!

WagnerRC

best printer and cheap IMHO HP 1022N if you can find a refurb. These printers are bulletproof for black printing only.

gdb

After deciding that HP would never get another dime of my money..... I got this printer. It works great and I think it meets your listed req. We also get aftermarket ink refills for cheap,cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-MX922-Wireless-Printer-Scanner/dp/B00AVWKUJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405617123&sr=8-1&keywords=mx+892

http://smile.amazon.com/Compatible-Cartridges-Blake-Printing-Supply/dp/B008LDKURG/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1405617373&sr=1-3&keywords=mx+892+ink



EDIT: I doubt that it'll play nice with XP. Not sure, though.

F1nut

After using HP Officejet's forever and my last one finally giving up the ghost I went shopping for a new one at Staples, Best Buy and Office Depot. Problem is most of the demo models are out of ink or close to it, so hard to judge. I ended up with another HP only to find that the B&W print quality pretty much sucked on the normal setting and was awful for printing a photo. It did work ok on the high setting. Thinking it was defective I exchanged it for another, which was exactly the same, so back it went. I now own an Epson WP-3540.

westmassguy

I used HP for years, but have switched to Cannon. I have two all-in-ones. One was a high end model I got on closeout from New Egg.
It does photos, and regular printer duties extremely well. When my own HP finally bit the dust, I bought another Cannon, not as decked out at the other, but it does photos and regular print very well.

OleBoot

Can't speak for inkjet printers, as I haven't had anything to do with them for years, bur my wife and I run a print/copy shop and have had good service out of HP LaserJets. Auto double sided laser printers start at fairly high prices, however, but are cheaper to run than Inkjets, particularly for monochrome.

Polkie2009

OleBoot, we had a b&w HP LaserJet 4 printer we bought around 1993 or so and used it extensively in a business for nearly 15 years til we eventually bought a HP OfficeJet color printer which lasted about 5 years of constant use and finally died. Bought another HP OfficeJet and have been running strong for 3 years. They go through a lot of ink cartridges though,lol. The old LaserJet hasn't been run in years , but it still___ works flawlessly, it won't quit, very well made piece of equipment, just a bit outdated now.

OleBoot

Polkie, our oldest LaserJet is 11 years old, still in daily service ! Both of ours are B&W, however, and I guess I don't really know how the newer MFP models stack up against the old ones.

Polkie2009

The old LJ's are solid as the day is long, they just don't make them like this anymore.

DaveHo

If you decide you can live without color, I bought one of these last year & it's been great.

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-2270DW-Compact-Wireless-Networking/dp/B00450DVDY/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1405628442&sr=1-1&keywords=Brother+HL-2270DW

Easy setup, quality prints, fast printing, & cheaper to operate than an inkjet.

steveinaz

My last HP was a major headache. Went with Canon instead.

OleBoot

DaveHo wrote: »

If you decide you can live without color, I bought one of these last year & it's been great.

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-2270DW-Compact-Wireless-Networking/dp/B00450DVDY/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1405628442&sr=1-1&keywords=Brother+HL-2270DW

Easy setup, quality prints, fast printing, & cheaper to operate than an inkjet.

I've got one of these at home. Doesn't get heavy use, but has been good so far.

Tornado Red

My last printer was a Brother, it would go completely through a colour cartridge in 'cleaning mode' without me using it (in fairness, I don't print a lot, but still...). Went to Staples at Christmas and mentioned I did NOT want one that chewed up ink like the last one, and the HP Officejet Pro 8600 was recommended to me. I like it and am still on the demo cartridges.

cnh

And here I thought you "really" RETIRED! Should have known better! lol

As far as printers. Too bad my wife is in Chicago, she always has her finger on the CHEAPEST rebate printers with the most features. And usually gets one for almost nothing. We go through them like movie candy over here. Not because they fail, but because the next great bargain is actually cheaper than buying a NEW CARTRIDGE for the old one! lol

cnh

tonyb

Amen Cnh, have a Canon mg6120 all in one and the ink will kill you. Close to 70 bucks to replace all the ink cartridges. Love the printer, just not the cost of the ink.

westmassguy

The Canons are very accepting of non-oem cartridges. 123inkjet has Canon compatible cartridges for half the price of oem. My HPs were finicky, sometimes the compatibles would work, sometimes not.

tonyb

Haven't tried the non-oem cartridges yet. Some reviews say the ink is the same, some say otherwise. Any of you other guys have any experience with these refilled carts ? Best places to buy from ?

westmassguy

tonyb, not all the cartridges are re-manufactured. For my MP560, the cartridges are new, non-oem, and work perfectly. For my MG2200, they're remanufactured, and I also refill them myself. 123inkjet is the best place I've found. Their return policy is also excellent. Been using them for 5 or 6 years now

WilliamM2

tonyb wrote: »

Haven't tried the non-oem cartridges yet. Some reviews say the ink is the same, some say otherwise. Any of you other guys have any experience with these refilled carts ? Best places to buy from ?

I've been using generic carts in my Canon for three years now, without any issues. I get them from Amazon, 2 sets for less than 10 bucks. As an example:

http://www.amazon.com/10-Pack-Non-OEM-Printer-PGI-220-CLI-221/dp/B003KF8IJM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1405702298&sr=8-6&keywords=cli221+10+pack


I can get 20 packs for $15, of course it depends on the model.

JerryR1verz

I installed this for a friend at his business two weeks ago - Color Laser MFP and seemed solid.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Printers/HP-LaserJet/CF145A?HP-LaserJet-Pro-200-color-MFP-M276nw

shadowlight

Epson Workforce Pro WP-4530 All-In One or WP-4630 which seems to be the replacement. We use that on daily basis, does 2-sided printing, scanning, occasional faxing, color, wired/wireless networking. No issues in the 18+ months that we have owned it, paid under 250 shipped from Amazon.

Nightfall

Brother makes good printers, that would be one of my top choices. Tornado went through a lot of ink because he had an inkjet printer and he didn't print very often. If you rarely print get a laser, if you print often ink jet is fine.

helipilotdoug

We bought a Brother MFC-9320CW color laser all in one a couple of years back, which replaced an old HP all in one ink jet. Have been very pleased with the Brother. I had experience with Brother in several commercial applications in the past, and found them to be very reliable. We use our Brother on a daily basis for printing invoices, packing lists and shipping labels. Also do some scanning, which is very good too. Photo printing is not as good as a lot of of ink jets though. I had tried printing our brochures on it, but found going to Office Depot etc. to be much better quality.

Tornado Red

Nightfall wrote: »

Brother makes good printers, that would be one of my top choices. Tornado went through a lot of ink because he had an inkjet printer and he didn't print very often. If you rarely print get a laser, if you print often ink jet is fine.

The Brother I had did print well, no doubt about it. I still don't print very much and have an ink jet, it's just not using up the ink cleaning itself. Laser would be nice, but a decent one with colour was a little more than I wanted to spend....and I don't print much

cnh

I doubt whether my wife has ever paid more than $25 for a NEW printer that can do everything you'd want it to. And sometimes, with a rebate, she's gotten those printers for NOTHING! That's hard to TOP, generic cartridges or not, this woman has BEATEN printer manufacturers at their OWN GAME! lol And I could not be more happy!

Really, at these prices, almost nothing, it is "unlikely" that "any" printer will fail before you can buy the next one for $20 or less?

I never worry about printing or printers! I just let the wife loose and she's "relentless", won't stop until she gets the BEST possible BUY (and that often means FREE)!

cnh