lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)PrestonLocke
(217 posts)Ink prices are my biggest concern when buying a new inkjet.
lastlib
(23,224 posts)Cartridge prices are ridiculously high, with short lives, and HP is one of the worst about insisting on proprietary cartridges. My mother got one, and I won't let her get another one. But since she bought it from a cousin who was desperate to sell it (and she wanted to help her), she got a good price on the printer itself. She was insistent on having color capabilities, and color lasers were prohibitively high-priced at the time.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Inkjets are crappy, may as well have dot-matrix printers- the cartridges dry up and the pages aren't waterproof and it's slow.
I'm on my second color laser multi-copier/fax/scanner/printer, it's a brother, and I love it.
Prices are 1/10 what they were when they first came out.
ChromeFoundry
(3,270 posts)My old MFC-490CW has decent drivers for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, LPR, etc...
Supports WiFi or Wired. Network Scanner. Network FAX. Remote management via Web/Telnet/App.
I purchase ink from a third party, so it's much cheaper than the OEM cartridges.
Oh, and the devices are quite hackable...if you are into that kind of thing.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)MichaelSoE
(1,576 posts)When i had my own business I always bought separate machines. A scanner, a fax and a printer. If for some reason an all in one suddenly died I would have been out the use of 3 devices. This way if just one machine died I could still function with the other 2. If this is for general home use then an all in one will be a good choice.
Also, what is going to to be the bulk of your printing. If you are going to print a lot of documents then I strongly suggest a laser model as price per page is much lower than ink jet. If you are going to be printing a lot of photos and or color documents then ink jet is the way to go.
I have 2 ink jet printers printers and a flat bed scanner for my photography and an all in one for documents. It is a Brother laser and it has served me well for many years. (I no longer have my business.)
The prices of printers are so low because they really make the big bucks off of ink sales. As a matter of fact, my brother-in-law buys laser printers and when the cartridge runs out he sometimes just upgrades and buys a new printer as the price is often not much more than a new cartridge. I personally think that that practice is not very green but that's me.
Also, if you do buy an ink jet be sure to buy one that has separate tanks for each color ink. Some manufacturers will make a cartridge that has the 3 colors cyan, yellow and magenta in a single cartridge. Run out of one color and you have to replace it, forcing you to throw out the unused ink. Another waste and more money, more money, more money for the manufacturer.
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)It's mostly trouble free. I've had other printers that started to smear and left blotches of ink after 6 months or so. This is my second Brother MFC and it's great. I've had it about 3 years I think.
RC
(25,592 posts)I love it. It does a good job of whatever I want to do, including the OCR function. I have printed 8X10 of several of my photographs, for public display. The first show I was in, I even got a Honorable mention.
I used it wired for two XP machines and a Linux machine, wireless on a Win7 laptop. It almost sets itself up. Right now, I am using it to scan in old family B/W pictures, some as small as 35mm contact prints. As I said, it works great.
It sure beats the hell out of an old Canon BJC 8200.
lastlib
(23,224 posts)try to find one that can take a continuous-ink system. It will save you wheelbarrows of cash on ink cartridges.
randr
(12,412 posts)any suggestions?
lastlib
(23,224 posts)try this also:
http://www.inksystem.com/
you can look up more info on Google. I've had acquaintances tell me they save beaucoup bucks with such systems.
ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)I like my HP Photosmart C309a. For what little scanning/printing/copying I do, it works great. The ink cartridges are a little pricy, but they last long enough given the infrequent use. I don't use the fax part at all. I bought it on sale when my previous scanner and printer both died.
If I was doing text printing on a regular basis, I would probably go with a laser printer.
If I was doing photo printing on a regular basis, I would get a dedicated photo printer.
NMDemDist2
(49,313 posts)but we got a cheap Epson Workforce at Wally world a couple years ago and it's great
scans, faxes, prints over the wire, ethernet or off a SD card or thumb drive
and the ink lasts long time and is cheap (relatively speaking)
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do?sku=C11CB88201
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)But I occasionally do large format printing. It will print up to 13x19, scan up to 11x17. I've printed everything from 4x6 photos to 13x19 posters on it with no problems. And I like the individual ink tanks.
NMDemDist2
(49,313 posts)and really, we don't print that much I guess. but it's held up better than the last 3 printers we've had over the last 15 years