Up to date advice on printers

[Mutley]

We haven't had a 'Which Printer?' thread for six months and I need to buy one so could you techies please help me out?

I need it for home use. We print some pictures (although I only use a compact digital so I'm not too anal about the results), a few letters and the occasional powerpoint presentation on ours.

The last bubblejet (Epson C86) did the trick but has clogged it's printer head permanently (I know I should switch it off more). Should we consider a laserjet?

The wife has seen all in one scanners / copiers / printers and fancies one but I am suspicious of 'all in one gadgets'.

I would like to avoid spending heavily so around £100 ish would be good

 

[cookie]

recently bought a canon pixma ip4300 on the strength of the reviews & am very happy with it.

you'll struggle to pay as much as £100 for it though

 

[xylo66]

Mono Laser printer

http://www.businessphonesystemsdire...rinters/Panasonic_Printers/Panasonic_KX-P7100

I know someone who has one of these and uses it extensively in their SOHO business and it has worked flawlessly for years. The duplex ( prints back and front if needed) works very well and its quiet, fast and easy to use.

 

[wessie]

Mutley, it might not meet your needs but others may find the advice useful.

For general printing, especially if you have kids who want to print off loads of webpages for use in coursework, then a jobbing monochrome laserjet is the way to go.

I favour the cheap & cheerful Samsung printers. The one I bought in 2002 is still working. They update the model periodically but it is still the same basic printer and will cost from £50-70 depending on current promos. Print cartridges last forever if you take them to your local discount ink shop and get a refill for £15 (less if you DIY which is simple).

If you need colour too then get a second printer for colour output. A sub-£70 inkjet will print fantastic quality photos. Personally, I don't bother. When doing my uni work I just took the files into the IT Resource and paid a few pence for those few sheets I wanted in colour.

 

[(RIP) Shenzi]

The wife has seen all in one scanners / copiers / printers and fancies one but I am suspicious of 'all in one gadgets'.

We are on our third, the first two are still working well for the kids. All Hewlett Packard, this latest one is a Photosmart 3210.
Haven't had the slightest problem with any of them.

 

[Fanum]

Check out the running costs of cartridges etc....a new set can cost more than the bleedin printer these days

I bought an HP laserjet 2600n recently....the print is fantastic quality, really impressed with it.....about £200 but money well spent

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

Deffo a laser printer for students....
Colour printer/copier/scanner for other.
Pur laser printer on net, keep colour one on a pc.

 

[Dickieboy]

The last bubblejet (Epson C86) did the trick but has clogged it's printer head permanently (I know I should switch it off more). Should we consider a laserjet?


I would like to avoid spending heavily so around £100 ish would be good

Mutley the most common cause of blocked jets is the siting of the printer near a warm radiator.

My latest buy was an epson dx4200 all in one and I'm well chuffed with it particularly as I now have a continuos ink system.
If I was spending a £100 ish I'd go for for the Epson Stylus Photo R360 but my all in one only cost £60

 

[ebbo]

Our previous two Canon printers had separate ink tanks (six) to the print head. Each printer worked well and was fairly economical on ink until the print head got blocked. On both machines, a new print head was over £100…

We now have a Canon Pixma printer/scanner/copier, it has two ink cartridges in the machine that I’m happy to change when empty, I think this one will last a fair while.

P.S. the copy feature is a real plus point; even the wife can work that

 

[exeter_lad]

We have two rpinters at home. Both Epson, both all-in-one printer/scanner/printer.

Had no problems with them, except my wife's inability to read the instructions for changing the inks. But take the opinion from past experience that any printer can go wrong, so go for the Epson's because they are inexapnsive to but and ink cartridges are dirt cheap on e-bay.

 

[grandtrousers]

Epson have always been good for me - latest is an RX620 - you will pay more than £100.00 but the refills are very cheap. An easy to use machine that will print straight from the built in card reader.