O/T Good home printer?

[DerekB]

Is there such a thing? A $100 printer/scanner that works well and won't break quickly? I have had two HP printers in the recent past; one was less than a month old and developed a printer head malfunction. Covered by warranty but still a hassle.
TIA

[dgauthier]

The words "printer head malfunction" say "inkjet" to me.

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Try a laser printer. I bought an HP Laserjet P2015 in 2007 for $350. It has printed 24,191 pages. Other than replacing cartidges every 7,500 pages, I've never had to think about it once.

[cadence90]

The words "printer head malfunction" say "inkjet" to me.

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Try a laser printer. I bought an HP Laserjet P2015 in 2007 for $350. It has printed 24,191 pages. Other than replacing cartidges every 7,500 pages, I've never had to think about it once.

Are laser printers less "planned obsolescence" than inkjets?

I ask because I have a HP PhotoSmart 8750 (inkjet). It works fine, but the problem is that the cartridges are becoming much more difficult to find every year, and so I think I will be soon left with a perfectly serviceable printer but with no resource for cartridges. It doesn't make me happy at all, especially given the original cost of the printer (+/- $400).

So, are these laser jet cartridges somehow more "future-protected"?

[mcfarton]

Laser printers are cheaper to print with. The brother printer I have is finicky on wifi but very good plugged in. It was about 100$. The scanner feeder is very convenient.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[ultraman6970]

If you want black and white you have plenty of laser ones, even microcenter has a laser that is like 30 bucks, cheap plastic but for that price you cant complain, we got one to test... almost 2 years not heavy printing, even the toner cost more than the printer but so far we havent had to change the toner yet. It is wirelss aswell.. pantum w something.

Then if your scanner/printer is still working you can continue using it.

Laser color printers are still to expensive to maintain IMO, thats the reason color ink is still the king specially when you print close to nothing in color.

Have a color scanner/printer aswell (we got those like for a dollar in a offer from hp) but that is ink and if we use that 5 times a year is too much. So is always in a closet off.

[shovelhd]

I replaced a Brother color laser MFC with a Brother Worksmart J985-DW color inkjet MFC. Yes, color laser pages are cheaper if you compare ink costs only, but lasers have other expensive parts that have a service life that need replacing, like drums, belt units, etc. The new inkjet has large capacity cartridges and comes with three complete sets, which should last 1-2 years in our house. It is easily discovered and configured by all of our devices, including Windows PC's, Macs, tablets, and phones. The print quality is much better than the laser. The only drawback is that the paper tray only holds 100 sheets.

[Nooch]

We'd had a brother laser all-in-one that we were really enjoying for about a year, and then suddenly it wouldn't print. Tried everything, removing drivers, reinstalling drivers, plugging it in.. It's been a while since I've looked at it so I don't remember the exact error message we were getting, if it was spooling or receiving data or something like that, but alas, it's now essentially a brick.

Brother customer service seemed okay in response, but they couldn't resolve the issue -- so I'm not sure what that says about them.

At the end of the day, the printer was like $130, but it's just an inconvenience to have to replace one every year..

Needless to say, outside of personal experience, I don't have much to add -- but I'll be watching the thread :)

[kramnnim]

Laser, keep an eye on Slickdeals.

[AngryScientist]

i dont print a whole lot, but i bought a samsung laser printer a few years ago, roughly $150, it's a dead simple machine. hooked up with usb. just works.

[paredown]

cheap option for B&W only and no scan are the old (large) HPs that you can pick up used pretty cheap. We have a LJ 4050--first service is 200,000 pages--after 5 years we are up to 53,000 and I just put in our second cartridge. I think I paid less than $100 for it.

IME, most of the inkjets that I have had contact with are disposable, and the cartridges are as expensive as the whole printers (HP now clearly label in the included cartridges as "test" cartridges in their cheapest models). We just picked up a HP 7645 at Costco for my MIL--and it seems decent w. easy setup, but I have no idea about longevity (obviously). I think it was just under $100 and included standard cartridges AFAIK.

[staggerwing]

All-in-one anythings tend to do nothing well. And, if one side breaks, typically it is out the door with the whole thing.

For home use, Brother makes an excellent, duplexing, laser with wireless networking right around $100. FWIW, it is easier to do the initial wireless setup, with the printer wired through USB.

Then, go to Canon or Epson for the scanner. Again, unless you need the ability to scan film or transparencies (I do), you can be out the door for under $100.

[josephr]

For home use, Brother makes an excellent, duplexing, laser with wireless networking right around $100. FWIW, it is easier to do the initial wireless setup, with the printer wired through USB.



another vote for the Brother networked laser printer. I connected mine to the router and stuffed it in the closet on top of a small file cabinet. I've had it 4-5 years now and just won't die. I think I paid $100 or so for mine, but think they're a bit less on amazon. I did have to replace a tray once, but that was due to a teenager who liked to slam it closed after putting in more paper. :crap: The rare occasions we need to print color or scan something, we do it at work/school/library.

[William]

I would stay away from HP Inkjets. We currently have an OfficeJet that is a POS. Quality wise it prints just fine, but we print in B&W 99.5% of the time and yet the color cartridges are constantly running out even though it has a large black ink cartridge. In older HP's you could continue to print with black ink even if the color cartridges are empty...not with this one. It won't let you print at all if any one of the cartridges are empty.

The printer is cheap to buy because they frick you with the ink cartridges!

Leo Getz: "They FRICK YOU with the ink cartridge, okay? They FRICK YOU with the ink cartridge! They know you're gonna be miles away before you find out you got fricked! They know you're not gonna realize until the first Cyan ink cartridge runs out even though you are only printing in black and white, they don't care. So who gets fricked? Ol' Leo Getz! Okay, sure! I give a frick! I'm not printing in color, okay?"


William
PS: Can you tell this printer annoys the carp out of me?

[jds108]

I have a Brother HL-L2300D. It's a B&W laser printer. No scanner, wireless, or anything else. Got it because the refills for it are cheap. That printer can now be found online for $50. It's got a big enough (200 pages maybe) paper holder and prints well and fast.

I use a separate scanner that was $20 or maybe $10, can't remember at this point.

I've had multifunction units in the past but find that they fail sooner than separate units.

[Rada]

I'm not sure why anyone really needs a scanner anymore if you have a good smart phone.

[lookout2015]

If you do want copy / scan the Brother B&w laser (HL-2x80) series is pretty reliable and economical for home use

I don't use the scanner much any more because of cell phones but the copier is still sometimes a convenient function

[mhespenheide]

<sarcasm>

I don't think any of the 3-d printers are big enough yet to print a home. You'd have to assemble too many small components together after printing. Better to stick with traditional building techniques for now.

</sarcasm>
:cool:

[shovelhd]

I'm not sure why anyone really needs a scanner anymore if you have a good smart phone.

Sheet feeder.

[559Rando]

Years ago, my family bought an HP LaserJet 4L and I believe my sister still has that beast somewhere. The print quality is still good, it lived through a family of 4 kids and at least one college degree and never needed anything besides toner and paper.

When I needed a printer a few years when my wife started her master's, I got an inexpensive ($100) HP LaserJet with wireless. The wireless isn't perfect, but works 90% of the time. The rest of the time, I just use its USB.

HP LaserJet, ATMO.

[ultraman6970]

The laserjet 4L is legendary.

[Likes2ridefar]

B&w Samsung laser, cost about $99. Easy to use with any PC or wireless device and prints really fast. It prints way more than an inkjet before needing a new cartridge and is cheap to replace with generic ones I found on Amazon, about $40 for two.

Scanning I just use genius scan + linked to a Dropbox account. Instant access....

[EPIC! Stratton]

Brother HL-L2340DW Compact Laser Printer, Monochrome, Wireless, Duplex Printing (https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L2340DW-Monochrome-Wireless-Replenishment/dp/B00LZS5EEI/ref=sr_1_1?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1481159602&sr=8-1&keywords=laser+printer+brother+wireless&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011)

I have an older version of basically the same thing. Mine can't "AirPrint" out of the box, but can do it if you have the printer shared on the network with a handy app called HandyPrint (http://www.netputing.com/applications/handyprint-v5/). No clue on this one - you'd have to research it yourself.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQUkz73sS1SMmJwmeNa9fLMnh9tmsDpB Hs6Dlz5pJllmuQHvTQj

[cmbicycles]

We have an Epson workforce all in one inkjet and it is doing fine for the last few months on the factory/demo cartridges. Photos come out nice, which is a main reason we stuck with an inkjet. I've been printing more at school too since they replaced their printers/copiers so it now gets used a lot less. I had an HP prior to the Epson that burned thru ink like there was no tomorrow... costco refills were still costly, and it would run out of color when most of the printing was B&W. It felt strangely rewarding to heave that turd into the garbage (electronics recycling bin) and drive away.

[jlwdm]

I have been using an Epson Work Force 3640 for 23 months - $99 at Costco. I do lots of printing every day for my real estate business. My partner also works out of my house a lot. I print a lot of documents with photos and do a lot of scanning.


Not one issue so far.


Jeff

[ORMojo]

I ask because I have a HP PhotoSmart 8750 (inkjet). It works fine, but the problem is that the cartridges are becoming much more difficult to find every year, and so I think I will be soon left with a perfectly serviceable printer but with no resource for cartridges.

A while ago our local Costco started a cartridge refill service. ASAIK they refill pretty much all cartridges, for the one cartridge-based printer we have, it is about 25% the cost of buying replacement cartridges. Plus there are many other sources for refilling.

If you are having trouble finding replacements, why not refill?