Printer

[monkey44]

Looking for a good home office color printer/scanner ... HP, Canon, etc.

Wife has bought several over a couple years, and it works for a few months, starts acting strange, won't print properly. She reboots, she shuts it down, reinstalls - still no luck.

We'd like a dependable reasonable cost ($200/$300) home printer - it's not full time commercial office, just work at home on projects.

Not looking for 'cheap' just dependable. Any suggestions? Thanks ... M44

[JimBollman]

Looks like Brother laser printers have plenty of love already but count me in. I bough the first 17 years ago when I retired from Xerox and didn't have free printing anymore. decided I wanted an auto duplex machine with bigger paper tray so sold/gave the first one to a friend that still uses it and its replacement is going strong. I tried cheap generic cartridges but the quality was not as good and didn't last as long so now I only use OEM cartridges. My current one got to the the number of copies it thought I needed to change the drum, did some magic stuff off the internet and it reset the drum to zero copies an is still going strong. I went with separate scanner printer because I wanted a better quality scanner.

[fj12ryder]

FWIW, I've had Brother laser printers for a couple decades now. Got rid of the 1st one, it still worked fine, but Peggy wanted an all-in-one. So we got a Brother all-in-one laser printer/scanner. We don't print a lot so the toner lasts us for years. I pull the toner cartridge out every once in a while and shake it up. I wouldn't hesitate a nanosecond to buy another Brother if I ever had the need.

[dieseltruckdriv]

RLS7201 wrote:
We have 2 Epson tank ink jet printers/scanners(ET2650-WIFI). One in the sticks & bricks and one in the MH. The tank system makes ink replacement cheap.
When not used for a couple of months, I have to run the head cleaning routine 5 times to get every thing back to normal. The all is good.

Richard

We have a Brother laser printer and a little over a year ago bought an Epson tank inkjet ET3830 and since getting it we almost never use the laser printer. Epson says print a page a week to keep the ink "flowing", and we have not had any issues at all. It is much better than the old inkjets.

[obgraham]

I have not found the moderate priced printers (say $200-300 or so) to be any more reliable or long-lived than the cheapies ($50 or less) at Wally's.

[monkey44]

We've always used ink jet, but it seems with reviews, ink jet now has lots of issues with clogging and paper-jambing as the most complaints. The last two we had - HP and Epson - have same issues.

Most of you recommended laser, so will take a look at a few of those. Laser has been expensive in the past, but it appears mainstream has begun using them more, thus price has gone down. Will look at the Brother as it has good reviews.

I have a Canon Pro printer for photos, so photos is not an issue, which seems to be the main print quality issue between laser and ink jet.

Thanks again for all your comments. M44

[Matt_Colie]

Monkey,
Part of the problem is that you were never clear about what you needed/wanted to do and what you could count on for resources.
As a starting point, my now recreational coach started out as my mobile office/meeting room/tool crib and occasional restaurant and motel...
I had the color laser at that time and carried a separate scanner. Then came the problem. That printer would eat my inverter for a snack... Plus, it was heavy as hell. The weight damaged the dinette table. I have had that wonderful color laser for near 20 years, but it has developed a "rod knock" and the people tell me that parts are scarce.
When I found how impractical it was as a mobile printer, I bought an inkjet with scanner. This will run on the inverter. I think I could run it on flashlight batteries. Yes, it is a little expensive to run, but I always buy OE cartridges. The cartridges are the kind that include the print head. At first I did not like this because of the cost, but the advantage is that when you change out the two cartridges (one color and one black) you have a nearly new printer. That printer is about a year younger than the laser mentioned above and has had a hard life. It is still with me and now it is in the house until I figure out what to do with the 85# laser.
I never liked having to fire up the generator to print a quote for a client. This was back when a 1.5KVA inverter was expensive and LiFePo was for NASA.
Matt_C

[RLS7201]

We have 2 Epson tank ink jet printers/scanners(ET2650-WIFI). One in the sticks & bricks and one in the MH. The tank system makes ink replacement cheap.
When not used for a couple of months, I have to run the head cleaning routine 5 times to get every thing back to normal. The all is good.

Richard

[monkey44]

Thanks for info - will do some more research... 🙂

[1492]

Have both B&W and color laser printers, and wont go back to inkjets.

If looking at color laser printer, do some research to find the model with lowest cost for laser color toner replacements. Mine is an older model Samsung, so the color toner is dirt cheap. Though requires maintenance more often to keep it printing cleanly as page counts rise - pulling out the transfer belt and imaging drum units and carefully cleaning with alcohol. Plus, parts become scarce as time goes by.

[ReneeG]

rk911 wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
go to a laser printer.

Ink jets get clogs when not used often. Sometimes you can "steam" the print head over a kettle.

Laser avoids that problem.

this ^^^ and take a look at the line of Brother laser printers. our Brother B&W laser is going strong after 10-yrs. i never had that sort of longevity from any other printer.

Same here. We have a Brother B&W and an HP Color, both laser. We use the Brother all the time and the HP sparingly due to the price in the cartridges. You can select to print B&W on the HP, but not sure how long that makes the cartridges last.

[NamMedevac_70]

I have for many years had great success with HP printers, but I do not care for their laptops. Instead I use Lenovo.

[rk911]

monkey44 wrote:
We need color ... so inkjet will have to do it. This is for printing proofs that are transformed into other products.

And for B&W letters and other B&W docs. But color required on proofs.

color lasers are affordable.

[monkey44]

We need color ... so inkjet will have to do it. This is for printing proofs that are transformed into other products.

And for B&W letters and other B&W docs. But color required on proofs.

[BB_TX]

I am on my 2nd Canon ink jet printer/scanner. First latest over 5 years before it began acting up. Have had the current one about that long and still going. Only on rare occasion have I had print quality fade. But after running head cleaning cycle a couple times it would be good for months if not a year or more. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I did run the cleaning cycle.

Had HP inkjets before Canon and did not get nearly the life or quality out of them.