Color printer buying time

[robertsa]

We have one nice inkjet printer for printing photos and a color HP LaserJet Pro M252dw. I have also phased out all of our inkjet printers at work with the same HP laser printer.

Inkjet printers have their place, and it's for printing high quality photographs. For anything else, they are junk. The laser will cost more on the front end but will last for years and years of trouble free use while you could be banging your head against the wall trying to figure out the latest reason the inkjet printer is broken again. The cost of ink is also ridiculous; a high capacity laser cartridge will last for a very long time and doesn't dry up. If it is just occasional use like you mention, you could be talking about buying cartridges in units of years instead of weeks or months.

 

[rekees4300]

Any suggestions on models or brands to consider or avoid and any deals out there currently?

Consumer Reports Ratings:

All-in-one:
1. Epson Expression Premium XP-640 $80
2. Epson Expression Premium XP-830 $130
3. HP Envy 7640 $130

Regular Printer:
1. HP Officejet 200 Mobile $280
2. Epson Workforce Pro WF-5190 $235
3. Epson Workforce WF-100 $300

 

[dstig1]

Laser jet printer recommended also. Same reasons as above. No liquid ink drying out or have to be cleaned. One thing to keep in mind is not the cost of the printer only. Dried out ink cartridges are expensive. Which is what makes laser printers so nice. Nothing to dry out. Look at the pages per cartridge that you can print and calculate your cost per page. May not sound like much but it can add up fast.

+2 I got tired of ink drying out in inkjets, and went laser. I had gotten a cheap B&W laser printer for the bulk of the printing (much faster/cheaper) and left the inkjet for color printing only. Rarely used, so didn't work when needed. Eventually got a color laser along with the cheapo B&W laser. The B&Ws have been Brother or Samsung, I think (often for $60-80). The color one i have is Samsung C460 which was $200-300. I have often just replaced the B&W printer when the toner ran out, but one time talking to a guy in a store he said it is far cheaper to replace the toner as the toner that comes with them is a short load, so even though the toner replacement is close to the price of a new printer, it is way more pages worth of printing than buying a new printer, and more cost effective. I am just having to replace the first of the toner cartridges in the color printer now after 2 yrs, so i will see if the replacements last longer than the ones it came with...

 

[dragoneggs]

Consumer Reports Ratings:

All-in-one:
1. Epson Expression Premium XP-640 $80
2. Epson Expression Premium XP-830 $130
3. HP Envy 7640 $130

Regular Printer:
1. HP Officejet 200 Mobile $280
2. Epson Workforce Pro WF-5190 $235
3. Epson Workforce WF-100 $300

I have the Envy 7640 and it has been flawless. I don't use it a lot so I can't justify a laser printer. Bought at Costco. The ink that comes with is a 'short pour' so you will need buy the replacements shortly but they last much longer. Make sure you print something weekly and the jets shouldn't clog. I have a B&W laser for large black and white jobs such as manuals, etc.

 

[WM75Guy]

I recommend the laser. All my printers are HP. I have a B&W laser all in one and a color laser. The B&W all in one scans in color. I do have an inkjet 24" wide carriage for poster prints and stained glass patterns for my wife. The only issue I have is that HP printers last so long that HP stops updating drivers and toolkits for each version of Windows after so long that I have to use a generic Windows printer driver instead of the printer specific driver for my printers.

At work we have Lexmark laser printers. They are cheaper up front but expensive to operate in the long run. You have to replace too many parts after so many pages such as waste toner kits and imaging kits. With HP you just replace the toner cartridge.

With HP lasers the toner cartridge in a new printer is the same as a replacement, not a shortened version. Some aftermarket remanufactured or refilled recycled toner cartridges don't have the counter reset so you always get a message to replace the toner cartridge and you don't know it is low till your pages don't print. I bought replacement toner cartridges from Imagine Office till they closed that were half the price of OEM cartridges and didn't have that issue. Since we don't use a printer as much now I will probably go back to HP cartridges.

 

[RBLapham]

+2 I got tired of ink drying out in inkjets, and went laser.

I have had 10 ink jet printers and NEVER had one dry out. Guess I print a lot at 3 or 4 pages a week My current Epson ET 2550 with the ink tanks - reviews/questions asked is there a problem with drying out and everyone sad no. I think they even sell a cleaning kit for such a problem. I also have a color laser, it's in my closet, very expensive for toner - verses $30 every 2 years for ink.

 

[oosik]

For years and years I had HP all-in-one printers. Then I switched to Epson. I find the Epson a lot less complicated and much easier on ink than any of the HP I had. I don't print enough to justify one of those Epson "tank printers".

 

[fatjay]

I have a samsung color laser that I picked up a few years ago for about $100. I've replaced 2 toner cartridges so far, ebay has them for half price and they work great. I print quite a lot, my wife's coupon's, taxes, kids school work, etc. I get about 1000 pages per cartridge of black, color isn't as bad.

For actual photo's though, I use CVS or walgreens, they regularly have deals for 10 cents a picture, we just had 200 vacation photo's printed for $20, you just can't beat that.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great timing. My Canon printer is starting to give me trouble after about three years. The ink is too expensive and seems to run out faster then I would expect with the small amount of printing that I do. It's also very confusing to scan anything. I can never remember how to do it, and it seems that every time I do it, the scan ends up somewhere different and I waste more time trying to find it.

 

[kc5dlo]

I have had 10 ink jet printers and NEVER had one dry out. Guess I print a lot at 3 or 4 pages a week My current Epson ET 2550 with the ink tanks - reviews/questions asked is there a problem with drying out and everyone sad no. I think they even sell a cleaning kit for such a problem. I also have a color laser, it's in my closet, very expensive for toner - verses $30 every 2 years for ink.

Thanks everyone, I ended up order a Epson Ecotank 2550. It is a refurb from epson, cost was a little under 200 with tax. Really considered the lazer but thought I would try the inkjet one more time. Going to try to make sure i exercize it at least weekly if not more to keep it from drying out. With an estimated 4,500 copies between refills, It should still last practically forever. I will keep my eyes out for a lazer printer for in the future maybe.

Steve