Nanite Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 I need a new printer. My bargan-basement HP multifunction is about dead, and just when I really need something that can zip out resumes. I looked at the Kodak ESP series, since they really do appear to be the cheapest in ink costs, but their quality control is reportedly terrible, and end up broken more often then they work. Can anyone recommend a good, inexpensive multifunction printer? Is it better to buy a photoprinter and a separate multifunction for documents? I'd love a Xerox Phaser with solid ink, but unfortunantly it's out of pricerange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 I have a Canon PIXMA series printer/scanner combo. I love it because 1 - it's a Canon...and IMO reproduces colours better than HP 2 - It uses two cartridges, 1 for colour and 1 for B&W. This is good if you do a good bit of B&W printing and don't like wasting your colours just to mix and make black. 3 - It's got a copier feature. I'm not sure if this is standard nowadays, but it's sure come in handy. Just lay a page in the scanner bed, press COPY and it's done. 4 - Did I mention it's a Canon? Once we had to call the customer service about a problem our printer was having. The tech was AWESOME! He diagnosed the issue, had a replacement printer sent right away (without waiting for us to ship our sick one in first) and even told us to keep our old software, cables etc rather than send them back. Not too many electronics manufacturers will do that for you. We've had the replacement printer for almost 2 years now..hassle-free and working as good as new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orcsoul Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 For color, it's hard to be canon stuff. I personally haven't owned a multifunction in many years however, so don't feel qualified to suggest any particular model. I will say, stay away from epson and lexmark however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 I need to replace my ink cartridges but damn 32 bucks for new ink!! (just 2). I hoping that I can either work awhile on the black cartridge, as it's the higher of the 2 or just get the black cartridge (around 15 dollars at Waldoworld) & hopefully I can just print with a empty color & full black. Probably not, either get nagged by the printer or it just won't print. I will admit I did save my last 2 carts. so along with these 2 I have $12 in trade at Staples ($3 for each ink cart you bring in), thus bring the entire thing down some. I'm not sure on Staples pricing---I wonder if they price match..... Printers are cheap, it just the ink that will getcha in the long run. I've had this printer for at least 5 years (HP 1401 All in One) & no major problems with it. (EDIT: Just checked & staples is cheaper!! WAHOO!! 26.99. 26.99 - 12 = 14.99!!! WELL I'll be getting some ink tomorrow!! Now Gillette Fusion razor blades....... <_< ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erion Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 I too, have a canon PIXMA (not a multifunction, though) and have no complaints about it whatsoever. The quality is good, the pages print quickly (even color), and ink life is not bad. It was literally plug-n-play with Vista. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vutpakdi Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 We have a Canon multifunction printer that we got mainly to serve as a B&W copier. Was quite cheap online at Amazon with a rebate (I'm thinking about $150 or so). I'm at work right now, so I can't provide a model number. Works pretty well. Our mainline printer is a color laser printer from Dell (3110cn). About $450 or so (from what I remember). Fast, and much cheaper than ink jet (though not as good with photographs). Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orcsoul Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 *drool* color laser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 One downside to more modern printers (including the PIXMA) is that the cartridges are quite difficult to successfully reload. Mind you IF you can get a cartridge reloaded, it'll cost you almost half the price of a new one, but there is about a 40% chance that the new cartridge will either last half as long or possibly not communicate with your printer at all...and unless your reload center is nice folks, you'll not get a refund. BUT it's true..modern cartridges do last longer than the older ones did. Just be sure to ask around about reloading. You may find you can save some money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flit Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 I'm putting in another vote for Cannon printers. I have a Pixima and have never had any problems with it. It has a different cartridge for each color so I just replace each color as it runs out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orcsoul Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 One warning about Canon's cartridges... if they don't get used fairly regularly, they will dry out on you after ~6-8months of no usage in my experience. And if the print head requires replacement on the printer, you're better off buyign a new printer. I had a Canon S630, awesome old school printer, the print head (part that holds all the ink carts) failed on it after a couple years, the printer retailed for ~150 bucks, the print head part alone to replace would have cost me 180 at the time of failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristof65 Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 I'm an Epson inkjet fan myself. I've had five over the last 12 years, of those, only one has been retired because it started having issues. The rest are either still in use (two of them), or were retired because I wanted something new and shiny. The one that started having issues was a multifunction printer I purchased for work, and worked way too hard. My biggest complaint with them is that they don't fail. How can I justify buying new, fancier printers when the old one is still working fine? The one that had issues was still working, it was just getting taking longer and longer to clean the print heads. It got replaced with a Brother Laser multifunction. I chose Brother, because my last company had one that worked beautifully without issue for three years, despite running nearly half a ream of paper through it daily, while we went through two HP lasers in the same time frame. I don't think the HP lasers were bad, given the work load they were presented with, but the Brother stood up better. I've dealt with Canons, Lexmarks and HPs over the years as well. No gripes about the Canons - I hear they're good, never had any problems with the two I've dealt with. I'll never by a HP inkjet or Lexmark, though. The HP printers themselves were ok, but the fricking software drivers for them played havoc with our computers. Lexmark's had both software issues AND hardware issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwyksilver Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 We got a Canon PIXMA wireless multi-function printer when my wife got her new laptop. MP620 We really love it. The wireless feature was the big selling point since both of us use laptops. Just plug it into your router. Install on your computer. Good to go. Part of the install process requires you to plug the printer into your computer, so no worries about a neighbor using your printer remotely. It's got handy card slots for direct printing without use of a computer and accepts PICT bridge to print directly from the camera too. I've used the copier regularly. Have printed a ton, and it doesn't eat the ink. I haven't had the need to scan yet. One of the reasons we got it is because the 3 color cartridges are seperate, so when a color is used a lot, I don't have to waste the other 2 colors. Just swap out the color as needed. There is also a seperate photo black and printer black, so you don't kill your photo ink on B&W text print jobs. We got it right before Office Max went out of business, so we stocked up on printer cartridges at discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karabean Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 I've usually had Brother printers myself, usually on sale from Staples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanite Posted August 24, 2009 Author Share Posted August 24, 2009 Despite all the awesome advice, I went with an HP Photosmart C6350. It was cheaper then the equivalent canon, (ink looks cheaper to), and has wireless. The wireless setup was a breeze, and its working on my mac and PC. The printer is cheerily spitting out resumes as we speak. Photo quality looks nice too. Brand loyalty is an odd thing. Even though HP has deported most of it's offices out of my area, I still look at them as a 'local' company. And super special bonus: lots of spiffy packing material for CAV terrain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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