Help purchasing a cost effective all-in-one printer.
I have always had HP all in one printers. Right now, I have an Officejet Pro 8680. The automatic document feeder stopped working, and I think the hardware has failed.
I have a friend who buys the cheapest all-in-one HP printer, and when the ink runs out, buys a new one. This is because the ink is so outrageously expensive. I have been using a cheaper ink I buy online, from a company named "Miroo".
I get the error message/warning from HP, but I bypass it and it worked well as far as printing, although lately the print started coming out with blank lines. I don't know if this affected the scanning ability, has anything to do with the ink I'm using, or if the scanner went kaput coincidentally.
What would you recommend as far as an all-in-one? Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I have a friend who buys the cheapest all-in-one HP printer, and when the ink runs out, buys a new one. This is because the ink is so outrageously expensive. I have been using a cheaper ink I buy online, from a company named "Miroo".
I get the error message/warning from HP, but I bypass it and it worked well as far as printing, although lately the print started coming out with blank lines. I don't know if this affected the scanning ability, has anything to do with the ink I'm using, or if the scanner went kaput coincidentally.
What would you recommend as far as an all-in-one? Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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First of all, printing problems have no effect on scanning. Hence, even if the printer prints only blank pages, it should still scan fine.
As far as replacements are concerned, we really need to know more about your requirements. It appears this is a printer for home use only. Is that correct?
What do you use the printer for? Do you require best photo quality? In that case an inkjet (using expensive photo paper) is the way to go. If you use it to print standard documents on plain paper, then look at getting a laser - on plain paper they'll even print photos better than inkjets.
What is your budget? If you don't want to spend more than $50 then there is no point in considering lasers. Even a mono multi function laser will cost more than that.
Other requirements may include colour, an ADF for scanning, duplexing, print speed, etc.
On the whole, lasers are significantly faster than inkjets (a 16 ppm laser easily will outperform a 24 ppm inkjet). They are also cheaper per page. A toner cartridge will cost significantly more than an ink cartridge; it will however print far more pages. Most lasers also require other components such as fuser and/or drum to be replaced. However, this is not really applicable for home use as they will last longer than you are likely to print in many years. On low cost lasers the fuser will typically last at least 50,000 pages. As a general rule, the more expensive the laser printer, the lower the cost per page.
I do not like host-based printers (nearly all low cost inkjets and many low cost lasers) as they depend far to critically on the OS version. This may mean that you may not be able to find a suitable driver when you upgrade the OS. Of course this is irrelevant if, like your friend, you buy a new printer when it runs out of ink. Other names for host based printers include GDI, PCL3, LIDIL, etc.
I also avoid WiFi for printers as it causes too many problems; printers do not recover gracefully from signal dropouts. I prefer a network connection over USB.
As far as replacements are concerned, we really need to know more about your requirements. It appears this is a printer for home use only. Is that correct?
What do you use the printer for? Do you require best photo quality? In that case an inkjet (using expensive photo paper) is the way to go. If you use it to print standard documents on plain paper, then look at getting a laser - on plain paper they'll even print photos better than inkjets.
What is your budget? If you don't want to spend more than $50 then there is no point in considering lasers. Even a mono multi function laser will cost more than that.
Other requirements may include colour, an ADF for scanning, duplexing, print speed, etc.
On the whole, lasers are significantly faster than inkjets (a 16 ppm laser easily will outperform a 24 ppm inkjet). They are also cheaper per page. A toner cartridge will cost significantly more than an ink cartridge; it will however print far more pages. Most lasers also require other components such as fuser and/or drum to be replaced. However, this is not really applicable for home use as they will last longer than you are likely to print in many years. On low cost lasers the fuser will typically last at least 50,000 pages. As a general rule, the more expensive the laser printer, the lower the cost per page.
I do not like host-based printers (nearly all low cost inkjets and many low cost lasers) as they depend far to critically on the OS version. This may mean that you may not be able to find a suitable driver when you upgrade the OS. Of course this is irrelevant if, like your friend, you buy a new printer when it runs out of ink. Other names for host based printers include GDI, PCL3, LIDIL, etc.
I also avoid WiFi for printers as it causes too many problems; printers do not recover gracefully from signal dropouts. I prefer a network connection over USB.
As mention above lexmark is famous for this knock off inks do not work, also epson, I've gotten away with brother all in one and knock off ink but over time i lost that printer too. So word to the wise, I bought the canonImage class all in one laser Printer, it has document feeder, scanner, fax and everything a office needs it will keep up with your hp mention above and the print are crisp and the page output is fast. Its mono chrome so no colour, but for office purposes it should be great. Toner and drum is one piece and the replacement is inexpensive
ASKER
Great advice!
If you only need mono output then a budget laser multi-function printer would be the best choice, as the running costs will be much lower than they are for an inkjet, with the added advantage of having no ink nozzles to dry up and/or block up.
If you need top quality colour photographic output then a good quality inkjet is the only option, but a very expensive one in terms of ink consumption.
If you need spot colour for documents and for non-photographic images then a colour laser printer is still probably the best option, as the cost of consumables would still be much lower than the inkjet equivalent. The downside of laser toners is that they are sold in terms of coverage at various percentages, which can be anything between 2,000-7,000 pages per cartridge, while inkjet cartridges are rated in terms of tens of pages. This means that the former are a lot more expensive to replace than the latter, but do last an awful longer! Toner doesn't dry out either.
Look for a reputable make and check the running costs, which can vary enormously not only between manufacturers, but also between different models from the same manufacturer.