OT: Printers

[allan_evett]

After 6 years, it appears that my HP Officejet 6500 printer has croaked, utterly. After running every diagnostic I could find - or imagine, the nearest thing I can determine is that the USB port on the unit is toast. It all started when I attempted to print Notion score from my MacMini (OSX 10.9) and nothing happened. After troubleshooting that connection, I moved on to both my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.8) and my wife's Sony Notebook (Windows 8). No connection with either of those machines, either; previously both had worked fine with the printer.

 

This particular printer has set somewhat of a record - at six years; typically my printers have had an average survival rate of three. So it appears I'm in the market for a new printer/fax/copier/scanner. The Officejet 6500 did pretty well, though the fax function was usually inconsistent. In all fairness, I think that was mostly due to the crappy phone line that Comcast provided in Colorado; I've not attempted to fax since relocating two months ago.

 

What sort of multipurpose printing device have the rest of you had the best luck with ? I've listed my computers and operating systems above. What works great for you - for printing/scanning/copying/faxing, and is foolproof and no-tears for use with both Mac and PC ?

 

Thanks for any and all input !

 

[Brettymike]

Brother printers have a great reputation for doing a top job.

The only "trouble" we have with printers here , is the very high and ridiculous cost of the INK.

Costs more to fuel up my Canon printer than fuel up the car.

 

Brett

[dodonnell]

I've been very happy with Brother printers, and have been using the j430w for the past 2 years. It's wireless and is very convenient. Got it on unannounced sale at Staples for $49.

 

My daughter is still using my first Brother that must be about 6 years old.

 

The LC71 and 75 generic replacement ink carts are about $1.50 each on Ebay and Amazon.

 

Duane

[Reezekeys]

I would definitely get a multifunction with an ADF. Need to make 5 copies of that ten-page chart? Load the stack of papers in and press start done. Also, duplex printing is showing up in cheaper printers now too; that's handy when you have a long document to print and want to save paper. My last multifunction was a low-end Brother (DCP 7020), cheap & plastic-y but performed well most of the time (I would occasionally need to restart its Mac software). Unfortunately, non-OEM toner didn't perform that well but that's probably true of all brands. I really did like the ADF though. I will not buy another unit without that.

[ksoper]

I will never, never, never, ever buy another HP printer. No way, no how. I've got a cheap Epson in the studio that runs circles around our household HP.

[Six-string-man]

I've had a Canon for the last five years which seems to be holding up OK (touch wood)!

 

The ink doesn't last as long as I'd like, bit there are plenty of third party suppliers, so the costs aren't too bad.

 

 

SSM

[16251]

I have a Brother laser that will print both sides and is wireless. I gave up color/ink jet years ago. What a waste of money. Every time I turned the thing on it would waste more ink than I used, cleaning the heads. If you need color buy two printers.

 

Another thing I've learned is if you buy a laser, get one that uses separate toner and drums cartridges.

[Markay]

+1 on brother, been using Brother since the first gen laser when they all had Canon engines. At home I have an ex work B&W Brother Laser which refuses to die, and a colour inkjet. In inkjets been through HP, premature failure expensive ink, good colour photos, Canon again premature failure not quite as good as HP on colour photos and now have an Epson Artisan with ADF. It is OK and now old enough to get non-genuine low cost cartridges.

 

Not a lot of choice today in all in ones with ADF if you, like me, require CD printing functionality.

[RABid]

Unless you hang out in the photography thread and print a lot of photos, avoid ink jet and go for a simple BW laser. I second the comments about avoiding HP printers. Their drivers and management software is bloated and they were among the first to put digital code in their ink cartridges. The code has a time out date so even if you don't use up the ink in a specified time it times out. This makes it hard to refill with third party ink. They also filed suite against third party companies making replacement cartridges using the digital rights act, claiming that the digital code has to be replicated for the cartridges to work.

 

I used to buy HP's for the office. I finally got smart and switched to Lexmark.

[Reezekeys]

Not a lot of choice today in all in ones with ADF if you, like me, require CD printing functionality.

Is there even such a thing as an all-in-one that prints on CDs? I have never see one (that doesn't mean much, I know )

 

I assumed we were talking lasers here, I gave up on inkjets years ago after the clogged heads, slow speeds and expensive cartridges, not to mention pages that "ran" if you spilled liquids on them. If I needed to do low-volume printing on CDs I would buy an inexpensive inkjet specifically for that, along with the laser AIO for everything else.

[Marzzz]

All of this HP hate!? My HP home and office printers are all going strong for the better part of a decade, FWIW. I do try to avoid the all-in-one machines (who faxes anymore?) and stick to a dedicated BW laser printer. Gotta agree, toner costs are outrageous; I used to try to save on cartridge refillers, but they never seem to last as long.

[Dr88s]

I'll add another big +1 for Brother printers, but I will add another important reason I didn't see the others mention.

 

Aside from being reliable, much more so than any Canon or HP printer I have tried, Brother is EXCELLENT when it comes to supporting their old models in terms of drivers.

 

I am not a Mac person so I don't know if this has implications for the Apple community, but every time Windows comes out with a new version, new drivers are required for your printers, and in my experience, the other companies are extremely disappointing with releasing drivers for all but their newest of products. I think this is probably on purpose, forcing you to buy a new printer every two or so years. Brother, however, continues to release drivers for even products that are many years out of production. It is really impressive and they should be congratulated for doing so.

[Synthoid]

My opinion of computer printers:

 

 

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/4DtsVoYu-Pg/hqdefault.jpg

[Sam Mullins]

The Officejet 6500 did pretty well, though the fax function was usually inconsistent. In all fairness, I think that was mostly due to the crappy phone line that Comcast provided in Colorado; I've not attempted to fax since relocating two months ago.

 

I'm assuming that Comcast is supplying voice via VOIP (even if it isn't advertised that way or apparent to the customer.) VOIP is notoriously problematic for fax transmissions. If they use standard codecs, tone detection is typically poor. The T.38 protocol is designed to transfer faxes over VOIP but my experience is that many implementations are buggy and there is also no guarantee that the transit carrier connections (i.e. who Comcast uses to terminate calls to other areas) support T.38.

 

[allan_evett]

Thanks all, some good ideas coming in.. I'm not super-knowledgeable regarding printers, so this has been good.

 

Sounds like a B/W laser is the way to go. I don't really need the color option; In the rare case of needing to print a photo, I've used Walgreens' automated machines. I've not owned a laser printer, so I'll take the advice about separate toner and drum cartridges. Sounds like the replacements are a bit costly, but I can't imagine it being crazier than ink jet cartridges; those things go through ink at warp speed. Speaking of which, one of The Murphy's Law corollaries is in effect here: I just replaced the entire bank of ink cartridges one week ago..

 

Time to start shopping, and there could be additional questions. So further insights and ideas are welcome..

[J. Dan]

currently using the HP 6700 - it was supplied by my company. I'm using it via USB. You're supposed to be able to use it over wifi, but I haven't been able to get that to work. The one in one of our satellite offices works, though. USB port is nice sometimes. It's a little slow and the feeder is finnicky. I always had good luck with HP in the past. I haven't really had this one long enough to give a thorough review though.

 

One thing I'll say with ANY printer - before you buy it, find out what ink it uses and see how available it is at the office supply stores and how much it costs. You'll likely spend WAY more on ink over the life of the printer than on the printer itself.

[MoodyBluesKeys]

Over the years, I've gotten good results with HP Laser printers. However, I do not buy the low priced home models. The business oriented printers a step up are not only made better, but they generally have available both a standard toner cartridge that prints three times as many pages, for about 1.5 times the money; but also a "extended" toner cartridge that lasts twice as long as the regular one, again for about 1.5 times the money. I use ONLY original HP cartridges, but I do source them through secondary sourced - you would be amazed how many new cartridges wind up on EBay - maybe the company got rid of that model printer, but someone found a dozen new cartridges in a closet.

 

Currently have: HP LaserJet 5M with duplexer - I paid a premium back in 1995, but it is still going in 2014, with over 94,000 pages printed.

HP LaserJet P2015 (USB) bought in 2012, currently has about 5,000 pages printed.

HP Color LaserJet 3600N - bought new on good sale (about the price of the 4 toner cartridges) in early 2007, used only for color printing, mostly business cards and brochures, low volume with only a 200 printed.

HP LaserJet 2055dn - bought Dec, 2011, has duplexer, currently total 5,646 pages printed.

three of the four are networked, so I can print to them from any of the computers (the color one only has drivers for Windows). Printing works from XP, Vista, Win 7, Win 8.1, and Ubuntu.

 

I keep a spare toner cartridge for each on hand. The only failure I've had with any of these is that the old HPLJ5M only prints from the network, the original parallel port doesn't work any more - died about 15 years ago, I never got it fixed.

 

None of these are multifunction. I have a Mustek 11x17 USB connected scanner (great for making a copy of purchased sheet music to mark all over and keep the original looking new). One of my clients got tired of the inkjet problems, and bought a HP Color MFP that has the scanner built in - they haven't reported any problems. Another pricing tip - HP comes out with new models frequently - get the model one older after the new one comes out - buy it on sale.

 

[NoLights]

My current printer is a Canon MG8220. The quality is excellent, though it does devour ink. Like some of the Epson models, it can print directly on CD and DVD discs. Unlike my previous Epsons, it handles paper well - though this one doesn't have an ADF.

 

[Markay]

 

Is there even such a thing as an all-in-one that prints on CDs? I have never see one (that doesn't mean much, I know )

 

If I needed to do low-volume printing on CDs I would buy an inexpensive inkjet specifically for that, along with the laser AIO for everything else.

 

Epson Artisan 837 Inkjet, with wifi and supports Apple Airprint, if they are still available new. Use it regularly and avoid clogged heads, non-genuine chipped cartridges about 30% of the cost of genuine, you have be careful which non-genuine cartridge brand you get.

[ProfD]

Timely thread as about two weeks ago, i bought a Brother MFCJ470DW all-in-one printer. I haven't taken it out of the box yet.

 

I've been torn between keeping the printer and taking it back to Staples. I rarely ever have a need to print anything. But, I bought it "just in case".

 

Considering the positive feedback from my forum brethren, maybe I will keep the printer in the event I need to print, copy, scan or fax.

[B3bluesman59]

If all you need is a printer for the home (not heavy-duty office work) then you might want to consider a Kodak. I have been using a Kodak ESP 3 for three years now with zero problems. It prints, scans, copies, etc, and the Kodak ink prices are way lower than all the others. I paid $89 for the printer and it is by far the best I have ever had. I have had HP, Epson, and several other "big name" brands and this low buck Kodak tops them all.

[Mr. Nightime]

I've been using an Epson "Small-in-one" for a while. Small footprint, inkjet printer, with a flatbed scanner, and it's wireless. It has 4 ink cartridges, and the ink is reasonably priced. With the wireless I can print from any device in my house, including my smart phone.

 

I did have a problem once with clogged heads, but after running the head cleaning cycle a few times, it cleared the clog.

 

I went with the Epson over the other brands solely due to the price of ink.