Cost-effective printer?

[oynaz]

At home, I print a lot of pages, about 100 a week. My old Canon i320 is nearly worn down, and I am looking for a new cost-effective printer. I have been recommanded the HP-1200dtwn, which looks like a good buy, but does someone know of another good buy?

 

[Mickey Eye]

Black and white or colour? If its black and white then a cheap lexmark laser would do you good. Otherwise I don't know.

 

[oynaz]

I need colour.

 

[Lemon law]

Anything inkjet by HP would eat you out of house and home.

At that printing volume I would be looking at a Canon ip3000, ip 4000, or ip5000. ---not the new Canon's with the chips-----then find a good third party cartrdige seller or refill. You can easily get your
B/w text costs to below a penny a page.----including the .5 cents for paper.

And considering you can still get a pixma ip4000 for about a $100 while they last, thats what I would be looking at.-------or spend $200 for the MP780 which prints copies scans and faxes for $200. at office max----with a printer engine from the ip4000.

For what its worth, I use cartridges from www.bulkinkjetcarts.com but other good suppliers exist.

And I bought my wife a pixma ip4000 and me a used Canon mp730 so at least I put my own money where my mouth is.

 

[oynaz]

Thanks for the advice, I will look into the Canon, especially as I have my old Canon printer has served me faithfully.
I ought to say that with the amount of printing I do, the cost of the printer itself is not a huge consideration (though it counts), especially as I get a big discount due the tax rules in Denmark.
I would be willing to spend up to the equivalent of $500.

Any others with good ideas?

 

[Lemon law]

Given that you are European, some of my recommendations don't apply as those in the US often have wider options and sometimes cheaper prices.

But will recommend you google nifty stuff forums as they have posters familar with suppliers over there.----another good site might be steves digicams.

But if you have that big of a budget you may also want to consider some of the new color lasers under $500. US.--may not be much cheaper on a per page basis than a Canon Inkjet using OEM cartridges and can really wack you hard when you have to replace all four toner cartridges.--but also a viable option to look at.



Good luck

 

[jackschmittusa]

You can now buy color lasers for less than $500, even a lot less. They are far cheaper to operate than inkjets.

 

[Zepper]

I second the Canon motion. Inexpensive to buy and to own. Get a last-year's model (iP4000 or iP5000) if you can find one. I'd even buy a used one rather than one of the new line as the new ink tanks have an active component, so you will be stuck with buying expensive Canon tanks until the cloners can RE the tanks. Plus the new tanks hold less ink than the passive tanks - some say 30% less...

.bh.

 

[Lemon law]

With all due respects to Zepper, the post I have seen show the BCI-3&6 cartridges replaced
by the new chipped Canons hold exactly one silly milliliter less ink.

The BCI-3blk holds 27 ml of Canon OEM ink--the BCI-5 just 26 ml.

The BCI-6 dye based color cartridges hold 14 ml of OEM ink--the CLI_8 cartridges just 13ml.

But when you consider a fully used and then discarded OEM cartridge still contains about 3
ml of ink retained in the sponge, that 1 ml less makes a more powerful difference.--but still not 30%.

But sure food for thought when you consider many smallish cartridges of all brands still contain considerable unusable ink retained in the cartridge sponge.

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
With all due respects to Zepper, the post I have seen show the BCI-3&6 cartridges replaced
by the new chipped Canons hold exactly one silly milliliter less ink.

The BCI-3blk holds 27 ml of Canon OEM ink--the BCI-5 just 26 ml.

The BCI-6 dye based color cartridges hold 14 ml of OEM ink--the CLI_8 cartridges just 13ml.

But when you consider a fully used and then discarded OEM cartridge still contains about 3
ml of ink retained in the sponge, that 1 ml less makes a more powerful difference.--but still not 30%.

But sure food for thought when you consider many smallish cartridges of all brands still contain considerable unusable ink retained in the cartridge sponge.

Actually the CLI-8 and BCI-6 both have 13ml of ink.

The Nazi chip that Canon has added is more accurate and will squeeze every dropped out of the cart but since they don't allow you to use generic carts or reset it after you refill it it's hard to recommend.

We will eventually get a chip resetter for the Canon's or some techinque that bypasses the NAZI technology.

Bottom Line: At least Canon allows the printer to function on refill ink.

 

[WalkingDead]

Just want to add. The Canon print head is used replaceable, unlike the damn Epsons. You can shouldn't have problem finding Canon print head replacement.

 

[oynaz]

I ended up with a Pixma 5200R. It has those chips, I know, but the missus fell for it. It is quite a good printer, though.