Do people still buy inkjet printers?

[JS80]

People still buy printers?

 

[ShawnD1]

Avoid the HPs, their drivers are crap, especially the 3600 series. Crashes our print server all the time. :/

HP is the Chrysler of the computer world.

Which company makes the best drivers?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I bought a Canon Pixma ip4600 around xmas '08 for some color printing, and the ink carts hadn't dried out a year later. I was also able to print at least 10 4x6 photos after the drivers claimed an ink tank "might" be empty and should be replaced.

So at least that brand and model doesn't seem to suffer from drying out and clogging like older inkjets did.

 

[Fritzo]

Uh, I think nearly everyone uses inkjets at home.

Look into Kodak's new line. Their carts get a lot more pages out of them, and they're $5-$10 cheaper than HP.

 

[Red Squirrel]

HP is the Chrysler of the computer world.

Which company makes the best drivers?

This may sound crazy, but I find Lexmark makes decent drivers, and decent printers, at least in the commercial world. I would not touch their consumer stuff. Pay a grand or so for a commercial grade printer and it will be the last printer you ever buy. Samsung and Brother are decent for low cost consumer grade printers. I've had one of both and had no issues. I can't really speak for color printers though, I just have a black and white.

 

[Modelworks]

It depends on what you want. If you want color and text documents at home and do a fair amount of printing then get a color laser. The inkjet with print heads and cartridges in the same package I wouldn't touch in a million years. The cost is too high and the refill too bothersome.

I saw a inkjet that actually only had 3 colors, cyan, magenta, yellow and used all 3 to print black, bet that was costly to refill.

I currently use a canon pixma mp980. It uses 5 colors for printing, black, grey, cyan, magenta, yellow and the black ink is twice the size of the others so you can print text without replacing often. The ink is in tanks, it is liquid, you can pull it out and look at the levels. The refills are $22 for 10 tanks already filled. Cheap to refill because you just add more ink.

 

[Jeff7]

Who has a laser printer at home?

Parents: B&W laser printer, as they don't really need color printing, and I didn't want to have them attempt to refill cartridges after I moved out, nor did I want them to spend loads on name-brand cartridges, nor did I want to have to try to troubleshoot clogged ink heads over the phone.

Myself: A color laser printer. I bought it during my first year of college, about 5 years ago. I might have had to replace the black cartridge once, but I'm not sure. The rest of the cartridges are still the originals.

For home use, you just can't beat laser printers in terms of the cost of consumables. And there's no ink to ever dry out. They're also quite speedy while still maintaining good quality.

 

[conehead433]

After having to throw away several photo quality inkjet printers I now just buy a cheapie. A Canon Pixma IP2600 is $30 at Walmart and probably one or more online retailers where you wouldn't even have to pay tax. When it runs out of ink buy another one cause it's cheaper than buying new cartridges. The printer doesn't do a bad job either.

 

[bruceb]

I have an HP7410 all in one. Works ok for my needs. Newer model with the same specs now uses multiple ink tanks, but you need to change the print heads every now and then, depending on how much use they get. Inkjet cartridges get costly, as most include the print head.

 

[Modelworks]

Who has a laser printer at home?

I have 3 of them. Total cost about $45 for all of them. Bought at a business auction.
They are laserjet 4 and 6 models. The oldest was made in 1997. 13 years old and it still prints, page count on it is 92,000 sheets. They don't build them like that now🙂

 

[kranky]

My inkjet is 10 years old. I might go a month without printing but it works every time. I've had color cartridge last a year.

If I printed a lot, then color laser might make sense.

 

[BoomerD]

Who has a laser printer at home?

I do. Just a monochrome laser printer/copier/fax/scanner AIO, but it's a decent Canon model. I also have a color ink jet for the times when I need to print something in color. Color lasers are a bit more expensive, and while the quality is usually very good, they don't print photos worth a shit.


OP, buy your mom a good quality Canon ink jet. Not one of the low-end models, get a GOOD one.

 

[ShawnD1]

For home use, you just can't beat laser printers in terms of the cost of consumables. And there's no ink to ever dry out. They're also quite speedy while still maintaining good quality.

And they don't smear. I remember having to be very careful after printing anything on an HP inkjet because the ink was still wet after printing. Touching anything on the page would smear it and get ink on my thumb.

They are laserjet 4 and 6 models.

I've seen a lot of these at schools and small business. The laserjet 4 prints incredibly slow compared to modern printers but the quality is excellent after all these years.

 

[Fritzo]

And they don't smear. I remember having to be very careful after printing anything on an HP inkjet because the ink was still wet after printing. Touching anything on the page would smear it and get ink on my thumb.


I've seen a lot of these at schools and small business. The laserjet 4 prints incredibly slow compared to modern printers but the quality is excellent after all these years.

They solved the smearing issues with inkjets a long time ago.

 

[Lean L]

My ink only costs $25 for a black HP cartridge. Granted, I go through probably one every 2 months but all the laser printers I looked at would have a higher cost of ownership over a few years.

Nope, the cost only goes down.

 

[CRXican]

She has a ghetto Canon inkjet.

I might suggest my dad getting a B&W laser printer (business writeoff for him) and letting my mom have the color laser. He mostly prints text anyway.

Thanks for the input all.

 

[Raduque]

I bought a Canon Pixma ip4600 around xmas '08 for some color printing, and the ink carts hadn't dried out a year later. I was also able to print at least 10 4x6 photos after the drivers claimed an ink tank "might" be empty and should be replaced.

So at least that brand and model doesn't seem to suffer from drying out and clogging like older inkjets did.

I have a Pixma ip3600 and can attest to the longevity of the ink carts. I've had mine since Christmas '08 also and just now the CMY carts are complaining about ink levels. I've also printed more than 10 photos worth of stuff.

 

[KillerCharlie]

It was a Canon, don't remember what model #. I didn't get new toner for it. I just use the printers on campus now.

edit: nevermind, it was a Samsung like GTaudiophile, but I think it was a 2510

I have a 2510 and the toner is nowhere near $100. Even the samsung brand cartridges are like half of that.

 

[coldmeat]

I have a 2510 and the toner is nowhere near $100. Even the samsung brand cartridges are like half of that.

I'll admit I didn't look too hard. I just stopped at a store when I was at the mall and asked.

 

[wiredspider]

Laser all the way. I'm surprised they still make inkjets / bubblejets (think they're the same, or are they different?)

inkjet cartridges last a few weeks at most if not used, laserjets can last YEARS if more. Color lasers are also more consistent in quality. ink jets will print maybe 5 high quality prints then it goes downhill from there until the whole head/cartridge assembly is replaced and that will run you almost 100 bucks. Not worth it. Get her a color laser, it will have a bigger upfront cost but very low future cost to run. Avoid the HPs, their drivers are crap, especially the 3600 series. Crashes our print server all the time. :/

😕 Quality with inkjets has improved, I only remember that stuff happening with my first printer, that was like 10 years ago.

Ran out of ink a few months ago and I had to print some docs right away for a trip, so I busted out an HP printer I hadn't used in 1-2 years. It printed fine, though most of the stuff was text.

 

[xanis]

For as little as I print, inkjet is MUCH more cost-effective than a laser. Granted, everyone's usage will be different, but since I only go through about 1 black and 1 color cartridge per year, a laser just isn't worth the additional cost.

 

[Meghan54]

We have a Samsung 2850 as our main printer.....laser. (Picked it up for $50 on sale at OD....clearance.)

We also use a cheapie Canon MP160 all-in-one , on occasion, for color prints and copying and scanning....inkjet. Fortunately, the ink doesn't dry out between prints, which can be weeks and weeks. ($19 on a BF sale at BestBuy.)

Also have a wide format Epson inkjet printer for special duties. ($55 at a Circuit City closing sale.)

But the Samsung is the workhorse. Well over 1500 sheets already run through it and still on its original toner cart.

 

[cherrytwist]

Who has a laser printer at home?

*meekly raises hand*

It's a Brother something something that does B&W only and is going on about 10 years old. For ~$100 AR it's been dutiful and reliable. I have replaced the toner cartridge once.

 

[destrekor]

Alright, someone want to help clarify:

HP Inkjet
Similar model to the one I currently have, at least it uses the same ink cartridges. PCMag shows:

• Cost Per Page (Mono): 2.4 cents
• Cost Per Page (Color): 10.4 cents

On their site, I couldn't find a single color laser printer that offers CPP lower than that, either color or mono.

Please explain to me how accurate that may be. When they review the color laser printers, are they using the MSRP of the toner cartridges, and in reality you can find them at well below that price?

I have found the HP 02 series ink to be phenomenal in terms of how long the ink lasts. Especially on draft mode, which is how I print just about everything unless it's personal color prints which I do very, very rarely.

With the rating for a printer that uses the same ink as my printer (D7160), is it at all worthwhile to move up to a color laser printer? I don't want to deal with multiple printers, almost everything I print in color is still just basic documents, I haven't printed a photo in forever and even then, it was mostly just for testing. Not a big fan of printing photos for myself from a digital camera, would rather have professional prints IF I were to want a photo printed.

 

[Brainonska511]

I've had a Brother HL2040 for 3 and a half years, printed hundreds and hundreds of pages and have yet to run out of the original toner cartridge. Said it was low and wouldn't let me print anymore, so I taped over the holes it uses to check its level, and it's still going strong a semester later.

That's fucking bullshit if the printer stops printing because of low toner/ink when there is clearly still stuff left. Printer manufacturers are some of the biggest con artists around.