Good, inexpensive printer?!? Recomendations Pls.

[powerMarkymark]

Printer for everyday home use, no need for high quality photo printing. Just something for documents and such.

Also one that dosen't require that you take out a second mortgage on the house for ink cartridges!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TIA

Mark

 

[AtomicDude512]

HP Deskjet 84x is a good series and it's cartridges are about average priced. Decent image quality also.

 

[John]

Get a cheap laser printer (HP 6L). You'll get 1500-2000 pages per toner cartridge.

 

[Smilin]

I grabbed a Lexmark Laser printer for $169 from Dell. It's in the same league as the HP Laser 6 but doesn't suffer the vertical feeding problems that plague the HP. You'll definately need a 2nd mortgage for the toner (like 50 bucks I think) but the toner cartridges last about 7-8 times as long as ink cartridges (I've had mine a year and a half and haven't changed toner yet.)

Inkjets just don't have that professional look I think. They're great for inexpensive color if that's what you need though.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Also one that dosen't require that you take out a second mortgage on the house for ink cartridges"

Your best best is a Canon that uses BCI-3 cartriges. You can get Generics for $2 or refill.
With a coupon you can get a S750 for around $100. or a i550 fo about the same.

 

[jagr10]

Go with canon. They have some good quality cheap printers and their ink is cheap too.

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: powerMarkymark
Printer for everyday home use, no need for high quality photo printing. Just something for documents and such.

Also one that dosen't require that you take out a second mortgage on the house for ink cartridges!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My vote is for an Epson Stylus Color 880. They've been discontinued, but they can be found all over ebay (at least the last time i checked). Ink cartridges are dirt cheap for generic ones and even Epson brand cartridges are cheaper than most. Print quality is also good and the printer is fast.

tdawg

 

[Slogun]

Listen to that Canon advice up above.
The only exception would be if you are printning a lot of documents and don't need color, then an inexpensive Laser such as Samsung ML-1430 would be most cost effective.

 

[RyanM]

I'd find a Epson C80. I had one of those, and the black ink lasts FOREVER. Literally. I print about 200 pages a month, and I'll be damned if it wasn't almost half a year before I ran out of the black.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: tdawg
My vote is for an Epson Stylus Color 880. They've been discontinued, but they can be found all over ebay (at least the last time i checked). Ink cartridges are dirt cheap for generic ones and even Epson brand cartridges are cheaper than most. Print quality is also good and the printer is fast.

tdawg

That's one thing I like about my SC880 - the ink is cheap and lasts a long time. Photo quality is pretty good (definitely much better than any of my friends' Lexmark inkjets could do), though a dedicated photo printer would be best if you wanted to do that. The newer Epson C80 may be a better choice (you'd get it new so it would have a warranty, etc.), and it's supposedly faster than the SC880 and produces higher quality prints.

 

[RyanM]

Yeah, the C80 is fast, and as far as price per page goes, it's one of the cheapest inkjets in the industry.

It'd decent for photos, but I'm really picky, and the color gamut isn't as good as a dye printer. Most people though are blown away by it.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: jagr10
Go with canon. They have some good quality cheap printers and their ink is cheap too.

I love my Canon S750. Cheap printer, cheap ink, good quality.

 

[magomago]

Lemark Z11

I got it two years ago for 19.99 AR its it still works perfect

 

[RyanM]

lol. You're forgetting the fact that you pay through the nose for ink with Lexmarks. They may cost less up front, but you end up taking it in the rear if you stick with it for more than 2 ink changes.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: MachFive
lol. You're forgetting the fact that you pay through the nose for ink with Lexmarks. They may cost less up front, but you end up taking it in the rear if you stick with it for more than 2 ink changes.

Aside from the fact that cheap Lexmark inkjet print quality freaking blows.

 

[Comp625]

Since I deal with printers alot at Staples, I would recommend the HP 5550 Deskjet Printer. Ink is very cheap with this machine as Composite Black is only $20, Tri-Color is $35 (a bit steep) and the Photo Cartridge (with pigmented Black) is $25.

The printer goes for $130 at Staples.com.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"I would recommend the HP 5550 Deskjet Printer. Ink is very cheap with this machine as Composite Black is only $20"

Generic black for the canon is $2. Color is 3 x 2 = $6. Or you can refill for less if you do a lot of printing.

There is no way HP is cheap on ink.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I'd get a laser printer. While they aren't color, its not that big of a deal. I have an HP Laser printer and haven't had any problems with it yet. Dell has also released some Laser printers and their's should be of high quality I presume

 

[Willoughbyva]

I bought an Lexmark RT+ laser printer off of ebay a year or two ago(used). I am still on the same toner cartridge. The cartridges are expensive, though I am looking into refills for it. Prints 16ppm I think and takes 72pin simms up to 32 mb I think. It is pretty big and heavy, but the print quality is pretty good considering it is a few years old. It will do 1200X1200 I think. Everything it prints looks great.

 

[psy44]

I bought the Minolta Pagepro 1250w for 100 bucks at staples, its a good at home laser printer.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Willoughbyva
I bought an Lexmark RT+ laser printer off of ebay a year or two ago(used). I am still on the same toner cartridge. The cartridges are expensive, though I am looking into refills for it. Prints 16ppm I think and takes 72pin simms up to 32 mb I think. It is pretty big and heavy, but the print quality is pretty good considering it is a few years old. It will do 1200X1200 I think. Everything it prints looks great.

And this is the great ironic nature of the situation. While Lexmark inkjets suck beyond all recognition, their lasers are actually pretty good. I hear the Linux compatility isn't too bad, either, but haven't had a chance to try it myself.

 

[m1ke101]

another vote for the epson 880....ink cartidges are dirt cheap and it prints fast.

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: Comp625
Since I deal with printers alot at Staples, I would recommend the HP 5550 Deskjet Printer. Ink is very cheap with this machine as Composite Black is only $20, Tri-Color is $35 (a bit steep) and the Photo Cartridge (with pigmented Black) is $25.

The printer goes for $130 at Staples.com.

Jesus, where to start.

First off, you work at Staples, so that explains your misconceptions.

The all-black catridge is pigmented. The Photo cartridge black well contains NON pigmented ink. Pigmented and non-pigmented inks mix piss-poorly, and as a result, you don't want to print a photo with a mix of inks. Hence, the photo ink cartridge, like the color cartridge, contains ALL non-pigmented (or, for simplicity) dye inks.

Second off, the cartridge may be cheap, but that's because it doesn't contain 300 to 350 pages of black text worth of ink.

HP has such huge marketshare they can afford to produce sub-par products that sometimes put Lexmark to shame.

The C80 can be had for less than 90 bucks plus shipping (LINK), and you can find the black ink at almost any office store for less than 33 dollars for the geniune shite.

That single black cartridge will get you over 870 pages of text, in draft mode, at 15% coverage. Which is an entire page of text, non-double spaced, 1-inch margins. You can use "compatible" ink instead of the geniune stuff, but YMMV. Frankly, I won't touch generic ink with a 15 foot pole, but then, I give a crap what my printouts look like.

 

[Macro2]

All ink is generic. Canon, HP, Lexmark et. al. don't manufacture their own ink. They may well pay to get it formulated but the formulas can be matched closely and are.

Of all the things HP sells they make the major profits on ink cartridges and toner.
No thank you. Been there done that.

Epson is a second choice to the Canons. Often you need resetters or their cartridges simple cannot be refilled. Even if you use brand name cartridges Canons are still cheaper. Epson is a close second.

I just installed another Canon i850 tonight. No other 4 color can touch this printer. It's also very fast. 22/14 ppm. 4800 dpi. Prints on photo paper are stunning. Only surpassed slightly by the i950 which uses 6 cartridges but is slower.

 

[RyanM]

Name me a single decent graphics house that uses generic ink on their printers and I'll give you a cookie.

People who care about quality only use the real stuff. The knock offs aren't even close.