Help me choose between these two printers

[Whymeintrouble2]

Hi everyone

I'm needing help from people who hopefully have actual experience with either of these printers:

Brothers MFC-J6935DW
Canon MAXIFY MB5420

They are close enough in price that it isn't a big deal. Price per page and reliability are very important. As well as quality of prints, Quality of text, good picture quality, etc.
The price per page seems close, with the edge probably going to the Brothers. The large size paper isn't a plus or minus as I'm not sure it will be used. This will mostly be used by the kids for their various school projects and when I'm feeling too lazy to fire up the old HP laser.
Thank you in advance, I appreciate the help.

 

[DigDog]

"Kids" means your kids at home, or kids you teach at school? Will this printer be used a couple times a week, or a hundred times a day?

 

[mikeymikec]

I would strongly recommend that inkjet printers be used at least once a month (and kept out of direct sunlight), otherwise you end up with the print heads getting clogged. At best this results in wasting loads of ink with head cleaning operations to clear the problem, a worse case scenario involves chucking the affected cartridges, and the worst case scenario is that the printer ends up being thrown out.

With my inkjet printer I've ended up with a middle-of-the-road situation whereby after it didn't get used for a while (my wife's and my needs changed radically and it took a while for me to notice because my usage was very occasional), then despite apparently correcting the problem and using the printer at least once a month from that point on, it took a few more head cleaning cycles over the following months before the printer (fingers crossed) righted itself.

I'm a little worried by this statement: "and when I'm feeling too lazy to fire up the old HP laser": One thing I advise customers against is owning devices with overlapping functions, e.g. a desktop and a laptop, or a laptop and a tablet. Particularly for a single user (though what applies to the individual often applies to the group), it inevitably means that one sits in a corner and probably rendered steadily unusable through lack of use. However in the context of printers, I've sometimes sold a mono laser and a colour all-in-one inkjet as a cheaper alternative to a colour all-in-one laser because the usage case involved the recommended minimum of colour prints while generally using the laser for its economy.

I regard Canon, Brother and Epson to all be reputable for inkjets. One further bit of advice: It is possible to over-work inkjets at that kind of price range. When replacing a printer, I had a customer lie about their usage (lying is a great way to save money apparently) in a way that suggested this class of inkjet was appropriate for their needs only to find that they were going through a ream of paper every single month. Going through the specs of the printer after it died was an interesting exercise in deciphering weasel-wording, e.g.:

"Duty Cycle Up to 20,000 pages (Recommended monthly page volume up to 1300 pages)"

Other hopefully obvious bits of advice: 1) monitor your kids' printing habits: when they don't pay the bills, they don't understand why they can't do lots of test prints at full photo quality etc. 2) Use the highest capacity printers-own-brand cartridges: yes, they're expensive, but replacing a clogged printer is more expensive.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a brother printer without the ink cart chips. I used generic ink that costs $0.50-$1 per cart. (Four carts)

I laugh at printer cleanings. It's only ink! There more where that came from...

 

[Whymeintrouble2]

"Kids" means your kids at home, or kids you teach at school? Will this printer be used a couple times a week, or a hundred times a day?

I mean my (2) 8yr olds I'm sure it will be used at least a couple times per week. They both love to color so I'm sure they will be printing stuff out and coloring it, so I can hang it up at work. My little one likes to learn to draw so I'm sure that will be done if the printing too. My eldest has her own camera she got for her birthday and wants to print some her pictures out. It won't be used non-stop, but definitely enough to avoid in issues. The laser is on the other side of the house and isn't networked. B&W only
Thanks for your advice, has anyone used either of these?

 

[DigDog]

Because with the use you describe, there is no functional difference between those two. You're not exactly gonna push them to their limit.

 

[13Gigatons]

Hi everyone

I'm needing help from people who hopefully have actual experience with either of these printers:

Brothers MFC-J6935DW
Canon MAXIFY MB5420

They are close enough in price that it isn't a big deal. Price per page and reliability are very important. As well as quality of prints, Quality of text, good picture quality, etc.
The price per page seems close, with the edge probably going to the Brothers. The large size paper isn't a plus or minus as I'm not sure it will be used. This will mostly be used by the kids for their various school projects and when I'm feeling too lazy to fire up the old HP laser.
Thank you in advance, I appreciate the help.

Personally would choose the Canon but I know some people are fans of Brother. However $300 is pretty pricey for a inkjet printer. If that is your budget I would look at the Canon mf733cdw: https://www.amazon.com/Canon-Color-...F8&qid=1549504686&sr=8-3&keywords=Canon+laser