Looking for the cheapest, most efficient printer

[mitchafi]

I'm looking for something that does the job relatively quickly and inexpensively. I have a Dell now but the ink cartridge prices are ridiculous. I have heard good things about cannons...is there any particular model by them (or anyone for that matter) that is considered the holy grail for no frills black and white printing? I don't have any preference as to the technology the printer will use, but I do want to keep the price at $100 or less. I would prefer something that only prints to avoid bloated drivers/unnecessary waste of space.

TIA

 

[Thornfoot]

The cheapest printer to own and operate may not necessarily be the printer with the cheapest pricetag. As you have already noticed, the cost of ink is ridiculous. That is going to be the main cost of your printing across the life of your printer. Since you already own the Dell printer, can you get cheap ink refills? That may be the easiest way to go with the least investment for you.

Because you mentioned you are primarily interested in B&W printing, I suggest you consider a laser printer. The purchase price will be higher, and the cost of the toner cartridges will floor you, but the cost per page (paper not included) is in the 1 cent range. An inkjet cost will be in the 4 cent range for B&W text. Roughly that translates into saving $150.00 on ink/toner per box of paper (5000 pages.) Plus you are going to replace almost 9 inkjet cartridges for every toner cartridge.

As far as speed goes, I have found a laser printer to be consistantly faster than an inkjet even though they may be rated at the same ppm rate, I think the inkjet printer people are a bit optimistic. Also, there is less/no smudging with a laser printer and imo the printing looks sharper.

I know that didnt help you narrow down your choices. Just dont go so cheap it ends up costing you more money in the end.

 

[Zepper]

As Thornfoot said, the low cost unit is often among the most expensive in TCO. The lowest cost Canon printers have integrated-head and multi ink cartridges with very little ink in them, so the cost over their life will be much higher than the iP3000 or 4000 series.
. AFAIK, there are no longer any black-only inkjet printers - they just can't sell enough ink to make them profitable to manufacture. The color ones are generally sold at less than the manufacturing cost as the loss is more than made up for with the sales of ink as even the color tanks are gradually emptied even if you don't print much color (brief priming/cleaning cycle at each power up). So laser is really the only choice for black-only printing. The Samsung engined lasers (Samsung, Brother and probably other Brands) seem to have the inside track these days on the low cost laser market, but HP and Xerox (but Xerox are mainly color) also have good units. With low end laser printers it is also the consumables where the mfrs make their profit, so be sure to weigh consumables cost into your evaluation. PC Magazine, PC World and Consumer Reports reviews usually include a consumables cost and some others even have an estimated TCO number. I prefer those that are calculate on actual print tests rather than how many sheets the mfr. claims per cartridge. As always, refilling and/or using remanufactured cartridges can greatly reduce per page and TCO values. Some higher priced printers like some Kyocera have separate toner and drum with drum life rated at a million pages and up. These can offer much better TCO than the low end units.

.bh.

 

[nerp]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16828112055

Too bad you missed the deal when it was $55 on sale, $62 shipped. I bought 2 for good measure. Generic toner carts can be had for $28.

 

[Zepper]

One more tip. On low end priters, many will be what are called Win printers which means their drivers use your PCs resources to do the page desicription work. These will only work for sure on the supported versions of Windows. So if you plan to EVER use some alternate OS, then be sure the printer supports it up front.

.bh.

 

[Zepper]

Sorry duplicate message - this keeps happening, IDK why...

.bh.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: Zepper
One more tip. On low end priters, many will be what are called Win printers which means their drivers use your PCs resources to do the page description work. These will only work for sure on the supported versions of Windows. So if you plan to EVER use some alternate OS, then be sure the printer supports it up front.

.bh.

Good tip.

and... Good tip.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Originally posted by: mitchafi
I'm looking for something that does the job relatively quickly and inexpensively. I have a Dell now but the ink cartridge prices are ridiculous. I have heard good things about cannons...is there any particular model by them (or anyone for that matter) that is considered the holy grail for no frills black and white printing? I don't have any preference as to the technology the printer will use, but I do want to keep the price at $100 or less. I would prefer something that only prints to avoid bloated drivers/unnecessary waste of space.

TIA

Get a Samsung monochrome laser like the ML-2510. (cheap toners can be bought from monoprice.com, 3000 pages for 25$...)