Multifunction Printer, low Cost Per Page?

[Jephph]

Hey hey. I was just wondering if anybody knew a decent Multifunction printer with a low cost per page. I am willing to add my own ink if it will be cheaper. Basically, I want a good printer with cheap ink ( "cheap" used relatively of course) It's for my wife for Christmas. We have a cheapo HP Deskjet 3620 that's about had enough. Here is what I've found on Newegg so far:

Canon PIXMA MP530 $109
Canon PIXMA MP610 $100
Canon PIXMA MX700 $99
Brother MFC-465cn $119
HP Officejet 6310 $99
HP Photosmart C5280 $99
HP Photosmart C5580 $99

They all have decent ratings (4 or 5 stars), and are all within the price I'd like to pay. I'd be willing t go slightly higher (up to $150) if it will save me a good bit more on ink later on. If there is one that's not on this list that fits all the criteria, I'd be more than happy to check that out as well. Thanks.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Well the best price per print printers are Laser printers. The initial cost of the printer and the cartridges is higher but you get more prints from a single toner cartridge then you do from an inkjet cartridge. Now the cheapest i've seen as far as inkjet are the number 24 Cannon cartridges. But the printers that use those are no longer sold and will not work with Vista. Any printer that will be used for photos will always have more expesive ink. About the best you can do is look at the cost of ink that each printer needs. But its hard to tell how many prints you will average with that printer.

Cheap ink is hard to find and so is lowest cost per print. Just keep in mind that these companies sell there printers at a loss. All there money is made in the ink. Another thing to look for is how much ink the printer wastes when its cleaning the print heads in preperation for the next print. You will find that is you do just a few large print job rather then allot of small ones the ink will last longer because of the wasted ink cleaning the heads.

 

[Jephph]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Well the best price per print printers are Laser printers. The initial cost of the printer and the cartridges is higher but you get more prints from a single toner cartridge then you do from an inkjet cartridge. Now the cheapest i've seen as far as inkjet are the number 24 Cannon cartridges. But the printers that use those are no longer sold and will not work with Vista. Any printer that will be used for photos will always have more expesive ink. About the best you can do is look at the cost of ink that each printer needs. But its hard to tell how many prints you will average with that printer.

Cheap ink is hard to find and so is lowest cost per print. Just keep in mind that these companies sell there printers at a loss. All there money is made in the ink. Another thing to look for is how much ink the printer wastes when its cleaning the print heads in preperation for the next print. You will find that is you do just a few large print job rather then allot of small ones the ink will last longer because of the wasted ink cleaning the heads.

Right, but I don't want a laser, because color laser multifunction printers are just too expensive.

While we do want a color printer, it will be mostly used just for normal black and white document printing. We will use the color photo ink probably just to print out 1-2 color 8x10 photos a month or so.

Is there a site anyone knows of that has ink that I can use to refill the stock ink cartridges so that I can compare prices? Also, would the same ink cartridges work for the same series of printer? For example, I saw a lot of ink cartridges on Newegg that worked for a Canon MP960, but only the MP970 was sold on Newegg. Would that ink work for any MP9xx series Canon Printer?

 

[mpilchfamily]

You would have to look up the ink. Generally one set of ink will cover several models of printers. Good luck trying to use refills. Manufactures are always trying to make it so the printers won't work with an old cartridge. They put built in sensors to tell the printer that the ink is low or too old to use.

Like i said earlier, printers use up ink cleaning the heads before printing. So even though you do mostly black and white printing you may find the color to be low or out when you want to do a color print. Some printers even use a bit of color while makeing black only prints.

 

[Lemon law]

I have an Canon ip4000, the last of the non chipped canons, I can easily refill, and my costs in consumables is on the order of a 1/3 of a cent per page for B&W and a penny for mixed color.

Now that they have cracked the chip for CLI-5&8 cartridges, you can do the same with them if you buy a $30.00 chip resetter. Get em before Canon phases them out, because Canon is fixing to bring out a new generation of printers with new chips. It took four years to crack the old Canon chips, and it will probably take longer with the new generation.

 

[Zepper]

Hard to find an MFP in that price range with a decent cost per page. In general, the lower the original purchase price, the higher the cost per page/TCO. Beware of the latest Canon models as they have a new series of cartridges which both contain less ink and cost more to boot. The MFP you want is one that uses the PGI5 and CLI8 ink tanks, but you're unlikely to find at your price as word has gotten out about the new tanks and the value of the older models has risen already. If you go to the Canon site the ones with the little NEW logo on them are the ones you probably don't want. HP doesn't have many models with separate tanks for each color, so unless you're up for refilling your own, you're in for life of high ink costs. I'd want nothing less than a 5-tank Canon with the pigmented black for text (PGI-5) and CLI-8 tanks for CMYK dye based colors. Unfortunately not likely to fit your budget. The 4-tank Canons lack the dye based black so they use a CMY composite for blacks and grays in photos etc. Uses lots of CMY (mostly M) to make black and there goes your cost per page. Up to you - maybe you can find a deal. The big box stores like Staples, Office Depot, etc. often aren't up to speed on the cartridge changes, so you may still be able to find an older model with the older tanks at a clearance price. Now that the gas price is down, it won't cost too much to do the rounds of your big box stores.

.bh.

 

[Jephph]

Ok. I've narrowed it down to the Canon MX700 or the Canon MP530. Both have fax capabilities, and both use the afformentioned CLI-8 cartridges. Any ideas which is better? One would think the MX700 would be better because it costs more retail, but I wonder what its disadvantages are compared to the MP530..?

What's up with the MX label and MP label? I wish they would just label them "this one is better" or "we're trying to rip you off with this one".

Oh, and I don't mind buying a chip resetter and refilling my own ink. But, I looked on one site and it sold regular cartridges (13ml) for like 10 bucks. But they also sold pint sizes of ink for like 25 bucks. The pint sizes said something like 471ml. There's no way that can be right, right? If it were, it'd be like paying only 2.5 times the price for like 36 times the amount of ink.

Thoughts?

 

[Zepper]

Well, the cartridges are where the printer makers actually make their money. Ink as supplied in the OEM cartridges can cost in the thousands of dollars a gallon. Which is why refilling from the pint or even smaller size bottles saves so much. Many would really think twice about an inkjet if they really knew the TCO using OEM ink. I recently got in my refill ink where I bought enough to refill all my tanks at least ten times for about the price of one HP88 XL black OEM tank. Plus I got a set of easily refillable/resettable, transparent tanks off eBay for less than the cost of one HP88 XL black tank. Makes life a lot easier than trying to refill the opaque OEM tanks. I'd go with the 530 just because it has the special dye based black for photos as well as the pigment black for text. Saves some money in the long run and the photos will look better due to the true black instead of composite.

.bh.

 

[tynopik]

Originally posted by: Jephph
Right, but I don't want a laser, because color laser multifunction printers are just too expensive.

but how often do you NEED color

bw mf laser + color inkjet combo

you missed out on the good deals, but Canon MF3240 for $90 shipped:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16828102029

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: Jephph
Ok. I've narrowed it down to the Canon MX700 or the Canon MP530. Both have fax capabilities, and both use the afformentioned CLI-8 cartridges. Any ideas which is better? One would think the MX700 would be better because it costs more retail, but I wonder what its disadvantages are compared to the MP530..?

What's up with the MX label and MP label? I wish they would just label them "this one is better" or "we're trying to rip you off with this one".

Oh, and I don't mind buying a chip resetter and refilling my own ink. But, I looked on one site and it sold regular cartridges (13ml) for like 10 bucks. But they also sold pint sizes of ink for like 25 bucks. The pint sizes said something like 471ml. There's no way that can be right, right? If it were, it'd be like paying only 2.5 times the price for like 36 times the amount of ink.

Thoughts?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I went to the Canon website and it looks like basic difference is in the scanner. The MX700 can do 2400x4800 and the MP530 is limited to 1200x2400.

Usually scanning at high resolutions produces huge files that yield little extra quality, but if you are scanning small things, 35mm negatives or slides for example, it could be worth the extra bucks if you need it.

In terms of a good site for Canon and other inkjet of laser refilling information, its hard to beat the nifty stuff forums. http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/

Many people, myself included, use hobicolors inks that very closely match Canon Oem. And to avoid printhead clogging in infrequent use, I use a dye based black for text printing also.

And the advantage of a color inkjet over a color laser is that inkjets can do high quality photoprinting and color lasers basically can't.

At to give you a rough idea of printing costs using Canon OEM Cli-5&8 cartridges
in terms of ink consumable costs, 3 cents per page for B/W, 8 cents for mixed color on plain paper, and about a $1.00 to print a 8x10 photo. Its the photoprinters who have most to gain from refilling. And most of them choose Canon.

Another good website is Steves printer forums.

Hope that helps.

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: tynopik

Originally posted by: Jephph
Right, but I don't want a laser, because color laser multifunction printers are just too expensive.

but how often do you NEED color

bw mf laser + color inkjet combo

you missed out on the good deals, but Canon MF3240 for $90 shipped:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16828102029

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a lot to be said regarding what tynopik advocates. After my MP730 printhead totally died, I decided to try a multifunction B/W laser to go with my wife's color inkjet pixma ip4000 and share both over my network. I hardly print at all, but when we need faxing, scanning, and copying, it beats the heck out of driving 10 miles to town to rent the service.

I got a great deal on a brother MFC-7820N on fleabay used, I could have gotten burned in the gamble, but came out smelling like a rose for about the same price I would have spent to buy a new printhead.

But that newegg deal for a Canon mp-3420 sure looks good, I would have sure considered it if I knew of the deal, but it does lack and ADF and and on off switch which my brother unit has.

But for a family that networks, having a color inkjet plus a B/W multifunctional laser has many advantages if they are shared. I
just leave my laser off most of the time.

 

[13Gigatons]

Fry's has the MP610 for $60

plus hobbicolors ink sold on eBay