Need replacement for a All-in-One printer

[paulsiu]

Hi,

My mother need to replace a Brothers MFC-3360C that stop working suddenly and complain that the cartridge was empty even when I inserted a new cartridge. This printer has been a real pain in the neck.

1. The printer kept running out of ink even when the printer is rarely used. Apparently, the printer constantly clean itself and use up ink.
2. The paper tray require force just to get it opened.

This is perhaps the second All-in-One we purchased in the last couple of years. I was wondering if anyone have a suggestion for a replacement. It has to print, copy, and fax. It has to be very reliable and have a simple user interface, otherwise I will get calls from mom on how to work the thing.

Thanks.

Paul

 

[nerp]

How important is color? If not very, I'd suggest going with a laser unit. You'll never have to deal with ink nightmares again.

 

[paulsiu]

Apparently she does want color. A color laser would be nice, but they cost $500+.

I am edging toward the HP Pixma series. They're not as reliable as they used to be, but they appeared to be more reliable than average judging from surveys.

 

[Lemon law]

While brother makes very good Laser all in ones, its all in one inkjets are not regarded very highly. But your error message probably indicates you have either a clogged or defective printhead on the brother unit.
Since they are user removable and cleanable, I would look into trying to clean the brother printhead first.

You are correct that HP inkjet all in one's tend to be reliable, but almost all of them will eat you out of house and home in terms of replacement cartridge costs unless you get one of the very few HP's with off the cartridge printheads.

I did not even know that HP had a pixma series, but if so, its would be a shameless attempt to take advantage of the Canon Pixma name. ( HP and Canon are two totally different companies )

And if I were in the all in one inkjet market now, I would get one of the remaining Canon Pixma printers that use the Pgi-8 and Cli-5 series of cartridges. The chips have been cracked on the those, which means you can combine the equal or better Canon reliability with much cheaper printing costs, if you refill or use third party clone cartridges. And unlike HP inkjet cartridges that tend to be hard to refill, Canon cartridges are very easy to refill.

 

[paulsiu]

Oops, I meant Cannon Pixma. In any case, after some research, I notice a deal on one of the HP All-In-One inkjet and purchased it. Frankly, my mom will probably never notice the advance features. Even the price per page doesn't matter so much because she doesn't print a lot (the problem with the Brothers printer was that it constantly drain ink even when it's not use so we end up buying a new cartridge every couple of months). It just has to be reliable and easy to use. I hope this is the case, otherwise she'll call me on the phone to figure out why it isn't working.

One reason to get the HP is that it is the most compatible with everything. Neither Cannon nor Epson works very well with Linux. She doesn't have Linux but I often have a Linux laptop when I come to visit.

Paul

 

[heymrdj]

We have a Samsung CLX-3175FN all in one color laser. Was 390$ if I remember right. Lots and lots of pagers between toner swaps. Colors are at 27% and never have been switched out, black is the 3rd toner in it's 8 month life and has 64% left. 5,456 pages printed, 738 color, the rest mono.

 

[Lemon law]

Not to bad mouth your choice, doing de math reveals you are printing mostly monochrome black at eight cents current average page. As you are better able to amortize out the initial $390.00 costs out over time , that eight cents cost will drop some.

But I bought a $100.00 unchipped Canon inkjet years ago, I am way past 8000 pages with a bigger fraction of color prints, and I have yet to spent a total of $250.00 in the initial costs of the printer plus refill ink.

The real question to ask is, what consumable costs do you now have per monochrome or color page?