Which do I go for? There are so many on the market these days.

I'm after an all-in-one printer, good value and either long lasting/cheap ink refills. Wireless can be optional. What have you got or what can you reccommend to me? Also, which ones to steer clear of?

Thanks in advance

Probably better off in the Tech Shed this one.

First things first, what were you looking spend?

Probably better off in the Tech Shed this one.

First things first, what were you looking spend?

Ooops sorry....maybe someone can move it?

Budget wise up to £100 or so.

I highly rate HP printers, as they work generally very well with my Macs. The 4500 wireless at about £70 ish is good, but my favourite is my 8500 which duplex scans, duplex prints, faxes & copies, was a doddle to set us for wireless use and I can print to using iPhone. Bit over budget, at around £175 ish, but as mine is for business, it is brilliant for me. The Officejet Pro series I have been using for years and they are cheaper to run and buy than a laser.

Mike

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a Cannon Pixma i4300, it is a great machine and never had a problem with it.

I go for HP printers theses days, principally because the ink cartridge includes the print head, not just an ink tank. This means that you can use compatible cartridges, and if they are duff, you can whip them out and restore your printer with a "proper" cartridge.

The problem with ink tank cartridges like my last Epson is that a dodgy compatible will stuff up the print head for good and that's the end of the printer.

Another plus for HP is that allow you to carry on printing until the ink actually runs out, unlike others that stop printing when the printer "thinks" the cartridge is empty (my last Epson again)

Most inkjet printers use thermal technology (heat controls the ink flow) and Epson use Piezo technology (voltage controls the ink flow). this means it doesn't matter where you buy in the budget Epson range you get the same resolution of print (DPI, dots per inch). The main thing to look for is a printer that uses separate inks for the colours as this tends to be a more cost effective way to buy ink (yellow runs out, you replace yellow. Rather than yellow runs out and you replace all the colours).

If you are buying from somewhere like PC World they have deals on every other week so you can pick up a printer that was £120 one week for £60 the next.

Advent printers are made by Kodak for PC World (and only cost less for ink if all the colours run out together)

Epson have unique printing technology

HP have the best connectivity for iOS devices

Businesses tend to go Lexmark or HP

Photographers tend to go Epson or Canon

Things to look for:

Scan resolution

Number of ink cartridges

If it's wireless is it to all 3 speeds b/g/n

Print speed and resolution

If you're planning on doing lots of printing you might want to investigate continuous ink systems and buy a printer

to match.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/8858276/CISS-Continuous-Ink-System-for-Epson-RX345-RX420-RX425-RX520/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:8858276%7Cprd:8858276

Otherwise I've found over the years that most printers are as bad as each other. Lexmark tend to be the most expensive to run. Kodak claims to be cheapest.

I ran a Canon all in one using compatible inks for a good few years, carts were small but only about £1 each when you bought 10 or more at a time.

Compatible inks aren't as good as OEM, you're more likely to get clogging and prints won't be as good (but will likely be acceptable except for photos).

If you plan on using compatible carts then HP is probably the best for the reasons outlined by phosphoric. If the heads get gummed up you can take them out.

Edited 26 October, 201114 yr by Aspman

Have an Epson household here.

Use Epson Stylus Photo RX520 and RX425 3-in-one printers which use the same compatible (4) colour inks @ 20 cartridges around £13.00 free postage on E-Bay.

Also R200 and R300 CD/DVD disc printer which use the same compatible (6) colour inks @ 20 cartridges around £16.00 free postage on E-Bay.

The inks are cheap and also the Epson machines, which are very reliable and happy to work with compatible ink cartridges, all from E-Bay.

I add they are not wireless which with my set-up is not an issue.

I use both iMac 'Snow Leopard' and Windows 'XP' which with the installation Epson disc is all very straight-forward to install, on computer.

I am soon changing iMac 'Snow Leopard' to 'Lion' operating system and can see no problem arising from the system change, because of versatility of Epson printer compatibility.

I'm maybe thinking HP then. Current printer is an Epson Stylus C86, quite outdated now but served us well. We mainly used cheap refills which has probably done the damage over the years.

Thanks for the info

I'm maybe thinking HP then. Current printer is an Epson Stylus C86, quite outdated now but served us well. We mainly used cheap refills which has probably done the damage over the years.

Thanks for the info

Do you want to print on CD/DVD media? In which case you may want to check out the specifications. I didn't think I would but I now find that function invaluable.

Do you want to print on CD/DVD media? In which case you may want to check out the specifications. I didn't think I would but I now find that function invaluable.

For printing the likes of labels etc? Hmmm never really gave that much thought to be honest.

Yeah.

I mean you can put all of your photo's on a CD or DVD and then print directly onto the CD/DVD. No mess, No fuss.

All you do then is use a either a clear label or aerosol varnish to seal it and make it waterproof. No fiddling around with pages of paper labels & sticking them on later. All you need is printable CD/DVD or Blu-Ray discs.

I've been looking at this rather nice All-In-One Canon PIXMA MG6250 which is also Wi-Fi enabled, so no more cables either!

We had one of those cheap to run Kodak things as my sister was printing out a lot for her art A-level (waste of ink/paper IMO!), and the HP we had was getting costly to run.

We got it on offer at PC World on offer (£60 from £120 or something). While it might have been cheap to run, the print quality on images was horrible! It was really bad, as if there was a black ink overlay on top of everything.

In the end we took it back to PC World, who to their credit gave us a full refund (never had any issues with PC World in that respect. Pricing of hardware/support and sales however. . . ) and went back to our HP AIO. While it may cost more to run, you can see the difference easily!

All the printers at uni at HP too, which must say something for them I guess.

We had one of those cheap to run Kodak things as my sister was printing out a lot for her art A-level (waste of ink/paper IMO!), and the HP we had was getting costly to run.

We got it on offer at PC World on offer (£60 from £120 or something). While it might have been cheap to run, the print quality on images was horrible! It was really bad, as if there was a black ink overlay on top of everything.

In the end we took it back to PC World, who to their credit gave us a full refund (never had any issues with PC World in that respect. Pricing of hardware/support and sales however. . . ) and went back to our HP AIO. While it may cost more to run, you can see the difference easily!

All the printers at uni at HP too, which must say something for them I guess.

I think it'll be more to do with a major corporate deal than anything else. We've had Samsung Multifunctionals in our work place for a long time now & they regularly fail, they replaced the ones in the office with HP ones and they don't seem to fair much better.

If you plan on printing lots and don't really need colour a mono laser can be cheaper to run.

We've had a mono Samsung laser multifunction printer for about 5 years now. SWMBO is a teacher and prints vast amounts. Carts are dear (we use OEM) but we get about 5000 pages from it which does us a year or two.

In my experience the cheapest to run printers are rarely the cheapest to buy. I used to buy Kyocera printers for car workshops. they were more expensive but toner was cheaper and they seemed to tolerate massive abuse and terrible conditions. OKI also put up with a lot of abuse.

The bigger laser printers have separate fuser units which keeps the toner costs down (but the fuser is dear if it needs replaced).

So always look at the cost of consumables when you look at a printer. You might find it cheaper in the long run to spend more up front.

If you plan on printing lots and don't really need colour a mono laser can be cheaper to run.

+1

I've got a cheap HP Mono printer - I've had it for 4 years and only bought one new toner cartridge (~£50). I got fed up with inkjet printer ink drying up and having to clean the heads every time I needed to print out 1 page.

+1

I've got a cheap HP Mono printer - I've had it for 4 years and only bought one new toner cartridge (~£50). I got fed up with inkjet printer ink drying up and having to clean the heads every time I needed to print out 1 page.

+1 also - got a present of an old Apple one good few yers ago and never had to change the toner yet .

However , I had a Cannon years ago and used compatables for years (used to print ~200 copies of a newsletter) ---but if you let the printheads dry out - it's get new one .Son had one dry up and not even filling an old catridge with cleaner cured it .

I bought an Epson few years ago and have always got mine from same firm .

Rapid resolutions ( mods plese delete if naming gives problems) .They are net only ,but trustworthy and delivery is uually next day .

Edited 3 November, 201114 yr by VWD

I have just bought an HP 5510 wireless printer/scannar/copier to go with my new Mac Book Pro.

Supports Air Print and e-print and the black/colour cartridges are all separate (5 in all)

Nice piece of kit

HP business inkjet here. Large ink tanks will do 1000+ pages per refill. I use cartridge world, not the cheapest but the best and still cheaper than HP ones.

I have a Cannon Pixma i4300, it is a great machine and never had a problem with it.

+ 1 for this canon.

The only down side to it is if you do not use the printer on a regular basis, it takes quite a time to actually start to print for the first time as it does quite a long cleaning routine when switched on.

Very good image quality for photos and seperate ink tanks (5) but not wireless.

I have just bought an HP 5510 wireless printer/scannar/copier to go with my new Mac Book Pro.

Supports Air Print and e-print and the black/colour cartridges are all separate (5 in all)

Nice piece of kit

What's your verdict now you have used it?

Looking to buy one of these in a day or two.

I have just bought an HP 5510 wireless printer/scannar/copier to go with my new Mac Book Pro.

Supports Air Print and e-print and the black/colour cartridges are all separate (5 in all)

Nice piece of kit

What's your verdict now you have used it?

BUMP

3 weeks ago my Canon which i said i never had a problem brokedown, so i now have a HP Laserjet printer which is ment to be better than inkjet. So far i am please with it.

I've got a few printers... so here's my opinions...

HP CP3505dn - Office grade, duplexer, Excellent, LOADS of pages on a toner set. (We've just bought from eBay a 2nd hand with 80& toners installed a 3800 (almost the same) for the wife to use refilled toner with; £99! - Bargain!)

Canon iP 4850 - I use the when i print photo books on site - excellent quality, costly to print photo's with using original inks.

Sony DR150 - This is a specific 8x6" photo printer - For what i do, when we go to events etc, it's out of this world - 15 seconds for an 8x6" Glossy print.

MicroBoard G3 - A dedicated CD / DVD Printer with 50 disc hopper - 50 discs can be printed in under 30 minutes. - Wow! - HP Printing tech in it's head.

Al.

Edited 24 December, 201114 yr by ukcruiser