A friend is buying a new printer, but was none to impressed by the selection in Currys/ PC world, or their customer service.

Would anyone be able to recomend a decent printer (

I have a Canon Pixma iP4200 myself which i find excellent, but replacing cartridges costs

Epson R series - as robmawer says - had mine around 3 years (R-200), brill quality prints.

Can get 3rd party cartridges bundled from many places for around

Can echo what robmawer said. I currently use an Epson Stylus R240 and it only costs me

Another vote for Epson .and get your ink from here PhoenixDirect UK - We Deliver Quality Inkjet and Toner Cartridges Free

Ink ALWAYS works from them ...prices for their compatible ink is really low and very quick free postage

Another Epson convert - and another ink supplier plug -

http://www.printercartridges.net/---can really recommend this one.

I'd never buy another epson.

Every one I or a relative has had ended up being chucked because of clogged print heads.

We've all swapped to Canon (IP4300 now) and they are vastly better

I'd never buy another epson.

Every one I or a relative has had ended up being chucked because of clogged print heads.

We've all swapped to Canon (IP4300 now) and they are vastly better

That's because the heads are are never replaced with the cartridge like other brands. You have to try make sure they don't get left without any use for too long a period, or else the ink on the heads dry up.

I've not had much luck with many of the older Epsons (clogged heads), but the new ones seem fine (so far).

Yep , and it seems that even a couple of weeks is enough to cause problems once they get older.

The canons can be left for quite a bit longer.

HP are doing the 2575 around

And a pair of new cartridges will cost you another

I bought an HP about 18 months back, I guess I don't use much as the black cart only now wants replacing. Almost just as cheap to buy a new printer when the carts run out these days.

Yep , and it seems that even a couple of weeks is enough to cause problems once they get older.

The canons can be left for quite a bit longer.

Last one i had was a canon - used to refil the cartridges my self - unless filed PDQ- heads clogged and had to be washed out . Son had one - head clogged up in no time flat when left as did one my daughter had( and no amount of cleaning solved that) - you can get a new print head of course - cheaper to get new printer.

And of course canon keep price down by not fitting ink indicator to keep price down.

My vote's still with Epson, and definatly against Lexmark.Lexmark - buy cheap -and ay the price.

Now )and they don't make them anymore -pity ) if you can get your hands on an old Apple laserwriter - worth it even if you have to buy a new toner unit - only BW - though, but what a printer.

One thing to bear in mind with the compatible inks is if you print a photo chances are it'll look as good as if printed using epson inks but within a few months the photo printed using compatible inks will of faded badly.

I've tried a few diff brands of compatible inks and compared them to a photo printed with epson inks (all done on the same printer) and the compatibles have always ended up fading where as the Epson one hasn't.

I've tried a few diff brands of compatible inks and compared them to a photo printed with epson inks (all done on the same printer) and the compatibles have always ended up fading where as the Epson one hasn't.

Try Jettec ones - I've got loads of pictures on display in frames which haven't faded over years. Though if you're looking for archival quality I wouldn't bother printing on any inkjet, would get it done on a dye sub printer...

Rob.

I have an Epson RX425 all in one job. Always been very impressed with it. Usually get the Jettec cartridges but the other day when i got my router the place sold me a set of 4 cartridges black, cyan, magenta, yellow all for

Try Jettec ones - I've got loads of pictures on display in frames which haven't faded over years. Though if you're looking for archival quality I wouldn't bother printing on any inkjet, would get it done on a dye sub printer...

Rob.

Those are the ones I usually get and for printing on card, paper, discs they're spot on...

I haven't put an of my pics in frames... the test i mentioned in my earlier post was just sticking a pic on the fridge with a magnet and leaving it exposed to direct sun light for part of the day...

The photo printed using compatible ink went up first and after a short while started to look abit odd, it wasn't until I removed the magnet holding it in place could I tell how badly it had faded (in a pretty short period of time as well) so as a test I printed the same pic using Epson ink and put that on the fridge held in place using a magnet... To this day it has yet to show any signs of fading and I've tried a couple of other cheap inks and had the same thing happen.

I fully accept that that isn't the best way to store/preserve photo's but you can't deny the fact that the Epson inks don't fade anywhere near as quickly as the cheaper compatible inks... you get what you pay for... but for everyday printing I'd go for compatibles every time..

I have an Epson R200 too. It's fantastic for quality when working right, but can suffer from blocked nozzles. My pet hate is when you do the print test and see which cartridge is blocked, the cleaning tools don't allow you to select which head to clean so you end up wasting masses amount of ink in cleaning sessions. Talk about rip-off :(

But, if you (or your friend) print fairly regularly, then you can always get a continuous ink supply system (CISS) which will drastically reduce running costs and it isn't messy like injecting ink into cartridges

Minor thread hijack - sorry

For those with Epson printers (following page for r200 and some others) - freeware

SSC Service Utility for Epson Stylus Printer.

Here are some key features of "SSC Service Utility":

Steer well clear of LEXMARK and you will be fine.

LEXMARK Officially the worst printers on the planet :thumbdwn: