Dyre Straits

I may be in the market for a new inkjet printer soon. One thing keeping me from getting one (besides the funds not being budgeted just yet) is that I'm really interested in choosing an above average printer with LOWER Ink Cartridge Costs!

We all know that these companies are making a mint off the cartridges. But, I've read of some newer inkjet printers that don't cost and arm and a leg when replacing the cartridges. However, how well do these printers hold up over the years? AND, what is the quality of the printouts?

I have an HP 1120C (wide carriage model) that I've had for over ten years. It still does an excellent job, is supported under Vista -- which I can't say about my LexMark X83!! -- but the cartridges for the HP are still running around $30 a pop. (Unless I opt for the double packs which is really not necessary as I don't do THAT much printing these days.)

So, give me some ideas about the newer -- LOWER maintenance -- inkjets, if you can.

Thanks!

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Zelig

Does it have to be an inkjet? (Or do you need colour?)

I've been using an HP Laserjet 1020 for a bit over a year now, and loving it, none of the screwups with paper and ink I was continually having with inkjet printers, and is faster and cheaper in the long run.

Eep, checking prices, it seems to be running around $200 though, not sure what your price range is. I picked it up with a laptop which came with a free inkjet printer, I convinced them to give me the credit for the inkjet towards buying a random laser printer instead.

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Dyre Straits

Yes, I really do need the color. Otherwise, I have several laser printers I could use just for black and grayscale printing. Just not enough room to set them all up.

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cozumel

I bought an HP Officejet 6110 all-one-one thingy about a year ago to improve my efficiency when I am working from home. Saves space too. It does fax, copy (with feeder), scan and something else....oh yeah, its a printer too. Not sure about the running costs. Never bothered checking how often I change cartridges nor how many pages to cartridge. Everything works fine except the scanner is poor quality. The color is acceptable on most things but I wouldn't want to be printing fliers with color photos or anything similar as then quality is not good enough. Perfect for general office and home use though.

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Tipstaff

Epson is probably still the best choice in regards to inkjet printers. Canon is great, but you have to buy the more expensive printers ($200 and above) to get the best out of them. Epson, on the other hand, even their cheap MF printers can produce nice color images. However, just like with Canon, buying the more expensive ones will get you better quality printers (ie. they last longer than the cheaper ones). Given the price of the cheap Epson though, it sort of balances itself out. If it breaks, replace it.

If I had to choose it'd be a toss up:

Epson:
CX5000 ($100)
CX6000 ($130)

Actually, grab any Epson MF printer that uses DURABright ink as the color picture quality is something else. Epson uses a 4 ink cart system (3 color, 1 black), and the color lasts a damn long time without fading (Epson says 100 years). Replacement carts will usually run you about $15 (they have a 3 color pack replacement that's around $45), and they also have a high capacity black, which will usually run you about $25.

Canon:
PIXMA MP510 (roughly $180)
PIXMA MP610 (roughly $300)

Canon uses a 5 ink cart system for these (3 color and 1 black which are dye based, and 1 pigment based black), and they will usually cost you around $20 per cart to replace. Both of these use their Dual Color Gamut Processing Technology, which can produce some pretty accurate color.

Oh, one thing I like about the MP510 is that is has 2 paper trays, so you can use one for regular paper, and the other for photo paper if you wanted.

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ChaosMinionX

I dont even own a printer

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Tipstaff

Translation: I use other peoples ink and paper.

I just realized I forgot to mention what printer.. or rather printers I use. Main use at home is a Samsung ML-1520 laser (got it on the cheap for $75 new), cuz it's small (fits on my desk), and I get about 3500 pages per cart with toner saver on. At work I have another one for personal use, a Lexmark E250dn with a 12k high capacity toner (the toner will outlast the bloody drum!) for the accounts/sales machine, and an Epson R220 with a 6 ink 1 litre (each color) resivoir kit for doing CDs and pictures.

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OldBuzzard

I'm using a CANON MP500 which I really like. Not too hard on ink usage, and the ink is a lot cheaper than HP, Lexmark, and such. It scans, copies, and prints. Photos from it are great. All in all the best printer I've had yet. Another nice thing about this MP500 is that you can buy the CD tray on EBAY, and with a little tweaking, it will print on CD's and DVD's, and they look pretty good. NO more 'magic markers, or paste on stickers for me now

I took a look at the MP700 the other day and was impressed with the fact that it not only had a flat bed bed scan capability, but it also has a sheet feeder for the scanner/copy function

I still have an OLD Canon 2100 that has printed 10's of thousands of pages, and it just keeps on going. We used it at a semi-rural business where dust and grit was everyehere and it never missed a beat.

You might want to investigate the KODAK printers too. Their ink prices are supposed to be low like Canon's.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Erroneus

Samsung CLP-300N Color Laser. The worlds smallest color laser

It's great little color laserprinter, has fine economy (if using rainbow-toner-kits) and is completely silent when not working.

Price is fine also and the N model has network support

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Dyre Straits

Huh? Even I'm silent when I'm not working.

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ChaosMinionX

Figures today I actually had to print something out, and it gets better I have to scan or fax it.... good thing they have a fax machine where I work, I dont use any of it cant be bothered with them. Not to mention print spooler and windows fax and scan is in my top "things to remove" list

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Erroneus

You dont snore?

Well some laser printers can acutally be a bit noisy when cooling off.

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swimtech

Have used the Canon iP-4300 for almost a year now. It works well and prints look very good. Uses the same 5 cartridge print system as the higher end Pixmas that Tip mentions, and has a duplexer that can save paper. Finally, it was very inexpensive - I found it on sale at Staples for $80.00.

The present replacement model is the iP-4500.

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

dj_stick

i second that, my HP laserjet 2550 goes through a noisy cycle or whatever it does every 10-15 minutes, so i usually keep it switched off until i need it

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procupine14

Lexmark X2500 is what i use....its an alright printer if you can find the bigger ink cartridges its a good idea the regular ones are super small capacity.

Its a really cheap printer/scanner/copier and does pretty decent quality.

I wouldn't reccomend it for anything like photo printing....although i guess there is special cartridges that you can buy to make it a photo printer so i don't know.....it was cheap and i needed a printer.

My parents had a HP deskjet 932C FOREVER. that thing wouldn't die. They finally replaced it when their scanner died and just got a new HP combo f4180 and for the money (around $80) that thing pulls its weight lol

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easyfun123

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[COLOR=black][COLOR=#0000ff]http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=69722[/COLOR][/COLOR]

H3X4D3C1M4L

Xerox Phaser 6120N. I got an outstanding deal from Costco and 2000 or so pages later I have yet to use up even the original standard capacity toners.

Add that to the fact that the quality is amazing, its fairly compact, doesn't suck up alot of power, is feature rich (network printing changes your life), and blows inkjets out of the water for reliability (no clogged or dried heads! toner costs WAY less than ink per page!). I used to buy an inkjet every year (pretty much had to get one each xmas because the old one would be dead by then) but I got sick of it and got a laser. Now I'm not even looking back. In the first 6 months I broke even on not having to buy ink alone.

Otherwise I found I had the best luck with Xerox or Epson inkjets but... really... if you can spring for it, get the laser. You'll be able to find toner supplies way down the road too, which can't be said of most inkjets. The printers are just as disposable as the consumables IMO.

Mousey

Epson Stylus C64, because it was free

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Judas

I've recently been selling the Epson CX5800F all in one printer/scanner/copier/fax ... they produce a damn good image, but the size of the ink cartridges is a little irritating..

My current hot item for laser is the Samsung 2010...... dirt cheap but has an excellent printing history.... high volumes....

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