I need a new printer, what to buy?

moonlight machine · Dec 23, 2013

I have had it with this POS lexmark printer...I was thinking about running over it with the tractor but I think the old 12 Ga double will get the honor. What is a good replacement? I need copy, print, scan. Ability to print 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17 would be handy. Reliability and ease of use are important as is reasonable ink price.

Chazsani · Dec 23, 2013

I like the Brother MPC's. Not sure if they have 11x17 capability, but will do the Copy, Print, Scan (last two via smartphone).

Chazsani

PixMan · Dec 23, 2013

I've been through about dozen HP printers and a couple of Epson. 6 years later I'm still on my first Brother!

L Vanice · Dec 23, 2013

I gave up on inkjets years ago and only use laser printers now. Current printer is a Brother DCP8065DN and has been very satisfactory for several years. It will print 8.5x11-14 and envelopes or smaller stuff. Also does scanning and copies, but I only use it for printing. It is on my network, so it will print from any of my computers. I used to have to have more than one printer back when they only had a parallel port connection.

I think the 11x17 machines would cost a lot more, so I go to a copy store if I need big stuff copied, like maybe five years ago last time.

The bigger the machine, the less cost per copy when buying toner and rollers, so it is a compromise depending on your usage.

Larry

motojoel1 · Dec 23, 2013

Brother for me as well. MFC9320CW. Color laser, not sure about any larger than 8.5 X 11. Wireless printing and scanning from/to laptops, phones and a tablet. It was easy to set up. Other than replacing toner and paper, I cannot think of doing anything with it for a few years.
Way better than my previous HP laser.

PixMan · Dec 23, 2013

This looks like a good one if looking for a low entry price and reasonable ink costs: Brother MFC-J6920DW ? Color Inkjet All-in-One w High Yield Ink Cartridges

Bruce Griffing · Dec 23, 2013

I think the HP Officejet Pro is reasonable at about ~120$ - it does all you want. It has refillable ink cartridges (but you void the warranty if you do this yourself), two sided printing, full color, copy, fax, wireless or wired networking, etc. Cost per page for black printing is lower than most laser printers - even if you buy HP ink. If you don't want to refill your own ink, cheap after market cartridges are available on the net.

Edit: $100 from Newegg

gregg-k · Dec 23, 2013

moonlight machine said:
I have had it with this POS lexmark printer...I was thinking about running over it with the tractor but I think the old 12 Ga double will get the honor. What is a good replacement? I need copy, print, scan. Ability to print 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17 would be handy. Reliability and ease of use are important as is reasonable ink price.

I'm sold on Brother laser printers ... been using them for 20 years now. The first one I had was an HK-10h, and it served me without any problems for 15 years. I replaced it with an HL-5250DN, and its going strong.

THe HL-5250 does double sided printing and is plenty fast. Not expensive, either.

I'd suggest if you want to do scanning, get separate scanner, but Brother make all-in-one units in their MFC- series.

..Gregg

Clive603 · Dec 23, 2013

PixMan said:
This looks like a good one if looking for a low entry price and reasonable ink costs: Brother MFC-J6920DW ? Color Inkjet All-in-One w High Yield Ink Cartridges

Been running a Brother MFC-J6510DW, which looks to be an earlier relation, for the last couple of years to do my scanning, colour printing and larger (A3) printing. Around £130 and change then, possibly a little cheaper now. No speed demon but it gets the job done and is OK for pictures despite being merely black & 3 colours. Bit plasticky and paper tray is flexi / flimsy but what do you expect for the money. Leave it on and it auto cleans the heads which wastes ink but doesn't leave you with a useless printer due to blocked heads in typical Epson fashion. Longest I ever got out of an Epson was 16 months. Doesn't get a lot of use because I have a laser for up to A4 black and white use which does the heavy lifting. Hewlett Packard 4MP with the ethernet card. A hefty old lump but it just keeps on going. Must be 20 odd years old by now.

Clive

Scottl · Dec 23, 2013

How do the Brother laser printers do on gray-scale?

I have a small Brother multifunction inkjet (MFC-3360C) and I have been generally pleased with it. My current laser is a Lexmark E250d and about that best thing I can say about it is that it prints black text quickly. It is terrible on small colored text and graphics, which now seem to be the norm on the web and many PDFs. It is especially noticeable after having used an HP 6L for years which did a super job. I wish I had installed a parallel port on the current computer and kept the HP!

AndyF · Dec 23, 2013

I have a Brother MFC 9440CN that gets used for better than 90% of my printing and some scanning. I also have a Brother MFC-J6710DW 11X17 size inkjet that I use for 11X17 printing and scanning and printing when I need better color rendition. Neither printer is really good enough for printing photos, but for regular use both work well. I have had some issues with the MFC-J6710DW not feeding large sheets consistently, so can't give it a real strong recommendation, but in terms of cost/performance ratios I wasn't able to find any other larger format printers which even came close.

specfab · Dec 23, 2013

I bought the HP 7500A about a year ago, which does the multi-function routine fairly well. It's a color inkjet, also web-accessible, and does 11x17. I got it on sale at one of the office supply chains for $149, as I recall. It was a screaming deal for wide-format printer. Like any inkjet printer, it uses ink at a pretty good rate, which is its biggest drawback. I looked at Brothers as well, and the price of the HP won the day. I don't know what HP may have in their current offerings; I think this was being cleared out as the end of a model run.

Clive mentioned the HP 4MP; I have an ancient 4P as well, and it just keeps working, 4 pages a minute for 8.5 x 11 B&W..... If you have the finances to buy an 11x17 laser printer, it's a money-saver from an operational standpoint, but the up-front cost is much higher, from the research I've done on several previous occasions.

Capp48 · Dec 23, 2013

All these posts have covered anything I would recommend in a printer. Run it over with the tractor. If it looks as if it still has life in it then shoot it. You will find this very therapeutic. And for a moment you will be one with the universe. Ciao.

Chip Chester · Dec 23, 2013

Step 1: Watch the movie "Office Space". Watch out for the Bobs.
Step 2: Buy baseball bat.

Chip

machinistrrt · Dec 23, 2013

Another vote for Brother. I bought a MFC class laser earlier this year. Well pleased with it. OTOH, I have a laserjet3 that keeps right on going. I wouldn't buy HP post-Carly Fiorina, I suspect they'll never get the quality back.

crrmeyer · Dec 23, 2013

moonlight machine said:
I have had it with this POS lexmark printer...I was thinking about running over it with the tractor but I think the old 12 Ga double will get the honor. What is a good replacement? I need copy, print, scan. Ability to print 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17 would be handy. Reliability and ease of use are important as is reasonable ink price.

Do you need all in one? Do you need color?

If not, I am a big fan of the Cannon color scanners (which will scan or copy) and the older HP B&W workhorse printers (HP4M, HP4MV, HP5si) which have 11x17 capability. Toner cartridges and extra memory are really cheap on Ebay. The toner cartridge lasts me a couple of years.

From the 5si specifications: "Maintenance should be performed on the HP LaserJet 5Si series printer every 350,000 pages". They are built like tanks for medium sized office use. They also have a page count listed on the "configuration page" so you know how much it has been used.

Johnny N · Dec 23, 2013

I had a Brother Multi function inkjet a couple or three years ago, and put it under a forging hammer in the end. If it ran out of, say, yellow ink (which it would do regularly, even if you never used it to print colour) it would lock out the whole machine, no faxes, nothing. Bordering on extortion. vowed not to even give that company the steam off my piss in the future.

Ive been using Samsung multi function lasers for a while now, and am generally happy with - toner is pricey though. At least the machine plods on when one of the colours runs out!

edit to add,

My other half, who is a bit smarter than me went to local supermarket and found the cheapest ink carts they do, then bought the printer they fit for our home one!

jdavi581 · Dec 23, 2013

I have a HP 10xx(?), basically the smallest laserjet you can buy. Bought it used for home use, but my wife has printed out a couple thousand pages on it. No issues. I checked at office max, and they were about 150$. Toner is 20 on ebay, 60 at office max. Still have the HP scanner, fax printer hooked up, just use it for scanning.
Joe

Lost in LA · Dec 23, 2013

I use a Brother MFC-7860dw. One a bit cheaper is the 7460 (only diference i think it does not have wireless printing). These models are being phased out and you may need to purchase on line --ebay, amazon... I paid $300 for the 7860.

The newer ones seem to have gotten rid of most of the buttons for digtal displays--I like buttons.

It is only black printing = Monochrome. It prints scans copies and faxes.

It is fast about 25 pages/min with decent quality. When you purchase supplies get the Brother brand. All the copies are CRAP.

Supplies are cheaper on line.

They have excelllent phone support. Does not seen to be time limited.

Lost

BobRenz · Dec 23, 2013

Be careful. Some of the printer makers have a very low price, but they have a couple GOTTCHAS - first is ink or toner price, but the other can be the cost of repairs. My wife used to have a Brother laser printer, and she got an on-screen statement that it needed a new something. I checked on line, and the whatever it was didn't exist as a part. I tracked down a Brother service shop, and they flat-out told me that it was cheaper to throw the printer away. We later found that HP had this part as part of their toner cartridge, so every toner cartridge included the consumable part.

We didn't mind paying a couple bucks more for toner in place of suddenly having to buy a new printer with all the headaches that can cause.

We've stuck with HP for years now. So far, so good...

I need a new printer, what to buy?

Diamond

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Titanium

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Stainless

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