[Closed] Home printer that doesn't cost the earth to run

The HP instant ink ones run at a very sensible cost for a colour printer. Otherwise just about any laser but I'm loving instant ink now

Get a HP with the instant ink deal - I think it is very good value for money and you always have spare ink as they send it out automatically as and when it is needed.

https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Offer.aspx?p=c-instantinkpickaplan

One thing that does piss me off though is that the cartridges they send out are much bigger than the ones you can normally get in shops. If they can do that, why aren't they all bigger and cut down on all the waste.

+1 for instant ink, it's been great for me

Two questions you need to consider:

1) Do you need colour?

2) Is it likely to sit unused for extended periods of time?

There's been a couple of similar threads in the last couple of weeks. Have a read of these:

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/home-small-very-office-printer/

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/recommend-me-a-wireless-all-in-one-printer/

So it is agreed you need an Instant Ink printer.

Here's one for £45 with 3 months of free ink included

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Printer-Months-Instant-Included/dp/B074PMB9C9

Our girls use the photocopy function on ours lots too - good for copying pages from workbooks etc.

One thing that does piss me off though...

Yes, that. They could have saved all that waste years ago.

You say "waste", HP says "profit"...

I'd say laser tbh. Inkjets clog up like an absolute bar steward if left unused for a few weeks, so you have to replace the cartridge.

And (not knowing how it works) is Instant Ink any good if (say) the post gets disrupted?

+1 for laser. Higher initial cost but the toner lasts ages. If it's just text then black and white only is dirt cheap. Reasonable cost for new toner. They don't stop working if you leave them unused too.

In my recent experience they have cracked the inkjet blockage thing. We have an HP instant ink one with very light use, and have never had a blocked one. Must be 4 years since we started the service.

I used to be laser for all the drying up/cleaning cycles/huge cost/waste think.  Instant ink solved that because you no longer care about the cleaning cycles and you actually send the cartridges back to be recycled because the give you an envelope to stick it in.  You get a price per page and that's what you pay.  peasy.  Laser is even cheaper if you print a lot but if you want colour, and why not, instant ink rocks

So, £48 for the cheapest plan and they get to shut off your printer remotely. Orwell couldn't have done better himself.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/939ay3/hp-remotely-kills-perfectly-good-ink-cartridge-with-drm

B&W laser printer here, had it years now and it's never let me down... Unlike the countless inkjet ones before.

Mine is a Samsung FWIW

sunnrider wrote:

So, £48 for the cheapest plan and they get to shut off your printer remotely. Orwell couldn’t have done better himself.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/939ay3/hp-remotely-kills-perfectly-good-ink-cartridge-with-drm/blockquote >

£48?

Printer cost me £40 and after 8 months use I've been charged £1. No brainer for me

 

I've got a 2nd hand Brother A3/A4 thing and buy pattern cartridges from somewhere like ukofficedirect at about £2 per cartridge - had no issues so far.

Instant ink again. A negligible sum that we don't notice (£3/mo?) and you always have ink and never have to go out and drop £40.

That article up there is utter shite. You haven't bought the ink, you've paid for the ink subscription service. Cancel the service, no more printing. He seems to be whining about the fact that HP's ink was in his printer and he wasn't allowed to help himself.

I can't cancel my STW sub then walk into the newsagent the following month and demand my copy for free. Same thing here.

I'm on an instant ink offer that seems to keep running and running for nothing. But I've had enough of it clogging. Every few months I go to print something and it takes 45 minutes of cleaning cycles, physical cleaning of the cartridges and it still comes out crap.
So, even though it's basically free, I'm still going to get a b&w laser to replace it. I'm done with the faff.

Mine has never clogged in like 3 years or more. HP Envy 5640

Got a cheap Cannon one, top tip , refilled ink from amazon lasts well, print in blackl and white only, and on print set up, go to Properties, select "fast" as opposed to best or standard or similar, and pages will shoot out of printer all well printed, saves a huge amount of ink as well.

That link is absolute nonsense, and Sullivan is a halfwit "I signed up to a subscription service without understanding it, then cancelled it because I forgot I'd done it, and now I'm complaining about both these things.". Nothing orwellian about stopping you from using a subscription after you cancel...

Got myself an epson ET-2600. ink is cheap and prints more than acceptable for my student teacher work load. Didn't pay full price for it though.

was just looking for a printer myself.

I am not averse to buying a £200 colour laser if it will last better but this instant ink is interesting. Have a couple of questions:

1. Are colour lasers any good at printing photos? We have some we would like to print and were going to use an online printing service.

2. Any suggestions of a good model with a paper feed scanner? I want to start digitising old notes and post etc so auto feed 2 sided scanning would be useful.

3. I should go do some research but this HP instant ink thing - is there a minimum charge per month or is it all just dependent on how much your print and what happens if the nozzles do block? Are they part of the cartridge so they replace them?

2. Any suggestions of a good model with a paper feed scanner? I want to start digitising old notes and post etc so auto feed 2 sided scanning would be useful

I bought the HP 9019 from PC world a couple of weeks ago for £199 and then went on HP website for £80 cash back off that - it's jumped to £235 at PC world now though. Does duplex scanning and printing, with a document feeder and 250 sheet tray. Connects effortlessly to your network, seems spot on. Comes with starter cartridges and a years free ink. I signed up to the £3.99/month after the free year just to ensure I got enough pages. Full cartridges arrived within a few days

I would support the view on Epson option. I have been really impressed by our Epson ecotank printer. Higher initial cost but ink is cheap, last for ages and does not need cartridges so potentially less waste and hassle.
https://www.epson.co.uk/for-home/ecotank/

Second hand corporate HP Laserjet FTW. I've got a ancient Laserjet 4000 - service duty in the specs was 65k pages a month(!). I think it had done 16k pages when I got it about 15 years ago for about £100. When the cartridge it came with ran out I picked up an original high capacity cartridge for about £50 on Ebay that's meant to do 10k pages. I just checked today and I've actually printed about 10k pages since I had it and it's still going. If you use remanufactured toners it's even cheaper.

I've just picked up a newish colour Laserjet M451dw. Semi corporate/small office. Build quality is nothing like as good but still rated for 40k pages a month. Again it's only done about 16k pages so will likely last forever. Full RRP cartridges are £300+ a set rrp(!) but you can pick up remanufactured from about £30 and even originals at a fraction of rrp.

I've had a few colour injets over the years and they're stupidly expensive and last about a year. The same for consumer lasers (toner is far far cheaper for corporate)