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We bought an HP photo printer a few years ago....5 different inks and all that jazz. What they don't tell you is that the inks expire automatically after 2 years. So now that we just use the printer for general document printing, we don't really use the light cyan and light magenta. That doesn't stop the driver from making us replace 100% full cartridges just to print black and white text documents. It's obviously a revenue generating scam, and yes I know the ink essentially subsidises the hardware, but 5 years on I think I've paid my dues and resent having to periodically replace something I get no benefit from.
Time for a change, then. Who has recent experience of a decent home printer? Print quality not the most important thing, just need smallish footprint and sensible arrangements for consumables.
Use a laser and get a cheap colour for when you need colour. I've had good results with brother for laser
Alternatively as much as I hate hp they seem to have a deal with their inkjets now where you pay for a certain number of pages per month and they automatically send you cartridges when you need them. Haven't tried it but also seems like a good solution if you don't want a laser
My HP didn't do that.
Hmmm...will check what the cheapest ink deal HP will do. Probably not talking about much printing at all....
How often do you need colour?
I swapped to a cheap samsung blacm and white laser.....when i need colour theres a local print shop who help.
Kodak are worth a look, I believe.
I can source you a properly decent home laser printer if you don't need colour. £50 + P&P/collection.
The problem is that cheap ink is aimed at people who print a lot. The cheapest ink is the Epson tank one but that costs £150 and the tanks are huge. We got a new printer that supports the HP direct automatic ordering thing - you pay something a month and they send you new ink when you run out. But for small volumes it might not be worth it.
Wasn't it the Kodak ones that claimed to be the cheapest ink of all?
It might be worth asking around about printers in general. Our old one had individually replaceable inks - which you didn't have to chuck out when the others ran out - but they were very expensive overall. The new printer has all-colours-together but is still cheaper.
Probably need colour more than half the time as MrsP prints teaching resources out. Kodak have left the business, apparently.
According to diagnostics, we've printed 3786 pages over about 5 years! So HP's 300 page monthly plan is probably a bit ott for us!
There's a 50 pages/mo though. You've printed 63 pages/mo with your current printer, on average, so you'd be ahead given the ink is so much cheaper. However it's not ideal if you print not much then a huge dissertation or something in one go.
5 years is a long time. Its wirth taking a look at what you actually need now rather than averaging over 5 years
Do you actually need a printer? They can't really do anything that email can't. If the Mrs needs to print for work, why doesn't she use the work printer?
I've got an hp and baulked at the cost of ink. Thought I would chance it with some cheap 3rd party ink. Turned out to be every bit as good as the genuine hp.
Laser printers are best for monochrome.
For colour a Brother printer with high capacity refillable cartridges or continuous ink system 😉
TBH all inkjets are shit and block up internally at some point. Sometimes even a hot solvent flush won't shift a blockage.
We use the HP automatic ink thing for our work inkjet (which just gets used for full-colour printing - mainly maps). It saves a packet and means you never have to remember to order ink.
Think they do a low-volume monthly subscription. We drop down to a lower monthly fee in the winter when we're quieter/not printing as much, then up it in the spring when we get busy.
Do you actually need a printer? They can't really do anything that email can't. If the Mrs needs to print for work, why doesn't she use the work printer?
I used to have the energy to argue the case for me to not subsidise local education authorities with printer ink - i no longer bother since I found my wife buying pencils, paper and even occasionally [b]food[/b] "for the kids". Few teacher spouses will fail to recognise the arguments...
Colouring in on a computer screen is probably a non starter, too.
Thought I would chance it with some cheap 3rd party ink. Turned out to be every bit as good as the genuine hp.
My Dad had the opposite experience - his photos came out looking like they'd had a low-rent Renoir filter applied. Turned out to be cheap ink.
I haven't had a printer block up since the Epson I had in about 2001. Subsequent Epson and HPs never did. And I'm an infrequent user.
Got an HP printer with Instant Ink. I think we pay £1.99 a month and we always have genuine ink. Got sick of constantly replacing fake ink cartridges and they never seem to work when you are in a hurry and really need them. It might cost a little bit more but far far less hassle for maybe £10 - £15 more a year. Oh and it prints direct from my iPhone, every time with out any issues. Bloody brilliant. Wish I had bough one years ago as all those printer hassles have gone completely. Far to much of my life has been wasted trying to get printers to work.
Woody - what model and where from?
Had to dig through some of my old posts but about a year ago:
"I recently bought one of these: Brother HL-3140CW
I am an infrequent print user at home and got fed up with the Inkjets constantly drying up.
The laser sits in a cupboard for weeks at a time and wakes up when I send something to it and then prints off a document without grumbling!"
I have had the printer well over a year now and it has been a revelation. It just works - simple! I had so much pain with inkjets.
I kept my old multifunction inkjet for scanning (but have only used it once in that time!).
I have not had to buy any toner yet, the oem stuff is expensive but clone products have good reviews on Amazon.
Photos may not be as good as genuine TBH but Op says just needs to be able to print and quality not an issue. On text etc I cannot tell the difference between hp and 3rd party. Would accept that it maybe a bit hit and miss depending on which ones you get. Just checked and Amazon no longer sell the 'Maxsave' brand I've currently got (sound trustworthy though don't they!). Am also an infrequent printer.
Since we are comparing, my new HP sounds similar to Woody's. In the past their drivers and software have been bloatey rubbish but this time is much better. Cost £70 or so to buy new. Works very well indeed from PC, Android and Chromebook.
We bought it for the purpose of using Instant Ink about 6 months ago. We've only just changed the pre-installed cartridges for the free full cartridges it came with - haven't had to sign up for instant ink yet! Might not bother given how little we seem to be printing.
For low volume regular printing like the OP, Instant Ink would seem to be ideal.
one thing to be mindful of with the HP instant ink thing - if the printer resets you can't simply set it up again as it will not recognise it is authorised for instant ink (until it's connected to the internet - which you cant do as you can't set it up because it doens't let you as the cartridge is not authorised etc etc)
total ball ache - took over an hour on phone to HP to convince them to send me some ink so I could actually get it working again. Took over a week to arrive, but at least I'm printing again.
Other than that (which is about par for the course regarding HP in my experience) it's working out fairly cheap
I wouldn't buy a HP printer as the support is woeful, once they have your money they don't care, try Ricoh
Far to much of my life has been wasted trying to get printers to work.
I've been around computers since the early 80s, technology has come and gone, and the one constant has been that copying a screenful of text to a piece of paper has always been a pain in the bollocks.
I've been around inkjet printers (designing and making them) and the one constant has been just how difficult it is to make a drop of ink a few microns in diameter land on a piece of paper to within a few nanometers.
I had two Samsung lasers ... don't
Very expensive to maintain. The last one lasted about 2000 prints before wanting everything changed , and then went tits up. It jams paper / crease paper etc.
Optical cylinder went after about 1.2 years of owning it. That was easy to fit.
The rest wasn't.
Take an inkjet ... cheaper and not such a PITA
I've got a Brother A3 capable thing - it's a pretty big footprint but will happily take 5 Star Office cartridges that cost less than £2 each from UK Office Direct. Never had any problems at all and print just like the OEM.
Printing is easier now than ever before with NFC, aps and wireless built in on many home office and wizzards to install drivers using USB or Ethernet .
For your low volume pick an inkjet over a laser unless you can bin colour.Do not buy a Xerox color cube although the print is great if they go wrong or you move or lilt is whist it's on you might as well bin it
Just bought a Brother
Also on a hp print package. Thinks it's 3 quid a month. Dear daughter hammers it sometimes with school work printing. They send ink in the post. It's all a bit big brother though as I believe they sort of know what you're printing etc so if you're a foil hat wearer it may not be for you...
We've had a brother laser colour printer, now 150 quid on amazon. Much much better than the crap inkjets we've had before. Gets little use but it's nice to have something that just works when it's wanted.
I've got an external CISS (continous ink supply system) on my Epson ink jet and it costs me roughly £14 for 600ml of ink (100ml x 6 colours). Makes printing very cheap as the regular compatible cartridges (not genuine Epson) are about £16 each for 12ml of ink.
I plugged my Hp desk jet 6940 after nearly 3 years in storage and was very surprised to find the ink hadn't dried up or timed out.
However, I use an old HP Laserjet 4300 for 99% of printing. Ex office Laserjets are cheap on eBay. They're designed for very high usage so reliable and the toner cartridges are cheap (and or very high capacity.).
Got a Brother laser jet from E-buyer for about £100, set up on the network and it just does its job. HP all-in-one was a nightmare for inks drying up and general not printing and being a pain.
Another ex-office HP laser user here.
Print quality is good enough for everything we do, havent needed to replace anything in 18 months of ownership. Had a low yellow warning for about 3 months now, says it has <1000 pages left.
Will have a go at refilling when its empty, or use compatibles.
Will have a go at refilling when its empty, or use compatibles.
Just buy compatibles on eBay. I've never seen 'OEM' cartridges used in offices.
We've had 2 colour printers with ink that's dried out. We print so infrequently that it's almost not worth having one, but we do need to print every now and then at home (i.e. not at work) and it's a major faff to go to someone elses house to do that
We now have a colour laser jet. Doesn't dry out. Works when I need it to. I'm sure the ink will be expensive but it's no different to concept of razors and razor blades I guess (though I have a beard and just trim now 😀 ) (or maybe electric toothbrushes)