View Full Version : Printer Woes-Recommendation desired



Lauri101
06-21-2006, 06:09 PM
Lately, I have been having the worst luck with printers!

We've always had the best results with Canon printers until recently. I bought a new Pixma MP450 for the Union office in January which has already been into the shop for warranty repair.

Now, my 2 year old Canon S630 has an error message indicating the printhead needs cleaning/replacing. We've done all the usual cleaning steps, including soaking on a wet paper towel, deep cleaning to no avail. When I searched online for a replacement printhead, the cheapest price is more than I paid for the printer!

Bottom line - I need an inkjet printer, color for general printing needs. We print some pictures (Photoshopped), business cards and other household info - no more than 40-50 pages a month max.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good, all-around printer, preferably in the $100 range?

TIA!

Patrick
06-21-2006, 06:27 PM
I've always had good luck with HP, but I haven't purchased one of the newer models, so I have no idea what they're like!

Keith
06-21-2006, 08:55 PM
Lately, I have been having the worst luck with printers!

We've always had the best results with Canon printers until recently. I bought a new Pixma MP450 for the Union office in January which has already been into the shop for warranty repair.

Now, my 2 year old Canon S630 has an error message indicating the printhead needs cleaning/replacing. We've done all the usual cleaning steps, including soaking on a wet paper towel, deep cleaning to no avail. When I searched online for a replacement printhead, the cheapest price is more than I paid for the printer!

Bottom line - I need an inkjet printer, color for general printing needs. We print some pictures (Photoshopped), business cards and other household info - no more than 40-50 pages a month max.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good, all-around printer, preferably in the $100 range?

TIA!
I have a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 870Cse color printer at home, and it has been great. I think it was less than $100.00, but I have had it for a long time and it has done a great job for me.

I have a LexMark printer at work, but it is not a color printer. I only tell you about it because it has been an excellent product. I print anywhere from 600-800 pages a day. This is one of the most expensive printers, but I know that LexMark has some more inexpensive ones.

OklaCity_75
06-21-2006, 10:49 PM
HP makes the best printers on the market.

You can find a good one from anywhere between $50-$500.

I would not spend more than $200 unless your trying to create professional quality pics.

If your just doing basic printing,(IE: Documents and stuff off the web) look for one around a $100 and you will be happy with it for years to come.

PS

HP ink lasts longer than anyone else... not to mention they now include full ink cartridges with the new printers. All you will need is a USB cable (if you do not have one already).

I have owned my Photo Smart 7350 since July of 2003 and I have only bought two sets of cartridges for it. One set lasted through a year of term papers and homework assignments in MS Word.

mranderson
06-22-2006, 04:31 AM
The ones NOT to buy are Brother. Brother inkjets drink more ink than an alcoholic drinks alcohol. I have one that I have replaced the cartridges in right and left, so I bought a laser printer. I also had a LExmark, unlike Keith's that was gone in a year.

If it is for photos, Dell's 924 and 944 models are professional quality (not said because I still work there, I have seen the results). The 924 is less than 100, and the 944 is around 150. The only differences are the 944 has a media card reader and a sepereate screen. I would go the 924 is you go Dell. Plus. You can only order ink online or by phone (do it online) from Dell.

ibda12u
06-22-2006, 12:03 PM
I've had good experience with HP Printers, I have also sold my fair share of printers while working at Best Buy when I was younger. Here's some info most people don't know.

The reason printers are so cheap, is because the company doesn't really care about making a lotta money on the printer, They make money on the ink and print heads. They know if you do any kind of printing you'll have paid double the price of your printer in a year in cartridges.

HP is one of the few printers that attach the print head to the cartridge so when you replace the cartridge you replace the head as well. Canon, Lexmark, Epson don't. So the unfortunate truth is you may save a bit on cartridges early on, but when it comes time to replace the print head (especially if it becomes damaged, and cleaning it doesn't help)you're gonna be hit like you mentioned above.

I like HP printers, I like the technology they use to give spectacular prints. I would highly reccomend a low to mid range HP printer $70-125 bucks, especially if you're only doing 40-50 prints per month. Matter of fact I'd reccomend getting something like the HP Deskjet 3915, and getting a replacement set of ink.
DO NOT GET A HIGH END "GOLD" PARALLEL PRINTER CABLE FOR YOUR LOW END PRINTER. I'm ashamed to say that I sold plenty of $50 cables to connect to a $60 printer, and I guarantee you the person could have gone to walmart and gotten a regular cable for $7, and never noticed a difference. Most printers especially low end nowadays are USB only though, so DON"T BUY SOME HIGH END USB CABLE FOR YOUR LOW END PRINTER. Go to walmart. spend <=$10 go home happy :)

Anyways my $0.02 :)
Happy Printer Hunting

Midtowner
06-22-2006, 01:27 PM
It cracks me up when people buy "high end" cables for digital products -- or have "clean" power supplies, or other such nonsense. The great thing about digital is it works one of two ways -- either perfectly, or not at all. There is no in between.

High end cables for ANY digital appliance, be it computer or home theater are a total waste of money. Don't try to convince the salespeople of that though, they're fed a load of crap throughout their careers as to the importance of these cables due primarily to the fact that cables have the best profit margin of just about anything in the store -- especially those Monster cables.

Now for speaker wire and other analog applications, some level of nice cables is warranted. Otherwise fuggetaboutit.

As for the Printer itself.. Stay away from inkjets in the future if possible. A black and white laser printer is not all that expensive, and at the same times is a LOT more reliable and economical than any inkjet ever will be. Color is a bit more expensive, but if you use it very much, you'll come out ahead to buy the laser.

Lauri101
06-22-2006, 03:34 PM
Wow - thanks to all for taking time to respond!

You've all given me some things to think about as I do a little online shopping this weekend.

Midtowner, I agree about laser printer superiority, but the cost may be a bit prohibitive right now. I haven't priced them in a while though, so who knows!

quailcreekgal
06-23-2006, 09:33 AM
HP Deskjet 6940 was recommended to me by our IT department for my office use and I'm very happy with it. Didn't cost over $100.

Midtowner
06-25-2006, 01:17 PM
Lauri, you should check out the color laser printers at CompUSA. They apparently have them as cheap as $400. That's not a lot of scratch considering how much they'll save you over inkjets, and how much longer they'll last.

Inkjets have a fairly limited life span due to their printheads getting mucked up fairly easily. On top of that, some come with insultingly small ink resevoirs. To top it off, the way most of them manage their color systems is just silly (e.g., they put the colors all in one cartridge). Lasers are more expensive, but if you can find an aftermarket toner supplier (easy to do), you'll be set for a long, long time.

Lauri101
06-25-2006, 06:16 PM
Although I wish I could swing the laser printer, the $600 vet bills did me in for now!

I found a Canon MP500, print/copy/scan for $155 after rebate. Bought it, set it up and it's working like a charm!

CNet and Comsumer Reports both rated it high, so it'll do.

Thanks again to all for your advice and comments!