Choosing A Printer?

[colonel]

Hi All.

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced home printer, that doesn't cost the earth for replacement ink cartridges? (teenagers in da house.)

Our old Epson has given up the ghost (right after I'd bought a hundred bucks worth of ink for it).

We have a Dell printer that came with our laptop, but the ink is around $50 to replace.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[seemax]

If it's for B&W then there are plenty of mono laser printers for < $100.

I bought a Brother laser for $69 years back ...still going on the original toner!

If you need colour then it's never going to be cheap really...

 

[bconnery]

Hi All.

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced home printer, that doesn't cost the earth for replacement ink cartridges? (teenagers in da house.)

Our old Epson has given up the ghost (right after I'd bought a hundred bucks worth of ink for it).

We have a Dell printer that came with our laptop, but the ink is around $50 to replace.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

Your only real option is to buy cheaper style replacement cartridges. There are plenty around that are equivalent to printer x and cost less.
Printers are cheap, the ink is where they always sting you...

 

[Leigh]

I bought a HP printer 9 months ago that came with free ink cartridges, it's now up for new ink and the cartridges cost more than I paid for the darn printer...tossing up chucking the whole printer and buying a new one with free ink again

 

[DJR]

Mono laser all the way. I bought a Samsung cheapo the other day for $60 with a 1200 page cartridge included

 

[AndrewQLD]

Why replace the ink cartridges? I just refill mine, I used to get them refilled at Printer Cartridge Services but now I just buy the refill kits and do it myself, piss easy and HEAPS cheaper.
As far as the printer goes, try to get one that has the three separate color cartridges and a black one, that way you only need to fill the color that runs out.

Andrew

 

[fraser_john]

Research continuous ink systems and then buy a printer that you can buy a kit for, saves you a boat load.

Example here

 

[Airgead]

As an ex pro photographer I tend to stear clear of refill or aftermarket inks. The colour balance is always just a little bit off and inconsistent from batch to batch (the really good continuous systems are an exception but the proo grade ones are expensive). If that doesn't bother you then by all means go that way and you will save a bundle on inks.

I tend to use canon kit. Mostly because my camera is canon and the colour balance needs minimal adjustment. The separate ink tanks for CMY and black are nice too. That way if you run out of cyan you just replace the cyan. The original canon inks aren't too badly priced either. Not like the Dells where the printer is a loss leader on the inks.

Epson are another very good brand but can be fairly pricey.

Cheers
Dave

 

[komodo]

CIS on an epson or canon is the way to go for colour. Issues with CIS is they need to have regular use or they block up / get airlocks. Yes even the good ones. But this is definately the way to go if you do a lot of printing in colour.

Colour lasers are getting more affordable but good ones are still $$$ (I bought my parents a canon laser colour AIO last year $900 delivered but its some of the best colour laser Ive seen at consumer/prosumer level) Also ink looks better for photos etc than laser.

Honestly if you get a mono laser from the likes of HP for black and white and a colour inkjet for colour/photos (I actually dont print photos its cheaper to have them done out side - I use photoenlargments costs about $0.10 per print - even hardly normal and bigW are cheap enough)

As for saying that its cheaper to buy a new printer than ink - thats not entirely true. Most (if not all) printers are shipped with smaller cartridges - most about 30% capacity.
So yes a full set of ink might cost you more than the printer "with ink" but your only getting a small percentage of the ink you get from a set of cartidges. I know my parents canon laser cost them about $400 in toner cartridges shortly after they bought it but since they replaced the carts and they've not had to replace them again. Mum and dad are reasonably heavy users of the printer too as its for their home office and dad also works from home fairly regularly (and being in the building industry that means he prints a LOT)

There is HEAPS of info out there on how much it costs "per print" to use different printers. Cheaper printers generally cost more per print - and thats why I ened up with a fairly expencive printer for mum and dad because the cost per print ended up being SFA. If buying a more expencive printer look to extended waranties though!

Go into harvey norman etc. check out the printers available then use online to source the cheapest price - if looking at a more expencive printer. If looking at a cheapy just impulse buy.

For home I'd look to a networkable or even wifi ready printer. No need in this day and age to have a PC on all the time as a printer server.

 

[warra48]

I recently replaced our old Dell printer with a Brother bought from Harvey Norman for less than $100.00. We're happy it fills all our needs, although that doesn't mean it will fill others' needs.

I still have an unopened colour cartridge for our old Dell printer. The cartridge is Colour Series 5 M4646.
If anyone wants it, send me a pm, and it's yours. I can mail it to you.

 

[colonel]

Thanks for all the replies, I'll look at getting a lazer job, and if the kids need colour, they can pay the 15c and print it at school.

Cheers

 

[DU99]

Brother printers are very good and the cartridges are not very expensive..

 

[komodo]

good thing with laser is that you get better results with refilled carts than you get with refilled ink carts in my experiance.
See if you can see some test prints though - the better known brands (even their cheapers models) seem to have a far better print clarity. Some of the cheaper brands/models can make text appear "fuzzy" which becomes fatiguing to read (thinking about students and their million word essays they have to write)