Printer

[Monstyr]

Recommend a printer for me, or rather for my wife.

Just needs to do basic print work, nothing fancy therefore a fairly modestly priced one.
I’m just scunnered with HP and their shitty cartridge issues so any suggestions for new machines that will take any aftermarket print cartridges will be favourite.
I rarely use a printer though have a brother machine on my pc, it’s not a great printer but it has an a3 scanner so I’ll live with it. It is on our home network but we can’t seem to print to it remotely and rather than spend more money on overpriced hp crap I just want a new device that’ll work without fuss.

[KungFooBob]

Do you need colour?

If not a budget laser is the way to go.

[DefTrap]

Well I've had 8 years out of my hp inkjet printer, so far. It was 110€

[Monstyr]

She needs colour, and something that won’t give errors every week or reject non oe cartridges

[wheelnut]

Sorry to break this to you but HP are one of the better makes. If you’re looking for inkjet then it will probably be HP or Epson.

Laser then you have a few more options like Brother, Oki or Lexmark.

Wireless printers that maintain their own wireless connectivity are the work of the devil. Use it wirelessly, but get a wired network one and connect it to your router/switch and print to it via IP.

I’m not sure any are happy with non OE cartridges. There’s a reason for that.

[KungFooBob]

A rarely used inkjet colour is a waste.

If you don't print often, the ink clogs the pinthead and you and easily use half the capacity of the cartridge to clear it.

Colour Laser is a better option, it'll last a lot longer without use, however the printers are a little more expensive.... and a full set of toners will often bankrupt you.

Swings and roundabout.

[Monstyr]

Tell me about canon pixma
Not a brand I’ve used before

[Screwdriver]

Brother are actually rather good printers and it's the only type which will just sit there waiting for you to hit the print button. Every other make I have tried (on the Mac) needs some fettling and buggering to make it print when you need it. It also sits there happily on WiFi. Something no other printer has done for me. That means I can send it a print or accept a scan etc from any connected device.

If yours doesn't print "remotely" it's most likely a "simple" set up issue.

[Slenver]

Tell me about canon pixma
Not a brand I’ve used before

I have one. Same as all the others really. They're sold dirt cheap as loss leaders so they can rape you on the ink costs. Which will be significant as it'll always be dry.

As far as I can tell, inkjets are mainly designed to make whirring and clunking noises. Occasionally they'll even print something, but it's mainly all about the whirring and clunking.

In fairness, the current Canon has been okayish, which in occasional-use inkjetland means it's awful but works slightly more often than it doesn't. The wireless works most of the time (took a lot of fiddling about with when added a new mesh network) and the 3rd party ink works about 2/3rds of the time. I don't really think there's much difference between any brand, they're all much of a muchness.

No way I'll ever be buying another inkjet though. Laser next, 100%, and damn the expense and size of them.

[Count Steer]

Have used Epson and Canon inkjets and as said above they've been okayish but the wi-fi connection can be a bit flakey. Never tried using other makes of cartridge as I'd rather grumble and pay than grumble and faff around trying to defeat the manufacturers ploys.

I do curse that I threw out a perfectly good, office quality, non-wifi, mono laser printer which only had an RS232 interface. I'm sure if I'd spent the time and effort I could have found a USB/RS232 interface.

I think it's going to be a budget mono laser for B&W + an ink tank colour rather than cartridge next time. Given what they say about ink tank running costs it shouldn't take long to outweigh the £50/set cartridge costs, particularly if all the B&W is done on the laserjet. I assume that there's also no way of stopping anyone using 3rd party inks in a tank model - anyone have any experience of this?

[Horse]

And a downside to WfH

[DefTrap]

When it comes to ink - I had no luck at all with non-oe cartridges, so I stuck with the HP branded stuff. At up to 75€ a set though (even though I'm not paying) it gets a bit ridiculous. However I recently switched to a brand called Starover (on Amazon) and, so far so good, no problems so far and a mere 23€ a set

I don't have a problem with wifi connectivity either.

My biggest bugbear with printers is that they wait until you want to use them before they do their fecking weasly "checking" routine. Bloody check yourself in your own time!

[Count Steer]

The other thing that BMP is every time a new inkjet printer comes out they change the cartridges which is completely unnecessary. If a printer is a bit old, getting the cartridge set starts to get a bit awkward and the prices go up.

[wheelnut]

I do curse that I threw out a perfectly good, office quality, non-wifi, mono laser printer which only had an RS232 interface. I'm sure if I'd spent the time and effort I could have found a USB/RS232 interface.

[pedant]Strictly speaking it would have been a parallel (centronics) connection. Same but different. [/pedant]

[Count Steer]

I do curse that I threw out a perfectly good, office quality, non-wifi, mono laser printer which only had an RS232 interface. I'm sure if I'd spent the time and effort I could have found a USB/RS232 interface.

[pedant]Strictly speaking it would have been a parallel (centronics) connection. Same but different. [/pedant]

Oh! I thought it was a DB-25 connector and was serial. Anyways, it was a big plug/connector with little wire clips on the side that went into the printer......and looked rather like a Centronics parallel connector*

*Which would make much more sense.

Edit: and it used to go to iirc a 9-pin socket in the back of the tower PC I had at the time...but not on any subsequent m/cs.

[iansoady]

I'm on my second pixma - the first lasted about 10 years. Used perhaps once / week. As said the ink costs are the killer but I get my cartridges from cartridgesave (not originals) and they've been fine. Also it has a single colour cartridge rather than 1 per colour which means that when one colour runs out you have to change the whole thing.

It's never clogged and neither did its predecessor.

[Monstyr]

I ended up going with a canon printer, a pixma g3520, still inkjet though I did consider lasers, and not the one I was looking at but decided to spend a bit more and get one of the ones that uses ink bottles to refill a reservoir. They seem to be the best compromise between ‘expensive to buy’ and ‘expensive to run’.

[Cousin Jack]

I have an HP, and use their subscription ink service. Works for me, costs about £2 per month for very modest use. Now about 5 years old and still going strong. Bastard to connect though after any sort of software upgrade.

Only time I have had printer problems with an HP was after I tried 'compatible' cartridges. They were significantly cheaper, and buggered the printer. That was a few years back, and it's OEM cartridges for me.

[DefTrap]

However I recently switched to a brand called Starover (on Amazon) and, so far so good, no problems so far and a mere 23€ a set

I take it all back - colour printing with these is terrible - smeary and rubbish, needs the heads cleaning all the time. That's me warned - again.

[Ant]

I've got a Canon inkjet, when it's not been used for ages, it still prints fine. I have really only kept it for its colour capability, otherwise I have a mono laser which does most of my document bashing. My laser is a Samsung, which was taken on by HP.