The Great Cheapest Printer Hunt

cafenervosa_2 · 26 September 2004 at 7:45PM

Got to be Canon
I am running i250 and i450 for a year now always on compatible ink which cost like £0.70 for the black and £1.0 for the colour. Got my i250 from Ebuyer for £30 and the i450 for £45 from the same source. There was never any problem with the compatible from phonix. 8)

I just got a Canon i250 from a computer fair today for £25. It came with spare ink as well on top of the cartridges thats inside the printer. While I was at the fair I bought some more ink (compatible) Black was £1.50 & colour was £2.00. So all in all I hope it turns out to be a wise move getting this printer. The only other option I would have had was to buy new ink for my Lexmark printer and you know how much that is!

glennh · 30 September 2004 at 1:25PM

Dell are doing a great offer on a colour printer:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/promo.aspx/uk/en/ODG_printers_offer?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs

£9.99 and that includes VAT and delivery. (If you subtract the printer cable otherwise it's 23 quid.) Sounds a bit too amazing. Has anyone any idea what it's like?

The deal lasts until 04/10/2004

Glenn.

scattycat_3 · 1 October 2004 at 2:17AM

This is a re run of an older Dell Offer £9.99 delivered, saga,

It is really a re-badged Lexmark basic £29.99 Z23/605. The cartridge tops have been altered so that the Lexmark ones wont fit and you will have to buy Dell high priced version, OR SO THEY THINK ::)

This time the printer is supplied without the USB lead which costs £13 on its own from Dell, another "Polaroid" tactic, you can get the leads for a pound or less, at £1 shops or on markets and dont be fooled by the USB " hike, a USB1 version will work . its only a bit of wire ::)

SAGA 2

Delivery 3 days this time

Saga 1 When I find it, Scat

glennh · 1 October 2004 at 12:31PM

Does that mean that other cartridges fit? If so which ones have you had experience with and which would be best?

scattycat_3 · 1 October 2004 at 2:39PM

Hi Glenn,
The Lexmark cartridges will fit if you swop the tops, You need to crack the glue used then sellotape the top back on. this I have done.
Alternatively you can possibly alter, (cut) the Dell clip that holds the cartridge, so that the Lexmark type will fit. Which I havent done YET. I looks simple enough, might try it later today if time permits. Lift the cartridge clip and to the right of the spring is a little peg set at 45 degrees, I reckon if you cut/break this peg off, that the Lexmark cartridges (and Lexmark compatibles) will fit.

They are Lexmark 17/27 low content black/colour (10ml of ink)

and 16/26 full content ones (20ml of ink)

You could also try to fit a Lexmark clip

HTHs Scat

PS, do what I do, cultivate a Staples or PCWorld employee to save empty returned (for RECYCLING!!!!!! ::)) cartridges for you to refill yourself, you cannot print cheaper than that ;D

AnnieP_3 · 7 November 2004 at 4:46PM

Just tried what Scat said about cartridges for the Dell printer, which Lexmark cartridges are you talking about? I have also got a Lexmark printer, but the cartriges from mine are much too large even without the top! Can you help as I print a lot and need to save money. I do refill the black ones anyway and find that fine for just printing text or black and white, but do need to save money on colour. Anyone help on this.
AnnieP
ps tried to add a picture to this, couldn't do it, can anyone tell me how please?

webwonder · 7 November 2004 at 10:23PM

I use a lot of ink through my business and decided eventually to change my printer from a Hewlett Packard with ink cartridges costing between £17 and £29 !!
I invested in a Canon i455 from Currys for £39.95 a great Photo colour printer which does exactly what it says, nothing fancy but good enough quality for my business.
The store tried to tell me that the cartridges were cheaper because they only had half as much ink in them!! Complete nonsense, they last as long as my previous printers cartridges. Best of all after purchasing the printer i crossed the road to Tesco and bought the cartridges at £1.99 each for the black and £4.99 for the colour, my printer is now 10 times cheaper than before..
I am unsure if this printer is still available to buy in the U.K. but it is definately worth shopping around and finding out about cartridge costs before purchasing a printer.

donkeyote · 17 November 2004 at 8:54AM

Great idea, and someone's got to be first...

But could we have some goalposts, please?

There are too many variables to just say 'cheapest, including the cost of the cartridges'

If we take a look at the Samsung laser (1510) that some resellers have on offer at the moment, £60 buys 2000+ sheets of top quality print, but no colour. A toner replacement costs about the same as the printer, so you could replace it and start again. Not very eco-friendly, although it's still cheaper than inkjet.

You can refill the Samsung cartridges yourself, they have a little cap on the side that is removable with a screwdriver, and I've bought toner bottles for £9 from Ebay, so it's a pretty cheap printer.

If you want colour, then are we allowed 'compatible' inks? That can save money but I've never trusted them since my Epson still hasn't recovered from 'compatible abuse'. ::)

Lexmark HP and Epson are probably too expensive for consumables. Canon have the cheapest genuine cartridges, so it would probably be something like the i250 at £50, with ink at £19 even at PC World prices. Shopping around can get the ink down to £14 a pair.

I have a Canon i250 from Ebuyer, and I only bought it because their cartridges cost :
£1.76 for black

I bought 50 of each.
The printer gives excellent quality prints as well! (£35 for the printer itself).

I've also just found out that Ebuyer do a black cartridge for the Canon BJC2000/4000 that only costs 72p!

nemo183 · 6 January 2005 at 3:17AM

I dunno about the cheapest, but I had delivered from Comet a Lexmark 2250 combined printer/fax/scanner.

Price, including delivery, was £39.95. When it arrived, there was also a free DVD offer (Choice of 10, we choose Nemo), which arrived within 48 hours.

Quality is great, as is easy of use as you can use it as an offline copier (both colour and B/W).

I guess this is not a great choice if you want a printer and print a lot - I think the cost of the new ink carts will exceed the price of the printer - especially if you include the added value of the CD - however, for ease of use, and small printing rec, I don't think it can be beat.

Finally, there's loads of cheaper options when replacing carts - but even if you stick to originals, 7dayshop.com (which can be reached through rpoints.com) saves around 40% on OEM.

nemo183 · 6 January 2005 at 3:28AM

There are strange moves afoot in the cheap laser printer market. After my HP6P let me down, I needed another B/W laser quickly, and against all my better judgement made a late night visit to PC World, where for cash I picked one up for £79.95 - HP 1010

Now this seems good value (even though OEM carts are about £50.00), but since then the price at PC world goes up and down like a yo-yo.

My advice to anyone in the market who needs a printer for light to moderate use, like tonight, visits Comet/Currys/PC World and just buys anything around £80 - regardless of cost per copy. They all seem to have a current loss leader, which is not always advertised on the net.

Finally, a couple of weeks after buying the above, the Comet/PC World price had risen to £139.95 - if anyone knows how this works, please let me know!

The Great Cheapest Printer Hunt

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