new printer suggestions

nickj_2

can anyone give me some suggestions for a new printer - it's doing my head in trying to work out which one to go for
i got a lexmark last year but the cartridges don't seem to last 5 mins even using draft mode and they appear to be hard to get compatible replacements for and the originals aree more expensive than the printer ,
so what i'm looking for is either a inkjet that is thrifty with the ink or would a cheap laser printer be the way forward - how much does it cost to run and how often and what needs replacing with this ?

many thanks

nick

macman

You haven't said what you want to print? If laser, are you talking about a mono or colour one? Mono lasers are cheap and great for text only, in volume and at speed. But a colour laser will set you back at least £200 or more. Lasers are cheaper to run, but you will have to replace the toner eventually and this is the expensive part-however they last much longer then inkjet cartridges.
If conventional inkjet, I would go for Canon every time. But with every make, the cheaper they are to buy, they more they cost to run. Buy a mid-range Canon (or maybe HP) at around £50-60 and over 2 or 3 years it will cost you less overall than a cheap Epson or Lexmark.
Cheap printers are cheap for a reason, their purpose is to make you buy lots of expensive cartridges, and the life expectancy is rarely more than a couple of years.

Marty999

If you decide on a colour inkjet, I would recommend getting one with a separate ink tank for each colour. It works out much cheaper that way, only having to replace the colour which has run out. I have an old Canon i950 and that is very good, with 6 separate ink tanks. Each compatible ink tank costs £1.99 whereas the genuine Canon tanks cost around £9. The compatibles are not so good for colour photos but for everything else they are great.

Radsteral

i too looking to throw in bin my lexmark -99 quid bought last year but bloody hell i dread to print. It wastes me more money than my large sprinter van on petrol! sick of it
the worse printer you could buy .
cant fill myself as they all with chips- catridge world say they not allowed to fill them and at 20-25 each they the most expensive
whenever i check and compare with others.
I mainly print from laptop word documents and although it has 2 catridges 1 for black 1 for colour , if you remove the colour one so it only prints black, it totally pises you of with print procedure
if you keep both then the sign of '' print ink low'' apears at no time
i got canon camera and its the best i ever had so ll buy a canon printer too

shelly

The Brother DCP series are good 3 in 1 printers. We have the DCP 110 and get compatible cartridges from e-bay for £8 for a full set (black and 3 colours)

nickj_2

thanks for all your thoughts , i mainly just use it forsimple text documents although sometimes my daughters use it for homework "presentations":eek::eek::eek::eek: which for ink consumption seems to have the same effect as water going down the plug

macman

nickj wrote: »

thanks for all your thoughts , i mainly just use it forsimple text documents although sometimes my daughters use it for homework "presentations":eek::eek::eek::eek: which for ink consumption seems to have the same effect as water going down the plug

But do you need colour? If not, go for a mono laser. It's a no-brainer. The budget Samsung lasers are very good.

diable

I picked up a Dell laser brand new from Ebay for £69 last year which I am happy with as it has a network connection on it and a duplex unit which saves me paper as it prints on both sides.

macman

The model I couldn't recall earlier is the Samsung ML-1640. Now down to about £48, which is rock botttom for a laser. At that price it's probably worth buying as an addition to a colour inkjet.

thirascule

Got DD and me mum one of these Linky Colour laser, network port, 64Mb, £89.99 delivered. great little machines, we've had em about a year so far and no problems.

Refill toners here for £59.99 for the set of 4, 1000 pages per colour toner which is probaby more than 5 times what you get in an inkjet cartridge, plus 2000 in the black.

Obviously these aren't photo printers, but for letters, homework and invoices/quotes they are great.

nogginthenog

Canon mp540 all in one..around £70...check the reviews on amazon....Been great for me so far!