The Great Cheapest Printer Hunt

MSE_Martin

Time to tap MoneySavers collective knowledge and expertise again. This time the question is simple can you find the UK's cheapest printer. This isn't just a question of the price to buy it for, but should also include the cost of cartridges and how often they run out.

Over to you.......

SmartRRRR

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.

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.

So far I haven't seen a site that has information on cartridge yield, so I can only say that my HP uses less then my Epson, but mainly because the Epson needs cleaning for every other print. >:(

I wish I could afford a colour laser...

avantra

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)

jackbremer

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.

careful though, because the toners/carts that come with printers are invariably half full or less.

but, buy the printer cheap with half full cart, finish the ink, buy another printer, sell it or the old one on ebay and use the toner from the new one... You'll always have a new printer (unless you sold the new one), and you will only be paying for ink, at a fraction of the cost of new toners!

Or... buy about ten printers, nick all the toners out of them, flog the 9 brand new printers on ebay. On eBay, simply list the specs and don't mention the ink anywhere - noone would assume it has ink if not listed, and yet they will pay near market value for a brand new guaranteed boxed printer... hey presto

Personally, I think you are best going for a cheapish printer anyway (£80 or less) and using compatible carts which are super cheap (e.g. https://www.maximans.co.uk ) and as soon as the print quality drops, flog the printer and get a new one.

Cameron

I used to have an HP, but I got sick to death of almost buying a new every time I filled it up with ink (refill kits are not worth the hassle)

When I got the chance to offload it (sorry sis) I jumped at the chance to change brand - Its most probably not the cheapest or the best but I swear by my Epson Stylus CX5200 - it got a scanner/colour photo copier and best of all individual colour cartridges - oh yes I buy compatible cartridges from https://www.printerowners.co.uk - a full fill up saves me £29 - supposedly there’s 30% extra ink as well.

Now for those that I can hear saying "but the print quality will suffer" a bit of Cameron advise (advise is cheap you can take it or leave it) -90% of what most people print is b/w and 10% is low quality colour - and 99.9% of the total ends up in the bin - For those that want colour photos go to Boots, let them do the messing around.

An Epson CX5200 and https://www.printerowners.co.uk fan ;D

Cameron

Dammm!! I’ve been ripped off! ??? – don’t use my link use jackbremer’s I can save another £15

Thanks jackbremer

A CX5200 and https://www.maximans.co.uk fan ;D

MagsC_2

Please can I tap your (obvious!) expertise??? I have a colour printer (Epson C82) I'm happy with, except when it comes to buying ink of course, but I want to use old colour photographs in documents and would have to scan them in. Thought I'd buy a printer/scanner in one but after a quick look the dpi on the combined ones look pretty low. Not knowing much about it, I don't know how much I need for reasonably good reproduction of my precious photos and whose machines are worth having. Anyone out there who can help? (This is my first post, so forgive the longwindedness!) ???

tomtface

HI

Was looking for a printer today actually, prior to reading the latest email, ebay came up with complex printers for high prices - but PC world came through with a steal for £29.99. A basic printer, but compact and fairly fast, for around the price of an expensive cartridge! Doesn't include the data cable (another £9.99) but I think a good deal.

Cheers

Tom

sparked_out

I do not know about cheapest printer, but £9.99 for the cable is crazy ???. You can buy USB A-B cables for 0.59 p for ebuyer (https://www.ebuyer.co.uk). Admitted you have to pay £1.99 post and packing but you can still get 3 cables for under £5.

pennymakespounds

quite agree about printer cables.
i got a new dell laptop this week.. came to attach it to hp printer and saw computer was usb fitting which i didn't have ..... dixons were £12.99 for the lead ... local computer shop was £8.99 .. and whilst i'd seen them on ebay etc for next to nothing .. i bought one at wilkinsons for £2.99

mutley74

I did not realise that these cables are so cheap...worth buying separate rather than paying the £7 to Dell!
Cheers for the tip!