Printer Help

pollyanna24

My daughter has started secondary school and apparently, a printer is a handy tool to have.  

I have never had a printer as I always used the office printer when necessary (a huge monster of a thing with toners the size of my cat!).  Working from home for the foreseeable and I have no clue where to start.  I don't really use a printer, but it is mainly for anything my daughter will need to print off homework wise.

Today I had to go to the library and managed to print off two pages, but this might prove costly.  

Is there a nice basic one that I can buy with reasonably prices for toners?  I am guessing the function for colour printing is nice, but not a necessity.

November2

I'd recommend a cheap HP with free trial instant ink, then sign up to one of the plans, there's a free one if printing a few things a month up to 15 pages, a £1.99 plan for 50 pages per month and a couple more plans for more pages.   The printers start at around £35-£40 and can print, scan, copy in b/w and colour.

cymruchris

An Epson or Canon wireless printer with ink tanks rather than cartridges would be a good bet. Anyone could print anything wirelessly from around the house then. If you get one with ink tanks rather than cartridges, your ongoing running costs will certainly be lower, and it won't need filling up so often as it has a reasonable capacity. 

Spank

Argos have a HP mono laser for £70

HP Laser 107w Wireless Mono Laser Printer 783/3146

IvanOpinion

Another vote for the HP instant ink.  I would look at something with colour since I am guessing your daughter might want to print photos or may want to include graphics in her work

mobileron

I bought the HP envoy for £35 much better and easier to set up than there ceaper ones.
Also using the HP ink deal 6 months free ink then £3.50 a month

fenlander_uk

I have a Brother mono laser and a Canon multi-function inkjet. The Brother does 99% of my printing, the Canon is mostly used as a scanner. Unless you need colour, a laser will prove more reliable and cheaper to operate but whichever you choose check on availability of compatible ink/toner cartridges before you buy.

Heedtheadvice

First option. If you will definitely only be printing in monochrome (and that could be limiting and unlikely!) then one of the cheaper laser printers are the best way to go and best value for capital outlay and running cost per page printed. They are generally very reliable.

Second option if you need the odd page for colour graphics (but not anywhere near photo quality, and again that is limiting and probably not useful for a home printer) then a colour laser might be the way to go but they are much more expensive to purchase and run because of the coloured toner.

Both the above give you lots of printing per toner refill and produce water stable printing in cases where the paper might get subsequently damp - usually of little benefit for most printouts.

Third option (most common for home printers) is an inkjet. Used to be very cheap to buy and are still generally cheap to run for low to medium use. Which? best buy printers are now all over £100 (except for one HP laser printer!). These days they often are combined with a built in scanner that is a useful addition.

These will print in black and white or colour of good quality with some giving really good photo prints nearly but not quite comparable with high street print shops when they have six cartridge systems. Cheap selling cost relies on the user then being tied to specific ink cartridges, the main originals being relatively expensive for 'refills'. Other sellers of compatible cartridges are usually quite cheap. The inks are usually not water stable.

Some printers are very cheap to run as the compatible cartridges are very cheap (as an example my Epson gets used frequently in mono, colour and photo modes and replacement carts are only about £4 a set for six colour so about £12 a year). Some are really not very cheap. My neighbour's HP cost him a packet and he uses three two cartridge sets a year at about £35 a shot! Hp brought out instant ink replacement carts that are better value for low users. If going that route check the expected number of pages that might be printed per month !!! HP compatible carts are not much cheaper than the originals as most also include the print spray head. That used to be abig headache (clogging) with consequential high ink use for cleaning cycles. Not a big issue if the printer is used frequently and carts replaced as soon as they get empty. I leave mine switched on all the time (it would other wise to through a wasteful cleaning cycle ever time it was switched on ....a d have not had a problem for many a year.

As per above thread if you expect to be doing more on the higher side of use then those with refillable ink tanks are more expensive to buy but very cheap to run - comparable to a laser printer except for really high volume (business use).

Many a cheap printer on the market and people have their favourites and will be recommended on here.

Paper is cheap from many a store for 'letter' type of printing whichever type you get - except for photo quality prints and if you do not or wish not to print your own print shops are just as good or better value at times ,fortunately the cheap printer photo paper is quite good but nowhere near studio quality prints. It's more of a nice to have especially if it is not your priority....but it may become a good feature!

I am biased about which printer and brand so will leave it up to others to recommend specific ones. Well worth joining Which? The consumers association to get unbiased recommendations for question like this and you will possibly save more than it costs by buying best on your first purchase!!! I am a member but it is no advantage to me to recommend them!

pollyanna24

Thanks everyone.  Definitely a lot to think about.  I honestly didn't know about the monthly plans.  Interesting. 

Also didn't know about the wireless printing thing.  Does this mean also printing from iPhones and iPads or just my laptops? 

Someone mentioned ink tanks rather than cartridges.  Again, something to think about.  

I have two basic HP laptops (exactly the same model, had to buy another in lockdown so my daughters could also do schoolwork while I was on the other laptop), so would a HP printer make most sense or would it not matter?

I think I will take a wander to Curry's next week, but maybe I should wait and see how much eldest daughter is expected to be printing before I make my decision?

mgfvvc

pollyanna24 said:
Also didn't know about the wireless printing thing.  Does this mean also printing from iPhones and iPads or just my laptops?

To print from iphones and ipads look for "AirPrint" compatible printers. I imagine most modern printers will be compatible, but I could be wrong.

GT60

Highly recommend Epson over HP any time.
HP are fireware aggressive according to several sources and like others have said the compatible cartridges for Hp are just as expensive as originals
Epson how ever are much cheaper  I have just bought the Epson XP4105 direct from Epson web site after my old Epson printer died.
The compatible cartridges I get from stinky ink and with their excellent customer service and 1 year warranty in the ink there's no comparison.
I've had ink replaced after 10 months because the cartridge failed.
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