Printer

LynnB_2

Hello - I am looking to buy a multifunction printer for home and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good one in the region of £40 to £60. Ideally, one that doesn't cost a fortune to replace the ink cartridges! Will not be used everyday and will be used for general printing of text, pictures and photos.

Have looked at the following in the price range and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on them:

HPF4180
Epson DX7450
Canon Pixma MP210
Kodak Easyshare 5100
Epson DX4450

Many thanks.

BillScarab

I just got the Canon Pixma MP210 and am happy with it so far, the best thing is there is a £20 cashback offer on at the moment from Canon on that particular model so it will only cost you £25. It needs to be ordered before the 24th December though for it to apply.

details here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-MP210-Affordable-quality-PictBridge/dp/B000UXAORG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1198063916&sr=8-1

I believe it applies at any retailer though. You don't need a serial number on the form so could submit it as soon as your order is confirmed.

Also have a look at www.trustedreviews.co.uk for reviews of the ones you've listed.

fwor

I've always had Epsons as they've been bought by the company, but if you look at the reviews in Which?, the Canon products are almost always close to the top in terms of print quality and cost per page printed. And as BillS says, with the £20 off the MP210 is a cracking price too...

esuhl

One thing to bear in mind is the cost of replacement ink cartridges. Often the official ones are about £20, but unbranded ones can be bought for less than a quarter of the price. Have a look on eBay to see what they are selling for to get some idea of the running costs.

I've bought Epson printers in the past as the unbranded cartridges seem a lot cheaper than for printers from other manufacturers, though I don't know if this is still the case.

fwor

Ok, but my point is that it is not ~just~ the cost per cartridge, but the yield per cartridge as well. For example, some Lexmark carts have a reasonable-looking price, but terrible yield, so the cost per page printed ends up being high.

One other thing from personal experience: Some Epson printers do not react well to some "unbranded" inks, in that they can (and mine did) block up very quickly if not used for a while. I'm told that some makes of printer are more susceptible than others, but as I've only owned Epsons I'm not qualified to say with any certainty!

lolarentt

I'd go for the Canon, I've had most brands over the years and Canon have been best overall for value for money, longevity, ease of use and design factionality. Currently on a PIXMA620D which is fine to date. My worst experiences have been with Lexmark, shortest life, most expensive cartridges, and tatty machines. HP were OK but poor on customer support and didn't want to know when their printer 'died' only about 2 weeks beyond warranty (all they would suggest was to return for examination at a cost that exceeded the new price of the printer!)

Inactive

I have tried all of the big brands, trust me, buy a Brother, they are far better than any of the others, cheap compatible cartridges available and high yield from 4 cartridges, Black Yellow Blue and Red.

They also come with " ON Site Warranty ".

Bargain at Rymans at the moment;
http://www.ryman.co.uk/BROTHER-ALLINONE-PRINTER-SCANNER-COPIER-DCP330C-1225032261.asp

BritBrat

You just missed one.

I picked up a Samsung SCX4200 for £70 B&W laser printer with scanner/copier.

No good for printing colour/photos but real cheap for documents.

stilernin

I have just searched to find out about the cost of printing and have found this thread. I have a Brother DPC 117C, almost two years old and used infrequently.

When I got a the 'ink run out' message, I went out and bought some cheapie cartridges which don't seem to be working very well. There are unprinted lines alternating with printed ones (can't describe it very well but it looks like a zebra crossing all the way down the page). Someone suggested that I needed colour replacements too as the ones that come with the machine are often only half full.

I'm a bit confused by why any colour ink has been used as I can't remember using any colour in my printing.

The two questions I have are

... what is the ball park figure for printing an average page?

... is the colour ink used at all whilst printing a document with no colour?

totalsolutions

Answer to Q2 is Yes! . They go through a cleaning cycle on each power and dump ink onto a blotter/ink well, these fill up over time too!

Q1 Ball park fig is quoted for 5% coverage (but thats not what you wanted to know I suspect).

stilernin

totalsolutions wrote: »

Answer to Q2 is Yes! . They go through a cleaning cycle on each power and dump ink onto a blotter/ink well, these fill up over time too!

Q1 Ball park fig is quoted for 5% coverage (but thats not what you wanted to know I suspect).

Yup, you're right, what I really wanted to know was approx how much a document costs to print. 10p or 50p for example. I expect that it is how long is a piece of string!! It's just that now I work from home I am thinking about this more than when I was in an office .

Re the tramline effect on the printed documents, is it that the colours have run out or just the cheapie cartridges?

If I only print in black and I set the print options to that effect, can I get away with not having colour cartridges in at all? It seems an expensive option to use a full set of colours just for cleaning cycles.