What printer should I buy?

bigpat

Hi,

I'm running Win XP at home and we've never had a printer yet. Now with the kids needing the PC more and more for homework etc. it's starting to become a necessity (at the moment I put their stuff on a memory stick and print it at work but it's getting too frequent so I've got to do something!)

I'm led to believe that the cost of ink could soon outstrip the cost of the printer and a lady at work mentioned that some have a black and a "colour" cartridge whereas some have four separate colours which she says is cheaper in the long run.

We wont be doing any high volume stuff but we do want decent quality and might print some photos too.

The other requirement is that we need to keep it reasonably small, as the PC is housed in a (admittedly large) cupboard under the stairs, but with a filing cabinet, a shoe rack, stacks of jackets and a hoover, there's not that much room left.

I would consider wireless too, but I need to know a bit more about that. We have nothing else wireless so would I need to get a separate piece of kit for the PC or would that be all included with the printer?

Finally, my son has an older PC upstairs and I was wondering if a wireless one would allow him to print too. This isn't a major requirement though. He has no internet upstairs and he can always put stuff on a memory stick and bring it downstairs to print if necessary.

So: bearing all that in mind, who knows what printer I should buy and where from?

Thanks a lot in advance for any suggestions.

johnmc

Printers are very much a personal choice.

Most cartridges have the print head built in so you get a fresh set with each cartridge. Epson cartridges are just an ink tank with the head being an integral part of the machine. The problem here is that if anything goes wrong then it's a new machine.

That said I only use Epson because the compatible cartridges are cheap.

I get cartridges from North Devon Inks and bulk ink from Aktiv Direct

Curry's are doing an all-in-one @ £59.99, free delivery


Wireless - you'll need wireless cards for each remote computer and a wireless router. You can connect the printer to the main PC and set it to share.

You can buy a wireless printer, at a price. Cheaper to buy 2 printers. At least if one runs out or breaks you can use the other.

amonra

Buy a cheap laser for B+W printing (homework etc.) and take your memory stick down to Jessops/boots/ASDA to get the colour prints. It's cheaper in the long run. Samsung lasers are around £49, last for ages, cheap to refill, and pretty trouble free.

Jake'sGran

I bought a Hewlett Packard purely on price - from Comet and about £40 or less. But I would not have chosen it had I known the price of their inks. The best people I have found for ink so far is Inkcycle but I have used Aktiv.
This printer is a PSC - printer, scanner, copier. So far I have not got to grips with copying snaps of holidays so all the photo paper I got recently from Netto might be wasted but it was only £1.99 a pack.

Just as a matter of interest I heard an item on the radio the other morning where an executive of Hewlett Packard was being interrogated about the ridiculous price of their ink. The interviewer pointed out that, for the amount of ink in a black cartridge the price is equivalent to good champagne. It seems there is an official enquiry taking place into printer ink by some govnt body or other.

Just one more point, my daughter buys authentic ink cartridges, even though there are three computers and printers in use in their house, but I am buying
the ones called compatible/recycled which are cheaper and contain a lot more ink.

On reflection I wish I had bought another Epsom. My first printer was one of theirs and I had it for ages before I mishandled it and then gave it to the charity shop (with a note on it of course).

cymru78

If it helps, last week i bought the lexmark x4580 from currys reduced from £99.99 to £59.99

It is a great printer and wireless. I know you are not on wireless just yet, but it could save a further expense later down the line should you decide to go wirefree.
It will work just the same through the usb cable (which is provided)

The downside to lexmark is the cost of ink, but the quality is important to me.

Quasar

I have an HP Deskjet D2360. Works well for me, and there is a shop not far from where I live, that refills the cartridges for about half the price I'd pay for a new one.

moo2moo

One that takes cheap ink cartridges! Mine uses a black cartridge and a separate colour cartridge £2.97 and £3.97 respectively from Tesco. Its predecessor required 4 different cartridges at £15 each.

It probably doesn't exist anymore but its a canon Smartbase MP3605 and I haven't ever had any problems using it.

spud17

If you can get away with B+W only then go with the laser.
Kids will print everything, so cost/sheet is important.

Something like
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/110141/show_product_reviews

thor

It is well known the high ink prices subsidise the cost of the printer and the manufacturers are doing everything in their power to kill the compatible ink market. If they do manage to do this then prices are only going to rise.:(

ka123

thor wrote: »

It is well known the high ink prices subsidise the cost of the printer and the manufacturers are doing everything in their power to kill the compatible ink market. If they do manage to do this then prices are only going to rise.:(

Hi all,

Apologies in advance if this is no use but I saw this printer in Tesco yesterday:
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-3737.aspx

Searched on the web but could not find much, if any, information on it which leads me to ask if anyone knows why the printer manufacturers have so many similar models? Companies like HP, Canon etc seem to have dozens of all-in-one's with similar specs. Surely, it would be more economical for them to develop and manufacturer less models.

totalsolutions

As mentioned earlier here a laser printer is a great long lasting print workhorse and much cheaper to run, printing several thousand pages (normally 4-5K) in high quality before requiring a toner refill, as against 250 pages from cheap inkjets. They don't smuge or fade will print onto a varieity of paper stocks. Professional print quality, duplex (double sided) and colour scanner built in. Just get your pics printed in tesco when you do your shopping for about 7p each

Try freecycle for a printer also.