What printer should I buy?

stoke_chick

I have no knowledge about printers personally.

However, one of my dads friends who is very good with computers - he builds them, fixeds them etc. He told us not to buy a HP printer as the ink costs a fortune - as stated.

And on my pc upstairs (before i had it reformatted) my dads friend put a folder onto my computer & a folder onto his so if we put a file into the folder it would show up on eachothers computers (easy to print)

He also messed with the settings so it would print on his computer.

Anyway, what i am trying to say is you may not need a wireless printer (i may be wrong) but i am just saying from what my dads friend did as my dads printer is not wireless.

Best of luck buying the printer x

PZH

Don't get a HP - I've had two of them in the past and the ink is very expensive. I would also personally avoid getting a printer where the print head is an integral part of the ink cartridge ( although there are pro's and con's to this argument - just my preference ).

I currently have a Cannon Pixma IP3000. Small in size and also able to close the paper in and out "flaps" to keep dust out when not in use. Ink costs £7 for 3 x compatable Blacks and £7 for a colour pack ( Yellow, Magenta and Cyan ) from CartridgeMonkey ( Free delivery and they always have offers like 2 for 1 ).

Print wise it is very good in my opinion - but this depends ( as will any printer ) on the paper. I use decent Photo Paper whenever I print a photo that I want to keep.

It also has a CD tray and holder for printing direct onto a CD/DVD if required ( and very handy it is too ).

And - like stoke_chick says - I have "shared" the printer on my PC - so anyone connecting to the router ( and therefore the LAN ) can use the printer ( The main PC has to be turned on )

HTH

adandem

I've had Epson's in the past but have just got a new Canon Pixma, it's fantastic and I can recommend it to anyone. There was a £20 cashback deal on ebuyer so it only cost £25, it might be worth checking it out?

bigpat

Wow....thank you all so much for the advice so far. I've read through it all and a couple of points seem to recur, the main one being to stay away from HP.

johnmc - you say you get "cartridges from North Devon Inks and bulk ink from Aktiv Direct". Does this mean you get EMPTY cartridges and fill them with the bulk ink? I'm confused

amonra - B&W laser isn't going to cut it I'm afraid. My kids will discover something they HAVE to print at short notice and B&W wont satisfy them. And I think colour lasers are out of my price range. I've seen what the colour toners at work cost. Ouch! Are toner cartridges for laser printers refillable then? I didn't know that.

stoke_chick and phoodless - I'm interested in finding out a bit more about how your shared printers. We have shared printers at work but they're on a network, so presumably I would have to network our two PCs here? The catch there is that my son is two floors up in the attic conversion and I really don't fancy running cable all the way up there. Long term I suppose a wireles network is the way to go but when I say he has the old PC, I mean it's running Win 98 with Office 97 and is really slow and clunky, so I wouldn't want to spend anything on upgrading it at this stage.

I'm now going to shopbot the suggestions you all made and hit those links as well. Thanks all!

Pat.

techexpert

adandem wrote: »

I've had Epson's in the past but have just got a new Canon Pixma, it's fantastic and I can recommend it to anyone. There was a £20 cashback deal on ebuyer so it only cost £25, it might be worth checking it out?

What model was it? and I can't seem to find the cashback deal either. This sounds great as I need a new printer.

totalsolutions

My 2p worth
Hp are fine fine printers and yes I own one, an old one, ink carts still available and can be topped yourself (not recommended), clones available, BUT you always get a new print head in the cart. and that is a winner. Epsons (I own one) print heads block if you donot use them daily. It's still brand new but won't print cause its blocked, due to centrally heated homes. Really get a B/W printer first, you dont need colour its costly £5000 per litre!

OK.

99% of your printed output will go in the bin with your colour receipts

adandem

techexpert wrote: »

What model was it? and I can't seem to find the cashback deal either. This sounds great as I need a new printer.

It's the Pixma MP210, I think the cashback might have ended on the 24.12.07 but from other threads i've read i think the offer gets repeated? I would have been happy paying £45 for it though.;) It's this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132443

Reggie_Rebel

Argos have two Canon all in one's at less than £30.00

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6701781/Trail/C%24cip%3D1500006463.Office%2C%2BPC%2Band%2Bphones%3EC%24cip%3D1500006501.Printers%3EC%24cip%3D1500006506.All-in-one%2Bprinters.htm

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6702807/Trail/C%24cip%3D1500006463.Office%2C%2BPC%2Band%2Bphones%3EC%24cip%3D1500006501.Printers%3EC%24cip%3D1500006506.All-in-one%2Bprinters.htm

turtlec

Now I know that there are those out there who dont like Continuous Ink Systems buty I have an EPSON all in one printer and work from home about 90% of the time, and the kids also use it for homework etc.

I purchased a Continuous Ink System (CISS) it was pretty easy to install and you can then buy ink in 200ml bottles , your printing costs are totally slashed , and you never run out of ink.

e.g. From memory I think I paid about £35-40 for the CISS system and 100ml of each colour.
The last batch of ink I bought was about £20 which got me 400ml black and 100ml C,M,Y

Do the maths!!!!
Even if you buy the cheap compatible cartridges they are about £5 each and you only get around 10-15ml in each, also you use up ink every time you charge the cartridge.
so 400 ml black = 400/15 = 25 cartridges at £5 each = £125 never mind the colours etc .


I have been using this system now for 2 years and never had any sort of a problem it has cut my printing costs by about 80%