I'm after a printer that's cheap to run

Vitor

Reasonble running costs  Brother MFC-J1010DW Wireless Colour Inkjet Printer | 4-in-1 (Print/Copy/Scan/Fax) | Wi-Fi/ USB.2.0/NFC | A4 | Photos | Ink Included | UK Plug : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

jshm2

Pen and paper, and the pound shop for coloured inkies.....

Had to get that out. 

As far as home printers go, to be fair; all are rubbish. You're better buying a second hand MFP instead for about the same money. Plus most business printers, the inks are dirt cheap and you can refill them pretty much any place. 

vacheron

I have a 14 year old HP Photosmart Plus B210 which far pre-dates their current "philosophy".

I buy packs of generic cartridges from eBay for £21 (it used to be £16) and for that I get twenty eight cartridges (6 Cyan, 6 Magenta, 6 Yellow & 10 black). They last me more than 5 years (literally thousands of pages) and the performance and quality is excellent.

I'm really hoping it keeps going for another 14 years!   

forgotmyname

Cheap to run often means expensive to purchase.  I bought an ink tank so I could use any ink in it and
the machine will not complain about it like some aftermarket cartridges that may suddenly stop working.

Albermarle

vacheron said:

@ouraggie @Undervalued On its own, the principle is fine, but what really infuriated everyone is if you stop the subscription, it locks down the printer (which you have paid for), rendering it useless.

there are even reports that it disables the printer when the subscription stops even when there is still ink from previous subscriptions left in the cartridges.

Also, if you try to use third party ink it also locks the printer down. So your options are basically resume your subscription or throw the printer away as e-waste and buy a different one from someone else. 

You are correct that if you stop the InstantInk subscription, the printer will stop working. However if you take the cartridges out and throw them away and buy new HP ones from the shop, then the printer will work again,

Having said that I would agree to avoid Instant Ink if you have a HP printer.

Albermarle

ouraggie said:

I must say, i bought aHP printer a few years ago, with the instant ink. I pay £1.79 a month, so 21.48 pa. For this I get to print 10 pages a month, which is enough for me. If i dont use them all, they roll over until i do. Prior to this i was always having to buy new cartridges, as they would dry out between bouts of printing. I see the £21.48 as roughly equal to the cost of buying 1 or 2 cartridges every year. However, i don’t need to go into town and buy cartridges and  i always have working ink when i need it.

They only rollover unused pages for 3 months. If you happen to need to print more than 10 pages then you get stung for more charges.
One plus point is that they count colour and Black and white the same, whereas if you are buying your own cartridges it is more expensive to print colour.
No need to go to town to buy ink cartridges. There are numerous online sites selling them cheaper with next day free delivery.

MattMattMattUK

It generally follows that a higher initial outlay means lower ongoing costs. So laser or refillable tank options are usually the best value, but involve a higher initial outlay than the cheap cartridge printers that only accept coded cartridges. Personally I would avoid any HP printer due to issues with not being able to use third party cartridges. 

Albermarle

OP - to get back to your question and to summarise other useful posts.

One issue is that cheap printers are OK for printing documents, colour pictures for homework etc.
However if you want photo quality pictures, you need a better 'photo' printer.

As you want to print some colour pictures, you will really need to stick to an inkjet, rather than a laser.

These printers are usually quite cheap but the cost of the cartridges can be quite high.
With some printers ( HP for sure) you can only use their branded cartridges ( £50 ( ish) a set)
With most you can use generic cartridges at around half price. They usually work OK but not always.

One way around this is you are a relatively heavy user, is to have an inkjet with ink tanks that you can fill up, which is much cheaper. However the printers are more expensive to buy in the first place. I am not sure how many pages a month you need to print for this option to be economical.

mksysb

I have a Canon e4500.  It came with a fitted conversion kit to turn it into an ink tank printer.  I've had it a year and haven't had to put any more ink into the tanks yet.  So I would recommend looking around for a nice cheap printer and seeing if there is a conversion kit for it.

FreeBear

Albermarle said: However if you want photo quality pictures, you need a better 'photo' printer.

Photo quality prints are best done on a chromogenic printer (often called a C-Type). But you're not going to find one outside of a photographic lab at a reasonable price.

Have had an inkjet, but gave up on after constantly replacing the cartridges due to blocked nozzles. Finally settled on a Brother laser - It can go for months without any use, and is ready to print as soon as it is turned on. No more blocked nozzles, and the toner cartridge lasts ages.