A couple of years ago, I bought a Canon printer (MP560 series). It does (or claims to) printing, scanning and copying. It is a Wi-Fi networked printer. Or used to be. It has the most mysterious user interface that I could imagine and I could never get it to scan. The UI has a small LED screen with dozens of mystifying icons, five or six buttons that do I don’t know what. All to implement three functions. Or four if you count color copying separately. Now I cannot get it to print at all. I have turned it off and on, pulled the plug and then turned it on, rebooted my computer, and still when I try to print I get a “Printer not responding” message. I have tried everything mentioned in the trouble-shooting manual, to no avail.
So I want a printer that actually works. Hooks up to the Wi-Fi, prints, scans, and copies. With a UI that requires something less than a PhD is computer engineering. After all, there are only three or four functions; how complicated can it be? I could go into the nearest Best Buy or Staples and a salesman would certainly recommend and sell me something, but I trust advice from TSD much more.
Well, what do you need to print? Monochrome (i.e., black) web pages? Color photos? How big will the output be? Because I recommend a monochrome laser printer for low cost. If you need to print photos, go to one of those kiosks in the store.
I know this isn’t the answer you are looking for, but I can’t stand multi-function printers. My sister and a friend both had color inkjet multi-function printers that always broke or were constantly running out of ink. The worse thing was that my sisters ran out of yellow ink and could no longer scan nor print out in black and white. WTF? I convinced her to get an HP laser printer and it’s been clear sailing ever since. I just use a wireless access point to print from notebooks.
Personally, I’ve got a dedicated Canon copier, a scanner, an HP networked laser printer, a fax machine (which I haven’t used in over 10 years), and a color inkjet printer which I hardly ever use. I’ve printed out maybe 20 color prints in 15 years and have gone through 3 color inkjet printers and maybe 6 sets of cartridges. The inkjet printer never have worked reliably and go though cartridges like kleenix.
I love HP laser printers and a cartridge lasts seemingly forever. I never even finished the first cartridge in my last laser printer before the feed mechanism broke due to a moth infestation clogging it.
I have a Canon MP640 that I like just fine. If you use the MP Navigator icon on the desktop, it scans just fine. Can’t speak to the wireless option, as I don’t use it.
When my son went off to college last fall we got him a Brother laser printer for $89. We got a spare cartridge to go with it, but he hasn’t had to use it yet, and he prints a LOT.
I remember the first tabletop laser printers - $5,000 plus.
Posting to subscribe - we’re also looking. About 2 years ago, we got an HP officejet (6500 model, I think) - all-in-one, wireless - OK so it was slow but for the price point it was ideal. Only, it would lose the wireless after 10 minutes of disuse - and NOT RECONNECT. The power switch didn’t work when it got to that mode - had to literally unplug it to get it to reset. Then the fax broke. And the scan-to-desktop quit working on our Windows Vista (oddly it would still work to my laptop). And it chews through the ink. Right now all the color cartridges are about 3/4 empty - which means that even BLACK AND WHITE is basically unreadable - WTF???
A full set of ink cartridges is about 85 dollars, and lasts maybe 3 months.
I’ve spent 40+ hours trying to fully uninstall and re-install the desktop software to get the scanning working. Even the HP forums have been of no help. I’ve sworn never to own another HP oroduct.
I seriously think we’re better off going for a full-on laser printer. We really want the all-in-one - we do just enough scanning and copying and the occasional fax, that it’s really worth it to us. Right now I’m debating whether to go for color - or save several hundred dollars, get black-and-white, and keep using our 11+ year old HP inkjet printer (not all-in-one, still works fine) for color jobs.
I went to Staples and got some sample pages and the HP units did produce nice color pages. The Brother and Canons didn’t have an easy way to print test pages so I don’t know how they are. So I’m considering the HP again, and hating myself for it.
HP reviews are not good, which is why I bought the Canon. HP quality has been declining over recent years, although I think perhaps their laser printers may still be okay.
Our multifunction Canon inkjet recently crapped out on us. After doing some web research, we ended up buying the Brother HL-2270DW. Wireless, double-sided laser printer for $100.
It’s awesome. The biggest bonus of buying laser is that the toner cartridge lasts just as long if you print a thousand pages a week or one page a month. Ink jet cartridges dry up over time, meaning that infrequent printers end up paying through the nose on a per page basis. And even for frequent printers, I believe the laser cartridges are way more cost effective. Ink jet cartridges are ridiculously expensive. And the HL-2270DW works with everything: Windows, OSX, linux, I’m printing from all of them without a problem.
The downsides are not being able to print in color or quickly make copies. We don’t do either one very often, and bought a cheap but good scanner to handle any scanning/copying we might need to do, but this might be more of an issue for you.
You can save quite a bit on ink cartridges by going to a site like LD Products. I buy from them all the time and have never had a problem. The cartridges all have the chip that tells you when they are low or empty, and they guarantee their products.
I suspect most folks here won’t find anything new there but it’s a good basic overview.
I don’t recall whether it’s in that article or elsewhere, but I seem to recall that the cost of consumables with an inkjet ultimately far outstrips the savings in purchase price. Of course it’s harder to do the mental comparison when you spend 100 for the printer and 75 every few months for the ink, vs. 300 for the printer and 100 every 8 months for toner (or whatever the numbers are).
This is a bit more recent. It supports my thinking that for our purposes, we’re best served by a B&W laser all-in-one, and keeping our old workhorse inkjet for color jobs. And since I’ve figured out how to access the old inkjet wirelessly via printer sharing, we don’t even have to connect the laptops to it any more.
Just bought my third Epson printer, an NX230. It’s a multifunction printer, scanner, copier with WiFi. It doesn’t have the Pict bridge or card slot like the Canon, but the next model up, the NX430 does.
I got it because my previous one, a TX100, ran out of ink in all four cartridges at once and the 4 pack of inks was $8 less than a whole new one, and then I got $50 cash back, so the new one actually cost $40 less than just the ink for my old one.
You can see where the real cost of printers is!
I don’t do much scanning, but it’s adequate for the jobs I do. The printing is fast enough for me. I don’t have the need to have it RIGHT NOW!
I know that your Canon is a photo printer, and the NX230 isn’t but if I use photo printing paper it gives great results, almost indistinguishable from photo shop prints. (At least in 6x4 prints).
Oh, and it has an override for continuing to print if one of the colour inks is out. One of the biggest bugbears with my old printer. if I was printing a document, why would I care that there was no magenta ink?
I have a fairly new HP Officejet Pro 8000. My old HP would let me print black if the color cartridges were low, but this one won’t. I don’t know if this new one has an override feature or not. Should it be obvious, or is it a feature I need to search for?
(I love this printer. It’s fast, and the ink cartridges are incredibly easy to replace.)
I think a color laser will be a lot less hassle in the long run and the prices have come down substantially. Here is one on NewEgg that is very similar to the model I’ve had for the past 2 years. It’s $300 and replacement toner isn’t cheap, but unless you print large volumes, I think it makes more sense than dealing with ink cartridges.
A dumb (?) question: if I got a monochrome all-in-one, can I safely assume the scanning capability works with color? I know I saw at least one product description that explicitly said that it did.
Yes, in general, even if the printer is monochrome, the scanner should be able to scan in full color. (Although I suppose there is such a thing as a monochrome-only scanner, I’ve never seen one, although the color scanner can do B&W or gray-scale only scanning if you want.)
In my case its an HP1312 all in one color laser. The average user would probably take a year or two to burn up the included cartridges. I print average 30-40 pages a day consistently including doing my own flyers, brochures, and business cards. It has probably been through 5-6 sets of toner cartridges.
Most HP Lasers I think you could feed loose gravel all day and still get consistent performance from. Mine has been pounding away in my shop for 3 years without a problem and we use the hell out of it. I have dozens of customers who have been using the same hp 2100/2200 for 10+ years.
They are more expensive up front, but there is a reason why HP lasers own the business desktop laser printer market, they are just that damn tough.
My hesitation on a Brother laser is that I have one as a fax machine. It is maybe five years old and prints with black splotches after a page or so. But the main complaint is that although it was little used, it kept claiming the cartridge was low when it obviously wasn’t. (If you took it oug shook it, it sloshed a lot.) I decided it was a machine for selling cartridges.
I guess what we have is a race to the bottom. But I guess the second most important complaint about the Canon is the mystifying UI.