Sick and tired of ink jet printers. I print perhaps 50 pages a year. But when I want to print something, I need to.
The ink jets just don’t work for me. Got to buy new ink every year for printing 50 pages. They dry out, or something. I’ve had three (yes I know that’s their business model, sell ink)
I really don’t need color, a scanner would be nice but not necessary.
So, I guess Laser Jet? Any recommendations are welcome. Win 10
Laser Jet refers to HP laser printers. I recommend a laser printer, but it certainly doesn’t need to be an HP.
Edited to add, look at the all-in-one devices; printing, scanning, copying and faxing.
Ecotank
Yeah I know, still inkjet, but the problems you describe are essentially non-existent
I’ve had my Brother HL-2270DW for 8 years, still works fine. It’s a very basic monochrome laser printer. It does have duplex (2-sided) printing capability which is nice. I think the current equivalent model is the HL-L2350DW.
I have a separate Fujitsu Scansnap iX500 scanner which is much better than any scanner built into an all-in-one device.
Mine is a Brother MFC-7820 all-in-one monochrome printer that I bought about 13 years ago. I only print about ten or twenty pages a year and I’m still on the same toner cartridge. This replaced a monochrome 300dpi laser printer that I also had for more than twelve years, and only replaced because the toner cartridge ran out.
I know that my experience is probably an anomaly, but I bought a Brother MFC-L2750DW three weeks ago, and right now I’m going through their stupid* warranty process because the thing won’t power on. And Staples return policy is 14 days, so that’s my reward for patronizing a local brick and mortar store.
*So from the Brother website I can email Brother to start a warranty claim, only to get the reply “If the issue persists, since we do not process warranty via email I can schedule a callback during the hours of 9am - 6pm ET, Monday through Friday.”
Hours that happen to coincide with when I am at work. WTF? How does a tech company not process warranties through email? Why offer the option to submit a warranty claim through email and then pull this bullshit?
Thanks for the advice all. I will look into the recommendations.
I’ve had two Brother HL-5250DN monochrome laser printers for years and they have done a fantastic job on a daily basis. They are no longer made and they are not wireless, but they have lasted forever. I had to replace the toner about once every 18 months and generic units worked fine. If I have to replace one, I will look for the closest Brother replacement. Laser is absolutely the way to go. (Disclosure: I also have a HP CP1520 color laser and it works well, but it eats color toner.) Be sure to get a duplex printing unit. I also keep a cheaper Brother ink jet all-in-one around just for the scanning (and fax) capability.
Another option that might work for some people: HP Instant Ink. They monitor how much you print and ship you ink in advance and you pay per month, depending on how much you expect to print. Under fifty pages per month is $2.99 per month, and under fifteen pages per month is free. Overages cost.
I purchased a HP LaserJet Pro M26nw for my mother and she’s very pleased with it. It’s a mono laser printer with a scanner. It’s small and cheap and perfect for limited printing.
I purchased a HP Officejet 6978
It is lucky that I haven’t yet taken a hammer to it.
YMMV 
I absolutely will never buy another HP printer because of this. HP needs to know where I live in order to send me new ink–screw them, they don’t need to know where I live. And they need my credit card on file in order to charge me–screw them, that’s just one more hackable repository for my card info. And I need to have my printer connected to the internet so they can monitor how many pages I print–screw them, I don’t care to have anyone knowing how much I use my printer (small issue, but still nobody’s business). And AND if I don’t want to pay that monthly thing, I can NOT go to the store and buy my own genuine HP ink cartridge and just have an offline printer/scanner. The printer recognizes a store bought cartridge and says, “Nope. Gotta be instant ink.” Excuse me, but I buy computer hardware for my convenience. And if I deem it more convenient to manage my own ink supply because [reasons] then I deserve to do that. Bought an Epson, had a “Office Space” moment with the old HP piece.
That Instant Ink deal isn’t something I’d do either, but it might work for some people.
Update on my warranty issue. They didn’t mention it in the initial email to me, but they can also process a warranty through a chat, with hours that work for me. So not as bad as I first thought.
As for the printer itself, while it was working it was nice, a black and white only laser printer that was fast, even when printing 2 sided pages. Plus LAN, USB, NFC, wifi, and wifi direct connections. Hopefully I had a one off defective printer and the replacement works with no issues.
If it is any consolation I have had a MFC-L2750DW for several months and it has worked perfectly. The only reason I got it was that my MFC-8840DW’s sw driver is finally not being updated. It is 14 years old. I am trying to run out the last cartridge on my 8840 and so I now have 2 printers next to my computer. Sorry to hear you had trouble with yours, I am a big believer in Brother printers. In my experience, they are the best printers out there.
Have had great luck with cheap HP Laser printers. Have a Brother DCP-2540DW and it’s great too.
Another vote for Brother. I’ve had 3 MFC series printers over the past 20 years-ish and I use them hard. They work flawlessly until they just stop. I probably print around 3,000 pages per month. No issues except frequent routine toner/drum replacements because I burn a lot of ink.
Laser printers are good value. A couple of things to watch out for. These days the sell them with a limited capacity ‘starter’ toner cartridge of a few hundred pages. It may be worth factoring in the a regular capacity toner cartridge. These are cheaper from third parties, but you have to wait a while before they come on the market if the printer is a new model.
Also Wifi printing is important to you, this can be tricky to get working for mobile devices, it is not very standardised. I have an office printer that seems to do Wired or Wifi, but not at the same time, which is annoying.
I love my Canon multifunction. It even prints in color. I’m still on the original toner years later. I don’t print much, and the dried out cartridge issues with inkjets is what finally drove me here.
If I need photos, there’s a CVS on the corner.
One more for Brother. I have one at my apartment in Chicago that I haven’t printed with for months, and I’m entirely confident that it will work. I can’t be sure that an inkjet printer will work after a week. All the “cleaning” is just the printer spraying ink into a sponge on the side of the paper path. Ink that in many cases is literally more expensive than gold.
HP is a shame. They used to make excellent printers, now they are an ink sales company.