I’m in the market for a new printer/copier/scanner for my home office. I’d like to keep it around the $ 200.00 range.
Anybody thrilled with what they have?
“Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” – St. Francis of Assisi
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My wife got one for free when she got her laptop a couple of years ago.
Its a HP PSC 1400. It does a good job.
Chuck S
Thanks Chuck.
I've been looking at some Kodak models. They look decent and they boast a low cost for ink.
"Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." - St. Francis of Assisi
We bought the Kodak 5300 All-in one from Sam's Club about a year ago. It worked great right out of the box. The Kodak black ink cartridge is about $10 and the color is $15. The draft copy for this printer is very fast and the paper actually shoots out onto the floor if you don't have the catcher deployed.
You can get after market ink for half that price. We did, but for some reason the draft copy with the after market is a lot lighter than the Kodak ink. Have to print on the slower regular setting. I think I can stand that for the price reduction.
We have a USB 1.0 connection and the printing from the computer is very slow. A 2.0 would probably fix that.
However, Just this past week it died. The error is "black cartridge is missing or not installed properly. Turns out to be a fatal error because if the printer does not recognize a cartridge, it's dead in the water. Also, both cartridges have to be good for the printer to work. Can't use just the black without a viable color.
Kodak tech support was helpful - to a point. They insist you go through all the testing procedures but they don't seem to know that when the printer quits you can't clean the print head. So I tell them I went through all that stuff and they skip to the part where they will send a new print head.
This error is not a print head error but you have to wait until the new part arrives (FREE) and then call them back after you install the new head and find it doesn't fix the problem.
Go through the motions again - they have all your info via the first call - and they will then send a new (REMAN, I think ) printer and print head- no charge. They take your credit card #, just in case you don't send the bum printer back as required.
Waiting now for my free printer to see what's what.
Note: Everyone I talked to seemed to have an Indian accent.<G>
Note: Printers are so cheap these days it really doesn't matter which one you get. They are throw-aways. Sam's Club has a one-time buy right now of a LexMark fax/printer/copier/scanner for less than $50 and has others for less than $100. The label says they'll print at least 30ppm b&w and about half that in color.
The ink is what kills you. Many cartridges are rigged as one time use with some sort of circuitry to cut off at a particular point. They are non-refillable.
I poked around with the Kodak cartridge and found that there is a diode plate that controls the reading of the cartridge. Haven't figured out how to get around the value built in to the diode to fool the printer brain. The diodes certainly have no way to physically measure the contents of a cartridge.
Don't buy an Epson. Mine was junk from day one.
A few yeas ago I got an all-in-one HP, black & white only.
Here are the things I wish I had known about:
1. Mine has a sheet feed scanner. Now, I would specify flat bed scanning.
2. The software for the printer continually polls the computer for instructions. It should, but I prefer to hibernate my computer for faster start-up, and often it will not allow the computer to go to sleep. HP knows about it, but it's a feature of the combination, and I have no idea if using Vista would help, or if every all-in-one printer has this issue. So, I manually turn the printer off or just shut down the computer.
3. It keeps telling me to change the cartridge (I think it's a time thing). Ignore it until there is no more toner.
Quality repairs for your home.
AaronR Construction
Vancouver, Canada
All good points, thanks.
I definitely will be getting a flat bed scanner type.
"Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." - St. Francis of Assisi
You might want to look at getting a laser instead, especially if you do a significant amount of printing. We used to have a 3 in 1 from Lexmark... until I realized that we on average replaced an ink cartiage every 3 months = $135 a YEAR. I got a laser and have replaced 1 $25 toner cartiage in two years.
Tu stultus esRebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
By the way, mine IS a laserQuality repairs for your home.
AaronR ConstructionVancouver, Canada
No more toner or no more ink???PC mag did a series on ink level reporting and did their own tests. various makers and machines were different, some reporting low ink level when there was stil 8% left and others as much as 49% full still!!!It is easy to assume they are setting it off that far so they cansell more ink, but the magazine also pointed out that running a cartridge dry can damage the machine.That said, I lean towards the latter, given the cost of ink.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Every once in a while I get a warning that I ned to replace my toner cartridge ...and after seeing how long I could use my Canon printer, I ignore it.
I know the warning signs of toner starvation, and I'm careful.Quality repairs for your home.
AaronR ConstructionVancouver, Canada
I've had a few HP units in the past, and am not particularly happy with them. My last all in one unit was an HP Officejet d145 (maybe 6 years ago). It has separate print heads from the ink heads (#14 style). I thought that it would be an improvement over my last printer. They clog also and it costs a lot more to replace them all.
Pissed off at the cost of inkjets I ended up buying an old Color laserjet 5M (it was originally a $4000 business printer, that I bought on ebay for $100). It is super cheap to operate. The downside is due to it's age is very slow and is not photo quality. It's perfect for printing everything else if time is not important. After several years I have not had to replace ink or any other parts.
At work we have a monochrome laser all in one Canon printer. It prints at least 40 sheets a day, and now jams pretty often after about 4 years. It's fast and prints for a long time on a single cartridge.
Based on my experiences I would only buy an injet printer for photos. Laser printing is well worth the initial cost. Some of the color laser all in one units are well under $500 now. That's where I would be looking.
I've thrown away a lot of epsons and HPs over the years. They stink. I've had good luck with the Canon Multi-function fof the last couple of years.
Steve
I'm using a HP6150 all in one and have been pretty happy with it. I'ts got a sheet feed and flat plate scan options, fax via either of the previous and the print uses 5 different color cartidges that havent' gone bad like the old ones used to do (maybe I do more printing now?). I know a lot of people hate HP printers but this one's been running for over a year (closer to 1.5 yrs) now with no trouble.
I think a $200 machine will end up being too expensive if you are planning on using it much. You really have to look at the cost of supplies over the life of the machine when you look at price.
They virtually give ink jet machines away because they know you are going to be hooked on $40 an oz ink.
my experience is that hp's plug in and work. others aren't so consistent. i've had problems with inkjets over the years, but mostly from lack of use at home. at work, i've used hp lasers for 15 years, and had one repair. the first one is 15 years old and never had a problem. the second was bought used, and had one $100 repair in 7 years.
if you don't have to have color, get a laser. it's cheaper per copy and there's nothing to dry out or clog. i wouldn't buy anything but hp.
Canon
Image class, 4-1 machines
For years I've been peeved about the various inkjets I've owned. The last HP finally caused me to go over the deep end. It maddenlingly forced me through a long list of hoops every time I printed...if I wanted to save the color cartridges...even when I was trying to print everything black. So I took the advice of some of the wiser sages here and bought myself a cheap $59 Samsun laser jet.
I am thrilled.
Unfortunately, I still have to keep that nasty HP because it's the only thing that scans and creates pdfs...after I jump throuhg many hoops.
I hate HP!
I've got the older model of this one by Canon.
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-ImageCLASS-MF4350d-Printer-2711B001AA/dp/B001EWDXO8/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?ie=UTF8&qid=1235442377&sr=8-1
I have been very pleased. It's fax, a laser printer, and has a 35 sheet document feeder as well as a flat bed scanner. It will scan to pdf as well.
I bought a HP J6450 All-In-One. Its a good one. I wished I had the money for a laser printer. The puny cartrages cost too much. With a laser the big toner cartrages last a very long time
Another thumbs up 4 cannon
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
The cannons scored high in the PC tests
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Thats why I bought one a few months ago and its been trouble free staright out of the box. I get my ink from inksell.com . They seem to have real good prices and specials and offer fast service usually free fast shipping.
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
http://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&source=navclient#inbox/11fa75b984a56fe7
DEAL OF THE DAY...TUESDAY-TODAY Feb 24
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
Out of your $200 budget, but I am happy with my Canon Image Class MF4690 (B&W laser). Set up for wired networking out of the box.
I used to have a Canon Pixma MF machine, and it liked ink... expensive ink.
If I was you, I would spend a little more and get a laser machine. It will cost you less in the long run.
Color lasers aren't too expensive anymore... but I bought a color laser printer only before my Pixma MF died.
Brother MCF 640CW
as close to thrilled with a cheap all in one as I imagine I'll get.
before this we had a xerox ... learned real quick how they under price their machines and over price their ink.
before we bough this one ... I went on a scouting mission ... priced ink.
Brother seemed to have the best of both worlds ... initial buy in plus ink down the road. If it broke tomorrow ... I'd look to replace it with the same model.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Had an HP all-in-one. Horrible piece of #### that wouldn't even feed paper without help. Terrible software that wouldn't retain changes to default settings. Only piece of any kind of equipment I've been angry enough about to write a letter to the company. They basically responded with "tough ####". I finally got so mad at it I trashed it. I still can't get rid of all the drivers and what's left occasionally lock up my computer and require a system restore to get it functioning again.
Replaced it for $100 with a Lexmark all-in-one that is faster, completely trouble free AND set up for wireless networking. Printer tucks in a corner out of the way and prints on command from all the computers in the house. Ink isn't as cheap as Kodak, but is cheaper than the HP.
Edited 2/24/2009 1:27 am by observer
My Dad always said "Any tool that does more than one job probably won't do either one very well."
I feel the same way. An "all in one" may be great when it is working but it also fails "all in one".My question is how long will the construction industry be clinging to this "fax" culture? I have to believe as soon as the last old geezer retires the kids with their Blackberries and texting camera cell phones will make fax go the way of the brace and bit.
On my addition I was able to get an OK from an inspector by Emailing him a picture of the violation remedy, directly to his laptop and he gave me the "OK to pour" right back.
One thing to keep in mind is if you want duplex printing or not. If you print large multi-page documents, duplex printing cuts the number of sheets of paper in half.
However, duplexing units do make it jam more easily. Don't know what the fix is.
I have an HP 7200 that hooks directly into the LAN (another feature you may want). I like it ok, but ink is expensive.
My Brother DCP 8065DN has been very reliable and it's fast and the cost per page printed is almost nothing.
However, it runs at least double your budget, since it's a laser printer. I think it's useful to think of consumer model printers like the cell phone handset you get for $10 when you begin the contract period for service. The actual cost is slowly taken out of your hide and the way the printer manufacturers make back their money is through the cost of ink, which is staggering.
I bought my current HP all-in-one about 3 years ago. I did a bunch of research back then, which may no longer be current. So that's my disclaimer.
Basically what I learned what that HP was the only company that put the ink jet nozzles on the ink cartridges themselves, which means every time you buy another (expensive) cartridge of ink, you are getting a new nozzle. One of the weak links of ink jet printers is that if you don't use them a lot, the nozzles get dried out and clogged, and you have to toss the printer. So I like HP's method there. You basically get a new printer with each new cartridge.
I also learned that laser printers end up being cheaper per page and more reliable, but cost more up front. You have to figure out how much you will use the printer and make a decision based on that.
We print very little, so an ink jet with the higher ink costs was good for us. I'm happy with the HP all-in-one, except the scanning of photos is not super high quality. It's fine at lower resolutions though and fine as a copier.