OT: Printer needed

I need a new printer for a DELL PC - looking for a printer/fax/scanner combo that won't 'break the bank' ... any suggestions?

STAPLES is having a big sale on CANON

THANKS

Be sure and check the prices of ink for the models you are considering. It is MUCH cheaper for some brands.

Oh yeah ... tell me about it ... but thanks Don ...

get one that prints CD's....always useful.

Epson Artisan 700

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=63083402

go with the Epson - the ink is far less expensive than the others. I have the Artisan 50 for printing CDs - it's great and fast.

Gary

love my epson also

We have an Epson on my PC, has CD capability ... Lydia has her own business and needs one for her office so I figure an all-in-one is the way to go ...

If colour printing isn't a requirement you may want to consider a cheap laser printer or all in one. The cost per page to operate a laser is more affordable, and the toner cartridge doesn't dry out like an unused inkjet does.

I love mine, I've had it since the mid 2000's, and I'm still on the toner cartridge that came with the printer.

I have two Epsons. No problems at all.

The CHEAP laser printers tend to be expensive per page, too. Check how much the toner costs and what capacity it has. I bought a Samsung black/white laser printer for about 150 Euros, and the costs per page are only 2 cents. Laser printers of less than 100 Euros often have 4-5 cents per page.
There are a lot of ink printers with high-capacity cartridges for black ink, they are also cheap per page (e.g. a lot of HP models).

I've got a Canon MG6150 Wireless Printer / Scanner / Copier. Prints direct to CD. Inkjet. Duplex. Doesn't do fax. 6 Cartridge system CMYB + Grey for photo and a bigger black one for normal text.

Excellent quality but - and this is a big but - eats ink far faster than the manufacturers figures would suggest. Internet searching suggests this is normal for inkjets, one theory is that the printer flushes the heads if it hasn't printed for a while so if you do lots of intermittent single page prints then all the cleaning uses the ink.

I am now using 3rd party cartridges (UK supplier 7dayshop) which are much cheaper than Canon's and do a pretty good job, far better than compatible cartridges I have used in the past on my previous HP models.

Yes, I use cartridges from Environlinks. I think that's the name. Good quality, very economical.

Go into your printer software and setup ink saver mode, as for most printing the output will be fine and if you need to print something special you can disable it for that particular print job.
Also make sure your printer is set for the paper your using as otherwise this will also use ink unnecessarily. (E.g. printing on plain paper with the printer set to inkjet paper will eat up the ink a lot faster)

Hope this helps

Bill

Good tips, Bill. I have a new(ish) printer (unknown brand and model at this time) coming soon, being given to me by one of my former clients, complete with a full ink supply.

I haven't owned or used one before, so any tips and tricks to save on ink, as some refills appear to cost as much as the printer itself, would be appreciated.

Ian

I've been using Brother inkjets for the past 5 years. Gave 4 year old one to my daughter and bought a J430W wireless at Staples for $50. The un-official Brother refills can be found on Ebay or Amazon for $1 each (red, blue, yellow, & black).

I've owned a couple of the Epsons that print directly to CD, but had trouble with ink spills and now just use Neato labels for the CDs.

Duane

Thanks everyone for the comments ... most appreciated ...
Well, I called our local STAPLES store - we do a fair amount of business there and they have been quite good - and spoke with one of the tech guys who told me that CANON has one of the best print qualities you can find, so with an on-line promo my wife got in an email I ordered a CANON and had them ship it to the store, saving me shipping costs ... the next day I am in the store for something else and mentioned to one of the techs I had dealt with previously about the CANON ... he said the print quality is excellent, BUT - as John mentioned above - they EAT ink ... the printer is for Lydia's business and we talked about how she would be using it and he suggested a BROTHER printer at the same price ... I just got back from STAPLES where I did an exchange on the CANON without even taking it out of the store and walked out with the BROTHER ... it was really easy ... I am just about to set it up ... as with most MOTL to TOTL 'printers' these days, it prints, scans, copies, faxes ...
Again, thanks for the input ...

BTW ... I use an 'older' (you know how I dislike the word 'OLD' ) EPSON R200 and tried using 3rd party cartridges which the printer did not like at all ... had all kinds of print issues, went back to the EPSON cartridges, no problem since ...

Tony, If I would have known you were not concerned with the ink consumption, I would have gladly given you a super high quality HP - FREE!

Gary

Gary ... I think you misread my post ... I said I returned the CANON because it used too much ink and got a BROTHER because it uses much less and even has an 'ink saver' feature on it ...

Yeah, but the price I'm offering you cannot be beat! Free printer - you buy the ink. Such a deal, Sheckie.

Gary

Gary, had I known about that before I purchased the printer, that would have been an option ... but now it is all set up for Lydia's office ...
thanks for the offer ...

Anytime old friend.

Gary

... HEY ... I resemble that remark !!! ...