Printers - which one to buy???

[Fujiflyer]

Plea for recommendations...

I'm fed up with replacing inkjet printers every couple of years when the print heads become blocked, etc and have decided I will probably replace the latest casualty with a B/W laser type instead. Obviously this will not be any use on photo's and stuff needing colour but its better than nothing at all. :rolleyes:

What I would like is a printer which is basically reliable and not too expensive to run. My price range is in the region of £100 to £200, print speed is not important. A RJ45 LAN (802.3) network connection would be a plus but is non-essential. I have considered (and still would) a colour laser printer but are concerned that a "cheap" (say £500 or so) one may just compound my problems with the breakdowns and running costs, etc. Also I understand that at the lower and of the market they are not good (unusable???) for photographs. Also in my consideration is how the technology (and hence affordability) is likely to develop over the next few years. :hmm:

Thanks,

FujiF :)

[FJJP]

I run 2 printers at home - the inkjet is the Epson 1290 and the laser the Brother 1450. Both are first rate. No complaints with either. Colour laser V expensive, and I don't know anything about them. I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a printer.

Incidentally, at work we use Brother 1450's - again no problems.

[Edited to amend work printer type from 1250 to 1450]

[Rupert S]

Seconded as to the Epson 1290, it is extremely good although probably overkill if you don't want to print photos. It produces very high quality prints and, as far as A3 printers go, is relatively cheap especially considering the quality. Only downside it's a little slow. I primarily use an Epson SP 895 for A4 prints, it has edge to edge printing, is relatively quiet and fast and produces very good results in A4. Again, it's a fairly good printer for what I spent. If you do get a printer most Epsons are good, in my experience, much better than HPs.

[Front_Seat_Dreamer]

Brother HL 1430

or

HP 1300

Personally I would always go down the HP route as the vast majority of software writers use HP products when coding software and hence the software works better when printing the finished document (Mostly specialist software I feel I need to add before others tell me I am wrong)

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Fujiflyer,

I use the HP LaserJet 1300 for black & white Laser Printing. (There is an HP LaserJet 1300n which has network capabilities, but it is much cheaper to just have the straight 1300 connected to router with a print server like a D-Link 704P.)

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/28-104-242-05.JPG

If you are looking for Color Laser, I have seen the Minolta Magicolor 2300W Color Laser Printer for as low as $300 in the U.S., but I have not idea what they price at in the U.K.

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/28-117-101-01.JPG

Take Care,

Richard

[child of the village]

Fujiflyer,

Unfortunately the life cycle of a printer is four years no matter what make or type of printer you choose for.... What you can do is try to save on the printing cost over those years with a correct choice of printer. Now I don't know what kind of a user you are (business, consumer, consumer with kids printing off the web) but I always try to steer the consumer away from using a colour laser printer privately. Yes it is cheap in the actual printing cost 3 cents per page 5% yield, but if you also take overall quality of the colour prints and the almost immediate depreciation of the machine into consideration... to give you an idea, a good Epson colour laser Acculaser C900 comes in at GBP 550.00.

Now, if you don't care much for colour prints but would like to be able to print some nice photo's it may be an idea for you to purchase a B/ W laser printer (as mentioned by NAC inc before) and have a dedicated photo printer on the side. I am personally not fond of dedicated photo printers as I find the quality of the paper used for them horrific. My choice would be find the quality that comes out of a Epson Photo stylus 935 or Canon I560 (you can change the print head with this one) absolutely fabulous. And you can also make regular b/w prints on them and if the kids want to print of off the web just set the printer to low ink usage.

As for the future, we are looking at a full shift within the print industry from laser to Inkjet techknowledgy mainly due to the digital revolution, the quality of inkjet photo prints and the lower print cost due to after market inkts. It is even rumoured that we are going towards full web based photo albums and web-based printing service for a next day delivery.

Does this help you any further?
:)

[OVERTALK]

Having just recently trashed two expensive Epson inkjets because of blocked printheads I would advise against volunteering for that sort of fiscal pain. Of course there are those who'll tell you that they've never had a moment's problem with them but that's probably a case of "not yet they haven't". If you do use only the expensive genuine Epson cartridges and not the refilled or "knock-off" variety, you may well be lucky. But buying a brand that incorporates the printhead in the cartridge makes a lot more sense to me.

regards

Overtalk

[spannersatcx]

Used HP for the last 15 years, never had a problem.

[Fujiflyer]

Much excellent advice here - thanks very much for all of you taking the trouble to reply to my query. I'm still undecided on exactly what combination I should get - child of the village, yes that does help as I had considered trying to pay more upfront to reduce running costs but had also thought it may pay to wait for new technologies to emerge as your reply tends to suggest.

Overtalk, I have had likewise - in my case with an Epsom then a Xerox. Don't really understand why but in both cases I had tried to refill the cartridges. Unfortunately the price of new cartridges against that of printer replacement almost makes it worth trying.

Fuji :ok:

[Spitoon]

You're thinking of a mono laser - try Samsung (http://www.samsung.co.uk/cgi-bin/ecuk/main/samsunguk_global.jsp?target_pgm=/product/product_index.jsp) and select printer - the ML-1210 is available in the UK for around £100. I set up the recently discontinued predecessor for a friend - it was remarkably good quality for text etc. and even not too bad for mono photos.

[Fujiflyer]

Spitoon, thanks for the advice. This printer looks like it could fit the bill quite nicely for b/w use. Its interesting to see (ebuyer website user comments) that the toner life appears to be good, as many of the other Samsung printers they had for sale had negative comments in respect of this aspect.

Rich

[Keef]

Over ten years ago, I bought a Canon LBP4 laser printer. It's still working fine - in the Church office, where it performs flawlessly! I only replaced it because I "upgraded" to Windows 2000 and there was no LBP4 driver (there is now, of course).

Laser printers have a long life! My daughter was until recently using an archaic IBM office server laser printer from a long-bankrupt airline's office. It finally packed up when her cat took to sleeping in the out tray (which was always warm) and something inside let go.

I have two printers connected - an HP Laserjet 2100 for B&W, and an Epson C70 plus for colour. The Laser is on LPT1, the Epson was until this week on LPT2 (a cheap plug-in card), but is now on the USB.

The HP is fast, and totally reliable. It's never even sneezed in the couple of years I've had it. It does about 90% of my printing. I'd recommend it without hesitation. Toner cartridges last me best part of a year each, at about £60 a throw.

The Epson is less reliable - it needs its print heads cleaned every time I use it (ie every couple of days), and it's been misbehaving more and more lately. Epson's suggestion, after very precise problem definition, was the standard "uninstall and reinstall" which I'd already done. I moved it from LPT2 to USB and it seems to be working OK for the moment...

A set of Epson ink cartridges is about £40, and they last me six months or so.

I'd recommend the "two printer" route if you do lots of serious black & white printing - the laser is so much sharper than the inkjet, and the print doesn't run in the damp. Handy for plogs and stuff in the cockpit.

Not so sure I'd recommend the Epson - my experience of HP kit has been very much more favourable. My next colour printer will be an HP inkjet (a 4 colour cartridge model).

[Fujiflyer]

Keef, thanks for the additional advice.

Update: Based on the advice kindly given by all of you I have ordered a HP 5150 Inkjet and a Brother 1430 mono laser printer. The HP lasers mentioned were a bit above budget if I was to still buy an inkjet as well. The Samsung one seemed fine but the Brother model I have chosen looked more robust, for not a great deal more money.

Just need to set it all up now (when it arrives) :rolleyes: ,

Fujiflyer :D :ok: