Printer recommendation requested

[P.Pilcher]

I don't know for how long my trusty Epson stylus photo 925 has been serving me well, but it is a good few years. The printer has only been fitted with one set of genuine Epson cartridges - the ones it was supplied with! In all those years it has performed perfectly on dirt cheap third party cartridges. It still prints perfectly but its paper handling mechanism is now getting so worn that it is rare for it to only feed one sheet into itself to print on. Its retirement is urgently called for but with what should I replace it?

I have an Epson scanner for scanning slides, negatives and ordinary printed sheets with which my printer interfaces perfectly, which suggests I should get another Epson, but which one? We all know that printer manufacturers are getting cleverer and cleverer these days in preventing people like me from using third party ink cartridges. The latest trick appears to be to allow the user to use a few of these cartridges and then cause the printer to lock up, requiring an expensive manufacturer's re-set with a warning that in future only manufacturers cartridges should be used. That is something that I don't want! I also rule out HP machines because of their very expensive replacement print heads containing ink. I merely want a printer that is not necessarily really fast, will definitely use cheap thrid party cartridges, can do a superb job printing out photos and willl interface with my Epson scanner - though this latter may be very simple, provided the Epson scanner software will handle the new printer driver.
My 925 cost me over £300 to buy in the days that this was a competitive price for ink jet photo printers, so I consider that I paid for the printer then and my concience is clear that Mr. Epson received no more from me in the form of his overpriced ink cartridges.

Your recommendations as to what I should replace it with would be much appreciated.

P.P.

[parabellum]

I started with HP, which I found to be very good and now use Dell, also very good and a bit cheaper than HP. Just bought an 'All in One' colour copier, scan and print with facility to take chip cards from cameras etc. for A$99.00 on a 'special'

[batninth]

P.P.

Here at Batninth towers we've used a variety of printers over the years, but keep coming back to HP as they seem to be the most robust & reliable. I recognise what you say about the cost of HP print cartridges, we just shop around for the deals when they are about (Tesco & WHSmith seem to be good for pricing).

Along the way, we've also had Lexmark which seem to be much more expensive in their use of ink, and unlike you we've had poor experiences with both Epson devices - one a printer & the other a multifunction device.

The only other device that worked well was a Canon MP3x0 multifunction device that I had for work, it seemed bulletproof. The ink cartridges were relatively cheap but that's becuase they are very small & so needed replacing far more often.

So if asked for my recommendation, I'd go for the HP or a Canon.

Hope this helps

[green granite]

If it's any help PC Pro lists the Canon Canon Pixma iP4700 as the best. : A-List Reviews | PC Pro (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/alist)

[P.Pilcher]

Thanks parabellum, batninth and GG I will investigate your recommendations further.

P.P.

[Loose rivets]

In haste. a rapid rant. A good while back I got a fairly expensive Epson 5400 Printer scanner - the build quality was very good. Heads soon blocked up.

Long story short...ran a blog on here about trying to clean my heads with window cleaner. (really melts the ink) My cheeks were beginning to look like a bassoon player's when the phone rang. It was Epson. They offered to take back my 18 month old machine and fix it. They didn't ...they gave me a 6400.

Goody, thinks I . :mad: says I,when I see the size of the ink on the new one. Minute...probably half the capacity. It fails. Get a new one. Thanks Epson. It fails. Get a 6600. AND A 6400. Ask, several times, but never get a rtn No. for the 6400. put in original box and forget it..

Just taken it out. It goes! Moral o t s leave broken printers in the dark for two years.

New one too expensive to run. Just cleaning its own heads before printing, or sometimes a cleaning procedure, has eaten - and I'm being serious here - about 90% of the ink.

four returns got me a stockpile of ink however...but now, Ive just got some clone ink.


The latest trick appears to be to allow the user to use a few of these cartridges and then cause the printer to lock up, requiring an expensive manufacturer's re-set with a warning that in future only manufacturers cartridges should be used.


You may well be right, bloke on ink support told me to reset my printer by standing like a lemon with finger on the ON/Off button - while unplugged - for one minute. It worked, but I had to do it again a week later. Time will tell.

In the meantime, I've got a Kodak thing. Much vaunted on Your Fired etc., Heads block if you don't use it frequently. New heads free of charge. they block. New, new ones. Okay so far, but...wait for it...if they block, I get a new printer.

Oh, I got a Canon with the used computer I've just got. That makes five, with the laser. Pssssst....anyone want a good printer, cheap?

All have scanners, but all I want is a printer that holds enough ink....well, as much as they used to hold. And just bl:mad:y well prints.

[Blues&twos]

Our Lexmark has been working since 2003 (although now mothballed and never worked well with 3rd party partridges - shame as the genuine ones are hideously expensive).

The Canon Pixma something-or-other MFD worked for 18 months and then irretrievably broke down, so won't be getting another Canon.

Our current HP MFD (C5280) has been good for domestic use, but the accompanying HP software has taken over the whole computer, our lives, those of our neighbours and relatives and probably our thoughts too. Time will tell whether it eventually takes over the planet.

[green granite]

My HP printer is very good, I don't install their software though, just let Windows find it's own drivers.

[Tarq57]

I quite like our HP 3110 All-In-One printer/scanner/fax.
The software has caused problems.
Eventually bit the bullet and reinstalled the software, because the scanner was not recognizing commands from the computer.
It appears at that point my problems seriously began, because on the HP software disk is an installation of the .net framework, #1, which over-wrote or somehow otherwise corrupted the .net versions more recently installed.

Long story short, I had to format and reinstall Windows. All because (I think) there is no selective installation with the software.

This software is about two years old. (BTW it's working brilliantly again, now. Trick was to install software then install/update the net framekork.)

[Keef]

I gave up on Epson colour printers after an unhappy experience. Then I gave up on HP ditto.

I've been using a Canon Pixma IP4000 for some years, but it isn't ideal. If I don't print something on it every day, it will clog and waste a lot of ink cleaning itself.

It does have the great advantage that the cartridges don't have chips in - they are a lot cheaper, and good quality clone ones are cheap.

Last year it refused to print magenta at all, so I removed the ink carrier/nozzle assembly and cleaned it thoroughly with isopropanol and distilled water. That fixed it - but not for long. It did the same again a few weeks later. I discovered that one can buy a carrier/nozzle thingy for about half the price of a new printer: that fixed it for another three months.

It's started to refuse to print properly on glossy paper now, so I'm in the same boat as P.Pilcher. I get fed up with changing ink cartridges that have a tiny amount of ink in them. I refuse to buy a machine with chips in the inks to force me to use their ransom-priced cartridges.

I'm waiting for someone to produce a printer that has good quality, big ink tanks, and "just works". Daughter tells me it's called a colour laser - but the price of toner cartridges for those is scary, and I don't know if they behave any better.

Alongside the colour printer is a prehistoric HP B&W laser that just works. It does over 90% of my printing, and a toner cartridge lasts years, at £29 a piece.

[P.Pilcher]

So, apart from HP with their expensive print head with ink changing system, the only printer which has a partial endorsement is the Canon Pixma iP4700. It appears that a large ink reservoir system for this printer can be procured which helps to overcome the ridiculous ink costs, but it is not squeaky clean according to some of the reviews. At least this ink reservoir with plenty of ink to last for a while is a little less expensive than the printer itself!
Any other ideas?

P.P.

[jimtherev]

I recognise most of the above.
From my experience I would never again choose an MFD. (Admittedly, I seldom have need for a fax and it's a fiddle to scan in then fax using a bolt-on app, but I can live with that.) The snag is that if one part of the MFD fails you're stuffed for all its use.
My current setup is a 4-year old cheap Canon scanner,

A HP 3600 colour laser which prints about 8000 pages from a black cart and rather less from colour carts, costing about £90 for OEM and less than half that for clones (which occasionally are dodgy... maybe 1 out of 10 give unsatisfactory results). It's big and heavy and I could use the desk space, and, like others I have confined HP's software to the deepest dungeon I could find. :*,

An Epson Stylus C86 Color inkjet, which does all the clogging / self-cleaning / inkwasting stuff which infuriates other posters. Only use this if I require high quality prints. I guess that if I used it more often it would be more reliable, but the ink prices would be stratospheric, considering all the printing I do.

If I really need really good high quality prints, then online agencies are good and pretty fast.

[P.Pilcher]

Right: Now I've read and carefully considered everybody's comments for which I am very grateful. Clearly there is no printer that the majority can recommend which fulfills my requirements. Only HP printers and the Canon iP4700 get any praise so, as it is possible to get cheap 3rd party cartridges, refillable cartridges and even an ink tank system for the iP4700 I think I will probably go in that direction. At least I will defeat Mr Canon's idea of doubling his profits from ink sales by halving the capacity of his ink cartridges in these printers!
Once again everybody, many thanks for your help.

P.P.

[Capetonian]

I use an HP laserjet 1018 for black printing, which reduces the cost per sheet dramatically, and an HP 5940 for colour and photos.

I'm happy with the quality and performance of both, although I don't run high volumes on either. I agree with someone else who said don't install the HP software, it runs through a load of stuff you probably don't need and can always install later if you do.

I have had 2 Lexmarks, each worse than the other, and a Canon which was great but expensive to run.

[Saab Dastard]

I would personally choose HP for laser and Canon for inkjet, and never buy a MFD / MFP. I've not tried colour lasers for home use.

I would also never install the software that comes with any of these, apart from the plain driver.

Having said that, I would exclude bundled software, like Photoshop (elements) or Omnipage.

SD

[P.Pilcher]

Well, since so many of you kindly gave me their opinions, I decided to acquire a Canon Pixma iP4700. It has now been in use for several weeks with its third party refillable cartridges and I am impressed. The unit is compact, has two different paper paths, one for bog standard A4 for ordinary printing and another for photo paper and card where the paper does not get bent through 180 degrees in the printing process. Colour photo prints, using third party ink (Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow only) are spectacular.
A few days later, not wanting to be left out, my wife spotted a Brother MFC 6490CW multifunction unit on offer for less than £200 in Staples. Third party ink cartridges are not expensive for this unit, it sends faxes and has wireless facilities as well as printing A3 sheets if necessary and as the cartridges are unchipped, the printer cannot tell that third party ink is flowing through its print heads! I am also impressed with this unit, particularly as wife has managed to send a fax on it without help from me, but haven't tried it on photo printing yet. If it is as good as my Canon in this respect, then it is worth a recommendation, particularly as Brother don't appear to be as keen in rooking the printing public with ink prices!

Somewhere up in my loft is a Brother 18 pin dot matrix unit that I used to use in the late 80's and early 90's before the ink jet got invented. I certainly had no complaints with that unit.

P.P.

[Saab Dastard]

Dot matrix / impact printers still have their uses - cheque and ticket printing is one. Apparently laser print can be "lifted" and forged relatively easily, and inkjet print can be erased.

They are also much, much faster and cheaper - especially where quality and colour aren't issues.

SD

[ExSp33db1rd]

I hate all printers, been there, done that, Canon, H.P. Epson, but a brother HL 2040 B&W Laser has done a few years service now, and 3rd party cartridges are manageable price-wise.

Colour printing - forget it, take a disc or Flash card to the local print shop.

Question - why, in the 21st Century - do we have to put up with this nonsense ? I know that planned obsolescence is a fact of life, and I will eventually have to replace my 25 yr old motor bike, and 20 year old car, but this thing with printers is just plain ridiculous.

[P.Pilcher]

Market forces/profit motive. I just like to try and beat these "bastards" if I can, and there are a lot of people who feel the same as me!

P.P.