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Home printer/scanner recommendations?

posted 3 years ago by joej2923 (3021)
4 replies | jump to latest

I need a new home printer/scanner and I thought I'd check to get some recommendations. I live in the US and I print occasionally. I need to print out forms a few times a month but there will be large periods of inactivity. I don't print photos so color printing is not important. I mainly want to use black ink for the forms that I have to mail in. I might use the scanner a few times a month to scan forms that I would submit through e-mail.

I was a long-time HP fan and I had a super all-in-one printer that lasted over ten years but the Epson Eco Tank printer sounded good due to less reliance on ink cartridges. The Epson eco tank was nice at first but the printer heads clogged within a year. Reliability is most important for me since I want to be able to print pages after leaving the printer off for a couple months.

[–] nyctc7 (43591) 3 years ago

I use a Canon PIXMA MG2520 which has been reliable, quite inexpensive, but now a discontinued model. However I haven't subjected it to heavy use, I use it less than once a month.

What I do is just go to Staples.com and read customer reviews.

[–] Kowalski (75528) 3 years ago

I HAVE NOTHING BUT BAD LUCK WITH PRINTERS AND THEIR INK...I HATE THE MACHINES...I AM GOING TO BUY A THERMAL PRINTER SOON,AS SHIPPING LABELS IS ALL I NEED TO PRINT.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

I only use Epson eco tank printers for almost 10 years now. They always get clogged when you turn them off. The solution is... well, by never turn them off.

They will make sounds every now and then (I guess they're warming up the nozzles so they won't get clogged.) It's annoying because sometimes they wake up randomly in the middle of the night. Or even worse, when you need to use the printer but then you have to wait till they finish doing their thing.

[–] KinkyInk (1694) 3 years ago

I suffered through several inkjet printers before finally buying a laser printer. One of the best buying decisions I've made.

Inkjet printers dry out when not used frequently, and the ink cartridges are very expensive. Tried refilling them, but that was just messy and screwed up the print heads. It's actually cheaper to buy a new inkjet printer than to buy a new set of ink cartridges. But the secret they don't tell you is that the ink cartridges that come with a new printer aren't filled all the way. Basically, it's a scam.

I've had my laser printer for about seven or eight years now, and haven't had a problem with it. Sometimes I go months without printing anything, and when I need it, it comes up like a champ and prints just fine. I've run out of toner twice. The first time I bought a third-party cartridge ($18) that worked flawlessly. The second time (about a week ago) I went in a different direction and bought a bottle of replacement toner ($7). It was easy to put in, and there was a bit of simple mechanical work involving a screwdriver to reset the cartridge, all explained clearly on YouTube. Printer is back up and working fine. And I think it only has jammed once, and all I had to do was open up the panel on the back and pull out the jammed paper.

The printer I bought was a Brother HL-2280DW, and it was around $350 at the time. It's only black and white, but it's also a copier and a (color) scanner. It works as both wireless or with a cable (which I use while scanning since it's faster.)

Good luck.