Home Printer recommendations

[cliffords]

Our Cannon printer of about 10 years old has finally failed.
They are not resistant to 4 year old grandsons who push plastic dinosaurs into them. It seems.

We are home use only , I would say max 10 pages a month. Runs today off a cable not wireless and we do have a scanner incorporated in it , that's quite handy.

May I have a recommendation please . I can see you can buy one for £80 easily and the cartridges with a mouses tea cup if ink are £50. I can see how this works.

Grateful of any recommendations please.

[nuyorican]

I had one of those all-in-one Canon things. And yes, the scanner was the most useful part. But kind of obsolete now with phone cameras. Also, it would never print when I wanted it to print. Which was rarely. Used to get so angry with the bloody thing.

I asked on here too and ended up with a Xerox B230 Mono laser printer. It's been fantastic. Always works.

It plays nice with my iPhone too so I can just find a musical score on my phone and ping it iff to the printer via sorcery.

Recommended if you value your sanity and are happy with black & white only. It was just over £100 from memory. Colour lasers are more expensive I hear.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xerox-Wireless-Printer-2-...

Also, you can use a cable too if you really want to.

Edited by nuyorican on Sunday 26th January 16:34

[hungry_hog]

I have exactly the same Xerox, it's great. Easy to print from Bluetooth or Wifi.

The toner cartridges are quite expensive (around GBP35 for a "small"), but you should get over 1000 pages out of one

I had a Brother printer before which was cheaper but a faff for wireless printing (had to use their app which was awful) where this one has airprint.

[shed driver]

With very minimal printing, look at one of the HP Instant Ink printers.

Ten pages per month for £1.49, that can be either text or a full colour A4 photo at maximum resolution. Ink is sent to you before it runs out.

SD.

[wibble cb]

shed driver said:

With very minimal printing, look at one of the HP Instant Ink printers.

Ten pages per month for £1.49, that can be either text or a full colour A4 photo at maximum resolution. Ink is sent to you before it runs out.

SD.

Aren’t these the ones that if you stop paying the subscription for they disable your ability to use them?

[FourWheelDrift]

^ Yes.

Anything but HP, diabolical shyster company.


If you just want B&W then a Brother laser printer is the usual response, for £99 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L2400DWE-subsc...

The print, scan, copy version is £139.

And you don't have to take the subscription as unlike HP printers you can put any replacement toner into it that fits. Besides the 4 month free trial wouldn't even be long enough to replace the original toner cartridge that comes with it if you do just a few pages each month.

It's not a scanner, but I wonder if you can still use your Canon to do scanning, save to file rather than print?

[tim0409]

FourWheelDrift said:

^ Yes.

Anything but HP, diabolical shyster company.


If you just want B&W then a Brother laser printer is the usual response, for £99 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L2400DWE-subsc...

That’s exactly what I bought after I launched my HP printer into a skip; hateful device and company.

[maccas99]

FourWheelDrift said:

^ Yes.

Anything but HP, diabolical shyster company.


If you just want B&W then a Brother laser printer is the usual response, for £99 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L2400DWE-subsc...

The print, scan, copy version is £139.

And you don't have to take the subscription as unlike HP printers you can put any replacement toner into it that fits. Besides the 4 month free trial wouldn't even be long enough to replace the original toner cartridge that comes with it if you do just a few pages each month.

It's not a scanner, but I wonder if you can still use your Canon to do scanning, save to file rather than print?

Another vote for the Brother mono laser - we used to have a Canon that was very frustrating to use and this is a dream in comparison.

[Arrivalist]

I’m in the same boat as OP but need colour printing - but very rarely.

If not HP then what for colour? I was going to go HP but have not had one for over 10 years and going by the above they are not what they were.

[FourWheelDrift]

Arrivalist said:

I’m in the same boat as OP but need colour printing - but very rarely.

If not HP then what for colour? I was going to go HP but have not had one for over 10 years and going by the above they are not what they were.

Accurate photo quality or just colour in documents?

[craig1912]

I have an Epson Ecotank it’s one that you can top up the ink from bottles and doesn’t use cartridges. Brilliant and very economical. Cheapest one is around. £180 but you will save a fortune in cartridges

[AC43]

craig1912 said:

I have an Epson Ecotank it’s one that you can top up the ink from bottles and doesn’t use cartridges. Brilliant and very economical. Cheapest one is around. £180 but you will save a fortune in cartridges

I switched from an HP to an Epson ET 2850 in June 2023. It gets absolutely hammered by me (working from home), my daughter (doing her A levels) and my wife (2 years into a training course).

Despite all that use, I have yet to top up the ink. I was being skinned £16.50 pcm by HP for that level of use - or just shy of £200pa.

The Epson cost £250 and so paid for itself in 16 months. The general useability isn't the same as an HP but who cares when the numbers are this skewed.

If you look at it over a five year period the HP would have cost me £1,100 inc purchase.

If I do 2 x refils of the Epson in that period the total coast will be £310.

[Arrivalist]

FourWheelDrift said:

Arrivalist said:

I’m in the same boat as OP but need colour printing - but very rarely.

If not HP then what for colour? I was going to go HP but have not had one for over 10 years and going by the above they are not what they were.

Accurate photo quality or just colour in documents?

Just colour in documents. Maybe I should just go B&W and use someone else for occasional colour?

[grumbledoak]

Another vote for Brother laser printer if black and white will do. This one a HL-L2350DW. Can't fault it. It's still on it's first cartridge.

[wombleh]

I went to B&W laser/scanner and just use online places if I want to print photos. I'd look at the Brother ones if buying these days.

Toner is more expensive, but lasts for years as it doesn't use any ink cleaning the heads each time, so overall the cost and hassle is lower.

[craig1912]

AC43 said:

I switched from an HP to an Epson ET 2850 in June 2023. It gets absolutely hammered by me (working from home), my daughter (doing her A levels) and my wife (2 years into a training course).

Despite all that use, I have yet to top up the ink. I was being skinned £16.50 pcm by HP for that level of use - or just shy of £200pa.

The Epson cost £250 and so paid for itself in 16 months. The general useability isn't the same as an HP but who cares when the numbers are this skewed.

If you look at it over a five year period the HP would have cost me £1,100 inc purchase.

If I do 2 x refils of the Epson in that period the total coast will be £310.

Yep I have yet to top up the ink. Used a quarter of the black yesterday but I did print over 800 sheets.

[nyt]

I do very little printing and moved from an inkjet to a laserjet because I was fed up with the heads drying up and having to clean them every time I used the printer.

I bought an older model laser printer with cheap toner available

Something like: https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/canon-i-sens...

Toner: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226332561654

Can't recommend that one, it was just the first that I saw.

You also need to ensure that there are drivers for your computer

[FourWheelDrift]

Arrivalist said:

Just colour in documents. Maybe I should just go B&W and use someone else for occasional colour?

Colour laser will do that fine and last a long time.

Brother colour laser for £219 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L3220CWE-Subsc...

If you print so much your ink doesn't dry up any inkjet that isn't HP.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?keywords=Inkjet+Printer...

[Arrivalist]

FourWheelDrift said:

Arrivalist said:

Just colour in documents. Maybe I should just go B&W and use someone else for occasional colour?

Colour laser will do that fine and last a long time.

Brother colour laser for £219 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L3220CWE-Subsc...

If you print so much your ink doesn't dry up any inkjet that isn't HP.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?keywords=Inkjet+Printer...

Many thanks - I haven’t looked at Laser printers for so long I hadn’t realised how inexpensive that had become. Just need to decide if really need the colour now.

[dan98]

FourWheelDrift said:

Colour laser will do that fine and last a long time.

Brother colour laser for £219 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L3220CWE-Subsc...

If you print so much your ink doesn't dry up any inkjet that isn't HP.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?keywords=Inkjet+Printer...

As a tip for the ink-drying-up-issue, you can use the Windows task scheduler to print a test page every couple of weeks - saves me an awful lot in wasted cartridges.