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General discussion

Looking for printer recommendations.

Dec 28, 2010 11:32AM PST

Hello!

I'll start off by saying I work in electronics retail--after 3 1/2 years and actually giving a poop about knowing what I'm selling, I'm pretty confident I know more than most average consumers, but I'm far from am endless wealth of knowledge. What I lack is personal experience with every product in existence, which is why I'm hoping to get some input.

I just bought a brother 4-in-1 inkjet machine back in late July/early August, an MFC-495cw. Super cheap on a clearance special, and reviews for the machine seemed good. Initially I loved it--good print quality, gorgeous pictures, and set up on the wifi was stupidly easy. I'm in an apartment with 3 computers--an imac, a macbook (both running snow leopard) and an acer laptop with win7.

What's nailing me in the coffin now is ink. The cartridges are supposed to yield (approximately, ISO, 5% etc...) around 400 pages for the black cart, 325 for the colour. The catch here I never noticed is that those standards are based on "continuous use". We print very little. Online store receipts, recipes, how-to guides, video game cheat codes, VERY occasional photos, we probably only print once every week or so. Apparently if left largely alone and shut off from power, the brothers will do a horrendously wasteful "cleaning" every time you turn the damn thing on. We replaced all the cartridges gradually over the course of two weeks, and since then, we have printed one image (full colour, but plain paper, no photo) and about 20 pages of all-black plain text. My black is about 1/8th gone. Cyan and magenta are down to half, and yellow's down two thirds. This is insane! At the rate this is going, I'm not going to see even a quarter of the ISO yield, and while the ink isn't crazy pricey, it's expensive enough when it's literally being dumped down the drain.

So I'm looking for the most cost effective way to replace this stupid machine with something that will work as well but not suck itself dry sitting idle. My old canon (an MP160) went a year and a half on the starter cartridges it came with--none of this cleaning foolishness. So, following is what I'm looking for, and I'm open to suggestions. I'm liking the idea of lasers (or if Xerox had a home version of their solid ink printers...) but really need advice.

TL;DR: I need a 3-in-1 (print scan copy).
It MUST be wireless.
It SHOULD be colour.(I will sacrifice colour if I have to.) MUST be mac compatible.
The cartridges must either be cheap, or high enough yield to justify cost.
Suited for light, occasional use (not prone to drying out OR running cleaning cycles)
Speed is not super important.
I do occasional photos as a lark. I am willing to kiss this goodbye.

As cheap as possible as a new printer isn't necessarily in the moneycards right now. Recommendations?

Discussion is locked

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Just sharing.
Dec 28, 2010 11:53AM PST

I had the hp k550 but we wore it out in about 5 years. All it needed was print heads but that was within 30 bucks of a new k5450 or such printer. I asked my fellow moderators and they noted the Canon mx870.

Now I can't comment about ink use. But it is a tank and may upset some about the weight or size but so far I'd buy another.
Bob

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Laser types can be less expensive in the long run
Dec 28, 2010 7:12PM PST

They don't do cleaning cycles as their toner is dry. However, you'll pay more than the cost of the printer to replace an entire set of (usually 4) cartridges. Estimated consumption for inkjets is extremely optimistic as you have found. One drawback...and I can't claim personal experience...is that low end laser printers don't do photos very well. You might consider an inexpensive color laser printer. They will come with "starter" cartridges but even these tend to provide a much higher page count than any inkjet. With your limited usage, you may go a year or more before these run low on toner.

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I'd love a laser, but sadly...
Dec 29, 2010 9:56PM PST

The pain with the lasers for me ends up being finding a wireless one with a scanner that isn't $500. Even just a monochrome AIO is around 300 if you want wireless. Not in the cards right now, though maybe someday. I'm thinking of going back to a canon--my old one never did this "cleaning" foolishness, and a set of carts lasted me a year and a half (I really do print that little...a colour laser would probably outlive me!) I'm trying to figure out if the new canons still are like that or not.

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Good luck in your search
Dec 30, 2010 11:17PM PST

I suspect you may find out what most have already learned which is that printer manufacturer's give away the low end models and make their money on consumables...ie, ink. Competition in the cartridge market has caused them to become more creative in getting end users to buy only their ink. Looking at some such as Lexmark, they even offer discounted cartridges if the buy promises not to refill them or recycle them with anyone but Lexmark. How that works, I don't know. What's a promise worth if there are no teeth in the agreement? I paid 500 bucks for my first color injet from HP and the cartridge prices were reasonable. I can now buy a printer for no more than a set of full capacity ink cartridges. You'll drive yourself nuts trying to win this one but best wishes anyway.