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
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?

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