Looking for a solid SOHO printer to survive dissertation, home biz, and 2 kids

AshG

n00b
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
20
Our Epson inkjet just bit the dust, thanks in part to my wife getting ahead of herself and yanking stuck paper out before I could fix the jam. But, I digress.

Long story short: I'm a doctoral candidate in dissertation mode, my wife has a small home business with light printing needs, and we have two upper elementary aged kids who like to churn out quality multimedia handouts for their class projects (in color, usually).

Being a grad student with a home biz wife and two kids who keep the fridge empty, we're trying to be smart with our money (~$200, maybe a little more if I can sell the benefit to my wife). We've got to get a replacement printer this week. We're tired of buying cheapies that drain us dry with ink and poor print quality. We also have a vendetta against HP inkjets after our last four HP printers died during firmware updates.

The problem is with reviews. If you read enough (as I've tried to do), then every printer is the best ever and every printer is a piece of poo. So I've come to the only place I trust for a straight answer.

Help me, oh wise gurus, before I have to locate and sacrifice a Virginian to my committee to appease them!
 
So, I gave up on inkjets. They suck, universally.

What I wound up doing is buying a black-and-white HP laser all in one. Pick a brand, but it does what I need- for color, I'd pick up whatever cheap ass inkjet is available. Consider it disposable.
 
I had a lower cost Samsung color laser jet that I really liked. I did end up selling it because it didn't have a bypass tray or a scanner, which is something I like using a lot. Thing I like the most about LJ is they don't dry up like inkjets since my printing needs really vary.
 
Pick a reliable lasrerjet ad you won’t be disappointed. If you need a multi function there are plenty of those also.

I personally use black and white laser jets with duplex printing. If I need to print in color, especially if it is a photo or hand out, it is almost always cheaper to print it at a store (uploaded online).
 
What I looked for was it has to be networked (wired a plus, but wifi will do).
Generic ink not only works, but is widely available and works reliably.
A printing app that doesn’t suck.

I got a brother mfc that had worked reliably for a few years. Their tech support has been helpful when my wife couldn’t get it working when I wasn’t home. I bought a case of ink on eBay/amazon (I don’t remember) for like $20 and haven’t had to re order in at least 2 years (home schooled kids so we print a lot). The app works well on android and ios for scanning documents or printing.
 
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