Need general, basic printer that is reliable and doesn't break down

[lopoetve]

First- no Hewlett Packard. Never. No. I've been through 4 this year - the best lasted for 300 pages, and the worst, my most recent all-in-one, did 40 total prints before dying. Shattered nicely when I ran a bayonet through it though! I'm done with them.

So - I need a cheap, CHEAP, decent printer, that just prints. Don't need color, don't need fancy, just PRINTS, and doesn't suck. I'm tired of them dying every time I need them badly and going through 3-4 a year. And my bayonet is getting a bit dull too. Any quick suggestions?

 

[Canon]

To me you WANT a laser printer. Overall cheaper operation and in my experience, far more reliable. PLEASE keep in mind that you GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR in most cases.

Personally I have an old Brother HL1230 that still works GREAT. No problems and it's printed 1000s of pages in it's life time (heck I got it used after having a fresh drum unit and toner installed).

I can't vouch for this particular unit in any way since I have never had it but may be worth having a look at. It's priced at $164.99 which is on the low side for an all in one printer (unless like you say, you want to buy 3-4 a year).

Brother DCP Series DCP-7020 MFC / All-In-One Up to 20 ppm Monochrome Laser Printer

Just generally, I would NOT look at Inkjet multifunction devices period.

 

[s10010001]

NO HP? lol, working in IT I can say HP lasers are about as good as it gets. They never die! ad when they do, you replace the part that is. (low voltage PSU, system board, fusser, rollers, pickup units whatever! there work horses made to last 10+ years) and HP ink-jets go forever! mostly because you get a new print head every time you change the cart. Most other brands have non removable print heads that die long before the mechanics of the printer do.

For you at home and on a budget, you are not going to be looking at Laser printers, so you looking at an ink-jet. And most ink-jets are all-in-ones now days. Do your self a favor and buy a mid-range unit. Something it the 89-129 range. That way there not the cheaps one (that really are crap) but there not so much money that if it does go down in 1.5years you feel burned.

If you are going tru 3-4 HPs in a year "you" not the printer, is doing something wrong. 300print and dead? That is defective, replace it under warranty dude. Where are you buying them, the back of a truck?


Hell I just took a dead HP inkjet out of service yesterday! It died after 6 years of use, and the HP15 Black was still good! I gave it to someone else.


PS: I use canon for photos, large format nice ones. And my daily printer is a HP F4180 I got a target for $20 on clearance! It have been in use for over 3500 prints (new ink of course)

 

[s10010001]

This HP is $79, its just a printer, 4800x1200 if you want color nice 1200x1200 for black, only needs 2 inks cartridges that are pretty cheap to replace. Black is separate. Its even got a LAN port! and optional duplex unit for 2 sided printing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828104014


Also its rated for 5000 pages a month with a 1 year warranty. that's 60,000 prints HP is tell you you will get! And if you get 60k for 79$+Ink you have got your money worth! but if treated right you will get more than that.

 

[Joe Average]

There's a particular Brother model, and another particular Samsung model that are basic no frills laser printers and they typically go on sale at least once a month at most retailers like Circuit City, Best Buy, Fry's, etc. They usually run about $80 normally, but when they're on sale you can get 'em for sometimes as low as $49.99 out the door, so it's worth keeping an eye on ads.

Tomorrow's Sunday, and that means sales for the week begin so, keep an eye on tomorrow's newspaper ads, I'll bet you'll find one of those printers on sale, or something that's adequate for your purposes. A simple no frills plain old laser jet.

Compared to ink jets, laser is the way to go. I've got a simple HP inkjet here I got from Walmart about 2 years ago for $25, works fine, but the replacement cartridge for black costs about $17 at Fry's. I get roughly 180-200 pages of text out of it, sometimes more.

Compare that to well over 2500 pages of text with a single toner cartridge in a laser printer, and roughly $80 to get a new one. It would take 15-20 inkjet cartridges to get that amount of printouts and even then the inkjet assembly would probably just crap out and die anyway long before that much use.

Look for one of the lower cost lasers, they work just fine and last quite a while. I had one of those Samsung models and it lasted 4 toners and nearly 2 years before I sold it and actually got my original cost back, minus the toners, but it was worth every penny I put into it.

Good luck...

 

[zyir]

I'll reiterate what the others here have said: Your best bet is to get a laser printer.

Most inexpensive inkjet printers cost more to repair than it costs to just replace them. More often than not, the inkjet (bubblejet, deskjet, etc.) printers' parts are more fragile and prone to breakage. They're usually classified as "disposable printers"; use till it breaks, then just replace it.

Laser printers tend to have less fragile parts and have a longer usage life. I have a Brother HL1430 that I bought a few years ago and has had heavy usage; it's still working great. HP Laserjet printers are very good as well. Though, I'd stay away from Lexmark laser printers, since those seem to have a higher failure rate and are costly to repair.

 

[dajet24]

Brother makes great laser printers. I own 2 HL-2170W and a older HL-2070N. Both still going great and are great if you have a router just run a ethernet cable into the printer and you get a network printer in about 30 secs.

both were bought for 100 bucks or less when purchased at local office stores on sales.

With lasers being so cheap unless u have to have pretty colors there is no reason not to get a laser.

 

[lopoetve]

NO HP? lol, working in IT I can say HP lasers are about as good as it gets. They never die! ad when they do, you replace the part that is. (low voltage PSU, system board, fusser, rollers, pickup units whatever! there work horses made to last 10+ years) and HP ink-jets go forever! mostly because you get a new print head every time you change the cart. Most other brands have non removable print heads that die long before the mechanics of the printer do.

For you at home and on a budget, you are not going to be looking at Laser printers, so you looking at an ink-jet. And most ink-jets are all-in-ones now days. Do your self a favor and buy a mid-range unit. Something it the 89-129 range. That way there not the cheaps one (that really are crap) but there not so much money that if it does go down in 1.5years you feel burned.

If you are going tru 3-4 HPs in a year "you" not the printer, is doing something wrong. 300print and dead? That is defective, replace it under warranty dude. Where are you buying them, the back of a truck?


Hell I just took a dead HP inkjet out of service yesterday! It died after 6 years of use, and the HP15 Black was still good! I gave it to someone else.


PS: I use canon for photos, large format nice ones. And my daily printer is a HP F4180 I got a target for $20 on clearance! It have been in use for over 3500 prints (new ink of course)

I've killed 4 HP ink jet printers in the last year. Each purchased brand new. Never again. Enterprise level laser printers is a different story. 2 HPS1300, and 2 of whatever their absolute bottom end ones were.

I don't mess with warranties on printers- after paying $20 to ship it back, $20 for them to ship it to me, and the downtime - it's easier to get a new one, and blow the old one up for satisfaction.

 

[lopoetve]

I'm liking the brother laser - especially if I can get one on the network.

 

[feverlax]

Brother makes great laser printers. I own 2 HL-2170W and a older HL-2070N. Both still going great and are great if you have a router just run a ethernet cable into the printer and you get a network printer in about 30 secs.

both were bought for 100 bucks or less when purchased at local office stores on sales.

With lasers being so cheap unless u have to have pretty colors there is no reason not to get a laser.

I hate to bump an old thread, but does your HL-2170W make the lights in your room dim? Whenever I turn mine on, the lights in my room dim and flash a lot while its on for awhile. Does anyone know anything I can do to fix this?

 

[Canon]

I'd venture to say this is relatively normal. Laser printers have a fuser inside which has to heat up. It uses bursts of current (this is one of the big reasons why you should never plug a laser printer into a UPS unless it has surge only outlets as it will cause an overload condition).

I wouldn't worry about it personally.

 

[dajet24]

I hate to bump an old thread, but does your HL-2170W make the lights in your room dim? Whenever I turn mine on, the lights in my room dim and flash a lot while its on for awhile. Does anyone know anything I can do to fix this?

yes on all my brother laser printers cause a quick light dim when printing gets started. this has happened at 2 different homes pretty sure its not a issue.

 

[engiNURD]

Interesting... I have 3 HP laser printers and none of them dim my lights when printing, lol. However, when my AC kicks in, the whole house dims.

You go through 3-4 printers per year?!?!? As someone already said: you get what you pay for. I also agree that it sounds like you want a laser printer. I've had my $200 HP laser printer for about 8yrs now, and there have been no problems with it. ... At the time, it was their lowest end laser printer, and it lasted me throughout college -- and its still going strong today (though these days I don't print nearly as much as I used to). Mind you, I was in college back when you had to turn in PAPERS, not simple electronic submissions, lol.

edit: sorry, the second paragraph wasn't related to the first paragraph, so I had to clarify that somehow.

 

[dajet24]

considering numerous devices can cause a quick dim and back to normal when powered up i wouldnt really call that getting what you pay for.. The brother laser printers are very good.

 

[Zepher]

I read your initial post.
Get an HP Laserjet and call it a day.
My HP 4500 Color Laserjet is 9 years old (we bought it new in August of 99) and I have about 5000 full color pages ran through it and it still runs great, although a bit slow compared to the newer Color Lasers out there.