Recommend me a printer please

StewartR

StewartR

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Stewart
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The printer in our study at home has died. It's not going to be cost-effective to get it repaired, so I'm shopping for a new one. But it's doing my head in. Recommendations welcome.

Required:
  • A4 colour and B&W document printing
  • copy / scan functionality
  • automatic double-sided printing
  • WiFi connectivity
  • reliability
Not essential, but nice to have:
  • automatic document feeder
  • cloud printing capability
  • low cost per page / total cost of ownership
Not required:
  • photo printing
  • printing on anything other than A4
  • fax capability
  • print direct from memory cards
Brand experiences / preferences:
  • Canon - Consistently good. Current office printer is a Maxify MB-2350 and it's very reliable. I've also had Pixmas which were very reliable. Software is good too.
  • Epson - Not good. Dead home printer is a WF-3620 which replaced a WF-3520. They lasted a total of 4 years between them.
  • HP - Mixed. They used to be great, but before the Canon Maxify in the office I had a HP and it was a dog. Very flaky and unreliable.
  • Others - No experience.
Thanks in advance for your help!
 
I've got the Epson ET-2650.

They're a bit more expensive initially but, overall works out cheaper cost pp due to it having 100ml tanks rather than cartridges, especially if you use third part inks, which I use with no issues.
 
You don't give a budget but we use one of the cheaper Canon TS series (TS 5150) meets all your required and most of your not essential needs...
 
I've got a Brother J680DW. Scanner/copier, duplex printing, wireless, decent quality output, prints from iPads (not tried it for photos) and VERY cheap to run. Been totally reliable.
 
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PhilH04 said:
You don't give a budget but we use one of the cheaper Canon TS series (TS 5150) meets all your required and most of your not essential needs...
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mickledore said:
I use one of these. Seems to do everything you want. It claims to do TWO SIDED PRINTING Auto Duplex Print (A4, A5, B5, Letter - plain paper) is that what you are after?
https://store.canon.co.uk/canon-pixma-ts8150-black/2230C008/
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Thanks guys. They're very similar models in the Pixma range, and I've had good experiences with Pixmas in the past, so I'll definitely look at these.

The range seems to be:
  • TS3150 (£40) - can't do double-sided printing
  • TS5150 (£70) - does everything I need, but has a single ink cartridge for all 3 colours, so potentially expensive to run
  • TS6150 (£120 and £20 cashback) - as for 5150, but with 5 ink cartridges (incl pigment black) - this may be the one for me
  • TS8150 (£150 and £30 cashback) - as for 6150, but with 6th ink (photo blue) and SD card slot - features I don't need
  • TS9150 (£220) - as for 8150, but with Ethernet connection - seems over-priced
Another useful fact is that John Lewis sell them, so I can look at before purchase and also get a free extended warranty. (Wish I'd brought my dead Epson from John Lewis!) Plus the free tea an cake. Sounds like a plan!
 
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Stephen L said:
I've got a Brother J680DW. Scanner/copier, duplex printing, wireless, decent quality output, prints from iPads (not tried it for photos) and VERY cheap to run. Been totally reliable.
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Thanks. No experience of Brother printers myself, but this one looks decent and "cheap to run" and "reliable" are the kinds of things I like to hear. Its specs are pretty similar to the Canon TS6150 above, so I'll have a look at it.
 
neil_g said:
use HP colour laser pro MFP a lot in enterprise, generally solid as a rock. M281fdw seems to fit the spec, otherwise just pick one that ticks the boxes.
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Interesting. I hadn't considered a colour laser. Compared to the inkjets I've been looking it:
  • it's more expensive
  • it's a LOT bigger and heavier (18kg vs 6kg!!!)
  • it's faster but doesn't have quite such high quality output
  • it's NOT cheaper to run.
That last point surprised me. The Canon TS6150 gets about 800 pages from a set of "XXL" cartridges costing about £80, hence about 10p/page; the Brother J680DW gets 600 pages from a set of cartridge costing about £50, hence about 8p/page; the HP M281FDW gets 3200 pages from a set of "high yield" toner cartridges costing £320, hence 10p/page.

I'm afraid I can't see a compelling case here, unless the reliability and durability is head and shoulder above the others...?
 
StewartR said:
Interesting. I hadn't considered a colour laser. Compared to the inkjets I've been looking it:
  • it's more expensive
  • it's a LOT bigger and heavier (18kg vs 6kg!!!)
  • it's faster but doesn't have quite such high quality output
  • it's NOT cheaper to run.
That last point surprised me. The Canon TS6150 gets about 800 pages from a set of "XXL" cartridges costing about £80, hence about 10p/page; the Brother J680DW gets 600 pages from a set of cartridge costing about £50, hence about 8p/page; the HP M281FDW gets 3200 pages from a set of "high yield" toner cartridges costing £320, hence 10p/page.

I'm afraid I can't see a compelling case here, unless the reliability and durability is head and shoulder above the others...?
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Don't be afraid to use compatible toner cartridges. I have an HP colour laser printer and buy toner from Amazon. Costs me about £40 for a set of 4 toner cartridges and you wouldn't know the difference between them and originals.

No you won't get photo quality images but the quality is good for business type documents and a LOT cheaper than running an inkjet.
 
StewartR said:
But only if you compare compatible toner vs OEM ink?
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I wouldn't say so. Even with full price toners, they may cost more to buy than ink, but you get a lot more pages out of them. Buying compatibles makes it a no brainer.

I print quite a lot on my laser printer. Invoices, Daily Royal Mail manifests, Royal Mail orders and invoices and various other things. I replace my toners twice, maybe three times a year. If I was using ink, I be replacing them weekly.
 
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ecoleman said:
I wouldn't say so. Even with full price toners, they may cost more to buy than ink, but you get a lot more pages out of them. Buying compatibles makes it a no brainer.

I print quite a lot on my laser printer. Invoices, Daily Royal Mail manifests, Royal Mail orders and invoices and various other things. I replace my toners twice, maybe three times a year. If I was using ink, I be replacing them weekly.
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Thanks. I think a laser would probably be more suitable for my office than my home, given the volumes.

I'm still more than a bit skeptical about the running costs though.

For the HP M281FDW I was looking at above, HP quote yields of 3200 / 2500 / 2500 / 2500 pages for the "high yield" toner cartridges. A set of them (HP originals) costs £328 at Amazon, which works out to about 12p per page. The cheapest compatibles on Amazon are £160 for a "high yield" set, and that's 6p per page.

In the office I have a Canon MB-2350 inkjet which I think is reasonably comparable in terms of capabilities, purchase price etc. The page yield is quoted by Canon as 1020 / 780 / 935 / 1200 pages for the "XL" sized C / M / Y / K ink cartridges. I can buy a set of them (Canon originals) for £44 at Amazon, which works out to a bit under 5p per page. Compatible inks would be cheaper of course, but I'd rather stick with OEM ink, and the price comparison says I can afford to.
 
FWIW

At home I used to use inkjets but at the time highish duty as I printed daily work notes........but after the 2nd or was it the 3rd one gave up the ghost I had to shop at very short notice for something to get me going again.

I got an HP 1102pw mono laser which cost under £90, fast forward to today still going strong after I think might be 7 years & >42000 sheets later I have only recently tried a compatible and so far so good.

NB as the printers mentioned were used greater than 95% for work related printing, though I bought the of priinters, my employer at the time paid for the inkjet cartridges and latterly the laser toners. The switch from inkjet to laser using OEM in each case the bill for 'ink' went down once on laser.
 
How much if what you print actually needs to be colour? Pair a mono all-in-one for fast, cheap, hassle free printing for the bulk stuff and a higher quality inkjet for when quality colour matters.

The mono Brother laser I picked up six years ago has worked flawlessly since day 1. I know I can just turn it on and in twenty seconds have whatever document I sent it.
 
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We have just got a Canon MB2755 at work which seems to pretty much have what you want. I don't know how different it is to the MB2350. :thinking:

We didn't have a say in which printer we got, other than we said it would be good to be able to print on both sides to save paper and be more convenient for people's docs. It has only been a week or so, so far so good. It is pretty quick to print, and can supposedly print 900 pages from the inks.

The only downside so far is that prints of colour images are a bit grainy. We mostly print documents so it is not much of a problem. And we can't do anything about it anyway. :( :rolleyes: :LOL:
 
What went wrong with your WF-3620? I've used this printer in the office for around 3 years now for both single and double-sided printing and regular auto-feed scanning and (touch wood) it seems fine, and it's lasted longer than the others I've had before that. Mind you, I've always used genuine Epson ink in it (the XL and XXL size cartridges). Also, do you use your home printer much and regularly, as I don't think longish periods without using the print facility tends to help them as I think the ink tends to dry and clog the heads.

I took out the extended warranty (fix or replace) when I bought the 3620 as there was a deal on it - I never usually do this but the last couple of printers I'd bought had both broken when less than 2 years old (so that's probably why this one has lasted!), anyway, perhaps something to think about when you're weighing up the purchase/replacement costs?
 
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The W said:
How much if what you print actually needs to be colour? Pair a mono all-in-one for fast, cheap, hassle free printing for the bulk stuff and a higher quality inkjet for when quality colour matters.
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That's an interesting idea, and if circumstances were otherwise I might pursue it. (I have 4 printers in the office, for example, all for different things.) Unfortunately we don't have room for two printers in the study. Plus I want to make it as easy as possible for my wife to use, since she works from home more than I do and she has less patience for faffing around to make things work. So an all-in-one which will print absolutely everything we want to print is really the only option I'm looking at.
 
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redhed17 said:
We have just got a Canon MB2755 at work which seems to pretty much have what you want. I don't know how different it is to the MB2350
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Very similar indeed. In fact, looking at the specs on Canon's web site they are virtually identical. I suspect the 2755 might be a slightly updated version of the 2350, or something like that.

One possibility I'm considering is getting a smaller version of the 2350 for home - maybe the 2150. I'm very happy with the 2350, and the ability to share inks between two printers can definitely be advantageous if I accidentally get "caught short"!
 
Mr Badger said:
What went wrong with your WF-3620?
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It won't power on, simple as that. I switched it off before we went on holiday, and when we came back it wouldn't switch on. (That'll teach me - I should have left it on!) I've gone through all the usual fault-finding steps, and I reckon it must be a dead power supply or a fault on the main board or something like that. Unfortunately I have neither the time nor the skills to be able to conduct a detailed diagnosis and repair it, and as I'm sure you're aware it's not cost-effective to pay someone else to do it.

I've always used genuine Epson inks and it gets used regularly. However it died just 13 months after buying it. My previous printer was an Epson WF-3520 which lasted 18 months, so that's 2 printers lasting a total of barely 2½ years. (Meanwhile my Canon in the office has taken abuse for 4+ years and it's going strong.) I wouldn't have bought the 3620 except for the fact that it was on special offer at Argos and I had virtually a full set of XL ink tanks, so it was effectively almost free. But those considerations don't apply now.
 
Only turn mine on when needed, and then always turn it off at the end of each working day. Best of luck choosing another, and maybe give an extended warranty some thought just in case... as with anything, try to haggle over the price of the warranty! (y)
 
I just thought it would be polite to follow this up, now that I have my new printer.

Thanks to everyone who helped. I ummed and ahhed a fair bit, then built a spreadsheet. I like building spreadsheets. It's much better than actually making decisions.

But then I decided to buy a Canon Maxify MB2150. This is the baby brother of the MB2350 we have in the office, but still capable enough for our home printing needs. My reasoning:
  1. Lowest total cost of ownership, amongst the printers I looked at, for the kind of small print volumes we'll be doing at home.
  2. Consistently positive experience of Canon printers, including the MB2350.
  3. If I run out of ink at home I can borrow a cartridge from the office, and vice versa.
I was very tempted by the new generation of big-ink-tank printers such as the Epson Ecotank ET-3750 and the Canon Pixma G4510. It might make sense to have one of them in the office and relocate the MB2350 to home. But I decided that I don't want t be using relatively new technology in the office; I'll leave it a couple of years until these big-tank printers are a bit more mainstream and people have some experience of their reliability, and then probably get one when the MB2350 needs replacing.

Once again, thanks for the help.
 
StewartR said:
I like building spreadsheets. It's much better than actually making decisions.
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Heh - this made me chuckle because I identify with it so much. I've got a "printer paper" spreadsheet :)
 
We just buy the cheapest 80gsm paper we see when we need some. Makro sometimes have boxes of Xerox at a decent price (way cheaper than buying by the ream).

Stewart, Mrs Nod has a Canon 4100 series scanner/printer/copier which has done her very well for a few years now. Can't do automatic duplex (I think!). Always gets fed genuine inks from 7dayshop.
 
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