Printers

[jane]

I need to get a new printer.
Can anyone advise which would be the best make to purchase, and the cheapest please?

[movieman36]

Um! Canon...or possibly a canon or you could try a canon. You might have guessed I quite like canon printers. (Oh1 I have had Epsoms and HP's)

MM

For a cheapy (but still good) Canon try the iP2600 for a more up market model look at the iP4600....you won't find a better alround printer for about £75 anywhere. Great photo quality, great text quality, quick, quite, fairly cheap to run, prints directly on the DCd's / DVD's..blah blah blah......I should work for Canon in thier promotions dept.

[mikkh]

Don't look for cheapest, they rarely are in the long run because of expensive ink prices

Research the ink price rather than the printer, because there's little to choose between most printers in quality, unless it's a 6 cartridge photo type printer and even that is open to debate.

This is a broad generalisation, but it might be of some use to you

If you print a lot, then an Epson would be a good choice - cheap to buy, cheap to run, but they tend to clog if not used often. Avoid Epsons if you only print occasionally

Lexmark, cheap to buy, very expensive to run - look a bit flimsy for long term use

HP, dearer to buy, expensive to run, but for occasional use they're good and solid

Canon reasonable to buy and can be cheap to run, but where you can say that all HP and Lexmarks ink cartridges are dear, and Epsons are mostly cheap, Canon have a strange pricing policy where they can be either cheap, mid priced or just plain expensive, depending on the model.

[mikeyuk]

Just adding to mikkh.. I recommend you buy the genuine ink cartridges. I had problem with compatible one's in the past. Your printer is more likely to clog up using the compatibles than with the genuine one's. Lexmark printers are very cheap indead but the price of ink cartridges are expensive and don't last very long. Avoid Lexmarks! Canon's aren't that bad. Depending on the model the price of ink isn't that bad, a bit dearer than Epsons I think.

[ken]

When I used Canons, I found Maplins compatible ink worked fine. I use to stock up when they had their 3 for the price of 2 on, every few months. Seperate ink cartridges work out a lot cheaper than these printers with the all in one colour cartridges. They dont hold enough.

I have CISS tanks on my HP; very cheap printing, but not the cheapest printer to buy.

KC

[computing50yrs]

A warning about cheap printers - I had an Epson printer given to me because it wouldn't print. After cleaning the heads which the original owner had done many times, the printer worked OK.
However when I carried the printer through the house I was horified to find that there was black ink all over my carpets. Looking inside the printer at right hand side where the heads sit when not in use I found a big pool of black inky gunge. There is a sponge sited there which it seems should soak up the ink ejected during cleaning. This had been overloaded with ink and had then leaked out.
So from that lesson and after spending a lot of money cleaning my carpets, I now only move printers with a sheet of plastic under it. and watch for potential leakage.

[overpass]

If you want a printer at the right price Jane try the Canon Outlet on E Bay.
They are advertised as refurbished but they are actually new.(just been reboxed etc.)I bought a P4300 a few months ago.Excellent printer ,excellent price.[/size][/font]

[buzzy]

I often wonder why people 'knock' Epson Printers. I have got 3, one of which must be 8 years old and I gave to my eldest Grandson to use with his new self built PC. This (and the other two) work perfectly and I have always used Compatible Cartridges from "Choice Stationary" which are not only inexpensive, but excellent quality too. They guarantee them and even offer to replace one's printer should they cause a problem.

www.choicestationery.co.uk/

My latest model is the Epson Stylus Photo R340 which is not so 'young' now. It has printed hundreds of Digital Photographs and copied endless documents from my scanner and I have never had a problem with it.

I appreciate the need to use them frequently to keep the heads clear which is not a problem as far as I am concerned since they are used constantly. However, if one has not been used for about a week, I simply print off a 'test pattern' which I created as a .jpeg.

My Test Pattern.

[jojo]

Printer manufacturers really have it made.

They can produce substandard products at enormously inflated prices.

Because we all seem to have just accepted that printers are expensive to run and have a short life, we don't complain so no incentive to do anything.

[jojo]

Having said all that, I've had an Epson R300 for about 5 years.

Did clog once but got it cleaned for a tenner.

Individual colour cartridges. Always buy Tesco and no problems.

Don't use it much, but when I do it tends to be black. Just printed a head test and it came out perfectly.

These d**nable printer manufacturers, getting it right just to prove me wrong!!!!

[movieman36]

I too used Epsom's for a long time and found them very good. The point about regular printing with an Epsom can't be overstated.....don't use one that often and it could be 'goodbye printer' and no amount of head cleaning will get it going again. The only range of printers I would say avoid (especially at the cheaper end) are Lexmark. My HP printer that served me very well for many years main problem was the ink. It didn't like any compatible and the HP inks (like most manufacturers ink) was an horrendous price. My current two inkjet printers (both Canon) which I have had for two and three years have never missed a beat. The print quality is excellent (but I would say once you get out of the budget market most leading brands are very good now), the text printing from an inkjet is about the best your likely to get and they don't mind not being used for a while. Mine tend to sit for a month doing nothing then get a real hammering for a week or two. I must admit I only use genuine ink as I have had a lot of grief with compatibles over the years (for all makes), maybe I have just been unlucky? My printers have three colours and two blacks (one black is pigment and the other dye based, one for photo work and the other text, hence the good text quality) The individual tanks are about £8 each and last a reasonable time.

Just to put running costs into perspective, I also run a HP Colour Laserjet printer, supposed to be more econamical...pah! Great quality but at a price. To renew the four inks in it with genuine HP carts?........£267.00......and if I'm lucky I'll get maybe 700 to 1000 prints from that.......

[elvisuk]

H! i got an Epson DX6000 i don't use that much not had an problems only only cost me £60 cartridges about £17.99 and free postage for 12 cartridges from Ebay.

Dose me ;D

[jane]

Well thank you all very much indeed for your replies.
I shall take the ink price into consideration when I make my choice.
You have all been very kind and helpful.

[jorg]

I have just recently purchased a Cannon Pixma MP630 all-in one printer, great piece of kit for both normal printing and photos, easy to set up and purchased from Amazon at a good price, jorg

[Angelstardust]

I swore that I would not buy an epson after my previous one, but I did because it had the right facilities. First the scanner had a hissy fit and refused to talk to the computer, then the ink clogs in the red, the previous one clogged up in the yellow printhead, which is why I said no more.

I don't print a lot and most of what I do print is text, so almost anything except an Epson next time.

[mikeyuk]

Mar 20, 2009 2:29:30 GMT @ken said:

When I used Canons, I found Maplins compatible ink worked fine. I use to stock up when they had their 3 for the price of 2 on, every few months. Seperate ink cartridges work out a lot cheaper than these printers with the all in one colour cartridges. They dont hold enough.

I have CISS tanks on my HP; very cheap printing, but not the cheapest printer to buy.

KC

I went into my local maplins and saw a load of Inkrite compatible ink cartridges? Didn't see the price of them. Are you refering to these ones? If so they maybe a bit cheaper on www.choicestationary.co.uk . Most online stationary companies have better deals on compatible cartridges. Unfortunately though I will be staying away from them because of problems I had with them in the past.

Posted by Angelstardust on 20/3/09 at 11:25pm
I swore that I would not buy an epson after my previous one, but I did because it had the right facilities. First the scanner had a hissy fit and refused to talk to the computer, then the ink clogs in the red, the previous one clogged up in the yellow printhead, which is why I said no more.

I don't print a lot and most of what I do print is text, so almost anything except an Epson next time.

The problem with combi printer scanners is that if the scanner goes wrong then you only have the printer. If the printer goes wrong you only have the scanner to use and you end up paying for a new one. I never buy combi's! I have a seperate scanner.

[ken]

If by chance I needed a colour, I could jump on my bike and have it in the printer in less than ½ hour from Maplins. If I ordered it online, theres no telling when I would get it. At 2 quid a colour, I'm not going to worry about pennies. If I had ever had trouble with their ink I wouldn't use it, but in quite a few years I never did and it works just as good as the real thing.

I used to think like that Mikey; but unless you get one out of a Christmas cracker, these combies are very well built and reliable. There are a lot cheap printers out there; but like anything else, you get what you pay for. Someone who doesn't do a lot of printing, a cheapy is good enough. As long as they run a sheet through it at least once a week, to stop it blocking. A good printer wont block as easy as a cheap one, they have nozzles that close when shut down to stop the ink from drying and cheap ones don't have that.

KC

[jane]

A friend of mine gave me her Lexmark. which she didn't want any more. I could not use it because when I put the disc in to download on to computer, which is a
Radeon 9800 it came up - not compatible.
I just hope I don't get that message when I buy a new one!!

[elvisuk]

H! Jane,

" which is a Radeon 9800 it came up - not compatible." that,s not a printer CD it's a Graphic card Like this ATI RADEON 9800 PRO - Graphics Cards.

I think you need the Lexmark CD for the printer you have a different one

[Pete]

I recommend HP printers, because they are reliable, quiet and good to look at. I have the all in onehp psc 2355 printer scanner and copier. MY other one is HP deskjet 5550 series. Both still print as good as when I bought them years ago.

[mikkh]

Radeon 9800 is your graphics card, not your computer - it's the first thing displayed on any computer and just confirms that your monitor is attached to the named card.

Not compatible could be one of two things, it's either an old printer and you're running the latest OS like Vista - therefore possibly not compatible with the driver CD, or it's a newish printer and you're running a very old OS like Windows 98.

I'll guess it's the first option, because friends don't tend to give away new stuff. There's probably an updated driver available from Lexmark, but Vista is quite clever at picking up new hardware, so just plug it in and see what happens - you might get a nice surprise

[jane]

oops yes sorry. It is an AMD Athlon 64 3500+

[rog]

Hiya Larry

I too use a an HP all-in-one, mine is a 2175 and I find it brilliant. Kev is always having a laugh at me for buying HP but, they ar cheap and if you're not into Music or DVD downloading you don't need the monster s that some people have.

As a budget Puter they are great but next time I may get one of my friends to build one for me to my spec. Trouble is when you need a new one it's invariably cos your own has given up the ghost and you need something quickly.

Rog

[ken]

Jane,

I see you are running an Athlon 64.
Are you running a 32 bit or 64 bit system?? An oldish printer isn't likely to work on a 64 bit system. You can fool them into working, but playing with drivers isn't easy to do. If you are running a 32 bit system, it should work OK with the right drivers. You will be able to download the drivers from Lexmark website. If you put the model number and system type in, it will tell you if there is or isn't any drivers for it.

KC