Suggestions on new printer

[Handy Al]

My Lexmark 5150 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier crapped out. Any suggestions on a new printer combo?

I run a small business and use all the functions, but not have spaced for separate devices. Also budget is tight.

[lkazista]

Epson RX500

Epson Photo RX500 - it is a flatbed copier/scanner, it has a universal memory card slot for whatever type of digital camera you have. It also has 6 separate ink packs, so that you only use the colors that you are using. I give it very high marks. It can do everything ecept be a Fax machine, but you could still scan your fax into your computer and fax from there.

Do NOT however go with the DURABRITE system from Epson, the color photo quality is terrible. Also something to realize is that HP color printers MUST be used with HP photo paper. If you do not, your image will begin to fade after one year.

Lee

[JR]

I recently got an all-in-one. On the suggestion of company IT staff I got the HP 6210. It's easy to use from the front panel and also has a software control panel that makes it dead easy and very flexible. Price about $175.

I'm very happy with it.

JR

[jp_spins]

I'd recommend the HP OfficeJet 7410 All-in-One, it prints, scans, copies and faxes. It also does borderless photo printing but the best parts are the automatic document feeder and it's wireless network ready. The down side about the printer is that it's not cheap.

[Stormbringer]

Al,

I was in the same boat as you 6 months ago. I searched and researched as much as I could. I looked into Epsons, HP's, Brothers, Canon's and Lexmarks.

Brother: Their All-In-One options are limited and kind of on the cheapo side.

Epsons: I received the RX 500 as a gift. I don't know how they can call it an AIO since it doesn't fax. If I had bought it, I would return it. A flaw apparent with most Epsons is the head clogging problem. Read the reviews. Over and over again you read about Epsons needing head cleaning which, in turn, consumes a LOT of ink. Besides, this is geared towards more of the photo enthusiast, not the small business owner. It does not have a document feeder tray nor does it fax (You could always scan something and then send as a fax if you had to I guess. Just extra steps). I gave it to the wife to use with her computer.

Lexmark: BAYOR (Buy at your own risk)

HP: Comes with bloated software and the ink cartridges are outrageously expensive. Having had three HP's over the years, and knowing what I know now I will never buy another HP printer. C'Mon $35 for an ink cartridge! Multiply that by four cartridges. Insane. Especially if your doing any kind of volume.

Which leads me to the Canon I bought. Al, get the Canon MP780. If not the MP780, reasearch the other Canons available. You will not be sorry. Copies (Color and Black and White, Scans, Faxes, and Prints, Duh!). All speeds can be adjusted quality-wise. Has an Automatic Document Feeder (35 sheets right on top). Set it and forget it. Very clear backlit controls. LED display. Can be networked (Amazon reviews will tell you how). Quality is excellent. Automatic double sided copying! Automatic collating! Dual paper trays! Inks run betwen $7-$10! Read some of the 179 reviews on Amazon. Five stars after five stars.

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
The feature-rich Canon PIXMA MP780 Photo All-In-One delivers the ultimate combination of speed and quality to your home-office projects. It can print or copy up to 25 ppm in black and up to 17 ppm in color, and a 4-by-6-inch borderless photo takes about 36 seconds (1). You'll achieve up to Super G3 fax speed in color and black-and-white (2), and the USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface enables the fastest image transfers and scanning speeds possible today (3). To further increase productivity, the integrated 35-page auto document feeder helps you speed through larger copy and fax jobs. A dual paper path allows you to keep a second type of paper ready for printing, an built-in two-sided printing (duplexing) saves time and paper. Plus, electronic sorting automatically collates your copies, so you don't have to.

Al, Amazon is selling it for $194 which is cheaper than the $249 I paid. Plus they have a $30 rebate. $164 is an unbelievable steal.

I have no affiliation with Canon, I'm just one helluv a happy customer after playing the All-In-One game for the last couple of years.

I'm done,
Greg

[rickd]

My Lexmark 5150 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier crapped out. Any suggestions on a new printer combo?

I run a small business and use all the functions, but not have spaced for separate devices. Also budget is tight.

hi al,

so many choices when it comes to printers! i agree with a couple of the previous posters on recommending hewlett-packard. not sure of the current model numbers, but i've bought hp printers for several years now and have never been disappointed in them.

[Bud]

I have the HP 2175 all-in-one. It does not fax but does everything else effortlessly. The card reader in the front is one of the best options. this unit was reasonalbe priced around $150.

[jziegler]

I'd reccommend that whatever you choose, go with a laser printer multifunction. Laser printers are much cheaper to operate than inkjets. A typical inkjet cartridge (black) that is good for 500-800 pages costs around $30. A laser pringer toner cartridge that's good for 3000-7000 pages is about $50-80. If you need color, buy a cheap color inkjet and a laser multifunction. The laser will probably run about $50-100 more initially, but will pay for itself before you even replace that first toner cartridge. As for brands, HP is good. I've had good luck with my Samsung laser

[billwmeyer]

I have the Epson CX4600 and I love it. I never fax so that is no problem. I have had it a little over a year and have had to clean the heads once. It is quick and is about half as noisy as any of the many HP printers I have had.
It takes 3 separate color cartridges, so you don't waste as much ink as you do in a tri-color cartridge. Print quality is excellent.
Bill

[leehljp]

I have used Epson printers since the mid 90s. A new one about every two years and usually close to high end models. Epson is getting stricter and stricter on ink replacement; Cost is going up.

Lexmark: Ink costs more than the units. Part of their plan.

HP - Great!
Canon - Greater. IMHO For fine very high quality photos, I use Canon.
Brother- Overall, I like their philosophy. They build different models around common and past print units. Keeps consumable lower priced. Great cheap All in One printer. AS my all in one, I use a Brother.

[AlanJ]

I've been through a number of printers and multi-function combos over the years.
Definitely do not buy a Brother. We have one at work, used primarily as a fax and occasional color printing. It will NOT print BW if any of the 3 color cartridges are empty (palin dumb). Irrespective of how much color ink is used, and left in a cartridge, after about 5-6 months it says the cartridge is empty (more often than not it is 3/4 full). It will not work again until you change the cartridge. Print quality is avarage and heads clog regularly.

Prior to that we had 2 Canon Multi-function units. Better than the Brother, but both lasted only a year or so before giving up.

At home I now have a cheap HP multi function unit. It is by far the best of the lot. It's HP for me (and work) from now on.

[pierhogunn]

depending on what you are doing and what you want to spend...

I am reproducing the artwork of my wife and her teacher ( just sold my wife's 1st comission for $400, and sold 5 13X19 prints for $25 ea)

I chose the epson R1800, it has 8 inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Blue, Gloss Black, Matte Black, and a Gloss Optimizer((GO fills in the low spots on a glossy print so that you get a wider viewing angle for the print)))

when an ink runs low you just replace the indavidual cartridge ($14 - $16)

the printer works best with epson premium papers (I really like the matte heavy weight, nice brilliant white finished side that makes spectacular prints)

the printer is expensive, $500 but you get great prints, and lab-quality photo's out of the thing.

it does not scan

it does not copy

it does not fax

it does print the heck out of what ever I put through it

I am auditioning some generic Inks at the moment and they are working great, about 2/3 the cost of the other cartridges

I cannot speak about the lower end epson printers. Usually (according to some other forums like www.photo-i.co.uk) color problems have to deal more with settings inside the computer than the printer

If you just want a multi-function device I cannot help, if you want a printer that delivers photo-lab quality, and need to print larger than 8.5X11 then get an epson R1800 (or R2400 if you need to print on a wider variety of stuff, like treated canvas or treated vinyl)

or get the R800 from epson, it is the smaller brother of the R1800

[maxparot]

I also have been using Epson printers for years. For photo quality work they are superior to any other inkjet. The reports of head clogs have been exagerated by people using poor quality generic replacement cartridges and refilled cartridges. Don't get me wrong a printer will clog from time to time (especially if not used regularly) but a cleaning cycle or 2 usually does the trick. For stubborn clogs I have a set of cartridges called Dead Heads. They came filled with glycol alcohol but I have since refilled them with rubbing alcohol. As a maintence I now use then after using a half dozen set of ink cartridges. By running alcohol through the printer (8 or more cleaning cycles) it completely restores the heads to new quality.

I would suggest you stay away from AIO units and opt for high quality separate printer and scanner. You'll get better results from each and if one part goes bad in the future you aren't completely out of commision.

For a photo quality ink jet I'd recommend the Epson R340 It can do stand alone printing from a digital camera. It also prints on printable blank CD and DVD media. And a final advantage is it uses separate cartridges for each ink color to save on ink.

One other thing to save on Ink costs I have been using a online company called Ink4Art.com
I have found their cartridges to be of high quality and produce excellent results. For photos just use genuine Epson Paper and it is just like a real photo.

[scorrpio]

I personally don't like the combos, though some prefer them. My setup is a separate scanner and printer.

Fax: what's that??? It is a dying breed - email with attachment is more convenient. If I need to send a fax in a blue moon, I got a fax at work. And for incoming faxes, company provides each worker with own number, faxes arrive directly to my email. But that is for me.

Copying: any document worth copying is almost always worth saving a digital copy of. Scan, archive, print.

Scanning: my scanner is one of those ultraslim Canons, I love it. Very good software, 1200dpi resolution (optical) is plenty. It is a tad slow on top resolutions, but low-res stuff like documents it scans very quickly.

Printer is Epson R300. Prints borderless photos, prints direct to CDs/DVDs. Siz cartriges, and while Epsons cost $11-13 apiece, Newegg sells compatible Wellprint for $20/set of all six. I been using them a while, no problems. Excellent quality, and I think I only needed to clean the heads once in past six months.

We do not print lots of text, but if we did, I'd probably get a laser printer for that.