Which all in one printer to buy?

[pwdrive]

""I also agree with you regarding these printer manufacturers all competing for business but it's strange isn't it when most of them can offer a printer complete with ink for around £50 then charge a lot of money for ink alone; it still doesn't make sense to me and where really is the competition as they all charge around the same for an all in one? Most of us buy cars ranging from cheap to expensive but pay similar prices for petrol or diesel to power them?""

Hi Col, there's nothing strange about, it's demand and competition that's brought the all in price down to £50 or so, if it wasn't for that we would be paying a lot lot more for the same spec. Almost all consumer manufactured goods fall into three spec. bands, basic, less basic and less less basic.
As for the ink, they will charge what the market can stand.
At the low end of the printer market I suspect that the combined cheap printer and ink deal is mainly running as a loss leader.
There is no comparison with cars and petrol as the economies of scale have always been greater with electronics than almost any other industry.

Lawrence.

[Joe]

Thanks for the information, Gary.

I think this thread re-confirms Freeman's First Law of Computers: "Printers is trouble." This was formulated twenty-five years ago in the days of DOS 3.3 and 9-pin dot-matrix's and I've never had cause to revise it.

- Joe

[Retired]

HI,

Nice one Joe; I couldn't agree more.

Perhaps I should revert back to chalk and slate as these never let me down and I could print on both sides?

Kind regards, Col.

[Keithstv]

I've had four Epson printers, the first was the most reliable but eventually failed. I replaced it with another Epson which failed not long out of warranty. This was replaced by another Epson, must be a glutton for punishment, which also failed not long out of warranty. I now have a Canon which has been more reliable in the 5 years I've had it than any of the Epsons. I also had a secondhand Epson connected as a network printer which, after many years reliable service, decided it had reached the end of its service life. All attempts to revive it failed so it was sent to the tip. As the majority of the printing does not need colour I bought a cheapish HP laser printer for the network printer retaining the Canon for colour printing. I won't go into the fun and games and endless frustration I had trying to get the HP laser to work reliably on our network via a network to USB adaptor. I came to the conclusion that this printer was not suited to networking and bought a network ready Brother laser printer that just works. Turn it on and press print and away it goes.

The HP printer was given to my son to use with his laptop at uni. When my daughter went to uni I bought her a cheap laser printer which has proved reliable. If they had inkjet printers I'm sure There would be a constant stream of calls to say it's not working and trying to fix it remotely is no joke.

For a scanner I've now got a Canon 4400 which has had no issues since I bought it nearly 6 years ago. It can scan straight to pdf which is a great advantage for scanning magazine articles for posting on forums.

One thing that I've noticed is that the chances of a printer expiring are increased if you've just bought a set of cartridges for it. It happened with three of the Epson printers.

Keith

[Yorkie]

Most ink jet printers seem to feature copying and scanning, and most are wi-fi. (Not needed if you only have a desktop PC but essential if you also have a laptop, i-pad whatever).

Some have five colours (including light magenta and light cyan) other have just have three - cyan yellow and magenta. One the face of things, five may seem more expensive in ink, but to produce a picture with a given number of pixels takes the same amount of ink whether it comes from three or five cartridges.

Some printers allow the use of high capacity black cartridges, which is useful if you do a lot of B&W printing.

I'd never consider a printer with a combined colour cartridge, because the individual cartridges on all the printers I've had run out at very different intervals. I think some printers won't allow you to just print black if the colour cart runs out.

Unless you're a keen photographer (I'm not), and require the highest quality printing (I don't), then ink costs are by far the most significant consideration in my view, and I don't think there's a discernible difference on paper printing from one make and model to another for normal purposes - web pages, text etc. For the few photos I need printing off, I put them on a memory stick and get them don't at a local shop to a good standard for pennies.

We all know what the business model of all printer makers has become - sell printers at ludicrously low prices as loss leaders, then charge 100 times more per ml for ink than the finest vintage champagne, and try to make the printer software not accept none OEM cartridges.

This is an ultimately unsustainable failed business model - a set of Epson inks for my Epson SX535 is £45.00, or I can buy a non-original set from a reputable supplier with an extra black cart for £16.00. Or Epson, HP, Canon Kodak will sell me a new printer with a set of (half empty) cartridges for £45.00 or less. Do Epson (et al) really think I'm going to pay as much for a few teaspoonfuls of ink as I would for a new printer. Not a chance - cheapo ones work just fine.

I primary requirement for me (admittedly I'm in a minority) is to print high quality acetates for PCB artwork. Hy HP printer which had printed more than 10,000 pages till it gave up the ghost did that superbly. The Epson SX535 had such excellent write ups at the time (18 months ago) that I paid £145 to buy one - well over the odds for alternative printers. It won't print on acetates (with or without genuine Epson inks), whatever paper setting is used, and has no transparency setting.

Epson seemed to think it was my fault for expecting to be able to print onto acetate and said none of their domestic printers will do. Hmm, odd that because when I look at the comprehensive specs of HP printers, it's hard to find one that doesn't have a transparency setting. I can't say how well they print as I don't know anyone who has one or has tried this feature.

Bottom line is if I were looking for a printer today, the first thing I'd do is to check the cartridge capacities and the OEM price of them, then the price, capacity and availability of alternative cartridges. Disregard warranty issues in using non-original cartridges - you'd blow the price of a new printer on your first set of OEM cartridges.

The only thing that stops me binning this Epson (which prints well enough on paper - don't they all?), is the hassle of setting up a replacement printer. All makers say they work straight out of the box. Well not for me they don't, and after half an hour faffing about my eyes glaze over and I start to lose the will to live.

[Mark Hennessy]

Thanks Mark for your information; I had a quick look at the Canon MP800 but I think perhaps it is now replaced by another model as all I seem to get is cartridge prices?

The models I quoted were from 7 years ago. Have a look at the Canon website, Amazon, PC-Pro, etc to see what's current. At random, these examples looks promising:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-MG6250-Col..._3?ie=UTF8&qid=1365151936&sr=8-3&keywords=canon+printer

PC Pro review: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/printers/...xma-mg6250


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-PIXMA-All-...14?ie=UTF8&qid=1365151936&sr=8-14&keywords=canon+printer

PC Pro review: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/printers/...ixma-mx895


And a super-cheap offering:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-MG4250-Col...=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1365152821&sr=1-1&keywords=canon+printer+4250

Again, reviewed by PC Pro: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/printers/...xma-mg4250

I don't know if Canon are still doing this, but on my printer, the print head is separate (like Epson), but replaceable (unlike Epson). This means that you're not having to buy a new print head with every replacement cartridge (like HP and most of the others). Mine is still using the original print head, and it has never clogged, despite long periods of non-use.

Obviously, I have no experience of any of these newer models, but if I needed a new printer today, that would be my shortlist.

Cheers,

Mark

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Keith; yes it's typical that once you buy a new set of cartridges a printer will then suddenly die.

I'd forgotten just how long it took to set up my Epson all in one David; it was a tedious process but apart from the time taken I found it straightforward enough. I couldn't agree more about manufacturers ripping us off with ink prices; are we buying liquid gold? Had my Epson printed in black only I would have possibly put up with it but as you say David when one of the cartridges ran out it stopped printing altogether hence I was glad to dump it.

Many thanks Mark, I've spent a while looking at the links you kindly supplied and I can now say my hunt for an all in one is finally over.

I've just bought through eBay at £99.99 inc delivery the Canon MG6250 all in one as suggested by Mark. This looks to be an excellent machine for the money so my fingers are crossed it will like me and behave.

Thank you all for taking the time and trouble to post replies I do appreciate them all.

Kind regards, Col.

[Refugee]

I have in the past dumped a printer on the grounds that the ink is too expensive.
Just make sure that the printer is on special offer and that the box contains both cartridges.
Once the first set of cartridges have run out the printer is effectively second hand and is only worth half the the price you paid.
If the new cartridges cost more than this dump it and save yourself the trouble of failure after the new cartridges have been bought.
I have an all in one that has been kept for the scanner and nothing else and even then bound books do not scan too well if the print is close to the spine.
I am getting the feeling that the life of a printer is about two sets of cartridges and that is your lot.

[Mark Hennessy]

Hi Col,

Well done - choosing is always the hard part! I only hope it lives up to my recommendation

Don't forget that if you don't already have one, you'll need to order up a USB lead - an A to B. There are far too many different types of USB leads, so here's an example of the correct type:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-Cable-A-B-Me...B00004Z5DD

Or, you could plug it into your broadband router, as I guess you'll have a spare RJ45 network socket on that. You'll need an RJ45 to RJ45 lead - for example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cat5e-RJ45-Ether...B000IAHNKC

(They are available in a range of different lengths)

Or you can use wireless networking. Of course, this doesn't need a lead

Personally, as I have more than one computer, I'd use a network connection in preference to USB. And I'd always use wired rather than wireless where possible (hopefully that's what your new computer is doing?). But in your case, USB is probably the least hassle and should be easiest to set up.

My old MP800 lacks these networking options - not surprising given its age - so I have to use one particular machine if I wish to print or scan. We also have an old HP Laserjet 1200 which is also USB only, and this is connected to a machine that is permanently powered, so it acts as a "print server", which is very convenient. At last count, we have 5 PCs and a laptop here (not including all the old ones not currently in use)

Good luck, and I do hope it works well for you

Mark

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Refugee. Hopefully this new all in one will at least last until the warranty expires; I seldom have ever printed in colour due to the extortionate costs involved and if I have wanted colour I've done as David does and get them printed by a third party as it works out cheaper.

I don't know if Asda still have their photo lab in Birkby (Huddersfield) but years ago I could get something like 150 photo's printed for around a tenner if I left the disc with them for a week.

Thanks Mark. No problem at all if it fails as it's always a gamble when buying something like a printer. One thing I dislike doing is browsing the web for computers or printers as I quickly become very bored. I'm not one to dither around though and when I post a thread asking for advice/information I take notice of the replies and as in this instance the thread has generated a bit of interest and resolved my problem so winners all round.

I've got a number of cables kicking around Mark but many thanks for the information; once the printer arrives I'll soon sort it out. I'm more concerned about owning a scanner than actually printing but at the price I might as well take advantage of the all in one.

Yes Mark everything is wired on my new computer and I'll wire in the new printer. Thanks for your good wishes.

Ebay traders really do look after customers; I've already received a message to say the printer is despatched.

Kind regards, Col.