Reply to: WI-FI Printer/scanner Recommendation

[Fred Bloggs]

I presently have good experience with 4 x HP printers. 1 LAN wired colour laser, 1 photo printer, 1 MFD and 1 WiFi MFD. Always best to pay extra for HP ink and toner, a lot more reliable.

I have tried a not liked-

Lexmark (the ink cost a fortune and iffy build quality).
Epson (used to carry on squirting ink regardless to the end of the job if the paper ever misfed and hence made huge inky messes to clean up).
Brother (disastrous reliability and zero customer support).

[suityou01]

Am avoiding Lexmark and HP, looking more at some of the Canon models and possibly Epson.

Wise move. I bought Cannons after I found out they had removable print heads. I had an Epson that got a blocked print head and that was the end of the printer.

I bought an HP C4480 all in one as I wanted something that was compatible with Linux. I installed the HPLIP drivers as per the instructions and all worked superbly. Then after a reboot, it have never worked.

So all in all I have had truly bad experiences with

Epson
HP
Lexmark

But my little Cannon was a gem.

[Sysman]

My reasoning at the time was that I would essentially be paying for printing based on usage, rather than the significantly higher initial capital expenditure for the hardware (in the case of a laser device). By the way, colour toner cartridges aren't exactly cheap either.

If the capital cost of a printer is a concern, get a monochrome laser. I bought one about 15 months ago for just over a hundred quid, including a spare toner cartridge which I haven't cracked open yet, and I do print 250 page manuals quite frequently.

Apart from the cost, inkjet cartridges represent hassle due to Sod's Law; they always expire when you are trying to hit the post office before it closes, or on a Sunday evening when the shops are shut (only applies when you are down to the last one of course).

[norrahe]

I looked at wireless multifunctions and was considering Canon MX860. In the end I went for the MX850 which is wired rather than wireless and I connect to it using a Homeplug.

It does everything including built in duplex printing and DVD printing. The 860 is pretty much the same (no DVD print) but also wireless.

The main reason for choosing this model even though it was the same price as the MX860 was the availability of cheap third party ink on ebay etc. This may now be available for the wireless model too.

Take a look at the specs:

MX860

MX850

Thanks, I'd already done some spec comparisons on the canon and epson websites, was just wondering what people have found consistent.

Now just need to find somewhere that stocks them so I can look at the actual product before buying it somewhere cheaper online

[biondani]

I use a Brother DCP-340CW and find it excellent. It can have times when borderless A4 photo prints have some bands across the picture but putting it into it's cleaning mode fixes this.

Ian

[gadgetman]

I looked at wireless multifunctions and was considering Canon MX860. In the end I went for the MX850 which is wired rather than wireless and I connect to it using a Homeplug.

It does everything including built in duplex printing and DVD printing. The 860 is pretty much the same (no DVD print) but also wireless.

The main reason for choosing this model even though it was the same price as the MX860 was the availability of cheap third party ink on ebay etc. This may now be available for the wireless model too.

Take a look at the specs:

MX860

MX850

[blacjac]

My reasoning at the time was that I would essentially be paying for printing based on usage, rather than the significantly higher initial capital expenditure for the hardware (in the case of a laser device). By the way, colour toner cartridges aren't exactly cheap either.

But you get a tulip load more use out of them.
Unless you buy a cheap Samsung colour laser printer, whose cartridges produce piss poor quality prints and last for about 3 months of light usage.

HP Laser or Canon Inkjet would be my current recommendations. I used to love Epson Inkjets but went off them after buying a DX4200 that basically fell apart after about 9 months.

[Cliphead]

I have an HP Officejet Pro L7680. The price was good, and, for an inkjet, the print quality is excellent. However, as with all HP printers, you'll end up spending a lot of money on ink supplies.

Never understood why people buy these things given the price of ink which has to be among the most expensive commodities given price per ounce. I'll stick to laser printers.

[xoggoth]

Wife has a Brother. The exact model probably won't be of interest as it is A3 but works well over wifi and was fairly easy to set up.

[Mr.Whippy]

I got an Epson SX600FW wireless printer/scanner/fax/copier for approx £130 about a year ago. Wireless printing & scanning, with an automatic document feeder for multi-page scanning.

The only thing that I wasn't keen on was that I couldn't print direct to the printer to transmit as a fax....I had to print it out and then fax it manually... I'm sure I must be missing something as I had a USR sportster 14.4k fax modem back in the day that could do that!

Other than that it's a great device. Gets a thumbs up from me.

[VectraMan]

I miss my Lexmark printer/scanner. The replacement Cannon I don't like nearly as much, although to be fair when it eventually starts printing it does do it faster.

However, the crapness of the software of both Lexmark and Cannon is a tie. Both extremely crap.

[original PM]

interestingly enough I did get a lexmark (about £40) if a remember rightly

no problems except that it does lose connection to the network when left on its own

but do a power cycle and all is well again

scanning also works fine - you can even select the file type you want the scan to appear as.

[bellymonster]

I've had a Brother for 3 years now. I seem to remember it was a bargain from Staples (about 50 quid). Can't complain and works ok with Windows 7

[norrahe]

Am avoiding Lexmark and HP, looking more at some of the Canon models and possibly Epson.

[Fred Bloggs]

Got my old fella a HP one a few weeks ago. Works fine with Vista. Can't recall the model number, but they change frequently anyway. It was about £62 and well worth the money IMO.