Printers

[jean]

My printer (an hp psc 1317) seems to have given up. It worked without a glitch for years, which is why I kept it, though I knew the cartridges for it were costing a fortune.

Now that I'm finally going tohave to buy a new one, I could do with some advice about what to get.

[Beef Oven!]

HP Envy 450 is the one that keeps getting the recommendations........

http://worldofreviews.co.uk/inkjet-printer/

Cheap as chips on Amazon

[Dave2002]

HP Envy 450 is the one that keeps getting the recommendations........

http://worldofreviews.co.uk/inkjet-printer/

Cheap as chips on Amazon

Have you tried an HP? We have two - but hardly use either of them right now. Mostly we use our Canon MP560 - which has a lot of different cartridges which cost an arm and half a dozen legs to keep replacing, but probably only about £100 per year - which is maybe not bad considering how much we use it. The HPs may work out cheaper, but initially we had a lot of problems with wireless connectivity with HP kit. The problems may largely have been rectified now.

Does our OP even want wireless, or the ability to connect to smartphones? What are the requirements?

Cheapness?
Cheapness of ink?
Quality of print?
Colour?
Wirelss connectivity?
Size of print?
Speed of print
Copies per minute (not necessarily the same as above)

Other features

Copying
Scanning
etc.

If Black on white is all that's needed, then some of the laser printers may work out better - depends on how much printing gets done.

However, cross checking most of the above against the suggested HP Envy 450 model, does indicate that it might do well on most counts.

[Beef Oven!]

Have you tried an HP?

Yes, for the last 6/7 years (?) I've been using an HP 4585. Very pleased with it. Easy to use, wireless connectivity a doddle, etc. I use it for printing things off my computer and I assumed the 'OP' might want to do the same.

[umslopogaas]

I use an HP Photosmart 3210 All-in-One. Its pretty old, at least ten years, but has always been reliable. It also scans and photocopies. It is rather slow, and the cartridges cost a bomb, but I mostly only use it in black and white mode. Replacement cartridges were still available from WH Smith a few months ago when I last bought one. HP still have a very good reputation, I believe. I also know people who speak very highly of Canon. I think most reputable brands would be fine, it would be the cost of cartridges that would be the deciding factor, particularly if you plan to use it a lot.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I use an Epson EPL-6200 laser printer for black and white work, and a Hewlett Packard Photosmart 8250 for colour work. Previously I had a colour laser (HP) printer, but it was a disaster from the day it went out of guarantee.

[Dave2002]

I use an HP Photosmart 3210 All-in-One. Its pretty old, at least ten years, but has always been reliable. It also scans and photocopies. It is rather slow, and the cartridges cost a bomb, but I mostly only use it in black and white mode. Replacement cartridges were still available from WH Smith a few months ago when I last bought one. HP still have a very good reputation, I believe. I also know people who speak very highly of Canon. I think most reputable brands would be fine, it would be the cost of cartridges that would be the deciding factor, particularly if you plan to use it a lot.

Some of the earlier wireless HP models were a pain - as the software wasn't too great. In fairness to HP they did eventually fix some of the problems. The print quality was excellent. For cheapness we still have a very old Epson (830U) - though if we use it to print aircraft boarding cards we always get stopped, as the print quality is now fairly poor. However, the compatible cartridges are very cheap - it doesn't reallly own ua anything.

[Globaltruth]

Printers generally are fairly cheap and fairly reliable nowadays, with the exception of Kodak who are cheap but not reliable
With all printers it's the consumables that get you every time.
Eventually all printers may be free!
Watch out for those cartridges that only hold 5ml of ink, works out about the same price as buying gold (or is it platinum?).
On occasion I have to do low-volume high-quality printing - after loads of diversions and experiments (shame I never filmed the clip of a Kodak printer hitting the ground after being chucked out of a window) I've come back to HP, the Photosmart 7520.
At least they've designed it so that it uses TWO black cartridges - one for photos, one for docs.

I use 3rd party cartridges from First Call Inks. (NB no commercial association with these people)
They work well, however when you prepare them for the printer they can be a bit leaky, once you know that it's fine.
The HP printer complains about them like the good corporate citizen it is.
Occasionally I treat the printer to some genuine cartridges - the empty ones get recycled back to the Red Cross who then make a few pence flogging them to companies like First Call Inks.

So HP generally gets my vote, but do try and find some compatible cartridges.

[Anastasius]

You don't say what you want to print, Jean. If photographs then that is a completely different beast. Personally I loath ink-jet printers as the running costs are too high and if you only print out occasionally then you often find the inkjet head gummed up when you come to use it. We have an HP B&W laser printer that we've had for years and years. And an HP Laserjet100 color MFP M175nw which is simp,y superb as it also does excellent colour and B&W scanning and photocopying.

[Dave2002]

So HP generally gets my vote, but do try and find some compatible cartridges.

I'd probably advise against this for a new printer. However, if we've had a printer for a few years then compatibles do work out a lot cheaper - for example with our Epson 830U. I suppose it depends how much concern one has for quality, and whether perhaps one prints out photographs. I'd run a new printer for a year or two with manufacturer supplied inks, but one can work out the TCO (total cost of ownership) and make a decision.

HP, as also some other manufacturers, do supply Jumbo packs - with larger cartridges which reduces the cost using genuine inks a bit. Also, online suppliers are a lot cheaper than regular stores, such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Staples etc.

Re photographs I'd say it's generally better and cheaper to use one of the online services to get prints. Apparently some printers are very good (possibly including our Canon MP560) but the cost of printing out A4 photographs might tend towards £1 per copy - which is comparable with commercial charges. A3 and larger prints would need a special printer anyway. Most of us seemingly don't print out photographs these days anyway.

[jean]

Thanks for all the replies.

I want basic printing and photocopying, for which the HP 1317 wa perfectly adequate. It had a scanner as well, but I never needed to scan anything urgently enough to discover if the poor results I got were my fault or the scanner's.

It's the paper feed that's gone. Sometimes paper got stuck and could only be dislodged by brute force, which can't have helped in the long run. Are there printers which can be opened up so that you can solve that problem more gently?

I need to produce multiple copies of agenda/minutes/accounts about once a year, but I don't think I need more capacity for that than I've got.

I always knew cartridges were ridiculously expensive; any information on which makes of printer are less so? I tried refilled cartridges at one point, but they were very messy. I heard somewhere that there were better organised colour cartridges available than the tricolour ones which always run out of one colour while having plenty of the others left. How does that work? It would be quite useful if the printer would let you print in b & w when that's all you want - I could do it with the photocopier, but not if I was printing from a document on the computer.

[umslopogaas]

My HP Photosmart 3210 All-in-One cant be opened up easily to removed jammed paper, to do so would mean undoing a lot of screws, some of which arent easy to get at. On the other hand, in the ten years or so I've owned it, paper has never jammed.

I think WH Smith used to make their own slightly cheaper ink cartridges, but the last time I looked they seemed to have stopped. The black ink cartridge is much bigger than the colour ones, which is sensible because like many people (I imagine) I mostly print text.

[Dave2002]

It's the paper feed that's gone. Sometimes paper got stuck and could only be dislodged by brute force, which can't have helped in the long run. Are there printers which can be opened up so that you can solve that problem more gently?

Ah - paper jams - see here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/48952723@N00/1401611821/

Time to get a new one.

I think right now the HP model recommended might be available from Tescos with the points doubling scheme, so would be quite cheap. Otherwise there might be other cheap outlets.

[jean]

I did s suggested, and bought an hp ENVY4500.

All went well until...oh the irony! A paper jam, when I tried to print the first thing, the alignment sheet. Probably happened because the way the paper feed works wasn't very clear until after I'd tried to use it.

I cleared it, and I know there's no problem now because I can photocopy and I can print a Printer Status Report with no difficulty. But the computer won't believe it and still insists I have a paper jam!

Short of buying a new printer and starting all over again, what can I do? Uninstall and re-install, perhaps?

[Bryn]

I did s suggested, and bought an hp ENVY4500.

All went well until...oh the irony! A paper jam, when I tried to print the first thing, the alignment sheet. Probably happened because the way the paper feed works wasn't very clear until after I'd tried to use it.

I cleared it, and I know there's no problem now because I can photocopy and I can print a Printer Status Report with no difficulty. But the computer won't believe it and still insists I have a paper jam!

Short of buying a new printer and starting all over again, what can I do? Uninstall and re-install, perhaps?

This might, or might not, help.