Printer Recommendations?

[prfsnl_gmr]

My wife and I are in the market for a new printer, and I was hoping that the wonderful members of this wonderful site could give us some direction.

We would like a wireless printer that will connect to both our Windows 7 laptop and our iPad. We need it primarily for black-and-white document printing, and price and reliability are our primary considerations. (That said, if it was able to print glossy, high-quality DVD/Blu-Ray/game case replacement covers, I certainly would not object.)

Thank you in advance for all of your help, and - although I searched the forum for similar topics - please feel free to move this thread if it belongs somewhere else.

[Ziggy]

Printers are something that have been giving me a headache for years now! I absolutely hate what a scam they are!

IMO, what you wanna look for first when considering what printer to get is the cost of ink for said printer. Inkjet printers that you will buy from Office Max, Staples, Wal Mart, Target, whatever, most of them will run you dry with the cost of ink.

That being said, I actually just learned about Brother's new Business Smart Series. They sound very good. I haven't investigated too far into them, but they seem to be favored by reviews.

The coolest thing about them is that they print landscape (wide ways) rather than portrait (long ways). This gives you two benefits. One, the printer's footprint is a little smaller than most printers. And two, since it prints from the 11" side of the paper rather than the 8.5" side, that means you can print on papers that are 11" wide (instead of long). The specs say you can print on up to 11x17" paper. This is pretty cool if you wanna print DVD/game covers. You can print them full size on one sheet of paper.

The next coolest thing about them is that they claim to have "high yield" printing. It apparently gets better MPG (for lack of a better term) with the ink carts, thus saving you some money. It's important to note though that this printer uses 4 separate ink carts (one black, and three color). Sometimes printers will come with "demo" ink carts that wont last as long as regular cart, and if that's the case you will have to replace the carts a lot sooner than normal. I haven't checked the cost of the 4 carts, but don't expect them to be cheap. Still, if they last longer than the average cart, it'll be worth it. And usually printers that have separate color carts are able to print at much better quality.

I didn't bother investigating any further because of the way the copy feature works. It'll scan a paper, but it feeds through like a fax machine. This wont do for me, I need an actual scanner box (if I wanna scan something besides paper like a game box or something). It's a shame, because they were sounding so good up until then. If they had a scanner bed, I would probably end up getting one.

http://www.brother.ca/en/business-smart ... rinter.asp

IIRC, there's 3 different models of the Business Smart Series, and they start at about $200.

Oh yeah, it also has wireless printing, so I believe it meets your requirements. One other thing I forgot to mention that I like about it, it has a paper tray (like a laser printer) instead of the feeder found on typical inkjets. This let's you put in more paper than you normally could, so you don't have to add paper as often. Also, since there's no paper sticking out, it makes it look a little nicer.

[Frerix]

[CRTGAMER]

Printers are something that have been giving me a headache for years now! I absolutely hate what a scam they are!

IMO, what you wanna look for first when considering what printer to get is the cost of ink for said printer. Inkjet printers that you will buy from Office Max, Staples, Wal Mart, Target, whatever, most of them will run you dry with the cost of ink.

THIS. Make this the primary deciding factor. A lot of printers can "remeber" when an ink cart runs out so this kills on using ink refill kits. The crazy part is it is cheaper to buy a replacement printer then the ink carts, the bait to get one to buy a particular brand.

[Hobie-wan]

Unless you need to print a bunch of color stuff all the time, DO NOT BUY an inkjet printer. Carts are expensive and will dry out before you use them. Buy a laser printer. It will be more expensive at the outset, but toner is content to sit there for years and work fine when you need it. Also DO NOT buy an all in one scanner printer anything. Recent ones from many companies will even refuse to scan if there's an empty or dry ink cart. That's a whole truckload of bullshit right there.

http://consumerist.com/2013/01/24/if-yo ... ne-at-all/

[marurun]

I think you should consider a cheap Canon B&W laser. Canon toner and ink tends to be cheaper than most other companies, and they hold (or held) most of the foundation patents for laser and inkjet printers. Old Apple printers were rebadged Canons and those things run forever.

DO NOT buy a Lexmark Laser printer. They are crap. I've had good luck with Samsung but the toner is really pricey. My next laser will likely be a Canon.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Thanks to everyone for the tips. Based on what I have heard, I think that I will try to get a laser printer...specifically, this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-2270DW ... +HL-2270DW

Does anyone here have any experience with it?

[Cronozilla]

My worst printer experiences have been with Brother printers. From a normally fixable component being inseparably attached to the printer to normal printing use leading to a completely jammed and leaking ink line. I will never buy a Brother product again.

My best luck has been with HP printers, personally.

laser printers are anyone's guess ... the ones you usually see in universities seem to be quite reliable. The only issue is all the components of a laser printer are quite expensive.

[Fragems]

Here is what I currently use.



IDK what is up with pricing though . Got a refurb over a year ago for $50 and the canon site itself has a recommended retail price of $70. Anyways its worked great for me so far does really good scans, fast printing, produces a decent amount of pages per cart, and the third party ink carts aren't to pricey. Haven't used it for wireless printing though, and it does have the issue where an empty cart basically disables the whole machine .

[DinnerX]

I can't read "printer" without flashing back to all annoyances I've had with Inkjet printers.

Recent ones from many companies will even refuse to scan if there's an empty or dry ink cart. That's a whole truckload of bullshit right there.

I remember dealing with a printer like that. It left me speechless when it refused to scan because it was out of ink.