home printer with cheap ink
- Thread starter OPButtrey
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Brother Laser Jet. Cheap, had it six years, never had to replace the toner cartridge, still chugging along. Ink jets are a PITA.
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...GKj7M9YMRvO_VCScNSxoCOYkQAvD_BwE,gclsrc:aw.ds
I have something like this.
ink costs about $25 bucks for black and $25 for color. i don't use it very often but works well when needed.
I have something like this.
ink costs about $25 bucks for black and $25 for color. i don't use it very often but works well when needed.
I just bought one late last year too. Initial cost is not cheap but you'll save a ton of $ over the long haul not having to replace dried up ink cartridges.
It's sad that these days that it's almost more affordable to just keep buying cheap inkjet printers than replacing the cartridges. When you are paying $50+ for replacement cartridges you could just go to Walmart and pay less than that for their cheapest inkjet printer that comes with cartridges. Although eventually you'll accumulate a nice pile of printers with no ink if you do that too
I bought an HP OfficeJet 8720 about 18 months ago. That's an all-in-one type with scanner included. Probably overkill if you just want a printer. (Though if you ever decide to go paperless in your house it's a great option.)
HP has a subscription ink program called Instant Ink. For the record I loathe subscription programs and was very skeptical, but I've come to like it quite a bit because I got tired of monitoring ink levels and shopping for new ink (or refilling old ink cartridges, which I found to be hit-or-miss).
You can subscribe to various tiers that give you different numbers of pages printed each month. If you print more, you pay a modest overage charge. If you print less, you carry a certain number of pages forward to the next month. HP ships new ink automatically as needed with a free envelope to ship back old cartridges for recycling.
Before I would spend perhaps $40-50 every year or so for new ink. I subscribed to HP's 50-page/month tier for $3.17/month after tax. Plus I bought a $60 prepaid code through Costco for $48, so for the next ~19 months the cost is even less. I never hit my limit and I never have to think about ink again.
Something to look into if you buy an HP printer.
HP has a subscription ink program called Instant Ink. For the record I loathe subscription programs and was very skeptical, but I've come to like it quite a bit because I got tired of monitoring ink levels and shopping for new ink (or refilling old ink cartridges, which I found to be hit-or-miss).
You can subscribe to various tiers that give you different numbers of pages printed each month. If you print more, you pay a modest overage charge. If you print less, you carry a certain number of pages forward to the next month. HP ships new ink automatically as needed with a free envelope to ship back old cartridges for recycling.
Before I would spend perhaps $40-50 every year or so for new ink. I subscribed to HP's 50-page/month tier for $3.17/month after tax. Plus I bought a $60 prepaid code through Costco for $48, so for the next ~19 months the cost is even less. I never hit my limit and I never have to think about ink again.
Something to look into if you buy an HP printer.
This is why we switched to laser. We use it every month or two and there's nothing to dry up
I do this as well. We went over our limit last month when my wife decided she needed to print screenshots of 100's of web pages
But, it was still relatively cheap.
I have a Cannon TS 9520 for my home office. Take it, I am printing every day also. Spent about $100 on it from Best Buy. It will scan, copy, and print. Bought it an on my first full set of ink cartridges for it. Spent around $25 on a full set of ink cartridges. Been rock solid so far.
Like technology, pretty sure the one I bought 4 months ago is probably already outdated. But still it was a good investment for what I need it for.
Like technology, pretty sure the one I bought 4 months ago is probably already outdated. But still it was a good investment for what I need it for.
I'm still on my original toner cartridge I bought in 2002 for a black and white laser. Printer is so old now I had to trick Windows 10 to recognize it by installing a similar model driver because they do not make a win10 driver for my model. Still plan to use it for simple black and white printing until toner is gone so I dont use up the toner in my new color laser.
For as little printing that I do I'm in the same boat, the cartridges would dry up that would not be practical for me.
Same here. I don't print much so the starter cartridges in my Brother color laser have lasted a long time. Still some issues with their automatic print counting that will shutdown a cartridge as needing to be replaced when it isn't "done". Had to google up how to do a reset on the black last weekend when it won't print and displayed the "replace black" and shut me down. Was able to do that via menu and not a manual counter on the cartridge. If you do need a cartridge they ain't cheap but printer has been reliable.
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For anyone that doesn't print often and/or only prints black and white, cheap laser is totally the way to go. I've been searching for a cheap used one for a while now. Toner doesn't go bad (the printers usually hold up fairly well, too).
The cost is higher upfront, but the back end savings are worth it.
The cost is higher upfront, but the back end savings are worth it.
These days its actually cheaper to just buy a printer with the cartridges in it, and then throw the damn printer away when you are finished. Environmentally, it is sick.
Black and white laser printers are regularly on sale below $100, color below $150; no point in messing around with ink-jet printers at this point
Definitely a Brother laser. Toner for models a few years old can be had on Ebay for $7-10 each. From what I understand, they've added a circuit board or sensor on the new ones to deter refilling of existing cartridges as well as aftermarket cases. But as we all know, work-arounds are inevitable. My recommendation is to get the part number for the toner and then shop online for aftermarket prices so there is no surprise.
I remember the time I bought a Kodak color inkjet because it had an extra large black cartridge and got suckered into the cost per page savings scam they were pitching. Well...if you're familiar with inkjets, they use a tiny bit of ink everytime you print as a test/nozzle cleaning exercise and eventually go empty, even if you don't use them.
Long story short, the POS wouldn't run with an empty color cartridge EVEN if you were only printing B&W...all due to a sensor/microprocessor on each individual cartridge. After going around with customer service and telling them they could all **** off and to tell management that their perfectly functioning 3 in 1 unit was heading for the dumpster, I did exactly that and then bought a Brother. Never looked back. That was 12 years ago.
I remember the time I bought a Kodak color inkjet because it had an extra large black cartridge and got suckered into the cost per page savings scam they were pitching. Well...if you're familiar with inkjets, they use a tiny bit of ink everytime you print as a test/nozzle cleaning exercise and eventually go empty, even if you don't use them.
Long story short, the POS wouldn't run with an empty color cartridge EVEN if you were only printing B&W...all due to a sensor/microprocessor on each individual cartridge. After going around with customer service and telling them they could all **** off and to tell management that their perfectly functioning 3 in 1 unit was heading for the dumpster, I did exactly that and then bought a Brother. Never looked back. That was 12 years ago.
