Buying new printer - Cost of Cartridges Comparison?

[btamotsu]

:/ Hi All,

I print between 50-150 pages a week - mostly, but not exclusively black and white.
Generally I don't print more than 25 at one shot. I'm a math & computer science teacher - high school level -
so I'm printing up worksheets, class notes and general handout material - I write a lot of my own stuff.

I'm looking for something that has the following features:
- Very dependable, low jam, etc.
- Good easy to use software for indicating ink use, head cleaning etc.
- Separate ink cartridges for each color & black
- Thrifty on ink - bad luck with refills and thrifty cartridges - so I'm talking cheap with OEM cartridges.
- $200 or under for price. Rather pay a bit more if it means saving on ink - but less overall is good.

I have an EPSON C84 printer currently - and it's coming to the end of it's life.
- Good general quality - but needs to have the head cleaned a lot. Right now I have to clean it several times - every 30
pages.
- Head cleaning takes a lot of ink
- I go through a lot of black ink cartridges - and as the printer gets older - it gets thirstier.
- Software is easy to use
- Jams are easy to clean
- I've had this printer for about 3 years.

I've read some of the feedback you all have given - this seems like a very knowledgable forum - really looking forward to hearing your responses.

 

[InkMon]

I think a laser printer is the way to go. They are quite reasonably priced and toner cost is much lower than ink. Speed is generally better. Resolution about the 600dpi range. Text quality is better than inkjet.

Something to consider

 

[ltsang]

I think most members in this forum will recommend Canon, I for one just bought an ip3400 for $59 Can. Reliable, cheap, big black ink cartridge, refill is done 5 minutes for the whole 4 colors, did not need much head cleaning. Cartridges are transparent so you can monitor ink level anytime. I am happy with it so far. Printed over 150 letter size borderless picture in a month, refilled 4 times, cleaned head once. Planing to buy another Canon, ip4400, but would cost around $160, which includes a scanner. I agree with Inkmon except a color laser printer would cost around $300 with a set of trial toner, to replace them will cost about $400, but I think there will be more & more cheap colors come to the market soon.

 

[Tin Ho]

Are you saying ip4300 or ip3400? I am not aware that there is an ip3400. There is an ip3300. Is ip3400 a new one?

 

[ltsang]

My mistake, should be Canon PIXMA iP3300 Printer

 

[Simon R.]

I think a laser printer is the way to go...

Yep, I'd recommend the same, but Btamotsu said "mostly, but not exclusively black and white" and a color laser printers are not that cheap yet - may be some day....

 

[stratman]

Does your school not provide for work related materials to be printed "in house"?

Pretty crappy if you have to pay out of pocket for job related printing.

If this is for student's lessons, color is nice but rarely necessary in my experience. Let them color it in if they want. (bad joke) A monochrome laser printer is the way to go if you can forego color. I would recommend a midlevel HP laser printer as they are workhorses and you can find refills just about anywhere, with numerous aftermarket toners and drums available at decent savings.

I have a Panasonic laser printer and I like it very much. It was very inexpensive for one that included native duplex printing. For you, however, a Panasonic might be unwise as refills are hardly as ubiquitously found as HP's (Panasonic consummables are not offered at any local store where I live) and they cost significantly more than HP's as well. You will be using consummables at a much greater rate than I, so, you need to keep availability and total cost of ownership in mind.

 

[printerenquirer]

im not an adviser of printing yet , though i can recommend the canon ip1500, its cheat to buy, great on prints both picture and colour has a nice software cd to go with it and plenty of options for you to choose from and since you said you only print a small amount every week it would be ideal for you, the cartridges are not transparent they are grey in colour for the OEM's though its so easy to refill you just drill a hole in top and squirt in some ink, till the first drop deposits from the sponge bottom, then give it a wipe, and stick it back in the printer, it can be filled in under 5 minutes, i recon you could get compatibles for it cheaper than oem,s and you can print exactly what you need to print in a week from one refill, there brilliant little printers, they dont look too great and at first sight youd think god that doesnt look like it could print much but trust me the canon ip1500, if you can still get it that is, is just the job for yourself, neat, tidy, fast enough, good brand, and reliable, does anyone beg to differ?