Looking to buy a good printer with the cheapest ink

[FordPrefect]

I've been looking for a new printer to buy, since my Lexmark 615 broke and I want it to have cheap ink after owning the 615 which costs about the same to refill as it did to buy the printer. Here is a list of what I came up with for stuff I want:

- Have to be able to get it from Staples (http://www.staples.ca/), for convienience.
- Has to have seperate cartridges for each color, as opposed to one cartridge for all 3 colors so when one color runs out I will only have to replace the cartridge for that color and not the whole thing.
- Has to be under $200 CAD
- Has to work with Jet Tec (http://www.jettec.com/) refill kits, which I can also buy at Staples, or have really cheap brand ink

I looked at HP, and they have cheap ink but every review I looked at for an HP under $200 on Cnet or Amazon had some big problem that overshadowed the cheapness of the ink. It seems like they can't make a printer without some big bug ruining it?

I looked at Canon MP series printers, and the only ones that had 3 color cartridges were MP500 and above. MP500 and above were near $300 or more though. I looked at their IP photo printers and found the 4200 and 5200 to have 4 color cartridges. Those two also had good reviews and were reasonably priced. I didn't see any big difference between them though, (they even have the same type cartridges) so I would go with the 4200. I didn't even bother with Lexmark because their ink is too expensive and their printers are unreliable. I looked at some Epsons but the ink was really expensive and they mostly got bad reviews.

I've settled with the idea of getting the Canon ip4200 but would really like any suggestions anyone has?

I want to use a refill kit with the ip4200 because it would save so much money. For $20 I can get a 3 color refill kit, and for $20 more I can get a black refill kit. The color kit comes with 30ml of each color, and the black kit comes with 3x30ml black. The Canon ink is $20 for each 13ml color cartridge (CLI-8) and another $20 for a 13ml black. So, I can get more than two color refills for $20 which would normally cost about $120, and $20 for six black refills which would normally cost about $80. This seems almost too good to be true... someone please tell me what I got wrong?
Thanks.

EDIT: I want the printer for printing formal text for college essays reports and pictures. I won't need to print photographs often, but I do print a lot of color pictures and art.

 

[Fano]

You should try and buy a Canon 3000,4000 or 5000 if possible.
They are hard to come by as they have been superseded however they are still available .
Their cartridges are unchipped and very easy to refill.
By the way $20 for a 3 color refill kit is extortion.
I bought some Jettec refill kits last month and they were 4 each for a set of three 30ml tubes.

 

[FordPrefect]

I really want to buy a new one at Staples right away and not have to go through the hassel of hunting one down so it's not likely I'll find something old like that...

Yes, they are expensive. Maybe it's because Jet Tec is UK based and I'm in Canada? Take a look: http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_i_results.asp?txtSearch=refill+kit Use B0M1P0 as the postal code.

 

[Osage]

To FordPerfect,

The first thing I fail to understand is why you are wedded to Staples---not saying that there is anything wrong with Staples---to me its just another office supply.
But if you are in Canada, you are in a fairly good market, with all kind of suppliers available by MAIL ORDER.

The second thing I fail to understand is why your holy grail criteria is cheap ink. For me the holy grail is always reliable---something that won't clog my printer--and that you find that on this forum by reviews---once you find reliable then you can worry about which reliable ink is cheaper. And you will also often find the qualiity ink ordered in a decent quanity is also the cheapest choice.

But Fano gave you very good advice---get a ip3000, ip4000, or ip5000 if possible. But I keep hearing reports that other staples stores have quite a few ip4000&5000's available---if I were you, I would go to my local store manager and see if he could have any of those printers shipped in from other Staples stores.--you won't know until you try.---I would also add the unchipped MP 750, 760, and 780 to yout short list--these are unchipped multifuntionals based on the ip4000 printer engine. The other thing to try is ebay---I see quite a few Canadian sellers listing unchipped Canons.

And I don't know where you get your number of colors designations---the ip3000 is a four color printer---the ip4000&5000, the ip4200&5200, the MP500, the Mp750, MP760, and the MP780 are all five color printers--they all have a pigmented text black---and four seperate dye based colors consisting of cyan, yellow, magenta, and a photoblack.--and the ip3000 remains a four color printer because it lacks the photoblack.

But if I were you I would just stick to the concenus favorite inks on this forum which are hobbicolors, MIS, or formulalabs---but for the record I did buy two hobbicolors kits for my Canon ip4000 and the four color MP730---I got nine virgin cartridge blanks with a premade screw seal, two syringes, and 22ounces of ink in various colors for $50.00 shipped to my home in the USA.

If I bought the refilled equivalent number of cartriges in the form of Canon OEM cartridges, I would be talking about $800.--and better still---I have been using these cartridge s for some months now---other have for years--and I report no problems.--and thats the bottom line--no problems.

 

[FordPrefect]

To FordPerfect,

The first thing I fail to understand is why you are wedded to Staples---not saying that there is anything wrong with Staples---to me its just another office supply.
But if you are in Canada, you are in a fairly good market, with all kind of suppliers available by MAIL ORDER.

Where can I find these mail order suppliers? I've used NCIX but had some really bad experiences with them and don't care to repeat.

The second thing I fail to understand is why your holy grail criteria is cheap ink. For me the holy grail is always reliable---something that won't clog my printer--and that you find that on this forum by reviews---once you find reliable then you can worry about which reliable ink is cheaper. And you will also often find the qualiity ink ordered in a decent quanity is also the cheapest choice.

Is Jet Tec reliable?

But Fano gave you very good advice---get a ip3000, ip4000, or ip5000 if possible. But I keep hearing reports that other staples stores have quite a few ip4000&5000's available---if I were you, I would go to my local store manager and see if he could have any of those printers shipped in from other Staples stores.--you won't know until you try.---I would also add the unchipped MP 750, 760, and 780 to yout short list--these are unchipped multifuntionals based on the ip4000 printer engine. The other thing to try is ebay---I see quite a few Canadian sellers listing unchipped Canons.

And I don't know where you get your number of colors designations---the ip3000 is a four color printer---the ip4000&5000, the ip4200&5200, the MP500, the Mp750, MP760, and the MP780 are all five color printers--they all have a pigmented text black---and four seperate dye based colors consisting of cyan, yellow, magenta, and a photoblack.--and the ip3000 remains a four color printer because it lacks the photoblack.

I've been having second thoughts about the Canon. I think it would be better to get the HP Deskjet 5440 where you don't have to do anything special to refill the cartridges...

But if I were you I would just stick to the concenus favorite inks on this forum which are hobbicolors, MIS, or formulalabs---but for the record I did buy two hobbicolors kits for my Canon ip4000 and the four color MP730---I got nine virgin cartridge blanks with a premade screw seal, two syringes, and 22ounces of ink in various colors for $50.00 shipped to my home in the USA.

If I bought the refilled equivalent number of cartriges in the form of Canon OEM cartridges, I would be talking about $800.--and better still---I have been using these cartridge s for some months now---other have for years--and I report no problems.--and thats the bottom line--no problems.

Where can you get any of this stuff in Canada?

 

[jackson]

I live in Ontario.I have used this site for HP and Canon inks in the past.
http://www.atlanticinkjet.com/default.asp?Nation=CAN


Hobbicolors can be contacted through eBay via any of their auctions.They ship to Canada and I have had them substitute photo black for pigment black as I intend to phase out the pigment ink in my Canon printers as my current stock runs down.

 

[roytje]

Hey FordPrefect,

You could use my site ( www.printeradvice.com )for an indication of the printer and printing costs for 40 of the most popular printers!

 

[Rjack22]

I have a Canon MP700, a multipurpose printer. It has four ink cartridges. Very cheap cartridges and better yet, easy to refill.