Best new All-In-One printers to buy? Brother or Canon? Which models?

[inca]

Best new All-In-One printers to buy? Brother or Canon? Which models?

Where do I find the forum for printer reviews or is it mixed in with the others?

My main criteria is cheap ink cartridges and it seems Brother and Canon has these readily available for $2-3 each in generic. Second is reliability of the machine.

I was leaning towards the
Canon Pixma MP560 for $78 at WMT
or
Canon Pixma MP640 for $100 at Staples
as both these Canon's use 221 ink which run $3-4 each.

OR

brother MFC495CW for $100 at Office Depot
with ink about $2 each

Which of these 3 choices or could you suggest another even better? I mostly do printing, perhaps 500 pages/year, 20 scans/year, 10 copies/year. Fax would be nice but a requirement.

 

[leo8088]

In my opinion Canon printer are much better than Brothers printers. But this is based on my experience with one brothers printer a few years ago. If you compare the nozzle density of the print heads of both brands of printers you will find Canon's have better nozzle density that translate into better print quality and better photos.

 

[qwertydude]

500 pages a year is not that much. You may be better served with an HP printer. They are the easiest to refill, simply inject ink. Plus if your printing is sporadic and you clog a nozzle all you have to do is buy a new cartridge. Also you didn't say if you'll be doing photos. If photos then you'll definitely want a Canon. Photo quality is excellent on canon's though with canon the older generation you can get the better. Every generation gets worse and worse with wasting ink. So even with cheap carts you'll be wasting ink. If ultimate durability is key I think the only choice that makes sense is Epson with refillable carts. You could do CISS but I don't think you print enough to justify the hassles of CISS.

 

[inca]

No, I never print photos.

Im not too excited about refilling ink. If I can buy a new cartridge for $2-3 its fine. Many years ago I tried the ink refilling on an HP. I couldnt get it to work, but then again, maybe I didn't know what I was doing. So that negative ink refilling experience is still with me.

 

[qwertydude]

Probably what was happening with your hp was you were letting the cartridge run dry. That's a no no. You have to keep those HP topped off without letting them run out. I've refilled a single cartridge dozens of times doing that. But also you can take HP carts to CVS or Costco and get them professionally refilled for just a little bit more. But if you wanna go cheap compatible carts watch out. Canon's are rather finicky when it comes to bad carts. Flow issues and clogs could arise and Canon's can burn out nozzles if starved of ink.

 

[filmguy]

Epson not a consideration?


I've got an 810 with Precision Colors refillable cartridges and couldn't be more pleased. Excellent value and quality prints, even photos.

 

[inca]

I think with a broad brush I excluded HP Epson Lexmark etc because the Brothers and Canons were the ones with cheap replacement tanks for $2-3 each on many models. Perhaps that was a mistake IF one wants to refill the cartridges.

 

[leo8088]

Are you talking about 3rd party Brothers compatible ink cartridges? OEM Brothers cartridges are not that cheap. If you use 3rd party compatibles your Brothers print head will be clogged. The print head will not be replaceable. Your printer will have to go to the landfill when the print head clogs. If you print 500 sheets of documents a year try to find a used Deskjet 900 series printer with large ink cartridges. They will last forever provided that you use OEM cartridges.

 

[inca]

Yes, I was looking to use 3rd party ink cartridges. My Canon ip3000 worked for 5 years this way. Now the print head on it is not working, I think not because of bad ink, but because I was using it with some of the colors out of ink.

 

[mharris127]

Are you talking about 3rd party Brothers compatible ink cartridges? OEM Brothers cartridges are not that cheap. If you use 3rd party compatibles your Brothers print head will be clogged. The print head will not be replaceable. Your printer will have to go to the landfill when the print head clogs. If you print 500 sheets of documents a year try to find a used Deskjet 900 series printer with large ink cartridges. They will last forever provided that you use OEM cartridges.

I use G&G carts with my Brother MFC-295CN exclusively and the only problem I have ever had with clogged print heads is using the "Fast" printing speed (it clogged within 40 pages with the OEM carts that came with the printer). Use "Fast Normal" and your print head clogging problems go away. Either way, two or three cleaning cycles and the printer prints good as new. I have probably went through five or six sets of black ink carts with the printer in the past year I have had it (probably about 3000-3200 pages and 400-500 pictures, I print documents mostly in grayscale, pictures in color). I am one of those people that has an idea of how many pages I use per black cart (500-600 with the G&G carts) and mostly print 30-75 page documents, so that is easy for me to do.