The one i have now is absolutely terrible, all sorts of problems, wrong colours printing, constant paper jams, head cleaning required every damn time i want to print (its an epson c44 plus) i got it for 35. Anyway I am now looking for a decent printer or even a combo if possible. I don;t care about the brand as long as its reliable and doesnt eat up ink a lot. Any recommendations?
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looking for a decent inkjet printer under 80
- Thread starter boco779
- Start date
Choosing the best inkjet printer for a given person depend on the needs of the indivual. But your complaint about headclogging is a very frequent complaint with
Epsons-----but short answer---look a for a Canon ip3000 or ip4000---they are last years models and hard to find. If you plan to use OEM cartridges only---get a ip4200
which is this years model but has a chipped cartridges that offer certain benefits and certain curses.-----but the models I cited offer the lowest consumable costs per page of any inkjet on the market---using OEM cartridges--and offers reliability and very good output as well.
And get some change back on your eighty pounds to boot.
Epsons-----but short answer---look a for a Canon ip3000 or ip4000---they are last years models and hard to find. If you plan to use OEM cartridges only---get a ip4200
which is this years model but has a chipped cartridges that offer certain benefits and certain curses.-----but the models I cited offer the lowest consumable costs per page of any inkjet on the market---using OEM cartridges--and offers reliability and very good output as well.
And get some change back on your eighty pounds to boot.
- Thread starter
- #3
thanks for the advice. whats oem? i'm planning to use it mostly for printing text nothing major no reports or anything like that. and dvd covers but i really dont care much about the quality when it comes to the dvd covers just as long as its the right colours and doesnt have lines going through. same with text too.
OEM is short for original equipment manufacter---and that is somewhat at the heart of the debate here. Inkjet printers are good consumer options---but inkjet printers take consumable cartridges that can either be made easily by the printer manufacter---or in some cases be made by third party sources. But when OEM cartridges are the only option, there is a temtation for the inkjet printer makers to gouge the consumer on cartridges---but tempt the consumer to buy their printer so they can bait the trap. Then the consumer can buy only cartridges made for that printer. Or refill depleted cartridges made for that printer.
In my opinion, the non-chipped Canons offer the best consumer choices when the parameters of low initial purchase price, readily available third party cartridges way cheaper than OEM , high output quality, and reliability are all factored in.
But in terms of savings using refilling or third party non-oem cartridges, that depends on the printing habits of the user. A low volume user will find that option
less important and a high volume user will find the savings too compelling to pass up. Will your savins mount up to just a few pounds a year or mount up to hundreds of pounds----simply a factor of how much printing you do----and how well you research your options.
Just trying to say there are some really bad options out there--with the bait often low initial price. Add in the chip question and choosing a good multifunctional printer gets really complex. And some chipped multifunctional Canon printers based on the ip 1700 printer engine might be a bad choice for you--and those based on the ip1500 non-chipped printer engine might be a good choice if paired with cheap third party cartridges.
And now you add in another joker with a cd printing option----European Canons usually have that as a factory standard and us folks in the USA must usually cobble something together.
Hope that helps.
In my opinion, the non-chipped Canons offer the best consumer choices when the parameters of low initial purchase price, readily available third party cartridges way cheaper than OEM , high output quality, and reliability are all factored in.
But in terms of savings using refilling or third party non-oem cartridges, that depends on the printing habits of the user. A low volume user will find that option
less important and a high volume user will find the savings too compelling to pass up. Will your savins mount up to just a few pounds a year or mount up to hundreds of pounds----simply a factor of how much printing you do----and how well you research your options.
Just trying to say there are some really bad options out there--with the bait often low initial price. Add in the chip question and choosing a good multifunctional printer gets really complex. And some chipped multifunctional Canon printers based on the ip 1700 printer engine might be a bad choice for you--and those based on the ip1500 non-chipped printer engine might be a good choice if paired with cheap third party cartridges.
And now you add in another joker with a cd printing option----European Canons usually have that as a factory standard and us folks in the USA must usually cobble something together.
Hope that helps.
- Thread starter
- #5
boco779: Get an epson r220. If you're in the US, it's the only series that I know of that can print on cd/dvd's. You can also read my review of it in this forum. It prints great. It's incredibly cheap (don't buy the more expensive in the series... the 300's... why pay more? ... this has the same print engine). And, you can use 3rd party ink to refill it's cartridges. I guarantee you won't be disappointed with the quality -- you'll be wowed. I don't know anything about canon's but can't see how you can beat its value. I'm buying more of them -- that's how impressed I am.
Fano
Getting Fingers Dirty
I have a Canon Pixma 3000 and an Epson R200.rconn2 said:boco779: I don't know anything about canon's but can't see how you can beat its value.
The Canon is far cheaper to run as its ink consumption is less .
In my opinion ,a set of 4 cartridges on the Canon lasts 1.5 times or more the length of a 6 set of Epsons and the Epsons cost twice the price of the Canon set.
So the ink cost is 3 times .
Thats alot.
Plus the Pixma is faster at printing CD's and the Epson compatible cartridges are being cracked down in Europe and will be hard to get cheaply soon.
Fano -- Thanks... I didn't know there was such a big difference in ink usage and cost. But, for the epson's, why not use the readily available chip resetter, and refill the oem carts? At least that'd be cheap, unless it'd be hard to even get 3rd party ink in Europe. Of course refilling is probably too much a nuisance for many -- time is money.
I crossed the canon's off my list because we can't get models that print cd's in the US, afaik. And that's what I bought my epson r220 for... I make dvd's of special events (my gf's parents wedding anniversary, etc.) and got fed up w/ the high cost of avery labels and whether they'd even damage the dvd.
-- rc
I crossed the canon's off my list because we can't get models that print cd's in the US, afaik. And that's what I bought my epson r220 for... I make dvd's of special events (my gf's parents wedding anniversary, etc.) and got fed up w/ the high cost of avery labels and whether they'd even damage the dvd.
-- rc
Ok... I see you can get the dvd tray for the canon's from ebay, and the user reviews for the ip4000 on amazon are glowing. Not that I still don't think my epson r220 is great... but if there's an even better printer I'm interested -- not just for myself, but I was _going_ to get another r220 for my gf who loves to print in color.
Questions: on Canon's site, the ip4000 retails for $149 and the ip4200 for $129. Why the difference? Isn't the ip4200 their latest and greatest?
The ip4200 comes with cd tray rollers built-in (I read on ebay); the ip4000 doesn't. These rollers aren't needed (ebay), but might be useful (?). They're also expensive on ebay. So that's another quandry. Is it worth $30 or $40 extra for rollers that may/may not be necessary for the ip4000 when they already come with the ip4200?
So... the ip4200 is cheaper (and why?) and comes w/ cd tray rollers, so in the US, I'd just need to buy the tray (I think). But, the carts for the ip4200 can't be refilled (?)... or they can but the low ink function wouldn't work (?)... or there'll be a fix in the future (?). Any guidance would be appreciated!
-- rc
Questions: on Canon's site, the ip4000 retails for $149 and the ip4200 for $129. Why the difference? Isn't the ip4200 their latest and greatest?
The ip4200 comes with cd tray rollers built-in (I read on ebay); the ip4000 doesn't. These rollers aren't needed (ebay), but might be useful (?). They're also expensive on ebay. So that's another quandry. Is it worth $30 or $40 extra for rollers that may/may not be necessary for the ip4000 when they already come with the ip4200?
So... the ip4200 is cheaper (and why?) and comes w/ cd tray rollers, so in the US, I'd just need to buy the tray (I think). But, the carts for the ip4200 can't be refilled (?)... or they can but the low ink function wouldn't work (?)... or there'll be a fix in the future (?). Any guidance would be appreciated!
-- rc
