What printer do you have? And, would you recommend it?

[lucysmam]

Mine went to printer heaven yesterday, right in the middle of printing consent forms for a Rainbow and Guide event 🙄(proper eyeroll going on at the time). It is possible to replace the necessary part & re-set it, but that's faffy & tbh I cba to hunt the internet for the software to do it; it'd just be another thing on the never ending to-do list!

Anyway, other than HP (I really hated the HP I had! And it leaked ink alllll over my shelves at the time.), what printer do you have, and would you recommend it?

I/we print about 200 pages a month sometimes, if I'm printing for all three guiding units and my girls need stuff printed too (soon to be four guiding units so would probably be slightly more).

Haven't really got a budget in mind at the mo, probably no more than £100. And I need it to print, scan and copy. But they seem to be standard these days anyway.

Printers are all bastards. They have a simple job to do yet are unable to consistently do it.

Hope that helps

I was coming here to warn you off a HP but I see you’ve already had the misfortune of owning one.

I agree that all printers are fucking arseholes.

I've just bought a wireless HP though and I haven't wanted to smash it with a hammer yet so maybe they're improving.

🤣🤣 if nothing else, these answers made me laugh & I was feeling a bit sorry for myself (nothing major, just really bloody tired after a looong ass half term at work)!

My Epson was well behaved until it died yesterday, and cheap to run on compatible cartridges too! Maybe I'm expecting too much 🤔

I have a wireless Canon TR series.

I thought it was an improvement on my old HP, but it has now decided after 6 months, to refuse to talk to my laptop. It's still friends with my phone thank heavens, but it's still an arse!

Inkjets are poor choices for a lot of use. HP makes consumer-grade and business-grade printers. I have an HP LaserJet Pro multifunction printer (prints, faxes, and scans), and it's never failed me in eight years or so. It's also super handy to have the scanner and fax capabilities.

I gave up with inkjets when my fairly ancient Kodak died, the only one that’s ever worked for more than a few months. They don’t make them anymore so I got a laser instead. I’m about a year in and no problems so far. It wasn’t that much over £100 from what I can remember. It is HP though.

I definitely wouldn’t go back to an inkjet.

I have an Epson Eco Tank and it is marvellous. It even still works after the children managed to get dried grass inside it (I had to run cleaning programs and use a vacuum cleaner to get it all out). It can do something like 14,000 B&W pages and 5,000 colour pages per ink cartridge and it's pretty easy to use.

I have a brother laser printer. It's shit, it only prints when it feels like it. Somedays it is marvellous and others it just sits there like a brick.

canon inkjet and brother laser. Would wholeheartedly recommend canon and think the brother laser was value for money. What do you use the printer for?

We have two printers.

a brother laser printer that prints in black and white, scans and copies. This is the workhorse printer and it is excellent for day to day use. it’s a bit finicky at times, mostly in that it has a tendency to go to sleep, but it works well and it is cheap to operate. If you can live with black and white, laser really is the way to go. It’s much more reliable than inkjet, doesn’t dry out if it sits unused, and it’s cheaper to operate.

then I have a canon Pixma large format printer. It drinks ink. It occasionally spits ink on the paper. It will only use expensive proprietary ink cartridges. It prints absolutely gorgeous photos or full color printouts if I use high quality paper. This is my crafting printer and is also available to the family for the rarely needed color printout. I have a love-hate relationship with it.

Wireless 3-in-1 Canon here. Great at wireless printing, never been able to convince it to scan and its stopped cooperating at all since I moved house.

Also - it will only print if both ink cartridges are new. If one runs out before the other, have to replace both 🤬

Our Epsom is very sanctimonious/menacing and gives us a little lecture about putting in cheap unofficial cartridges, threatening that the printer will be destroyed if we use it. We put them in anyway and then it asks a final “Are you SURE?” which I like to imagine with a suitable MN head tilt. It feels very rebellious to press “yes” and then it prints absolutely fine.

I would agree with the earlier comment about Epson Ecotank. More expensive to buy but very cheap to run. Easy to fill from bottles of ink.

Have a Canon colour laser, which has some fantastic software with it, paperpoint, that does pdf to word conversion etc.

Canon pixma series...have printed thousands of heavy duty paper greeting cards over the years , no problems at all and cheapy ink of high quality from my local chap ..message me if you want his details

I didn't realise anyone else had answered! I'm still debating what to buy atm - the initial outlay for a laser printer is beyond my budget but I have been offered use of a black-only one for the moment so will likely take that up for now.

I haven't particularly looked at the eco tank ones so will look over the next few days.

@ginandbearit ink cost is one of the things holding me off buying atm - I think I've got too used to this one accepting cheap (£10 for 16!) compatible cartridges 🙄 Everything else seems pricey!

I bought a Lexmark Laser printer three or four years ago. The company I bought it from messed up and sent me a far more expensive printer. DPD refused to deliver it as it was too heavy for one man to lift. I collected it from the DPD depot.
The company I bought it from said to keep it as it was their mistake.

It is brilliant. Toner cost a lot but a black toner cartridge prints 15,000 pages.

It simply works perfectly.
It is my new best friend.