Please, for the love of God can someone recommend me a user friendly printer!

[BrainLife]

Because mine is going in the bin!

Epson ecotank here too. I gave our last cannon one away. Couldn't have anyone part money with a useless machine. .

Ink jets are the worst.

Laser much better. You can get a cheap b&w laser for peanuts and the cartridges last forever.

You can get a colour laser which are also pretty good. Just don't use it to print big blocks of colour or else it will get expensive. You don't let your 7 year old loose with one.

I bought a compact hp laser printer/AIO and I love it. It's just black and white though and no good for photos if that's what you need. I still have the old inkjet if I want to fight with it over a photo.

Get a laser not an inkjet. They are SO much more reliable and the toner cartridges last ages.
We've got an HP laser printer/scanner/copier that is about 8 years old not and still going strong.

Also unless you absolutely must have a colour one, stick with black and white.

Love my Brother MFC-J4340DW after having a previous much hated printer. Ink cartridges lasting ages, bigger paper drawer so I don't have to keep filling it up, ink levels on display all of the time, wireless connectivity great all over the house.
Only thing it's not been great at was accepting photo card, so if you want to print photos, probably don't buy this one.

Black and white laser, not inkjet. We paid about £110 quid and it’s great. No frills, just straightforward reliable printing from phones or computer.

I should add, it’s worked for about 3 years now without an issue.

We got rid and now just go and print at the library!
It's quite expensive but we very rarely print anything, and can both print stuff at work if needed anyway!
We found that every time we needed to use it (every 6 months ish) the ink had dried up and the software needed updating.

Highly recommend a Laserjet over an Inkjet:

1. Lasers are more expensive to buy but cost per print is much much lower
2. Lasers will not dry up through lack of use
3. Lasers are faster at printing
4. Do not update the software if you want to use compatible cartridges (HP)
5. You get what you pay for, but HP & Brother are both good

I recommend the New York Times reviews for this sort of thing.
www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-home-printers/

I have a 7yo HP Envy with €7 per month Instant Ink subscription for 100 pages, plus 300 reserve. The ink cartridges arrive in plenty of time and are larger than normal.
It’s connected to the home Wi-Fi and picks up any device for simple printing. I manage more complex jobs from the iPad and it has never let me down.

Another vote here for a Brother laser printer. I bought a reconditioned model from eBay around five years ago, and it’s performed flawlessly. I retired back in January and it sat idle for over six months (it was used for probably 99% work-related crap),yet came to life and worked perfectly when I needed it for a couple of insurance documents.

No fuss, no cleaning print heads, no faffing about with “compatible” inks that are anything but - I wish more things in life were as simple.

Epson Ecotank, about £180. I have not needed to change ink yet and when I do I can just do black which is about £10 and I have printed thousands of pages (dyslexic and have to format things and have paper to hand to refer to screen).
It has never failed me and is a direct replacement of the last ecotank which was equally easy and reliable (and lasted ages and basically kept going long after it should). It will print from our whole family's laptops and phones. It is the first printer that has brought me joy!

Another rec for Epson Eco Tank. We've had ours for about 6 years now, never had a problem with it. Don't remember any issues in setting it up and the tank re-fills seem to last for ages - we're only on our 2nd refill.

Eco tank here too. I lost my temper with our HP and threw it out. We have an eco tank at work and it's amazing so I bought one for home. Love it.

Another vote for Epson Ecotank. Ours can on occasion throw a bit of a strop but it's absolutely nowhere near the arseholery level of any other printer I've had. Five years and I've hardly wanted to chuck it out of a window at all! Better yet we've spent very little on ink. No stupid cartridges, you just top up the tanks.

user friendly printer

No, this is an oxymoron. Taking up calligraphy would be less time consuming and enraging.

Avoid HP hell! I'm following as yet to find a printer that's user friendly

^ This. I've got a cheap-ish HP Laser printer, had it for 10 years, perfect for quick B&W printing. Any colour printing I order online or go to local shop. Colour printing at home is a racket!

Yet another vote for the Epson ecotank. I've had mine for years and only had to buy one lot of ink refills.

We’ve never had any problem with ours and it’s a few years old (we probably will now I’ve said that!). It must be 5+ years old, I don’t remember replacing it. Epson Envy 500 or something. The only pain is having to to out into the garden to collect your papers (printer in garden office).

Another vote for Brother. Mine is a Brother HL-L2350DW laser printer. I could only afford black and white, but it's an absolute joy - so easy to use.

If I want to print in colour, or scan, I have an Epson Expression XP-2200, but like all inkjets, it's a pain in the arse, I basically only use the scan function. To print in colour, I fuck about with it until I'm ready to throw it out the window, and then walk to the library and do it there instead.

Oh it must be an HP Envy actually judging by other posts, just ignore me

My laser is an HP. I’m not sure the brand matters as much as the printer type. Inkjets dry up if they aren’t used.

Have you seen the Cat and Printer video OP? It might make you smile and take your mind off your problem printer for a couple of minutes.

That apart, I bought my Canon printer a few years ago, must be at least 4 years ago. It cost me less than £40 from Argos.

Yes, it's pretty basic, but it prints in black and colour and does photos, although, I've never tried that. However, it's very reliable and the prints look great.

We had an HP where I used to work, in fact we'd had several over the short time I worked there. Expensive, unreliable and over complicated.