Low cost printer for home use

[FireandBrimstone]

Grateful for recommendations for a low-cost printer suitable for occasional home use. Just want decent, readable printouts, as and when required, no need for gallery-quality outputs.

I have no idea what the difference is between inkjet and other kinds but low cost ink/cartridge replacement is also a consideration.

Ideally need to buy this weekend so probably Argos, Currys, Amazon will be the source.

Thanks!

Simply put you have two choices, inkjet or laser jet. The inks in the former need replacing more frequently than the latter so there are higher on-going costs.
Laser jets are quicker and the ink cartridges last a lot longer.
Inkjets tend to be smaller and lighter, laser jets tend to be more robust and last longer.
inkjets can produce higher quality images and some can handle 'photo-quality' paper.
For simple home office use, I'd suggest a black & white laser jet.

Forgot to add, to save on paper I'd suggest you look at something that can handle double-sided printing.

To help me guide you it would be useful to know the following:

• Does it need to be wireless,
• What will you be printing from, laptop, desktop etc
• Would you like to be able to print directly from your phone or iPad? etc
• Do you (really) need colour
• Roughly how many pages a month (1-10, 1-50, 50+)

Thank you.

• Does it need to be wireless,
No but a bonus if it is so I can print from a range of devices

• What will you be printing from, laptop, desktop etc
Laptop or phone/ipad. If not wireless I will just have to send stuff to my laptop to print.

• Do you (really) need colour
Probably not

• Roughly how many pages a month (1-10, 1-50, 50+)
Probably 10ish per month

@Ifailed thank you, these are good budget-aware considerations. I'll look into your suggestions

We have the Epson Workforce 2850. Use it maybe once every 2 weeks. Sometimes more. Very easy to use. Links to iPhone, iPad and laptop easily. You can get genuine ink or imitation from Amazon. We use the fake ink and have had no issues.

Had it for 3 years now.

I would suggest having a look at an entry level laser printer such as HP Laserjet M110we. £84

The "starter toner" cartridge will probably last you a year, and a genuine replacement (£46) will probably last you 2-3 years.

I have suggested a laser as they're generally far more reliable than inkjet, especially when used occasionally (and don't spend ages cleaning and grinding every time you look at it)

Please note
Genuine Cartridges only (No 3rd party ones)
Single Sided printing
Mono

I haven't used this particular model, but I have used many of the basic HP ones and they work fine.

@Dbank thank you very much, hugely appreciated. More than I had expected to pay upfront but I absolutely get the longer term cost effectiveness and echoed by @Ifailed comments too.

We have hp45 envy 4500. Not sure how long had. Maybe 5yrs so old

This is similar

HP 26K72B DeskJet 2710e All-In-One Colour Printer with 6 Months of Instant Ink with +, White amzn.eu/d/b672jsA

Only do the Instant Ink with HP if you actually are regularly printing enough to warrant a monthly subscription. We barely used ours so I cancelled the subscription but now I can’t use up the ink we still have in the cartridge. I also can’t get the printer to print using a normal cartridge for some reason so it’s been a huge waste of money.

When lasers were expensive inkjet made sense, now they are just a PITA most of the time....

I've just bought a Canon TS5350I and I'm wishing I hadn't - very flimsy plastic paper tray, fiddly to use - and very poor quality compared with my last Canon printer which has sadly been discontinued. I bought it online; if I'd seen it, I wouldn't have bothered.

We don’t pay monthly for our instant ink, just pay £1 if we go over 10 (I think) pages in any month. This happens maybe 1-2 times a year, but we have had it a while so not sure if it’s an old subscription.

Oh that sounds a much better setup, I’ll see if I can switch our subscription to that. We were paying £5 a month which isn’t loads but I literally only need it for printing off the occasional Vinted label.

Just a PS to say I've not been able to buy her but definitely going ahead with a laser printer following the good advice on here.

Possibly a Brother, as some negative feedback over HP+ app-based controls. (Which I have experienced with my HP inkjet too!)