All in one Printer/Scanner/Fax recommendation please

[T5GRF]

As per the title looking for a robust user friendly all in one soloution for home working, any advice would be appreciated!

[Murph7355]

Never been a fan of these - if it breaks, you lose all 3 functions. And the quality of them in any mode is never as good as a dedicated device.

Unless you're seriously compromised for space, I'd suggest a decent printer, decent scanner and then use an electronic faxing service (I use faxtastic, but there are plenty of others).

Which you then choose depends on what you need it for.

[TheD]

Have a look at the Brother range

[ErnestM]

Epson Artisan 810

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do?...

Pop it on your network and use it from any PC... For the price, it is hard to beat.

[cjs]

I like Epson. I have a DX5000 which has worked flawlessly for 3 years. I can even get cheap copy ink carts for it which saves loads.

ETA it does not fax.

Edited by cjs on Tuesday 3rd August 14:36

[T5GRF]

Thanks for the replies, I won't really need the printer to be "photo quality" I will be mainly printing in black and white. I would like it to be able to fax however. I take the point about loosing all 3 services if it should self destruct, but I do have another spare printer I could use for printing so I would not be left high and dry.

So I guess what I need is a good basic printer, the ability to use a document feeder for mulitple scanning/copying and faxing and above all be reliable!

Any more thoughts?

[Man-At-Arms]

what is your approx usage per month ?
and max amount to spend ?

i'd recommend a Ricoh MPC2550, we probably print 15,000 pages per month with it
is that overkill ?

[siwil1]

I have a small office with 4 people constantly printing faxing and scanning form a network and we have a HP officejet L7780 its over 2yrs old now so model may be superceded but it has been faultless and very light on ink, Would defo recommend.

HTH

[Deva Link]

siwil1 said:

I have a small office with 4 people constantly printing faxing and scanning form a network and we have a HP officejet L7780 its over 2yrs old now so model may be superceded but it has been faultless and very light on ink, Would defo recommend.

HTH

I've got one of those as well and am very happy with it.

Some people hate HP though due to the software - if you've got network scanning working then you've done well. I even got the digital filing function which is brilliant, working, but it took a LOT of messing around.

[T5GRF]

siwil1 I see you are also an IFA, wonderful job isn't it...

I will be printing around 1500 pages a week tops.

[Deva Link]

T5GRF said:

I will be printing around 1500 pages a week tops.

That sounds like a lot - all-in-one lasers are pretty cheap now.

Make sure the printer software fully supports the OS you're using - I know the HP stuff all got a bit messy with Vista and Windows7.

[mikestrat]

Im in the market for one also. dont print but must be printer scanner networked and work with windows 7 on 64 bit,

any suggestions?

[siwil1]

T5GRF said:

siwil1 I see you are also an IFA, wonderful job isn't it...

I will be printing around 1500 pages a week tops.

Yep, Great fun at the moment !

(Although I do like the flexi hours)

[siwil1]

Deva Link said:

siwil1 said:

I have a small office with 4 people constantly printing faxing and scanning form a network and we have a HP officejet L7780 its over 2yrs old now so model may be superceded but it has been faultless and very light on ink, Would defo recommend.

HTH

I've got one of those as well and am very happy with it.

Some people hate HP though due to the software - if you've got network scanning working then you've done well. I even got the digital filing function which is brilliant, working, but it took a LOT of messing around.

Yep the digital filing is excellent, we didnt really find it a problem setting up,came in one saturday morning and was sorted by lunchtime. 4 different laptops all running windows but different versions mainly xp and vista. Never looked back!
The only thing I find you have to do is keep Adobe updated on your pc.

[DeadMeat_UK]

DO NOT BUY a HP All-in-One Printer. Worst piece of equipment I've ever owned, by a long shot. Nearly been launched through the window sooooo many times by myself and OH.

I just bought a Lexmark S605 which I'm very happy with - very quick painless setup (W7 64 bit and OS X) and duplex capabilities. Seems to do the job, and a v.good price on Amazon.

Can't vouch for it under 1500 page a week load though.

Edited by DeadMeat_UK on Monday 9th August 15:14

Edited by DeadMeat_UK on Monday 9th August 15:15

[ZesPak]

Deva Link said:

T5GRF said:

I will be printing around 1500 pages a week tops.

That sounds like a lot - all-in-one lasers are pretty cheap now.

Make sure the printer software fully supports the OS you're using - I know the HP stuff all got a bit messy with Vista and Windows7.

Printer software? Surely you're not suggesting he should buy a USB printer?

Anyway, look into a mid-sized black & white all in one laser printers, very decent examples from a lot of brands (brother, Canon) these days and pretty cheap to come by.

[Deva Link]

ZesPak said:

Printer software? Surely you're not suggesting he should buy a USB printer?

Sorry - don't understand? The HP AIO suite is *massive* and even once it works it can (apparantly randomly) stop.

Once you install it, it can be difficult if not impossible, to reinstall unless you use another piece of HP software to scrub all traces it away.

[DeadMeat_UK]

Deva Link said:

ZesPak said:

Printer software? Surely you're not suggesting he should buy a USB printer?

Sorry - don't understand? The HP AIO suite is *massive* and even once it works it can (apparantly randomly) stop.

Once you install it, it can be difficult if not impossible, to reinstall unless you use another piece of HP software to scrub all traces it away.

WHS ! 1Gb of a waste of time that will constantly interrupt other tasks, nick your CPU, then not work when you actually want to do the relatively simple things it's designed to do.

[ZesPak]

DeadMeat_UK said:

Deva Link said:

ZesPak said:

Printer software? Surely you're not suggesting he should buy a USB printer?

Sorry - don't understand? The HP AIO suite is *massive* and even once it works it can (apparantly randomly) stop.

Once you install it, it can be difficult if not impossible, to reinstall unless you use another piece of HP software to scrub all traces it away.

WHS ! 1Gb of a waste of time that will constantly interrupt other tasks, nick your CPU, then not work when you actually want to do the relatively simple things it's designed to do.

Are there actual suites that are needed like this? Every half decent printer I've installed worked with just add new printer -> select nearest generic driver...

It even works for the scanner, I avoid the CD's that come with printers, it's a waste of space and time, like starting a discussion with 300bhp on the rubbishness of most american cars.

[Deva Link]

ZesPak said:

Are there actual suites that are needed like this? Every half decent printer I've installed worked with just add new printer -> select nearest generic driver...

It even works for the scanner, I avoid the CD's that come with printers, it's a waste of space and time, like starting a discussion with 300bhp on the rubbishness of most american cars.

You're probably, but to get the full functionality such as duplex printing etc you usually need to install the correct driver. I would have no idea how to get the scanning to work without some dedicated program to do it for me (maybe it's easy, I've never tried) and the same for the Digital Filing function. I noticed it's also sets a whole load of exceptions in the firewall on each machine - again, I would have no idea how to do that manually.

I'm just glad it works - there are plenty of posts on HP support forums from IT "professionals" who struggle for days and give up.