color printer for home

[xyz123]

Hi looking to get a compact color wireless printer. Ideally would have got laser but they are difficult to get hold off or quite expensive. My need will be few pages a week with occasional color print for school.

Many inkjet printers seem to be available in stock.

I have never owned a home printer before so just going by what I have heard is that if inkjet printers are not used regularly then ink dries and also problem with head etc.. Are these true or tales from Old Times?

Any recommendations or other suggestions welcome.

Thanks

[Shaw Tarse]

US or UK?

[Mr Pointy]

What is your budget?

It's true that inkjet printers need regular use; I wouldn't buy another one & would get a laser.

[here_we_go]

I often look at the Wirecutter's reviews/recommendations. Not everything they do translates to the UK market but you've got a good chance with printers.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-ho...

[Piersman2]

Save yourself the pain of an inkjet and go straight to laser. Seriously, your life will be much enriched by a laser printer compared to the life shortening frustration and stress of an inkjet. Not cheap to begin with, but then you only need buy 1 once.

ETA: I bought one of these 6 months ago, 'Brother DCP-L3550CDW series Printer', I'm still just sooo happy that everytime I click 'Print' it just fires up and prints it. My 3 inkjets before that couldn't do that due to old, ink, no ink, low ink, dired ink, clogged ink, etc.... Just don't do inkjets

Edited by Piersman2 on Monday 11th January 15:17

[Hosenbugler]

The Brother stuff is pretty good , just about to recomend a pearticular model to my son in law. The key thing to look out for is consumable cost. Colour laser consumables can be very expensive. Personally, I would not entertain anything that does not have 3rd party consumables available for it

As example Brother branded consumable for the Brother MFC-L3770CDW is around £122 +vat. With a print run of 1000 pages across all 4 of the toners.

A third party toner set available for the same printer is slighly dearer (£130 +Vat) BUT , The black has a print run of 3000 pages, and the 3 colours 2300 pages

The math regarding running cost is plain to see,

[hutchst]

You'll get the price difference between a laser and an inkjet back in not many years.

And the Brother laser referred above will give you extras like sheetfeed scanning and double-sided printing, which you won't get with a standard inkjet.


e.t.a. I was referring to the 3550CDW

[Douglas Arfempty]

Piersman2 said:

Save yourself the pain of an inkjet and go straight to laser. Seriously, your life will be much enriched by a laser printer compared to the life shortening frustration and stress of an inkjet. Not cheap to begin with, but then you only need buy 1 once.

ETA: I bought one of these 6 months ago, 'Brother DCP-L3550CDW series Printer', I'm still just sooo happy that everytime I click 'Print' it just fires up and prints it. My 3 inkjets before that couldn't do that due to old, ink, no ink, low ink, dired ink, clogged ink, etc.... Just don't do inkjets

Edited by Piersman2 on Monday 11th January 15:17

Glad to see a recommendation, I purchased one of these yesterday! A key factor was the availability of 3rd party toners.

[xyz123]

Thanks for your replies. I am in UK and was (naively) hoping to get one for under £175. Another key consideration is to get a compact machine as space on desks is at a premium considering 3 of us are home right now. I don't care about scanning/copying etc.

I will look on ebay but failing that may end up getting a black & white laser or cheap HP inkjet just for this year and take it from there...

[S6PNJ]

Check out the running cost of using HP's Instant Ink - they have some printers around £40 and if you use the min package (15 sheets per month) it's £0.99 pcm and if you want 50 sheets (with rollover for unused I think) it's £1.99 pcm.

The Instant Ink website will tell you which printers can use the system. https://instantink.hpconnected.com/uk/en/l/

[nealeh1875]

xyz123 said:

Thanks for your replies. I am in UK and was (naively) hoping to get one for under £175. Another key consideration is to get a compact machine as space on desks is at a premium considering 3 of us are home right now. I don't care about scanning/copying etc.

I will look on ebay but failing that may end up getting a black & white laser or cheap HP inkjet just for this year and take it from there...

cheap mono laser here

https://www.printerbase.co.uk/hp-laserjet-pro-m404...

do you really need colour ?

[Piersman2]

Douglas Arfempty said:

Piersman2 said:

Save yourself the pain of an inkjet and go straight to laser. Seriously, your life will be much enriched by a laser printer compared to the life shortening frustration and stress of an inkjet. Not cheap to begin with, but then you only need buy 1 once.

ETA: I bought one of these 6 months ago, 'Brother DCP-L3550CDW series Printer', I'm still just sooo happy that everytime I click 'Print' it just fires up and prints it. My 3 inkjets before that couldn't do that due to old, ink, no ink, low ink, dired ink, clogged ink, etc.... Just don't do inkjets

Edited by Piersman2 on Monday 11th January 15:17

Glad to see a recommendation, I purchased one of these yesterday! A key factor was the availability of 3rd party toners.

Same here when I bought it. I've actually already bought a full set of replacement cartridges for when the originals eventually expire. The originals (rated at 1000 pages) have done me must be nearly a year now and are still going. The replacement full OEM set (rated at 3000 pages) cost me £56 all in. I'd expect they'll last me years.

AS some feedback on the printer itself, it's bloody brilliant. Only 1 fly in the ointment, I was doing some 2 sided printing from Windows 10 and the second side of each page was being printed to the wrong orientation, like you would want on a flip pad, not like a book. Quick google said to make sure and install the official Brother drivers... thankfully that resolved it.

[Piersman2]

S6PNJ said:

Check out the running cost of using HP's Instant Ink - they have some printers around £40 and if you use the min package (15 sheets per month) it's £0.99 pcm and if you want 50 sheets (with rollover for unused I think) it's £1.99 pcm.

The Instant Ink website will tell you which printers can use the system. https://instantink.hpconnected.com/uk/en/l/

Seriously, is anyone going to sign up to a monthly subscription for a home printer? I know it's the model the likes of HP would love to have us all doing, but I really couldn't even countenance such a thing. I suppose it's just the way things are going, but I'll not be doing for as long as there is any other alternative.

[underwhelmist]

Just for another perspective...last time I bought an HP OfficeJet 3830. It was about £30-odd and it's been reliable so far, and the scanner and copier (with document feeder) has been useful. I signed up to instant ink so it's costing me £10 a month for 300 pages - we're printing a lot at the moment - so whenever it's getting low on ink I get a replacement cartridge in the post.

Having said all that I'll still go for a colour laser next time. I still think inkjet print quality isn't up to laser standards.

[Mr Pointy]

There's very little stock around at the moment, especially in the desktop home office range. One thing I would say is make sure you can get compatible non-OEM toner cartridges for anything you buy as that will drastically reduce your running costs.

I found this Brother printer:
https://www.ebuyer.com/788527-brother-hl-l8260cdw-...
https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/brother-hl-l...

It's probably faster print speed than you need but it comes with high capacity toners & is actually available.

Printerbase has this Xerox:
https://www.printerbase.co.uk/xerox-phaser-6510dni...

[jonwm]

Piersman2 said:

S6PNJ said:

Check out the running cost of using HP's Instant Ink - they have some printers around £40 and if you use the min package (15 sheets per month) it's £0.99 pcm and if you want 50 sheets (with rollover for unused I think) it's £1.99 pcm.

The Instant Ink website will tell you which printers can use the system. https://instantink.hpconnected.com/uk/en/l/

Seriously, is anyone going to sign up to a monthly subscription for a home printer? I know it's the model the likes of HP would love to have us all doing, but I really couldn't even countenance such a thing. I suppose it's just the way things are going, but I'll not be doing for as long as there is any other alternative.

I've got. Hp inkjet 8010 was about £80, a fair bit for an inkjet and pay £3.99 a month. I'm now on my 3rd one (coming tomorrow) as the little use tends to dry the ink then it prints with lines, quick call to HP and they send a replacement.

The hp instant ink cartridges last ages then you just randomly get a parcel with a new 4 in, you can print in photo quality and it still classes as 1 page with a full stop on.

It works for me as a set of cartridges are near on £50 and last s few months at best.

[underwhelmist]

jonwm said:

Piersman2 said:

S6PNJ said:

Check out the running cost of using HP's Instant Ink - they have some printers around £40 and if you use the min package (15 sheets per month) it's £0.99 pcm and if you want 50 sheets (with rollover for unused I think) it's £1.99 pcm.

The Instant Ink website will tell you which printers can use the system. https://instantink.hpconnected.com/uk/en/l/

Seriously, is anyone going to sign up to a monthly subscription for a home printer? I know it's the model the likes of HP would love to have us all doing, but I really couldn't even countenance such a thing. I suppose it's just the way things are going, but I'll not be doing for as long as there is any other alternative.

I've got. Hp inkjet 8010 was about £80, a fair bit for an inkjet and pay £3.99 a month. I'm now on my 3rd one (coming tomorrow) as the little use tends to dry the ink then it prints with lines, quick call to HP and they send a replacement.

The hp instant ink cartridges last ages then you just randomly get a parcel with a new 4 in, you can print in photo quality and it still classes as 1 page with a full stop on.

It works for me as a set of cartridges are near on £50 and last s few months at best.

As noted above, Instant Ink is working out well for me at the moment, a tenner a month for 300 pages.

[Bullett]

Another positive review for HP Instant ink here, cheap printer and not having to worry about the kids printing everything in full colour.
Worked well for school work these past 9 months.
You can change subs as needed as well I had the 300 page one to start, dropped down to the cheapest over summer then upgraded again last week.