What printer for 'light use' home printing?

[I like Skol]

Hi peeps I would like to dip into the collective CycleChat knowledge pool if I may and have a question about home computer printing.

Just as background info, in the past I have had 2 Lexmark printers that were great while I had my own business and used to print invoices and statements (probably 4-5 pages a day typically) and while ink cartridges were IMO expensive, they didn't require replacing too often and it was a business expense so not really painful.
Then, a few years ago I got rid of the company and for a year or two the printer was just used occasionally to print the odd letter or a picture for the young kids to colour in and such. Probably only 1 or 2 pages a week and sometimes maybe nothing for a month or more. This meant I began having problems with the ink and found myself replacing cartridges that I knew hadn't been run dry, but were either irretrievably blocked or just completely dried out?
Eventually, after shelling out the £££ for new cartridges once or twice I decided enough was enough and the printer was stuck in a cupboard to gather dust. For the rare, essential printing tasks Mrs Skol or I would print a page at work.

Now the kids are getting older we need printing capability for school work and such like.

Please recommend me a printer to satisfy these requirements;

• Expected printing of 5-10 pages a week in black and colour.
• Must be able to stand dormant for weeks at a time without scrapping the ink cartridges.
• Would prefer wireless connectivity but will settle for USB cable.
• Would like it to double up as a scanner (the Lexmarks did and were mighty useful but I suppose I could keep the old one in a cupboard to do this if needed).
• Cheap is good. Preferred price would be around the £50-75 point but if someone comes along and says 'buy XXX model of printer for £150-200 because the ink is so cheap you won't care how much junk your kids print' then I would consider that too.

I am under orders from the BOSS to 'sort it out' as this kind of thing is my department but I don't feel like I have the energy to start trawling the tech retailers and review websites blindly without being pre-armed with a bit of a advice on which direction to target my search.

Any ideas? As always, I am eternally grateful in advance for all and any advice the good people of Cyclechat land can give me.

S.

 

[fossyant]

Sounds like our house. We have a hp photosmart thats wifi and a scanner. Original cartridges cost 30 a set for small but the copy xl cartridges are less than 20 a set. We also have an older epson R300 where the copy cartridges are just a pound each. We tend to use the hp with the epson as backup for homework emergency.

 

[Broadside]

Hi peeps I would like to dip into the collective CycleChat knowledge pool if I may and have a question about home computer printing.

Just as background info, in the past I have had 2 Lexmark printers that were great while I had my own business and used to print invoices and statements (probably 4-5 pages a day typically) and while ink cartridges were IMO expensive, they didn't require replacing too often and it was a business expense so not really painful.
Then, a few years ago I got rid of the company and for a year or two the printer was just used occasionally to print the odd letter or a picture for the young kids to colour in and such. Probably only 1 or 2 pages a week and sometimes maybe nothing for a month or more. This meant I began having problems with the ink and found myself replacing cartridges that I knew hadn't been run dry, but were either irretrievably blocked or just completely dried out?
Eventually, after shelling out the £££ for new cartridges once or twice I decided enough was enough and the printer was stuck in a cupboard to gather dust. For the rare, essential printing tasks Mrs Skol or I would print a page at work.

Now the kids are getting older we need printing capability for school work and such like.

Please recommend me a printer to satisfy these requirements;

• Expected printing of 5-10 pages a week in black and colour.
• Must be able to stand dormant for weeks at a time without scrapping the ink cartridges.
• Would prefer wireless connectivity but will settle for USB cable.
• Would like it to double up as a scanner (the Lexmarks did and were mighty useful but I suppose I could keep the old one in a cupboard to do this if needed).
• Cheap is good. Preferred price would be around the £50-75 point but if someone comes along and says 'buy XXX model of printer for £150-200 because the ink is so cheap you won't care how much junk your kids print' then I would consider that too.

I am under orders from the BOSS to 'sort it out' as this kind of thing is my department but I don't feel like I have the energy to start trawling the tech retailers and review websites blindly without being pre-armed with a bit of a advice on which direction to target my search.

Any ideas? As always, I am eternally grateful in advance for all and any advice the good people of Cyclechat land can give me.

S.

I have exactly the same problem so will watch with interest... :-)

 

[jefmcg]

I'm going to put a word in for Kodak, because of customer service. We bought a Kodak printer in 2008, it had a serious problem immediately, they diagnosed the problem over an internet chat and sent a replacement part immediately. Very painless.

6 years later (February this year) the printer started messing up. It's printerhead needed replacing. After much googling I eventually located a very expensive replacement on Amazon market place, with very bad reviews. As a last ditch effort, I went to the Kodak site and once more had a chat support. After a bit of to-and-fro to diagnose the problem, and he confirmed I only used brand inks - they sent me a new printhead for free!

It gets the kind of usage you are looking at, ink is fairly cheap and doesn't seem to dry up, and support is excellent. Of course, you'll have to pick the right model, you don't want an 2008 one.

 

[siadwell]

Our Canon stopped dead partway through printing a page and couldn't be revived, so we decided to replace it with an HP Envy and sign up to the Instant Ink service (https://instantink.hpconnected.com/uk/en). The printer was £49.99 from PC World and the ink service costs £1.99 per month for up to 50 pages. We figure that's a lot cheaper than the equivalent Canon cartridges would be.

Can't comment on the reliability of the printer or whether the heads clog up with lack of use as we've only had it a few weeks, but it was much easier to setup than the Canon (it actually works properly with our WiFi, which we could never get the Canon to work with), the functionality is good (has a built-in scanner and can print direct from tablets and smart phones) and the print quality is good.

 

[I like Skol]

Our Canon stopped dead partway through printing a page and couldn't be revived, so we decided to replace it with an HP Envy and sign up to the Instant Ink service (https://instantink.hpconnected.com/uk/en). The printer was £49.99 from PC World and the ink service costs £1.99 per month for up to 50 pages. We figure less that's a lot cheaper than the equivalent Canon cartridges would be.

Can't comment on the reliability of the printer or whether the heads clog up with lack of use as we've only had it a few weeks, but it was much easier to setup than the Canon (it actually works properly with our WiFi, which we could never get the Canon to work with), the functionality is good (has a built-in scanner and can print direct from tablets and smart phones) and the print quality is good.

This I like. My wife mentioned a £2 a month ink contract that someone at work had told her about but didn't have any details. At £24 a year for ink that is considerably less than the £30-35'ish a once a year set of cartridges for the old lexmarks would have cost.

 

[zacklaws]

If your printer cartridges stop working because they have been laid dormant, take them out of the printer, give them a shake, then retry them, if they still do not work, remove them again and gently suck on the ink ports on the cartridge to clear them and to get the ink flowing, depending on what colour ink you have will lead to a black toungue, or a 3 band stripe on it of yellow, red and blue etc followed by lots of spitting, but at least the cartridge will work now.

I have cartridges that are years out of date which do not work, but a gently suck on them sorts them out

 

[dan_bo]

I just email it to work.

Wierdos.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

If your printer cartridges stop working because they have been laid dormant, take them out of the printer, give them a shake, then retry them, if they still do not work, remove them again and gently suck on the ink ports on the cartridge to clear them and to get the ink flowing, depending on what colour ink you have will lead to a black toungue, or a 3 band stripe on it of yellow, red and blue etc followed by lots of spitting, but at least the cartridge will work now.

I have cartridges that are years out of date which do not work, but a gently suck on them sorts them out

I find a wet cotton wool bud better than my mouth... it works just as well....

 

[Kestevan]

We have an Epson stylus - printer/scanner wifi with a direct download port for camera/memory sticks.
The ink is reasonably priced - it has seperate CMYK cartridges and there are shed loads of 3rd party suppliers undercutting Epson, and the print quality is excellent.

Never had an issue with the ink drying out - even though it only gets used once or twice a month. The only drawback we've found is that it wont print if one of the ink cartridges is empty... so if yellow runs out, you cant even print black and white text pages till the cartridge is replaced. We now make sure we always have a set of spares.

 

[I like Skol]

I find a wet cotton wool bud better than my mouth... it works just as well....

I find a cotton bud dipped in a little IPA works even better

 

[potsy]

I find a cotton bud dipped in a little IPA works even better

Really?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We have an Epson stylus - printer/scanner wifi with a direct download port for camera/memory sticks.
The ink is reasonably priced - it has seperate CMYK cartridges and there are shed loads of 3rd party suppliers undercutting Epson, and the print quality is excellent.

Never had an issue with the ink drying out - even though it only gets used once or twice a month. The only drawback we've found is that it wont print if one of the ink cartridges is empty... so if yellow runs out, you cant even print black and white text pages till the cartridge is replaced. We now make sure we always have a set of spares.

I like my canon pixma for that reason - I can hit OK and it will carry on printing even if a cartridge is empty. I only get through 1 set of inks per 12 months (and the printer was 2nd hand to me when I got it. It had a hardware fault which I was able to fix....)

 

[ScotiaLass]

We have two printers.
One is a Canon, used for photos and charts etc. The other is a monochrome laser printer and gets used the most.
When both my husband and I were at college full time (HND's), we used it constantly. Then the kids would also print off homework etc.
The toner cartridges lasted well over a year. A handy feature is being able to print double sided, so saving paper.
Now it gets occasional use and I haven't had an issue with it.
Oh and it's wireless too so I can print from my laptop

 

[I like Skol]

Really?

View attachment 58479

Buffoon! That stuff is only good for cleaning the drains.

THIS is the stuff you want for removing tricky residues......

Anyway, back to the topic. I think Siadwells suggestion is the most positive on initial outlay and the on going costs. Any other suggestions before I tootle off to do a little browsing and look at the offerings so far.