What printer do you recommend?

WindowsStar · 24 Feb 2013

mangoh said:

I would like it to be:

Budget:
£100 max

With only a £100 max budget you need to remember you get what you pay for. I would not let budget be apart of this selection. You need a good printer that gives great ROI and does not cost a lot in supplies. Many times this means you pay a bit more up front, but win in the end. -WS

mangoh · 25 Feb 2013

Lol so you have told us what you don't recommend but then what do you recommend?

RealGem · 25 Feb 2013

I just bought a colour laser printer for £110.

It was the Brother HL3040CN from Amazon.co.uk - they currently have a good offer on it. It has great reviews, but I haven't used it yet as I haven't got a USB cable for it yet. (They are not supplied).

If your budget is £100 and everyone is recommending monochrome laser printers, you might as well give this colour one a try.

Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Damn! - it's down to £99.99!

Good news for you though!

Lady Fitzgerald · 25 Feb 2013

mangoh said:

Lol so you have told us what you don't recommend but then what do you recommend?

Good question. If I had to buy a printer to day, it would be a Canon but I can't actually recommend it since I haven't used one.

bobkn · 25 Feb 2013

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Brother (there have been many reports of their printers showing the cartrides empty and won't print when they actually are still at least 1/4 full)

I have a couple of Brother lasers. (HL-5050D, HL-3070CW. Probably LED printers, to be overly exact.) They have no separate used toner receptacle; they dump it back into the cartridges. So, the cartridges are never empty. At some point the print quality degrades enough that the toner cartridges need to be replaced. Some people reset the printer to continue using the cartridges after they are nominally used up. Print quality, as they say, may suffer. The complaints about Brother forcing the replacement of cartridges that aren't empty is based on that lack of understanding. (The scheme of putting used toner back in the cartridges sounds awful, but it works OK in practice.)

I don't see any Brother colour lasers under £100. The HL-3040CN may be a good choice. It's a network printer, but not a wireless one. (That'd be the CW suffix.)

Brother's driver support seems to be good. My monochrome laser is an old HL-5150D. (D means built-in duplexer.) It's so old that it has both a parallel port and USB interface. I don't think it's had a full downloadable driver package since XP, but the drivers that are available through Windows Update are surprisingly full-featured. Brother probably has orphaned some printers, but I have the impression that they avoid that better than some others (HP).

Lasers are good if your use is sporadic. The toner doesn't dry out like inkjet ink. Colour laser printer toner cartridges are extremely expensive, but I believe that the consumable cost is less than for most inkjets. (Color lasers are useless for printing photos, though.)

RealGem · 25 Feb 2013

bobkn said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Brother (there have been many reports of their printers showing the cartrides empty and won't print when they actually are still at least 1/4 full)

I have a couple of Brother lasers. (HL-5050D, HL-3070CW. Probably LED printers, to be overly exact.) They have no separate used toner receptacle; they dump it back into the cartridges. So, the cartridges are never empty. At some point the print quality degrades enough that the toner cartridges need to be replaced. Some people reset the printer to continue using the cartridges after they are nominally used up. Print quality, as they say, may suffer. The complaints about Brother forcing the replacement of cartridges that aren't empty is based on that lack of understanding. (The scheme of putting used toner back in the cartridges sounds awful, but it works OK in practice.)

I don't see any Brother colour lasers under £100. The HL-3040CN may be a good choice. It's a network printer, but not a wireless one. (That'd be the CW suffix.)

Brother's driver support seems to be good. My monochrome laser is an old HL-5150D. (D means built-in duplexer.) It's so old that it has both a parallel port and USB interface. I don't think it's had a full downloadable driver package since XP, but the drivers that are available through Windows Update are surprisingly full-featured. Brother probably has orphaned some printers, but I have the impression that they avoid that better than some others (HP).

Lasers are good if your use is sporadic. The toner doesn't dry out like inkjet ink. Colour laser printer toner cartridges are extremely expensive, but I believe that the consumable cost is less than for most inkjets. (Color lasers are useless for printing photos, though.)

This video and company overcomes the cartridge problem:
Refill your own Brother HL-3040CN toner cartridge - YouTube
which is why I chose the same model as in the video.

Also, the HL3040CN can be the next best thing to a wireless printer if you use an ethernet cable connected to the hub.

Phone Man · 25 Feb 2013

I have a Brother HL-2170W and had the false toner empty problem. It uses a led to shine through a small window in the toner cartridge and it is blocked by the toner. All I did was place a piece of black tape over the window in the cartridge and problem solved. Brother is a good brand and I like the fact that the toner cartridge is separate from the drum assembly and makes toner a little less expensive.

Jim

mangoh · 25 Feb 2013

Due to the conflicting advice (I did read all the posts)

I came to the conclusion to buy this printer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Photosmar...productDetails

It hasn't been dispatched yet so I have time to cancel.

I followed your advice but then you really are limited to what you can buy and then the reviews make it even harder to decide. The whole photo bit is a bonus, I ordered it due to other features + reviews so inb4 someone says I didn't want a printer renowned for quality. The link I have provided has good reviews and other websites fill it with praise. Cartridges not too expensive, fairly fast, wireless and can also print from android + iOS.

Can anyone see any major drawbacks?

P.S. I strongly considered the brother printer above but its not wireless, its networked. Also I don't believe it is AirPrint compatible.

bobkn · 25 Feb 2013

mangoh said:

Due to the conflicting advice (I did read all the posts)

I came to the conclusion to buy this printer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Photosmar...productDetails

It hasn't been dispatched yet so I have time to cancel.

I followed your advice but then you really are limited to what you can buy and then the reviews make it even harder to decide. The whole photo bit is a bonus, I ordered it due to other features + reviews so inb4 someone says I didn't want a printer renowned for quality. The link I have provided has good reviews and other websites fill it with praise. Cartridges not too expensive, fairly fast, wireless and can also print from android + iOS.

Can anyone see any major drawbacks?

P.S. I strongly considered the brother printer above but its not wireless, its networked. Also I don't believe it is AirPrint compatible.

I haven't bought an HP printer in a few years. I liked an old inkjet (deskjet 970c), but the newer ones had extra tiny ink cartridges. There was little question about it being a profit enhancement feature. I hope they've gone away from that.

Phone Man · 26 Feb 2013

I think you make a good choice. HP makes some good printers. I have an old 932c that still works but mostly use my Brother laser since I don't need color.

Jim