# Need a new printer on the cheap. Brands???



## gt45 (Feb 6, 2012)

Hello all, I need a new printer, inkjet is fine, I have had rotten luck with lexmark ( expensive to replace print cart) and now my Kodak printer will not print any thing, all drivers, new Print Cart black and color, have been installed and still nothing.

All I get is a cat toy as the paper feeds, it just will not print, not even on the print set up utility.

What are some brands to consider?


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

I can't speak for ink jets but I have been using a monochrome Brother laser printer for years. It was inexpensive and has been reliable. After thousands of pages I haven't had to replace the drum/fuser/toner. I got it for the duplex option and network connectivity. For colour photos or something special I usually just go to one of the print shops across the road and it costs a couple cents per sheet.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Don't fuss with inkjet. Get a laser. Check Future Shop or Best Buy's website for whatever's on sale. I've had good luck with my samsung laser.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

gt45 said:


> Hello all, I need a new printer, inkjet is fine, I have had rotten luck with lexmark (* expensive to replace print cart)* and now my Kodak printer will not print any thing, all drivers, new Print Cart black and color, have been installed and still nothing.
> 
> *All I get is a cat toy as the paper feed*s, it just will not print, not even on the print set up utility.


What is it with cats and their fascination with printers and key boards?
I'll have to train mine on how to repair computers and earn their keep..they sleep too much most of the time. 

Any inkjet print head will dry up over time...it's a fact of life with injets..besides the ridiculous cost of the inkcartrigdes.
Heck, the gold buyers have nothing over the printer manufacturers selling their ink which costs about 1c per cartridge
for $19.95....now that's good profit and a captive market at that!

The ink is alcohol based and is sucked through tiny little holes by gravity and atmospheric pressure approximatley 15 psi at sea level..
(for a more NASA type of explanation..I'm still working on my resume to NASA)

...atmospheric pressure is defined as..

_The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure and is defined as being equal to 101.325 kPa. r), 29.92 inHg, 14.696 psi, 1013.25 millibars/hectopascal. One standard is standard pressure used for pneumatic fluid power (ISO R554), and in the aerospace (ISO 2533) and petroleum (ISO 5024) industries._

What does this all have to do with inkjet printers? Over time, the carbon black in the black ink and other dyes in the colour cartridges (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow) will accumulate in the nether regions of the print head block the tiny little holes, so even if you replace the cartridges with full ones..no ink will come out or the printing is very blotchy with missing parts of letters etc. 
Some printers that have self contained cartridge/printhead (HP etc) you can refill but they are designed to throw out. 

I've never used Kodak, don't like Lexmark (too cheap and flimsy)..I use Canon PIXma (photo quality) printers, and I've had good luck with them..
Yes, I've experienced .the occasional print head clog, and having a spare print head (which I got under my extended warranty from Canon when my original print head started to clog up), I can now clean them effectively, diagnose them and get them
working again to my satisfaction..so I guess I'm "green and frugal" at the same time...not relegating them to the crusher
or worse still land fill. I soak the print heads in isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) and reuse them over and over, just
like the ink tanks that I refill over and over.

I have a spare Canon Pixma which I got on kijji for $25. The only reason they were selling it that cheap was that it wouldn't print....got it home, cleaned the print head and voila!..it prints nicely and now is my spare printer.



> What are some brands to consider?


I'm particular to Canon. The older Pixma printers had clear ink tanks that you could see the ink level as it started to run down and of course easier to bulk refill..but they got smart in the next generation. I looked at them at Staples when they were practically giving them away..but the cost of buying new ink tanks for them (over a $100 per refill, if you needed all 5)
and then..the cheap $%%^ they only give you "starter tanks" so that the ink runs out very quickly and you have to ..you can guess..buy their ink tanks at $69 for a colour set of 3 and $29 for the b+W set.
What a ripoff..but that's how they make their money.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

Canon,

After going through all the brands. I recommend Canon. 
Why? Extremely capable customer service.
I had a printer that went kaput on me and was getting pissed off from the back and fourth so they just said:"We'll send you a replacement printer"

Lo and behold, they sent me a new model with new ink catridges in it.

Their cheap multifunction inkjets are around $50 when on sale. You can probably get color laser for $300 or so now. Not sure if the multifunction color laser can be as cheap though.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

Inkjet, get a HP.

If you only want monochrome, buy a cheapie laser, but price new toner first.

I stronly recommend an all in one, quick photocopies are great.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Causalien said:


> Canon,
> 
> *After going through all the brands. I recommend Canon.
> Why? Extremely capable customer service.*


+1



> I had a printer that went kaput on me and was getting pissed off from the back and fourth so they just said:"We'll send you a replacement printer"
> Lo and behold, they sent me a new model with new ink catridges in it.


Was that with or without their extended warranty?



> Their cheap multifunction inkjets are around $50 when on sale. You can probably get color laser for $300 or so now. Not sure if the multifunction color laser can be as cheap though.


Colour laser is a lot more expensive than a inkjet. I guess if you are doing'
a lot of colour printing, they are much faster..and perhaps can justify the
higher cost..but for the occassional 8x10 photo quality paper print, the
Canons are excellent..as long as you can clean the print heads...easy
to do, if you know how.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

I think you should be asking about specific models over specific brands. While there are certain things that brands are known for, each brand has good and awful models. 

Consider the CNET review of best all-in-one printers. There are 5 different brands featured: 4 Epsons, 4 Lexmarks, 3 Canons, and 1 each HP and Kodak. Each of those brands also has pretty terrible products as well, so you don't want to focus on just the brand.

You also need to factor in what type of printing you're doing as well as volumes and frequencies.


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## 44545 (Feb 14, 2012)

financialnoob said:


> I think you should be asking about specific models over specific brands. While there are certain things that brands are known for, each brand has good and awful models.
> 
> Consider the CNET review of best all-in-one printers. There are 5 different brands featured: 4 Epsons, 4 Lexmarks, 3 Canons, and 1 each HP and Kodak. Each of those brands also has pretty terrible products as well, so you don't want to focus on just the brand.
> 
> You also need to factor in what type of printing you're doing as well as volumes and frequencies.


^^^ All this.

My personal bias: I won't own an inkjet printer ever again. Inkjets (I've owned dozens over the years, all brands) have inconsistent feed mechanisms and print heads.

Laser or bust. The added initial outlay is far overshadowed by the money and frustration you'll save on not dealing with liquid ink.

One other thing: forget all-in-ones. Buy a good scanner appropriate to your needs. If you aren't doing high-res photo scanning, a ScanSnap double sided scanner is excellent for receipts and other "business" documents.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

CJOttawa said:


> .
> 
> My personal bias: I won't own an inkjet printer ever again. Inkjets (I've owned dozens over the years, all brands) have *inconsistent feed mechanisms and print heads.*
> 
> ...


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## Maybe Later (Feb 19, 2011)

1) If someone can show you a working printer on Kijiji, that's probably cheapest.

2) I've done well with Dell sales for laser printers. They brand someone else's printer as their own (I think I have a Lexmark now). The old models are highly discounted. I think I paid $40 for my current one, with toner and a warranty. They will also ship you a printer next day if there is a warranty issue.

That said, check the cost of both ink and toner cartridges first. Entry printers are a low profit margin device designed to get you hooked on the consumables.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

On second thought, I retract my recommendation of Cannon for those people who mind their privacy. This just out from a FOIA request regarding printer manufacturers working with the secret service:

*Canon, Brother, Casio, Hewlett-Packard, Konica, Minolta, Mita, Ricoh, Sharp, Xerox*

If I think about the actual details of how this can be done. I realized that it is possible for a printer connected to the network to send what you print to the sercret service.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Causalien said:


> O
> If I think about the actual details of how this can be done. I realized that it is possible for a printer connected to the network to send what you print to the sercret service.


Why would the SS be interested in me and my printing? I have no secrets..everyone on CMF knows that. 

BTW..Cell phones, Iphones and internet traffic is monitored by big brother.
If the current bill on internet surveillance passes unchanged...you better
be careful what you type or look at...

_"Toews stepped back from controversial remarks he made last Monday inside the House of Commons after Liberal public safety critic Francis Scarpaleggia asked about the privacy concerns arising from the proposed internet surveillance bill.

Toews responded by saying Scarpaleggia could "either stand with us or with the child pornographers."_

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/02/18/pol-thehouse-vic-toews.html


but I digress..this thread is about the choices of printers out there.


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## dave2012 (Feb 17, 2012)

Have owned a lot of printer over the last 25+ years.

Spent tons on inkjet cartridges... needed lots of ink to clean the continually blocked nozzles. They give the printers away but you pay for it later in ink supplies.

Fav? Any HP. I still have an HP 4P which I bought in the early 1990's which still works like new. Unfortunately it only has a parallel port it is that old 

Current HP is a LaserJet P1005. The toner cartridges aren't cheap (as with any laser) but last a lot longer then inkjet cartridges.

Have had various printers to print photos. MUCH cheaper just to go to Henrys to get prints or enlargements (Walmart if your not fussy about quality).


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

dave2012 said:


> Have owned a lot of printer over the last 25+ years.
> 
> Spent tons on inkjet cartridges... needed lots of ink to clean the continually blocked nozzles. They give the printers away but you pay for it later in ink supplies.


Well the secret is knowing how to clean them..no you don't need "tons of ink to clean the print head"..as a matter of fact, if the print head nozzles are blocked, running more ink through them is useless. What you need to do is take some isopropyl alchohol (the rubbing kind..please don't try to drink it ) and soak the print head (out of the printer of course) until the coloured/black ink stops coming out of the jet orfices..
(after all..it's not rocket science). Pretty much all printer inks are alcohol based, so that is the secret to cleaning them.

CMF donations -> carverman.. for tips supplied...gratefully accepted. 



> (*Walmart if your not fussy about quality)*.


 ...


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Maybe Later said:


> 1) If someone can show you a working printer on Kijiji, that's probably cheapest.


I picked up a used Canon Pixma ip5200 (my favourite injket) on Kijji for
$25..they were selling it because it wasn't printing any more..<carve laughing>...fools!..little did they know that I found out the secret of filling
the tanks from cheap bulk refills and the most important thing of all cleaning
the printer and the inside of the print head area. These things are built like tanks, have an excellent onscreen troubleshooting/print head declogging/alignment utility and give excellent quality prints on Kodak
photo paper that I can get at Costco. I actually went to Staples to buy
another one of this model..but alas..they were no longer supplied by
Canon..lasted too long trouble free I guess...so they came out with these
newer flimsier combo models. 



> That said, check the cost of both ink and toner cartridges first. Entry printers are a low profit margin device designed to get you hooked on the consumables.


Well I guess refilling your own ink tanks is not for everyone, it is messy and you have to wear latex or plastic gloves to prevent inkstains from getting on your fingers..but it is by far the cheapest way to refill them over an over. I get a couple of years supply for under $25 for both 3 colours and black. 

Refills for me are about 10 to 20 cents per tank..compare that to the cost of OEM refill tanks at Staples...you almost need to take out a mortgage to buy 5 tanks for mine.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

For the IT/inkjet expert-here's a question (sorry no tips)/challenge . How does one clean a print-head that is non-removable (other than pry it off)? I have a cute little portable HP Deskjet 340 (that I'm not parting with ever since it costed me some pretty dollars) that no longer prints. I have tried the "alcohol" method using Q-tips swabs cleaning on the nozzle-point ever so gently and it worked the first time. After some time of non-use, the nozzle clogged and I applied the same method but duh ...it stopped printing forever. Further reading the manual didn't help either. Could the use of alcohol caused some damage to some "sensitive" part, I'm guessing? Any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance.

PS: You have one fine pc repair assistant there Roscoe also...


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Beaver101 said:


> For the IT/inkjet expert-here's a question (sorry no tips)/challenge. How does one clean a print-head that is non-removable (other than pry it off)? I have a cute little portable HP Deskjet 340 (that I'm not parting with ever since it costed me some pretty dollars) that no longer prints.
> 
> 
> I have tried the "alcohol" method using Q-tips swabs cleaning on the nozzle-point ever so gently and it worked the first time.


You have to soak it overnight. Running a Q-tip over the nozzles doesn't
do anything since the q-tip can't get inside the nozzle. That's why I
like my Canon with the removable print head. You can simply pull it
out by lifting a lever and plunk it into a container of alchol so that the
nozzles and the screens (the ones that plug up too) are in contact with
the alcohol, and shake it..and pour some more alchohol over it. 

BTW..I had an old deskjet that had the parallel port. The ink tank and print head was an integral throw away type..I was able to get it to work again..but the rather slow speed of it persuaded me to give it a funeral at the electronic recycling crusher.



> Could the use of alcohol caused some damage to some "sensitive" part, I'm guessing? Any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance.


No, the alcohol shouldn't damage any parts in it..the ink probably 
dried up inside the print head and clogged it up "real good"..so that it won't print because the ink couldn't get past the clog.

Are you sure you can't pull the inktank and print head off it? 



> PS: You have one fine pc repair assistant there Roscoe also...



Yes, he is..I'm training him for those "cat-astrophic" PC problems where
it refuses to reboot...as the case I had at Christmas morning. Cat's and
electronics (especially printers) go way back...remember the early radio
crystal sets with the galena crystal and the "cats whisker"?


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

carverman said:


> ...
> do anything since the q-tip can't get inside the nozzle. That's why I
> like my Canon with the removable print head. You can simply pull it
> out by lifting a lever and plunk it into a container of alchol so that the
> ...



That's why I like HP's, they've had the print head built into the cartridge for years.


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## wang14h (Feb 21, 2012)

I've owned a few printers all laser, one HP, now samsung, if you arent too worried about color printer and just b/w, the pinters in bestbuy/futureshop go on sale every 2-3 weeks and they usually run really cheap, $30-$40 ish( ony you have to buy cable if you dont already own one) and the toner it comes with will last you a while ( for me half year with almost weekly printing for school and such) before you have to buy a new one adn the refill i around $60 ish and lasted me up to 4 years the last one i bought. the new ones also tell you aprox how much ink you have left. I'm not a ink printer person and never will because the hassle spend on them is not worth is, might as well go to the printing guy around the corner.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

Like my new Canon Pixma. Or you can use a discount print shop for 3-5 cents/page by just taking in a jump drive or memory card.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

indexxx said:


> Like my new Canon Pixma. Or you can use a discount print shop for 3-5 cents/page by just taking in a jump drive or memory card.


I liked my Canon Pixma (ip5300) until yesterday,when the printhead stopped
working. I tried to clean it with alcohol like I used to for the last 5 years but
no joy. It would streak on the colour and the b/w was missing lines. All the
inktanks were refilled over and over as I tried to deep clean the print head
from the PRINT maintenance utility. Ran through a LOT of ink that way..
thank goodness I refill my own. 

After numerous attempts and several frustrating hours with even a spare
(used print head) it still didn't work properly. When I went to do a head
alignment with the other head..it stopped mid point with the paper partially
in and depowered.

Now I can't get it to power up. Checked the fuses on the power supply,both
are good..but it won't power up,even with the print head removed.
I can't find a way to take it apart without braking the tabs on the plastic
cover..oh well..those print heads are very expensive...time to go to Staples
and look for a new printer...sigh!..I had it for over 5 years..so I guess
these things have a finite lifetime..and are made to be disposable. I'll take
into the electronic recycler.

Staples are advertising an HP OfficeJet (4 in 1) for $49.96.....they are giving
these away to get replacement ink business. Guess it's time to check it
out.

They also have a wireless HP laserjet colour for $189.90....after my sad
demise of my canon inkjet..I'm starting to think maybe it's time for a 
laserjet?

Comments?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I bought a little wireless HP inkjet printer for a family member a few months ago and I have to say I'm really impressed with it. It can be accessed anywhere in the house for printing AND scanning, which is especially useful (wireless scanning is a fairly recent development), and it has ePrint so I can print to it from my iPad. ePrint also allows me to print by sending a file to the printer by email, which has come in handy a few times since I live in Montreal and the printer lives with my brother in North Carolina; if I want to send him a document that I know he will have to print, I can save him the trouble and just send it directly to the printer.


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## Elbyron (Apr 3, 2009)

Inkjet and laser both have their advantages. It really depends on the quantity and frequency of printing that you plan to do. For those who don't use the printer very often, the ink cartridges can dry up. But if you manage to use up the ink cartridges every month or two, it's probably a good choice. If you use them up every week, then you're obviously printing an awful lot and laser will make more sense due to the lower price per page. 
Another factor is maintenance. Carverman has obviously invested a lot of time to clean and repair his printer, but not everyone is going to be that patient. I've owned a laser printer for about 7 - 8 years and it has never broken down or needed cleaning. The original toner cartridge is only now starting to run low, after printing a couple thousand pages (like with inks, the original one is never full, so I expect a replacement to last around 10,000 pages). 
Usually laser printers will cost about $80 - $120 more than an inkjet with similar features, so you'll have to think carefully about how often you print, and whether the extra cost now is going to save you money (or time) later on. If you shop on eBay, remanufactured ink cartridges can be bought for $5 - $6, while laser toner sells for about $30 - $60 (less if you just buy a refill kit with toner powder & reset chip). Let's say you don't let your ink dry out, and manage to get about 400 pages out of it, then your cost is 1.25 cents per page. If it dries out after only getting 50 pages, you've paid 10 cents per page. But a toner cartridge will never dry out, and if it lasts around 10,000 pages, your cost is only 0.3 - 0.6 cents per page. So is it worth the up-front cost? Frequent users will benefit from laser after 10 - 20 thousand pages, but if you're like me, and keep having your ink get dried up, then the cost of printing 2000 pages might cost you more in replacement ink than the entire cost of the laser printer!


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## Guigz (Oct 28, 2010)

Elbyron said:


> Usually laser printers will cost about $80 - $120 more than an inkjet with similar features, so you'll have to think carefully about how often you print, and whether the extra cost now is going to save you money (or time) later on.


This used to be true. Nowadays, the mark-up for laser printers is more like 40-60$. You can get a great all in one laser printer for 80-120$ or even less. Unless you really need colors all the time, I would stick with Laser.


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## MrBurns (Sep 12, 2010)

Pick up a printer from the goodwill store for 5$ and get your ink from 123inkcartridges.ca as they are far cheaper than OEM and last longer.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

One can squeeze abit more mileage off a laser toner by simply "shaking" the thing as well as print in a draft mode or use a non-fancy thin-type of font such as Century Gothic (one can google the web for other font types too).


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Staples had a sale on HP printers this week. Yes, they had laser printer onsale as well..but I don't do a lot of printing and ended up buying an OFFICEINKJET for $49.95...a "throw away price" practically. 

It's a 4 in 1 style colour and has a document scanner that the old Pixma didn't have and I need from time to time to copy documents. 
The catch is that they add $5.00 recycling charge to that price and then they sold me a additional 1 year of "protection" in case it craps out within two years for $6.99..so in that case they will either replace it with the same model or credit me with the $50 for another one. 

I thought.."what the hay".. these inkjets are not meant to last forever,and chances are if it lasts more than
2 years, I'm ahead of this game, so based on my Canon experience, they are a "throwaway item", since the print heads on the Canon would have cost me much more than $50 to replace..(never mind the power up problem that both developed from the bad printhead)

Yes...unfortunately, I used the bad printhead (not having another new one) in both pinters in my
troubleshooting efforts to clear the clogged jet (deep cleaning/align printhead and print nozzle pattern)and it fried something in the printer, so the printers would not power up even if the printhead was removed.

Checked the fuses in the power supply with my ohmmeter and they seemed ok..so it must have developed some kind of "internal jam" with the printhead and even with the printhead removed, it wouldn't power up either. 

So now both of the Canon Pixmas are heading for the electronic recycling crusher...contrary to my sense of frugality.

But unfortunately, like a lot of printers these days, they are not designed to be opened for service...so not much you can do in this case but toss them!

Besides.... the manual also mentions about a "waste ink well" that once it gets full..the printer will not print anymore and you have to call the Canon man...
ya sure..I'm going to pay $90 a hour + parts to have someone from Canon replace the waste ink receptacle..bad design!


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

MrBurns said:


> Pick up a printer from the goodwill store for 5$ and get your ink from 123inkcartridges.ca as they are far cheaper than OEM and last longer.


It all depends on how lucky you are with a used printer that you don't know
the history or the print problems it may have. You can't test these things
for print quality (especially colour) in those "recycle" stores and in most
cases they may not even have the installation CD rom to load the drivers
and utilities into your computer.

Sure they are cheap..but you can get a lot of frustration from these items.
Most of the new ones are USB port style, so without the software, they
are useless...sometimes you can find the software online and download it,
but you really have to know the specifics..easier to do it by loading in
a CD and hitting carriage return and letting the installation wizard do the
rest.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

^ agree. Maybe more trouble than it's worth to get an "used" printer considering the falling prices of newer models. Another tip to saving ink/toner is to print the document into a "pdf" format and save it electronically until the time that it becomes necessary to print it onto paper. Saves paper and ink.


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## Elbyron (Apr 3, 2009)

carverman said:


> Most of the new ones are USB port style, so without the software, they are useless...sometimes you can find the software online and download it, but you really have to know the specifics..easier to do it by loading in a CD and hitting carriage return and letting the installation wizard do the rest.


Actually I find the opposite is true... the CD is useless and the only way to get a USB printer to work (if it doesn't just work instantly after plugging it in, using a generic driver) is to download the correct drivers from the website. This is usually because the CD is outdated and doesn't support Windows 7, and even if it does, then it often doesn't have 64-bit drivers on it. Perhaps if your computer is as old as the CD then it works out well, but I usually upgrade mine every year or two (at least some parts of it). 



Beaver101 said:


> Another tip to saving ink/toner is to print the document into a "pdf" format and save it electronically until the time that it becomes necessary to print it onto paper.


This is a great idea. I often print-to-PDF my purchase confirmation pages, or other things that I want to keep a record of but don't want to waste paper or ink. To get a PDF printer in my list of printers, I use the free version of Nitro PDF on my home PC and Bullzip PDF (also free) on my work laptop. Both work great! You can also use Adobe Acrobat but the basic reader doesn't include it, so I don't think you can get that for free.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Thanks for posting the free Nitro PDF link - I heard it works just as well as Adobe Acrobat Writer for pdf printing which I have instead. I have not yet heard of the free Bullzip PDF but it won't hurt checking into that also, so thanks for that link too.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

One other thing to consider with ink jets is to pay extra if you have to in order to have one with 4 separate colour cartridge. Quite often, you get one black, and one tri-colour cartridge. But what if you use up all the magenta ink but still have plenty of blue and yellow? Unless you're re-filling yourself, you need to buy another colour cartridge.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

financialnoob said:


> One other thing to consider with ink jets is to pay extra if you have to in order to have one with 4 separate colour cartridge. Quite often, you get one black, and one tri-colour cartridge. *But what if you use up all the magenta ink but still have plenty of blue and yellow*? Unless you're re-filling yourself, you need to buy another colour cartridge.


It depends on what colour images and how many you print. If you print 8x10 images..it eats up the ink in the tiny ink cartridges very quickly.
I refill my own and have been doing so for 5 years..saved me $hundreds$ in ink costs. 
It can be messy though, and often times I've managed to get inkstains on my fingers..but considering the cost of the refill vs buying a new colour ink tank..it's worth it. 
However..at some point in time, those ink jets become clogged, then it's time to toss the print head (or the combo ink tank-print head that the HP use), and bite the bullet and spend the money..or toss the printer and
buy a new one at the "giveaway" on sale prices.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

carverman: I agree, and refilling is ridiculously cheap by comparison. Though in almost any scenario, including manual refills of existing cartridges, it's generally much more cost efficient to print photos (especially 8 x 10) at Shoppers or Walmart or Costco. 

I've always felt that colour printing is best done for smaller jobs with a splash of colour for the pure convenience of it, like directions or forms or reports that don't require solid printing.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

financialnoob said:


> carverman: I agree, and refilling is ridiculously cheap by comparison. Though in almost any scenario, including manual refills of existing cartridges, it's generally much more cost efficient to print photos (especially 8 x 10) at Shoppers or Walmart or Costco.


Agree, if you are considering at the cost of 4x6 photo paper and the inks required to
print them. I generally don't print 4x6 on the inkjet..too expensive, but the
convenience of printing the occasional 8x10 makes it worthwhile, because most of the quickie print shops are not set up to do 8x10s.



> I've always felt that colour printing is best done for smaller jobs with a splash of colour for the pure convenience of it, like directions or forms or reports that don't require solid printing.


Yes, if you are printing online forms with a colour header format, it's nice
to have the colour titles or even pictures stand out from the black text.


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## bayview (Nov 6, 2011)

Hi i need some advice. I agreed laser is the better option. I have one brand new samsung laser unopened which i bought for under $50, 6 months ago. Why - its another story. Today i went and refiiled my original canon pixma black inkjet at Island Inkjet. It was my first time doing it and I know it is not the cheapest option. But i dont have the EQ & IQ like some of you to DIY :=).

When i installed the refilled cartridge back into the printer, it printed pretty normal. However, the black ink empty indicator is still on. Is this normal because im not using an original canon cartridge?

Many thks


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## AngelaJohnston (Jul 30, 2020)

Hello everyone, can i ask what kind of cartridges do you use?


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

can only speak from own experience. I bought a used Brother MFC-J615w (printer/copier/fax) years ago & it has served me well.
Cartridges are cheap online at (formerly-called) 123Cartridges, now called ShoppersDirect or something...


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## calm (May 26, 2020)

Make a deal with the supplier to purchase tons of ink now so that you can get a deal and that you are not stranded running around and paying premium price later. The store will agree to an ink pricing deal on the day you purchase the printer. Buy tons of ink.
Kind of like trying to find blades for the Gillette razor you bought because it only came with 3 blades,


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

I found a place in Toronto selling refurbed HP office printers, about 8 years ago. Bought a HP p2015 with duplexer two tray and jet direct card for $130. Yes only black and white, yes about $100 for two aftermarket toners, and the way we use it it gets a new toner about every 1.5years. No need for direct wifi support since lots of wired Ethernet in this house. 

Then the ink jets for kids school graphic needs; they are no end of hassle


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## newfoundlander61 (Feb 6, 2011)

I took a different route as I don't use a printer much. Upload the document to my local Staples store and they print it for me, not very expensive.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

It is not the printer that is expensive. It is the ink.


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## afulldeck (Mar 28, 2012)

ian said:


> It is not the printer that is expensive. It is the ink.


Buy a laser printer. I have a brother laser has to be 10 years or more. Works with all platforms and pretty cheap to maintain.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

ian said:


> It is not the printer that is expensive. It is the ink.


My wife & I both have HP Deskjet printers. Different vintages. They both also act as scanners, which is often a useful feature when we need to email scanned documents. They also act as copiers. Colour and B&W.

Being a bit dated, ink cartridges are not always available at stores. We order ours on-line from Amazon. There are several vendors. The ones I have here are from Novajet - Much cheaper than HP equivalents.

Looking at current Deskjet - it is now their cheapest printer, it seems. $79 and cartridges' are about $21 each. (less than the ones for our older Deskjets). THis might be an option for the OP if he hasn't bought one yet. *(he probably has seeing Post #1 was in 2012!)*








HP DeskJet 2755 All-in-One Colour Inkjet Printer


Find a HP DeskJet 2755 All-in-One Colour Inkjet Printer at Staples.ca. Read reviews to learn about the top-rated HP DeskJet 2755 All-in-One Colour Inkjet Printer.




www.staples.ca





I know several here are sold on monochrome laser printers. But unless you pay $300-$500, they can't do the same things a cheap inkjet will.

If we needed to replace our printers, a combination of a basic laser monochrome plus a multi function inkjet would make sense.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

agent99 said:


> I know several here are sold on monochrome laser printers. But unless you pay $300-$500, they can't do the same things a cheap inkjet will.
> 
> If we needed to replace our printers, a combination of a basic laser monochrome plus a multi function inkjet would make sense.


Inkjets clog, lasers don't.
I find that the laser printer was more expensive, but it's been relatively problem free, and that's worth a lot IMO.
I love my colour laser/scanner, and for photos or advanced printing, that's what Costco & Staples (and UPS store) are for.

Frugality isn't about being cheap, it's about getting value. 

I think we all agree getting a simple mono laser is a great idea if you do B&W printing.


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