Printer PIREPS

Geico266

Geico266

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
19,136
Location
Husker Nation, NE
Display Name
Display name:
Geico
My 4 year old HP 8500a print heads have become airlocked or defective. No notices from the printer. Time for a new one.

What is the latest and greatest? What are you printing with? We use it for home/ office and print every day.

Any suggestions on brands?
 
Epson Workforce WF-3250

Had it over a year now. Only light printing but great features and bullett proof so far. Could not be happier. Had a Brother muti-function before that died due to a full waste ink tank, non-replaceable. This one the waste tank is user replaceable.

Good luck!

David
 
I gave up on the current generation HP ink jetters. What a royal piece of crap these have evolved into. I've got two color lasers now: a Kyocera and a Canon. The Canon is real nice, but a bit pricy.
 
For reasonably frequent business printing, I always favor lasers. I still prefer HP lasers, because (1) when you replace the toner, you replace the drum automatically; and (2) the volume of sales is such that there are readily-available aftermarket toner cartridges for very favorable prices.

Most other laser printers, when the drum requires replacement (usually mandated by page count rather than failure), the cost is about as much as the printer itself cost.

I have given up on Brother products - sheet feeders never worked for me, and drivers written by monkeys with computers.
 
SCCutler said:
For reasonably frequent business printing, I always favor lasers. I still prefer HP lasers, because (1) when you replace the toner, you replace the drum automatically; and (2) the volume of sales is such that there are readily-available aftermarket toner cartridges for very favorable prices.

Most other laser printers, when the drum requires replacement (usually mandated by page count rather than failure), the cost is about as much as the printer itself cost.

I have given up on Brother products - sheet feeders never worked for me, and drivers written by monkeys with computers.
Click to expand...

Completely agree about HP laser printers. The one I'm using now (CLJ 3600n) has been printing flawlessly for eight years. I think it cost something like $500.00 when I bought it and came with full toner cartridges.

The only thing about laser printers that's less-than-wonderful is their performance at photo printing. If you print a lot of photos, you're probably better off with an inkjet. Even with laser photo paper, laser-printed photos don't look as good as inkjet-printed photos, in my opinion.

As for Brother, I doubt I will ever buy another product from them -- especially an inkjet printer. Here's why.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R1WBX242O96ATD/ref=cm_cr_pr_rvw_ttl?ASIN=B001NIBSYU

Rich
 
FORANE said:
This one is quite capable and the toner will last 12,000 pages before requiring replacement. I have the prior generation and this one will be next for me when I can find a reason to upgrade from a perfectly functional current model.
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC89...id=1415617489&sr=1-1&keywords=brother+mfc8950
Click to expand...

+1 fopr Brother laser printers. We have one like this, works well, very reliable, no ink jet tank/clog issues. Never again on ink jet.

http://www.brother-usa.com/MFC/ModelDetail/4/MFC9130CW/Overview#.VGC8V1stB68
 
Bill Jennings said:
+1 fopr Brother laser printers. We have one like this, works well, very reliable, no ink jet tank/clog issues. Never again on ink jet.

http://www.brother-usa.com/MFC/ModelDetail/4/MFC9130CW/Overview#.VGC8V1stB68
Click to expand...

+2

I love my Brother laser printer. Have one in my office at home and at work. Cost less than a hundred dollars and the high yield toner lasts seemingly forever. Spits out the first page in something like under 10 seconds when cold. Faster with each followup page.
 
Brother laser.
 
Brother or Canon for laser, Epson if you must deal with inkjet. Samsung laser a close second. Still running the monster Canon that Tony recommended years ago here on PoA. It's a beast. Takes up its own table but will probably still be running when retire.
 
Got one of the small (sub $150 at the time) Brother lasers for my daughter when she went to college. She used it, hard, for those 4 years and now it's getting her through grad school.

Our HP inkjet at home is showing its age, will probably look at Brother lasers as a replacement. But it will have to have some way to scan/copy.

We originally figured a photo-printer would be nice to have, but found out it's as convenient, or better, to email what we want printed and go around the corner to Walgreen's and pick it up. We can send photos to computer-free grandparents that way, too, they just go to their local Walgreen's and pick them up an hour later.
 
Weird. Last night I took the print heads out and manually cleaned them after running the program cleaner. No joy. :mad:

This morning I get up and run one more print job and it is fine! :eek:

I'm a happy camper! :happydance:
 
SCCutler said:
For reasonably frequent business printing, I always favor lasers. I still prefer HP lasers, because (1) when you replace the toner, you replace the drum automatically; and (2) the volume of sales is such that there are readily-available aftermarket toner cartridges for very favorable prices.

Most other laser printers, when the drum requires replacement (usually mandated by page count rather than failure), the cost is about as much as the printer itself cost.

I have given up on Brother products - sheet feeders never worked for me, and drivers written by monkeys with computers.
Click to expand...
My HP 6MP is still going at almost 15 years. At this point I can only run it on the windows machine with the serial port, not the mac, because it's not usb. My other printers are both HP, small laser and a color ink jet. The small laser is in constant use. Big jobs, such as oversize paper or heavy stock, gets transferred to windows and the 6MP. That thing just keeps going forever.
 
The old HP lasers had MTBF in the gazllions ... I bought a used Series II from a business liquidation years ago - had many thousands of pages already printed, and used it for big monthly print jobs - still running many years later when I sold it.

I have a Brother HL-1660 that is just as reliable, but alas, no USB or network print capabiilities and I no longer run a dedicated print/file sharing pc at home), so it sits gathering dust.
 
I, too, have grown disenchanted with the HP Inkjets. It used to be the only thing I'd recommend. But, over the last few years I, and many clients, have experienced the same problems. Usually print heads, and often after only 15-18 months of use.

I currently have been recommending Epson Workforce. 2 years and no problems on my own and many purchased by clients.
 
murphey said:
My HP 6MP is still going at almost 15 years. At this point I can only run it on the windows machine with the serial port, not the mac, because it's not usb. My other printers are both HP, small laser and a color ink jet. The small laser is in constant use. Big jobs, such as oversize paper or heavy stock, gets transferred to windows and the 6MP. That thing just keeps going forever.
Click to expand...


The 6MP was my go to printer at the office for many years, in 1997. Haha. Hose things are amazing.

Probably why HP stopped making them. Can't make quarterly numbers if you sell someone a printer every three decades or so.
 
+1 for old HPs with steady supplies of aftermarket recycled toner cartridges. +1 for Do Not Buy Inkjets.

Actually I would say it slightly differently: Buy old HPs that were designed for office environments not as consumer products. I've been using Laserjet 4s and 5s for years. Most recently I bought an almost-new 2100TN from an individual. This is a two-tray workgroup printer rated at 10 pages per minute, more or less continuous use. (15,000 pages/month) Some salesman had convinced him that as a wannabe author he needed this thing in his apartment. CraigsList is your friend; my printer cost about $100 IIRC and I have yet, after a year or two, to buy it a toner cartridge.

Re serial ports, USB, Centronics, etc. just buy a printer that is networked, then everyone in your house can use it. "Jetdirect" is what they used to call the network cards. I don't know if that is still the right name or not.If necessary buy the JetDirect card on eBay or somewhere and install it.

If you need photo printing, buy one of the specialized Canons that are continuously on sale/rebate offered. A large size printer will cost you $80-150 depending on the current deal offered and will come with a "free" package of 13" x 19" paper. The output will be beautiful. Ink, of course, costs an arm and a leg but you won't be wasting it on home office documents.
 
Last edited:
I absolutely despise inkjets right now. HP and Canon have both miserably failed me, and HP has done so more than once. Right now I've got a one-year-old Canon inkjet that prints only blank pages. It was a sudden issue; one moment we're copying documents, the next it's printing blank pages. Purchased fresh ink (screw the cost of that stuff), no dice. Used the cleaning functions on the printer, no dice. Pulled the print head and cleaned it by soaking in warm water and pouring it through the print screens, no dice.

I'm so ****ed that I refuse to even call Canon to have them diagnose the issue. Upon recommendation from the IT guy at my office, I'm looking at this Brother MFC laser printer.
 
Brother duplexing laser. Epson multi-function, and Epson large format inkjet (wife's 12x12 scrapbook prints.) 2 HP inkjets let me down way too soon.
 
Kiddo's Driver said:
I bought this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008YD1V6C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Canon Laser imageCLASS MF4770n Monochrome Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax

I love it. As a bonus, it has an ethernet port on the back that allows you to connect it to your router. From there any computer in the house, wired or wireless, can print to it. All for $130, including shipping.

Jim
Click to expand...


That's the black and white version of the printer Tony recommended here years ago that we have the color version of.

Works well and has been a workhorse.
 
Just looked mine up: Canon CNMF 8500C. Color laser multifunctino with sheet feeder and duplexor. Has WIFI and all the other bells and whistles.

Don't get me started on cartridges. THey're right up there with the razor blade racket.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top