Printer Recommendations

[tmstranger]

I currently have an inkjet printer that drinks ink at an alarming rate...lol!

 

I will be starting to homeschool next year and hubby and I have discussed purchasing a new printer to make things easier. 

 

I am looking at laser printers, but I would love recommendations from experienced homeschoolers.

 

• Do you prefer color or black and white?  My inkjet is color, so do I really "need" color in the laser?
• Is there a brand/model that you prefer?
• If you have an "all in one," do you use the copier/scanner? or do you primarily use it for printing? would you recommend an "all in one" or only the single function?
• Is there anything else I need to consider?

Thank you for your input!

 

 

 

 

[JanetC]

If you are willing to consider another ink jet, DH just upgraded our home network in February with the Epson 3540, http://www.staples.com/Epson-WorkForce-WF-3540-Color-Inkjet-All-in-One-Printer/product_954258

 

I love it! Super fast, talks to everything in the house (PC, mac, iPad), duplex works perfectly. As far as scanning goes, I now have two... a little scansnap by my desk for papers, receipts, etc., and then the Epson for copying out of books and magazines that can't go through a document feeder. Love each for its own purpose.

 

Laser printing color is really expensive, but I can do up to 20 pages per week at the library on those few occasions when I need something more long lasting than inkjet quality. Really big jobs (like when I was using CSMP math and had hundreds of pages per year of downloaded math materials for two kids) I always took to Office Depot to print and bind. I don't have anything like that on a regular basis anymore, though.

 

Janet

[Erin]

I have a low-end Canon MX870 that I got a couple years ago.  Ninety bucks, maybe?

It's an AIO and I don't use it often, but I do use the scanner/copier.  I'm glad it's available.  

I also do not use branded ink.   I don't get photo-quality prints anyway, so the cheaper inks work just fine.  

 

ETA:  When I bought it it was just feature I didn't care about, but now with a couple of laptops, I really like the WiFi

[mamaraby]

I didn't ultimately care about the color issue nor the scanner/copier. For me, duplexing was my non-negotiable followed by WiFi enabled. I ended up getting the Brother HL2270dw. I use the name brand toner because the off brand ones were messy and frustrating. I love my printer. :0)

[foxbridgeacademy]

I have an old HP6 Laserjet that was in some back office at DH's work... so free! But I love it.  With the inkjet every time it ran out of ink I would have to scramble to figure out what to do for curriculum (I use a lot of PDF stuff) until I could afford $40 for more ink. I've had the laserjet for a couple months and I'm still using the toner that came with it.  If I need to copy/scan I use the inkjet. I don't think they make the HP6 anymore but my advice is find something that get good reviews in your price range then check the average cost of toner.  Some of them are crazy expensive. Mine runs around $30, so less then the inkjet and I'll get about 10X the amount of pages. As for a color laser printer? 

[happypamama]

I have an eight year old Canon MP530 multifunction inkjet. I use the copy feature often, the scan occasionally. This printer is a workhorse, and I've been very pleased with it overall. I don't use branded ink with it; I use the super cheap ink (the kind that like $12 for 15 cartridges, 3 of each color), and it lasts a pretty long time. As long as the printer keeps working, I will not upgrade because cheap ink is nice. But overall, I'm pleased with how long it's lasted and would look at another Canon.

[ElizabethB]

Laser printer per page cost is super cheap, and even cheaper if you buy remanufactured ink. Ours paid for itself long ago. It is so old you cannot buy it anymore, we bought a midrange HP laser printer, black and white. We kept our old inkjet for the occasional color print we need. It is basically less than a penny per page for ink for the laser printer and somewhere around 7 cents per page for ink. We also use our inkjet for copying and scanning.

[tmstranger]

I didn't ultimately care about the color issue nor the scanner/copier. For me, duplexing was my non-negotiable followed by WiFi enabled. I ended up getting the Brother HL2270dw. I use the name brand toner because the off brand ones were messy and frustrating. I love my printer. :0)

 

sorry if this is a stupid question, but what is duplexing? 

 

Thank you to everyone who responded.  I have a lot to think about! 

 

 

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

Here is a previous thread about printers.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/510976-laser-printer-scanner-copier-recommendations-x-posted/?fromsearch=1

 

 

I still like the printer I talk about in that thread.

[mamaraby]

sorry if this is a stupid question, but what is duplexing?

 

Thank you to everyone who responded. I have a lot to think about!

The printer will automatically print on the front side and then the back. Saves on paper.

[kitten18]

sorry if this is a stupid question, but what is duplexing? 

 

Thank you to everyone who responded.  I have a lot to think about! 

 

Auto duplex means that it will print a page, pull it back in, turn it around and print on the other side.  It's a great feature.

 

 

I have a Brother 2280DW.  I've had it for almost 2 years and it's been great.  It's an all-in-one, I definitely use the copier.  I don't use the scanner much but it's nice to have.  I kept my old ink-jet because I thought I might want to print some things in color but I haven't used it in at least 1.5 years.  I've sent a handful of things to DH to print at work.

[Norah]

We have two at the moment. An old HP laserjet that only prints in black and white. It's a 1300 I think, we bought it about 10 years ago. Before that I'd only had inkjet printers and I was having horrible problems because I printed (at the time) infrequently and the printer heads kept having issues if I didn't print for a couple weeks. So we made the switch to the laser printer. This year for my birthday my husband bought me a new HP all in one color laser printer with wireless that does duplexing. It's a LaserJet Pro 400 color MFP model M475DW for anyone interested. It's everything I could want in a printer/scanner. Ok, I'm sure I could want something else, like cheaper ink or someone to do the copying for me, but I really am very happy with it. We'll get rid of the old black and white one as soon as we use up the ink cartridge. I'm slowing using it up on stuff that is only one sided printing. To anyone buying a printer, I would really encourage the duplexing, it is awesome. 

[Sew happily ever after]

I have a low-end Canon MX870 that I got a couple years ago. Ninety bucks, maybe?

It's an AIO and I don't use it often, but I do use the scanner/copier. I'm glad it's available.

I also do not use branded ink. I don't get photo-quality prints anyway, so the cheaper inks work just fine.

 

ETA: When I bought it it was just feature I didn't care about, but now with a couple of laptops, I really like the WiFi

I loved my canon mx 870. It was very reliable and worked great for 3 years. It died and we upgraded to the brother laser printer. Anyway I have a bunch of generic ink for the canon if you r interested. Lol

[Korrale]

Maybe look for something that allows you to set up a CISS system. It makes ink super cheap.

[raptor_dad]

Maybe look for something that allows you to set up a CISS system. It makes ink super cheap.

 

We have an Epson workforce 30 that was professionally converted by cobra and it is a cheap option. But, its quite finicky for us. It is prone to the standard inkjet problem of ink drying up if you don't print often enough. This is even worse for CISS printers since you get clots in the lines. Our standard usage pattern is to print a couple hundred pages at once and the not use the printer for a month or two. If we printed more regularly or were diligent about printing a test page every week or so, we probably wouldn't have these problems. These days we seldom use it unless we are printing lots of pictures or other high volume color stuff.

 

Our household workhorse is a Brother HL-2270DW laser. It was cheap and toner is cheap. We use the generic high volume cartridges from VA ink on amazon and haven't had any problems. We have printed around ~1500 pages on it so far. It is only BW but does do duplex which is often handy.

 

If you print all the time a CISS system could be great otherwise I would look at a cheap laser.

[Alessandra]

I am another person who has two printers. For printing, Brother 2370DW, as recommended by WTM, lol. It often goes on sale for $70 or so (if I remember correctly). It is fast, prints duplex. Low cost per page.

 

I also have a Canon Pixma MX892. I use this for scanning. It has a duplex document feeder and good software that automatically straightens crooked documents and more. It allows me to create multi page PDFs from the scans. When it is easy to scan, I find I scan papers rather than store them. The Canon has a high cost per page, so I use it only when color is required.

 

For color documents that need a professional look, I make a PDF on a flash drive and go to Staples. Their industrial sized lasers use a different type of ink than home lasers, much better. Also, they require smaller page margins.

 

HTH

[Stratford]

I didn't ultimately care about the color issue nor the scanner/copier. For me, duplexing was my non-negotiable followed by WiFi enabled. I ended up getting the Brother HL2270dw. I use the name brand toner because the off brand ones were messy and frustrating. I love my printer. :0)

This, except I've had decent luck with off-brand toner from Amazon.  It's a great printer.  

[Erin]

I used to be a hard-and-fast believer in name brand ink.  Five-10 years ago, off-brand was really bad.  But now, I don't notice a significant difference between the two except price.

[boscopup]

I have a Brother 2270dw black and white laser printer. The name brand high yield toner cartridge was $44 on Amazon and I got about 4100 pages out of it (toner save mode for everything). I now have a generic toner that cost $11. It was not messy at all - just a normal cartridge like the name brand. It's supposed to also be high yield (rated for 2600 pages). It's writing great so far, but I've only had it installed for a month.

 

I kept my old ink jet for color printing, which I rarely need. My husband also has an HP8600 Plus, and it's an all in one ink jet that has cheap ink, closer to laser printing price. It also has a duplex scanner, which is quite handy.

 

You definitely want automatic duplex printing for homeschool. Thankfully, many cheap printers have it now.

[mamaraby]

I have a Brother 2270dw black and white laser printer. The name brand high yield toner cartridge was $44 on Amazon and I got about 4100 pages out of it (toner save mode for everything). I now have a generic toner that cost $11. It was not messy at all - just a normal cartridge like the name brand. It's supposed to also be high yield (rated for 2600 pages). It's writing great so far, but I've only had it installed for a month.

My generic one was fine for a little while, but then it started ghosting and generally making a mess of things. I'm not usually a name brand toner kind of person - I used generic toner in my last Brother printer and it lasted forever with no issues. I think I got three years out of that cartridge and it was only a few dollars. I have not had the same luck with my HL2270dw. I ended up pulling the generic toner well before it was empty and switching back to the high yield name brand. No more ghosting, no more futzing, no more messy print outs. I could try another brand, but decided to save myself the hassle and get the name brand one.

[Alessandra]

My generic one was fine for a little while, but then it started ghosting and generally making a mess of things. I'm not usually a name brand toner kind of person - I used generic toner in my last Brother printer and it lasted forever with no issues. I think I got three years out of that cartridge and it was only a few dollars. I have not had the same luck with my HL2270dw. I ended up pulling the generic toner well before it was empty and switching back to the high yield name brand. No more ghosting, no more futzing, no more messy print outs. I could try another brand, but decided to save myself the hassle and get the name brand one.

Thanks for the heads up. I have been wondering about generic, but have not Trudeau any so far.

[boscopup]

My generic one was fine for a little while, but then it started ghosting and generally making a mess of things. I'm not usually a name brand toner kind of person - I used generic toner in my last Brother printer and it lasted forever with no issues. I think I got three years out of that cartridge and it was only a few dollars. I have not had the same luck with my HL2270dw. I ended up pulling the generic toner well before it was empty and switching back to the high yield name brand. No more ghosting, no more futzing, no more messy print outs. I could try another brand, but decided to save myself the hassle and get the name brand one.

 

I'll watch for that. As I said, I only put it in recently. I initially had some lines on the side because I didn't put that slider thingy all the way back over, but that was completely my fault.

 

My friend is using generic with hers and so far, so good. She prints way more than I do and has had it longer. I figured for $11, it was worth trying. The name brand is still reasonably priced on Amazon though. Mine lasted a good year, so $44 for 4100 pages wasn't bad - about a penny per page printing costs (we use free paper, thanks to Staples free-after-rebate deals, so there is no paper cost).

[Erin]

I like Sophia inks at Amazon.  Kind of a high-end generic.  

Excellent reviews.