Looking for suggestions for an all-in-one printer

[laurac260]

The more I read the reviews, the more confused I become. I read the reviews, decided on the one I was going to get, then found it was discontinued. I googled for it's replacement, decided THAT was what I was going to get, then found out it was an ink sucker.

We don't print photos, don't need that. We don't print color often, but I'm hesitant to get a monochrome, because sure enough, my daughter will need something in color for school as soon as I buy monochrome! I don't fax often, but when I do, I don't want to have to run out to fedex office. We don't scan often, but I want the option to be able to do it.

And it needs to have wifi. We aren't high end, high volume printing people.

Suggestions?

 

[Phydeaux]

Formerly a loyal Epson fan, we've moved on to HP, and LOVE our HP OfficeJet Pro 8600. Sips the costly ink instead of gulping it, and works like a charm.

 

[Larry]

The more I read the reviews, the more confused I become. I read the reviews, decided on the one I was going to get, then found it was discontinued. I googled for it's replacement, decided THAT was what I was going to get, then found out it was an ink sucker.

We don't print photos, don't need that. We don't print color often, but I'm hesitant to get a monochrome, because sure enough, my daughter will need something in color for school as soon as I buy monochrome! I don't fax often, but when I do, I don't want to have to run out to fedex office. We don't scan often, but I want the option to be able to do it.

And it needs to have wifi. We aren't high end, high volume printing people.

Suggestions?

I recently bought an Epson WF-2540. It does everything I needed. Wireless,
copy, scans, fax and you can choose to copy in color or B&W. I also was able put it on narrow desk in my upstairs landing so needed printer that did not take up a lot of room. I think I paid $89 0r $99 at Best buy.

Works great and inkjet cartridges are much more reasonable than my previous HP printer that didn't have wifi or scanning.

 

[Nancy]

HP

I have 2 HP Office Pro 8600 and they have been very good printers.

Nancy

 

[WinniWoman]

Our Epson wireless all in one is pretty good. We got it on Amazon. But, oh- the cost of that ink! We get that on Amazon as well. We keep the printer on all the time, as well, as we were told it uses less ink that way, rather than shutting it off each day. The wireless works great. It is upstairs (along with our DSL modem) and I usually print when I am downstairs on my laptop in front of the TV with no problems.

 

[Passepartout]

I really like my wireless monochrome Brother laser printer. We have an ink- jet for the rare times we need to print something in color, but frankly at about $.29 at Walmart, Walgreens, Kmart or a half dozen other places nearby you can send files to online, it isn't worth keeping ink in the old printer.

The Brother prints both sides of the paper and was about $150 (or $100 on sale) at office max or depot or staples. A big replacement toner cartridge is like $30 on eBay if you don't need it in the next hour or so.

Jim

 

[SmithOp]

I bought one of these last year to print tax returns, it was a workhorse, very pleased with it for $99 on Amazon.

Brother HL-2270DW Compact Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex

Its not color, its cheaper to take small color print jobs to Walmart or Kinko's than own a color printer and buy ink and special paper.

 

["Roger"]

First, a question comment - do you really need a fax? It has disappeared from a lot of printers, because most printers allow you to scan a document as a .pdf file and send that as an attachment. Likewise, most businesses are ready and able to send you a .pdf file as an alternative to a fax. (I am not saying you do not need one, but that you might not.)

Most people are happy with what they have so that is what they will recommend. Falling into the same pattern (not having done my own comparison by having ten printers at my disposal), I ended up with a Canon. One feature of many Canons is two black ink cartridges, one for photos and high quality print outs (that go with the three other color cartridges) and one for the more mundane, everyday black and white copies that you print out most of the time. The second cartridge has a much cheaper ink (water based), but is all that you want or need most of the time. The printer still sucks up ink, but at least a lot of the time it is a cheaper ink.

 

[laurac260]

I really like my wireless monochrome Brother laser printer. We have an ink- jet for the rare times we need to print something in color, but frankly at about $.29 at Walmart, Walgreens, Kmart or a half dozen other places nearby you can send files to online, it isn't worth keeping ink in the old printer.

The Brother prints both sides of the paper and was about $150 (or $100 on sale) at office max or depot or staples. A big replacement toner cartridge is like $30 on eBay if you don't need it in the next hour or so.

Jim

Jim, I read great reviews about that one. What do you do when you need to scan or copy something

 

[laurac260]

First, a question comment - do you really need a fax? It has disappeared from a lot of printers, because most printers allow you to scan a document as a .pdf file and send that as an attachment. Likewise, most businesses are ready and able to send you a .pdf file as an alternative to a fax. (I am not saying you do not need one, but that you might not.)

Most people are happy with what they have so that is what they will recommend. Falling into the same pattern (not having done my own comparison by having ten printers at my disposal), I ended up with a Canon. One feature of many Canons is two black ink cartridges, one for photos and high quality print outs (that go with the three other color cartridges) and one for the more mundane, everyday black and white copies that you print out most of the time. The second cartridge has a much cheaper ink (water based), but is all that you want or need most of the time. The printer still sucks up ink, but at least a lot of the time it is a cheaper ink.

Believe me Roger, I would love to do without my fax machine. But we need more entities to Finally do away with theirs first. My mom's attorney sends me forms that cannot be emailed due to security purposes. Same with many financial institutions and medical offices. When we got rid of our landline I was amazed at the number of places I still needed to fax things to because they would not accept emails.

 

[VacationForever]

I have 2 HP Office Pro 8600 and they have been very good printers.

Nancy

I have 3 but with the Plus (HP Office Pro 8600 plus), bought from Costco. They are good for low volume personal use.

 

[IngridN]

I really like my wireless monochrome Brother laser printer. We have an ink- jet for the rare times we need to print something in color, but frankly at about $.29 at Walmart, Walgreens, Kmart or a half dozen other places nearby you can send files to online, it isn't worth keeping ink in the old printer.

The Brother prints both sides of the paper and was about $150 (or $100 on sale) at office max or depot or staples. A big replacement toner cartridge is like $30 on eBay if you don't need it in the next hour or so.

Jim

This is exactly what we've done…I was spending about $50/month on ink jet ink before I got the b&w laser. A Brother $100 on sale at Office Depot. It's paid for itself many times over.

Ingrid

 

[IngridN]

I bought one of these last year to print tax returns, it was a workhorse, very pleased with it for $99 on Amazon.

Brother HL-2270DW Compact Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex

Its not color, its cheaper to take small color print jobs to Walmart or Kinko's than own a color printer and buy ink and special paper.

We have the HL-2280DW. Saw it on Amazon for $100, but by the time I was ready to buy the replacement, it was substantially more so went to Office Depot to look at more current printers and, surprise, it was on sale for $100.

The only problem with this one and I don't know if this is common with all laser printers, is that you have to replace the drum after so many copies, I think 12,000. Took us 2 years to get to that point (I do a LOT of b&w printing). The drum is just over $100 , more than what I paid for the printer. I looked for 3rd party drums, but didn't get that warm and fuzzy feeling wrt quality of the product.

I now buy 3rd party ink as well as toner through Amazon to keep those costs down.

Ingrid

 

[SmithOp]

We have the HL-2280DW. Saw it on Amazon for $100, but by the time I was ready to buy the replacement, it was substantially more so went to Office Depot to look at more current printers and, surprise, it was on sale for $100.

The only problem with this one and I don't know if this is common with all laser printers, is that you have to replace the drum after so many copies, I think 12,000. Took us 2 years to get to that point (I do a LOT of b&w printing). The drum is just over $100 , more than what I paid for the printer. I looked for 3rd party drums, but didn't get that warm and fuzzy feeling wrt quality of the product.

I now buy 3rd party ink as well as toner through Amazon to keep those costs down.

Ingrid

That is the marketing model for all consumer printers now, make the money from consumables.

I use OEM parts, so the drum was only $40. You are correct, its good for 12,000 pages.

The wifi was tricky to set up also, it only saves one access point settings so you can't move it around and use on different wifi routers without reconfiguring with the setup CD.

 

[stmartinfan]

We checked out several options when our last printer died and ended up going with the HP Pro 8600 too. As others have said, the ink is where they make their money, so I'm not sure it's better or worse than others in terms of that cost. But it has all the features you mentioned - fax, scanning, wireless access - and print quality is good. We buy our ink at Costco so that helps keep the cost down a bit.

 

[Chrisky]

We have an Epson Workforce 645. It prints, double-sided as well, faxes, scans, copies. It is wireless and has airprint. Prints and copies in colour or B&W.
One thing we looked for, is that the ink comes in individual containers, so if we use more black, we only replace it, instead of having to replace everything for just one colour.

 

[Nancy]

Might add mine are HP 8600 Pro Plus. Have had for a couple of years. I also have an old laser that I use for b&w printing, left over from when I worked over 12 years ago. It's an HP and does just fine.

Nancy

 

[falmouth3]

I also have an HP Office jet Pro 8600. I am very pleasantly surprised with how well it works. I started a small business in Feb. and it's doing what I want, when I want. It's interface/cover is plastic so I worried about how sturdy it would be. So far so good.

 

[BevL]

I have to get a new printer as well. Because of my experience when I had my notary practice, lots of real estate stuff equals lot of printing, I would never buy anything but an HP laser pinter.

 

[pittle]

I bought one of these last year to print tax returns, it was a workhorse, very pleased with it for $99 on Amazon.

Brother HL-2270DW Compact Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex

Its not color, its cheaper to take small color print jobs to Walmart or Kinko's than own a color printer and buy ink and special paper.

The Brother HL-2270W is a totally awesome printer. We have recommended it to quite a few people. I do a lot of printing for my church and this one is a workhorse for sure! (I have a spare on the shelf in a closet just in case this one "dies". I want to be able to have another one exactly like it.)

I generally go to Staples to print color copies that I need so seldom - the quality is so much better. I have a color laser printer also, but try to use it sparingly. We bought it because Newegg had an awesome sale on Samsung wireless color laser printers one day for $99 shipped to the house. BUT, when I have to buy new toner cartridges, a full set will cost about $200. At least these do not dry out.

I seldom fax anymore. Our son has us set up to use RingFax online fax service and I can just attach documents or PDF's to an email. It is so much easier to save documents as a PDF to email people and there are some Apps for cellphones where you can take a picture and save it as a PDF. PDF's are so much clearer than a fax.

I do have an Epson flatbed scanner that I use for documents & receipts that I need to send to someone. It was about $60.

 

[VacationForever]

I have to get a new printer as well. Because of my experience when I had my notary practice, lots of real estate stuff equals lot of printing, I would never buy anything but an HP laser pinter.

But OP is asking about a personal printer, which I assume is low volume. For the business, we use Brother MFC 9970cdw which is a all in one, and a Ricoh for high resolution color laser printing only. But the former is an overkill for personal use. For personal use, we have tried several personal printers and have tossed them out, literally, and have found the HP Office Jet Pro 8600 Plus a keeper, hence we bought 3 of them..

 

[WinniWoman]

Ours is an Epson 630- wireless- all in one- works fine. Think we got it for like $99 a few years ago.

 

[Passepartout]

The only drawback on the Brother 2270 is that you have to have a separate scanner, but we so seldom need one that it's a non issue. DW has one at her office, but most folks don't. So a stand alone scanner has to suffice. For fax, most computers can receive or send faxes. It's just a matter of set-up. Yes, a new drum at 12,000 pages is a cost of owning a laser printer, buy it's a lot less than ink. And 2 sided printing beats buying twice as much paper and carrying it around.

Jim

 

[theo]

Ditto...

I recently bought an Epson WF-2540. It does everything I needed. Wireless,
copy, scans, fax and you can choose to copy in color or B&W. I also was able put it on narrow desk in my upstairs landing so needed printer that did not take up a lot of room. I think I paid $89 0r $99 at Best buy.

Works great and inkjet cartridges are much more reasonable than my previous HP printer that didn't have wifi or scanning.

+1 on all of the above points and observations. I've got the same unit, purchased at Staples and like it just fine.

 

[Bucky]

I've always had good luck with the Canon PIXMA line of printers. The one I have now has wifi and is airplay compatible. You can pick them up on sale for about $50.