Recommendations for New Printer

[Wonky]

My Lexmark X6575 multifunction printer has just suffered a broken clip on the lid hinge which has rendered it pretty much unusable unless I somehow jerry rig something to make the controls think the lid is shut properly to allow it to work. It's no great drama as only cost me less than $100 a few years ago from one of those deals websites.

However, it does leave me with the problem of finding a replacement. I'd prefer another multifunction unit so I don't need to also buy a scanner. Not worried about the fax function as never used it. For home use the print quality was quite good and the scanner was OK but not brilliant as the scans sometimes appeared very slightly distorted in one corner. OK for general stuff but not if you wanted perfect scans.

The one feature we have come to absolutely rely on is Wi-Fi connectivity, so if my wife is in the loungeroom she can print from her laptop without needing to come to the study and plug it in. The one downside of the printer is it seemed to chew through both black and colour cartridges fairly quickly even though we generally used the large cartridge and didn't give it a lot of use. Most of it was just black. At approx $50 each the cartridges soon added up........ :bawl:

Therefore my requirements for a new printer are:

- preferably under $200, though may go higher if the trade off is cheap, long lasting cartridges
- Wi-fi essential
- colour printing
- high print speed not important as long as it's reasonably quick
- good scan capabilities
- name brand so cartridges easy to find. Recently I've found that some of the places who used to stock the Lexmark cartridges the X6575 used no longer stocked them.

I've found a few new Lexmark multifunctional printers for around the $100 - $150 mark which I need to research further as I suspect they'll just put me back in the same boat with chewing through expensive cartridges.

Interested to hear of the experiences of others with sub $300 multifunction units in particular or possibly separate printers and scanners.

Thanks,
Gary

[vy2lx8]

I was in the same boat about 3 weeks ago and lashed out in a hp photosmart 5520, cost under $100. Has all those features and a few more. Only had it for a few weeks so can't really comment on the ink usage though. Very happy with the print quality and works with iOS AirPrint to print straight from iPhone/iPad which I have used a few times already. (thought it was a bit of wank factor when I bought it but it's quite handy)

[JT]

http://msy.com.au/SYSTEMS/rightbanner1.pdf

[Jimbob77]

Hi Wonky,

Iam in IT Retail and can look after you on price and give info as well.
Send me a PM and I will call you.

Cheers,

James

[steve_t]

Haven't found any inkjet printers that don't chew through ink and it seems a general rule of thumb that the ink costs the same as the entire printer!

A colour laser multifunction centre might cost a bit more to start with but the running costs are a lot less. I have a Brother MFC and also an ultra cheap Brother mono laser. Both have been reliable and perform well though I'd read a few people who have had problems previously

[macca_779]

If getting HP buy an office jet not a photosmart. Ink consumption is a lot better on the office jet range

[Blown 454 AWD]

My dealings with printers

Well for me colour laser is the only way to go.
Don't go out and by the cheapest printer, it'll keep you poor in toner.

When I go and buy a HQ printer, I pick a good brand (HP) find a popular model with a report on it's performance.

Then the big one that saves the money......

Go to Hot toner,com.au and make sure he has the pirate toners, this drops the price of your toner by 50%, plug and play, can't tell the print difference, any issues with the toner, Hot Toner will swap for a new genuine HP cartridge FOC. within 24 hours.

If you want to go further then you can fill your own cartridges with toner and they drop to 25% of retail. ($100 for full set for my colour HP)

Once up and going and toner and all is worked out, duplicate the printer for home and you have toner sorted there to.

Or it'll cost a fortune.

Mainlube has just got clear of the extreme quality wax printers (wax ink is a hideous price, $800 for set) now laser has risen to the quality.

There's my 2 bob on printers, now running cheaper than ever with colour laser.

Cheers

Steve

[C4B]

Mainlube has just got clear of the extreme quality wax printers (wax ink is a hideous price, $800 for set) now laser has risen to the quality.


Ahh the good old Tektronix (or Later Xerox) Phaser Solid Ink printers. We've still got mountains of the Black blocks. They were so far ahead of laser back in the day it wasn't funny. And Free Black ink for life!!!

[Jimbob77]

The Lasers are better but still a bit more expensive.
New HP 8600 M/Function.
Black Ink = $59 - $65 - but one cartridge does 1100 pages.
Print / Scan / Copy / Fax / EPrint / Wireless
Cheaper than Colour Laser.
Cheers,
James

[team illucid]

Wonky

We picked up one of these http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Printers-and-Faxes/Inkjet-Multifunctions/Multifunction-Including-Fax/CAMX895 Pixma 895 for $150 last week.

Primarily for scanning as we have a wifi colour laser printer for print duties, it was one of the only devices that can do duplex scanning on the fly. It is quite quick, as I had about 1800 pages all up of scanning from older files and manuals laying around, paid my daughter $50 to do it all - fully OCR, and save as PDF on the network it did a brilliant job.

Printed a couple of test photos and it prints fine, but as others have mentioned, ink is a pain for TCO.

[RAWKUS]

Laser is the only way to go. I've had my little Samsung SCX-4521F for 5 years now that I use for my home office and have replaced 3 cartridges in all that time. Cartridges are now about $50 each delivered and I get about 2000 pages from each (claimed 3000 at 80% coverage from manufacturer, yeah good luck with that!)
Scanning quality is great and can multi-sheet feed as well as flatbed scan, so I can just drop in a whole manual and walk away, takes 300 sheets and they are so cheap too now! OK, it isn't colour and isn't WiFi but little do I need. I'm better to go to Big W and use their's for photos and stuff like that. Also have a 6 colour Epson stylus if I can be bothered hooking it up.
I'll be looking at a portable printer for the work truck soon so I can print invoices on the road, so suggestions for 12V models would be handy too.
Sorry to Hi-jack Wonks!

[Wonky]

Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh!!!! The more reviews I read the more confused I get!! I think I've narrowed it down to 2, possibly 3 candidates based on what I found on the Choice website which has a great comparo of 40 inkjet multifunction printers plus 6 lasers, reported only 2 months ago. The great thing about their table of results which reports on 33 different aspects on each printer is you can sort on any column to get for example the best according to their combined ratings, the cheapest/dearest to buy ink for annually (based on 1000 black text pages, 250 colour pages and 250 photo prints) etc etc - extremely handy!! :goodjob: It was amazing for example the range of costs for cartridges for a year for the inkjets, from $190 (Epson Workforce Pro WP-4530 DWF) to $775!! :shock: (Brother MFC-J220.) My costs wouldn't be anything like that as I rarely print out photos and they're obviously the most expensive to print.

The Canon PIXMA MG8250 was their overall winner, though I'm tending to steer clear due to relatively high ink costs. I've extracted a comparison from Choice of 5 printers I'd interested in with the most important features to me highlighted and the best prices I've found on each so far. The two I'm most interested in are in columns 3 and 4, the Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro 4000 and the HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-AIO. Even though the Pixma won overall it's a lot more expensive per page than the others, the HP Officejet Pro Plus 8600 e-AIO is just an up specced version of the Pro 8600 though does obtain better scores for print quality and scanning (two most important criteria) whilst using the same low cost large cartridges so may be worth the extra premium and the Epson, whilst the cheapest to run doesn't score very well on important criteria to me.

I was pretty well decided on the OfficeEdge Pro 4000 till I read a review from a well respected source which said the photo prints were pretty poor and even though I don't do many, when I do I want good quality. However, Choice's ratings on it would tend to suggest there was no problem with photos and some other reviews said photo quality was very good - bloody confusing!! :nutkick:

If anybody has personal experiences with any of those printers I'd love to hear about it please. :)

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o274/gcovo/Misc/printers.jpg

[empower]

Do what I do have two printers, one brother wireless black laser and a wireless HP colour multifunction inkjet. I always have toner when I need to print black as it doesn't dry out like the inkjet and I have a scanner when needed. I wouldn't bother with choice what they fail to mention is that inkjets just eat ink no matter what you do. Those figures also don't take into account the amount of ink they use just starting up and self cleaning and the quality of the devices.

[C4B]

In order of preference I'd go:

1. One of the HPs.

2. The Epson.

3. The Canon.

I wouldn't use a Lexmark if you paid me.

[macca_779]

In order of preference I'd go:

1. One of the HPs.

2. The Epson.

3. The Canon.

I wouldn't use a Lexmark if you paid me.

Exactly my thoughts too

[white lie]

Got a Brother A3 multifunction at home (couldnt tell you the model off the top of my head) but it does everything I need and that you've listed. Used to have a Canon prior to this and it chewed thru the ink compared to this one

[Micks]

I generally buy a new printer every three years. Just bought two last night from Dick S @ $99 a piece as I thought it was cheap to buy two just to have the extra ink cartridges.
With the Canons if you can locate an honest aftermarket Co that refills the tanks is the way to go!

[Jimbob77]

My thoughts as well.
Lexmark have "dropped off the radar" in retail - very little support and no reps in stores!!
I have an 8500 HP and the 8600 is better.
I LOVE my 8500 - great ink life, duplex, w/less, card readers etc etc etc.
Cheers,
James

[Wonky]

Have decided to bite the bullet and go for the HP 8600 Plus. :goodjob: (See PM Jimbob :))

[macca_779]

Have decided to bite the bullet and go for the HP 8600 Plus. :goodjob: (See PM Jimbob :))

Good choice Wonk

HP have lots of features. I use Air Print and ePrint quite a lot

[bush_basha]

these new printers with the multi scan what format do they scan too, we have a scanner printer at home and it's only single scan but the format is Jpeg but they come out at like 1-2mb, where as the type I want is the ones most business have at work where they scan in PDF format but it is a small sized PDF. do these new printers do that?

[macca_779]

these new printers with the multi scan what format do they scan too, we have a scanner printer at home and it's only single scan but the format is Jpeg but they come out at like 1-2mb, where as the type I want is the ones most business have at work where they scan in PDF format but it is a small sized PDF. do these new printers do that?

HP does PDF I know for a fact.

When scanning .jpg you can lower the dpi to reduce file size too

[team illucid]

these new printers with the multi scan what format do they scan too, we have a scanner printer at home and it's only single scan but the format is Jpeg but they come out at like 1-2mb, where as the type I want is the ones most business have at work where they scan in PDF format but it is a small sized PDF. do these new printers do that?

The HP ones and the Canon ones I know do it. Not sure if HP have the option to then post process the PDF as a small sized PDF. Image scanning can be a right pain if you want to do OCR on the documents, another area where the HP we had let us down - it had no ability to do OCR on the fly.

[Wonky]

HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus installed and running! Installation setup was very simple compared to the Lexmark I had, being basically all controlled through the front panel. Of course then had to install drivers etc.. It's a bloody big mofo compared to the Lexmark!! Very impressive! :)

Big thank you to James (jimbob77) for his assistance and getting me one at a great price!! :goodjob: Anyone in Melbourne south-east looking for more expensive computer stuff (my 2c - don't take up his already busy time stuff under $100 or so) should flick him a PM to see what he can do. He may not always be able to beat other prices but will do his best to help LS1 members!! :yup: Great to meet you James and thanks! :goodjob:

PS If anyone can use a brand new, unused Lexmark #43 XL colour cartridge (RRP around $50) please let me know. You can have it free for whatever postage costs (maybe $5?). It was opened as it was when I went to put it in that I realised the printer was stuffed. :(

[Jimbob77]

THanks Wonky!!

It was a pleasure mate - good to meet you.
Also, for those who havent seen or heard the Wonky Ute you should make the effort.
Smooth, unique with the front end mod, great rims and the all important "business" end - the engine sounds mint!!!

Cheers,
James

[bush_basha]

The HP ones and the Canon ones I know do it. Not sure if HP have the option to then post process the PDF as a small sized PDF. Image scanning can be a right pain if you want to do OCR on the documents, another area where the HP we had let us down - it had no ability to do OCR on the fly.

thanks for the reply, can I ask what OCR is?
so these printers when they scan as PDF the file is still a large file that needs compressing? because that's pretty much what I do with the Jpeg is just reduce the file but it's a PIA. I'd prefer to just scan and leave it as a small sized PDF file if its possible to do.

[Hi Octane]

I use brother, reason is a call center near my work place. handles all my problems with fax/scanners/printers etc, last 2 times i have called they called me back a few days later asking about the service, recived a coles/myer voucher $20 for answering the questions.

[Wonky]

thanks for the reply, can I ask what OCR is?
so these printers when they scan as PDF the file is still a large file that needs compressing? because that's pretty much what I do with the Jpeg is just reduce the file but it's a PIA. I'd prefer to just scan and leave it as a small sized PDF file if its possible to do.

OCR = Optical character recognition i.e. when it scans text it can try to work out what each word is and create an editable file for you with all the text from the scanned document. I never implemented it on my Lexmark as on the printer I had before that (can't even remember what it was now) the OCR wasn't all that good and typically only got about half the words right. However, I assume in the 5 years or so since then things have improved so I'll give it a try on the new printer next time I have to scan a document.

Haven't tried a scan yet on the HP8600 but on the Lexmark I saved scans in jpg format and if necessary used IrfanView (free download - great program) to resize.

[macca_779]

OCR = Optical character recognition i.e. when it scans text it can try to work out what each word is and create an editable file for you with all the text from the scanned document. I never implemented it on my Lexmark as on the printer I had before that (can't even remember what it was now) the OCR wasn't all that good and typically only got about half the words right. However, I assume in the 5 years or so since then things have improved so I'll give it a try on the new printer next time I have to scan a document.

Haven't tried a scan yet on the HP8600 but on the Lexmark I saved scans in jpg format and if necessary used IrfanView (free download - great program) to resize.

The HP will do JPG or PDF wonk. The latter is obviously prefered for documents. You can even scan directly to your smart phone