As the title says i'm looking to pick up a printer for home use. I want one that prints/scans and will do pictures also, don't need fax.
I'm leaning towards Canon or HP but the reviews i find online are giving conflicting info, so i thought i would ask here what people have found to be decent.
Also want to keep it under 200, preferably under 150. thanks

 

HP 4110/4215/4300 etc series (same printer, different years) $90-100 depending.

print, fax, scan, copy in B&W and color.

have 3 - never failed one.

 

Definitely go with the HP.. They have many to choose form in the $80-$150 price range..

I also recommend the HP because they have the paper tray that allows the paper to lay flat.. Never buy one that has the paper standing up, they never feed right..

 

I have the HP C7180 all in one. Great printer. Its a printer, copier, scanner and fax all in one. Nice thing is the ink cart. are all seperate from each other. So if yellow runs out, I just replace the yellow cart and dont throw away unused ink. I have printed pics from my printer and have been asked quite often where did I get the photos done at. Staples also will give you a $3 credit for the ink cartridges (I think they just changed it to all brands though) I forget what it cost originally (its 3 years old now) but I think it was around $150 at the time.

 

I have the HP 4110 all in one and it still works great. I've used it in my mobile office (read - work truck) since I bought it. No worries except the occasional foreign object falling in the feed tray. I've always had good luck wiht HP products.

 

I have the HP 3210 all in one printer, copies, scans and does photo quality prints along with regular color printing. Has been reliable and does a good job. Found it to be reasonably priced.

 

A loaded question with lots of correct answers depending on what is important to you.

Me, I like inexpensive initial cost and upkeep.


I like HP printers but they have a drawback. Most HP printers use cartridges that combine the colors into one cartridge, so when one color is gone you throw away the complete cartridge which with HP cdan be expensive. HP Has an advantage in that their cartridge combines the cartridge with a brand new print head so print quality is always like brand new.

Other printers use a permanent printhead with a cleaning function. These appear to work fine, at least I never had a problem.

My experience is with multiple HP printers, a company I worked with actually wrote much of the software for the current generation of HP printers so we had lots of them around. Also have owned Canons a long time ago and Epson and Brother. We used 3 HP printers in my current company

Of the ink jet types I think I like the Brother MFC(Multi Function Center?) series best. They all have individual cartridges of reasonable size. I have my MFC 240? I bought 4 years ago that my kids use and is works very well. We also have two of the next higher model MFC 420? Which has even bigger cartridges. Both are obsolete but are still flawless in service except for one thing. Some Phot papers, usually the cheaper ones don't feed well and will sometimes jam or just not feed. A real PITA since you have to yank the back cover off and lift the lid etc to clear the problem. But other wise a good performing inexpensive inkjet. None has actually failed yet.

I had an Epson 6400 that was my favorite way back for the office. It had big cartridges and made beautiful photo prints and good regular. It had a mechanical problem about a year or two in office use so not sure about long term reliability. seemed like the head belt would slip or the gears ground. Now the Epson printers use small cartridges so I am not as interested.

The HPs are very good but like I said expensive combo cartridges. Also had a mechanical problem similar to the Epson with the HP.

If you ever want a OH WOW, printer, try a Xerox Phaser. Hot wax printing is beautiful, but the "crayons" cost hundreds of dollars to replace, but last a long time. Good for a larger office needing incredible prints. We once made a presntation to our customer who made printers and they said "Hey, you didn't use our printers to do this?" They noticed the difference.

A lot of the laser printers are coming down in price for color. I haven't tried one yet but they are tempting and would be cheaper if you do a lot of prints. Dots per inch seem to be the gotcha with these for now.

Just my opinions,

Jim Henderson

 

I've been using Dell more and more lately, just a few weeks ago I bought a wireless 3 in 1 printer for $64. So far it has worked great and was easy to set up, it also has a multiple memory card reader in the front.

 

Careful with the Dell printers. Last I knew (this was 4 or 5 years ago) the Dell printers were re-branded Lexmarks but they could only use Dell cartridges.

Also, DO NOT get a Lexmark. Those gimmicky pieces of crap can rot in a landfill. The ink is expensive and the software is bloated and sucks. Well, the same could be said about HP's software but their hardware is good stuff.

If you are only going to be printing 4x6 pictures and mostly B&W documents, I would consider a laser printer and then a separate photo printer.

 

Look into the Kodak line of printers. The printers are a little more money than the others but the ink is cheaper. You buy more ink than printers. JMO

 

I totally agree ! ! ! I out-thought myself a couple of years ago when my HP960 printer failed and I needed a quick replacement. I bought a Lexmark 7300 combo, and have not liked it since the first use. As MisterCMK said, the ink is not only very expensive, but this printer is a real ink hog. I print both plain paper as well as card stock for customer appreciation and busisess cards, and it is very unreliable with feed problems.

I have learned my lesson, I will buy HP printers exclusively in the future. I have owned4 different HP's, and been satisfied completely. The HP960 probably had around 50,000 pages printed, and quality was still very good. Problem was the tab that ejects the printed page out broke, so I had to manually remove each page. If I didn't the carriage would catch the paper and wad it up nicely.

 

very interesting. i have a lexmark printer/scanner combo for 6 years now, and never once had a bit of trouble with it. it gets twice the life out of ink cartridges than the cannon and epson printers i had before.