Looking to purchase a printer for home use.

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almostthere

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We occasionally need the use of a printer in our home. We have owned a few printers over the years and they have all been pretty poor. Temperamental to say the least. Eats through ink at a fast rate, faint printing etc. I have done a Basil Fawlty on various printers over the years and kicked them down the road. I have had enough of this.

I am trying to balance usage with cost. Has anyone purchased a reliable printer out there recently? Even one of those that doesn't use ink?

Thanks
 
For home use I have aSamsung b&w laser printer, small foot print, wi-fi printing.

In previous years, for student who was doing a lot of printing I got a Brother (laser) and its still going strong.
 
almostthere said:
I am trying to balance usage with cost. Has anyone purchased a reliable printer out there recently? Even one of those that doesn't use ink?
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I don't think there is a printer in the world that doesn't use ink, but I may be wrong.

I have used HP inkjet printers for as long as I can remember, and always found them reliable. Yes, ink costs a few cents/page but no ink, no print

It would help if you could say how many pages and is colour a requirement
 
I bought a second hand black and white HP laser printer for small money about 2 years back with 90% toner left. It's down to 88% now with 6421 pages left to print. I have it hooked up via ethernet port to the router so can print from any device on the network, wired or wireless.

The print quality is better than inkjet printers and it's cheaper to run. If I need to scan I just take a picture with my phone, adjust the colour levels and convert to PDF. If I need to print something in colour, I can get a high quality print done in town.
 
I bought a Canon Pixma Mega Tank about six months ago, which is an inkjet that uses large bottles of ink, rather than cartridges.

We got the G6500 which is out of stock in Curry's at the moment, but they have a range of them. I tried posting links, but the spam filter won't let me.

I love, love, love it.

I print quite a lot, mostly college notes, and household stuff. I was a little worried about the quality, but it's more than fine for what I need.

I think I've printed at least 1500 pages since I got it, and I've barely made a dent in the the ink that came with it. When I eventually do have to buy ink in a year or two, it'll cost around 45 quid. There were times when I was spending close to that on cartridges each month, so it's paid for itself already.
 
Got a HP DeskJet 2630 from Dunnes for €30 probably 2 years ago. Parents got a similar one from Lidl three years back for the same price. Printer, scanner and copier with ink included. It's a Wifi printer and there's an app for Android or Apple. We use it once a month to print 5/6 pages for the kids or some random document for ourselves. Probably got a bit more use during lockdown / home schooling. Thoroughly recommend it. Easy to use. Never had any issues. Have replaced the ink cartridges once.

It's amazing to think how capable the printer is considering it was so cheap to purchase.
 
Thanks for the responses. We only need the printer to print off a few Airline Boarding cards and Gift vouchers and maybe an occasional letter. Colour is not important to us.

Our current printer is an Advent Inkjet. About 12 years old. It sits in a corner for most of the year unused. Every time we try and use it there is an issue of some sort. We have today put in new ink cartridges and it doesn't recognise them, then recognises them but won't print etc.

I often wonder if the ink is going solid as it sits there unused.
 
The ink does go solid. Had the same dilemma this time last year. Decide to pay a bit extra and get the Lazer printer. Doesn't get used very often but at least I know when it does it will print.

My thinking was if you use it a little and often inkjet - you've no need for scale and you are using the ink sufficiently to not worry about the ink going hard. For occasionally use/heavy user Lazer would probably be more economical in the long run. No point buying new ink every time you want to print that occasional page.
 
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Bought a brother hll2350dw before Xmas for €125. Great little b&w laser. While the brother branded cartridges are not great, the generic ones have a good capacity 3,000 sheets for c €15.
 
Hi OP,

I have a Brother laser printer MFC-1910W and find it excellent. The ink seems to last a long time and it spits out the pages and a good clip (for home use). It's a B&W one I have. Also, I'd recommend a long USB printer cable link this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NH13DV2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (one).
 
Bought a Brother DCP-161OW and have found it to be excellent. Toner probably costs about €50 in Argos but lasts for months.

Always found that the toner in our old inkjet was painful where it was probably getting damp or going hard as mentioned above.
 
Thanks. We bought some generic ink for inkjet printers.....pretty useless. Put new ones in the printer that had been sitting in a box for the last year and none of them would work. Complete waste of money.
 
jpd said:
I don't think there is a printer in the world that doesn't use ink, but I may be wrong.
Click to expand...
Laser printers don't use ink, thermal printers don't use ink, for example.
Up Rovers said:
Always found that the toner in our old inkjet was painful where it was probably getting damp or going hard as mentioned above.
Click to expand...
Inkjets don't use toner which is a drum of heat-activated plastic particles.
 
almostthere said:
I often wonder if the ink is going solid as it sits there unused.
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Without a doubt, they're liquids

As a matter of interest, did you try a search in here before posting your question? Your specific question about a printer for home use has been asked and answered in many posts over the years.
 
mathepac said:
Your specific question about a printer for home use has been asked and answered in many posts over the years.
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Indeed it has, however, practically as soon as it's answered its obsolete. :)
Printers are a minefield, myriad to choose from and so many of them 'dirt' cheap to buy with the manufacturer relying on the sale of renewables for the profit.

almostthere said:
Has anyone purchased a reliable printer out there recently?
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And to be fair to the OP he did use the word 'recently' in the question.;)
 
Not one single answer given in previous posts that I have consulted is obsolete, specific models may become obsolete, but the general principles about print volumes vs longevity vs cost per page and renewable costs remain consistent.
 
evil_g said:
I bought a Canon Pixma Mega Tank about six months ago, which is an inkjet that uses large bottles of ink, rather than cartridges.

We got the G6500 which is out of stock in Curry's at the moment, but they have a range of them. I tried posting links, but the spam filter won't let me.

I love, love, love it.

I print quite a lot, mostly college notes, and household stuff. I was a little worried about the quality, but it's more than fine for what I need.

I think I've printed at least 1500 pages since I got it, and I've barely made a dent in the the ink that came with it. When I eventually do have to buy ink in a year or two, it'll cost around 45 quid. There were times when I was spending close to that on cartridges each month, so it's paid for itself already.
Click to expand...
I bought the equivalent Epson printer. Very similar printer. I would highly recommend it. As with the cannon printer it is much more ecconomical than those that use cartridges.
 
mathepac said:
specific models may become obsolete
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And that is what I was referring to.

As I read it the OP was looking for a recommendation for a particular printer model as opposed to differing print methods and to that end
I suspected that models mentioned in legacy posts may well be obsolete now, just as you also surmise.
 
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I've been using Brother printers for a while now and happy with them. No issues with drying ink or printer head as in Cannon (that's my experience with them). Very compatible with non-genuine cartridges in fact you can have a bottle with ink and top up ur existing cartridges. We recently replaced our ink printer with laser printer as the old one was unable to connect to new router.

I would check for a wireless brother printer. Check first how much will it cost you to get alternative cartridges. The exact model is not that important, check for feedback for printers within your budget
 
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