# What printers are you using??



## SSC (Feb 8, 2011)

As some of you may know i have a hate/hate relationship with my printer. It is only a matter of time before i take it outside and run it over:clap:

What are all you using out there, and what are your reviews on it?
I prefer all in ones but am open to new ideas.

I have Hp office-jet 6480 all in one and would not recommend it.

horrible ink usage- i dont print alot
software problems
poor print quality
and you have to pay for tech support.
rated 1.5 star out of 5 

Tell us what you have or what you would like to have? and average price if you know it.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

SSC, get a laser all in one that can be hardwired to a network.

I have a Canon and its OK but it has a nasty habit of not waking up after it goes into "power saver" mode. So every few months it has to be rebooted. I don't know if its a firmware issue or what...its one of those things I've never bothered to fix. :laughing:


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

That's funny. I have the HP J6480 and I am pretty pleased with it. The ink usage is fine as compared to the other printers I have had. I do have an issue with the software. Sometimes I need to reboot the computer to get the printer working again. I find the print quality good, including printing on photo paper.


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

I have a six year old Brother printer, it worked terrible for a long time, I would always have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to print. But ever since I installed Windows7 I have not had that problem. I would probably get a color laser Samsung if I was going to buy another one. Read the reviews on Newegg.com, you should be able to find a good one.


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## concretemasonry (Dec 1, 2006)

I have a Canon MX340 "all in one" and have used it for about a year with no problems, so have never needed support. It is a typical "thow-away" machine (under $100) that gets used daily as a scanner, printer, copier, but never used as fax because I have gone wireless (no land line now).

I bought because of the price and included cartridges, but most importantly because of the scanner quality. - I have 2 other specialized scanners (portable large format hp and a Konica Minolta for slides and negatives), the Canon get almost 90% of my use.

Since I do a lot of photo restoration, it is good for getting a good digital image and I can print out the common sizes at high quality (a little slow, but convenient). For larger images, I go to a more commercial company that prints any large size.

It is good and cheap enough that I would not worry if I spilled coffee into the guts, because the next one will be even better.


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## Dirtywhiteboy (Oct 15, 2010)

LEXMARK X1150 This thing got to be 7-8 years old and just keeps going:blink: It scans, It prints and dose other stuff when I'm not looking I don't know about:blink: So if it were to poop out I would get a new one:thumbsup:


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## SSC (Feb 8, 2011)

i had an old lexmark once and it would never communicate with the computer.

my office jet likes to feed a blank page through every time i print something


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## Workaholic (Feb 3, 2007)

I too have a kind of love hate relationship with my printer. I have a Epson Artisan 700. The print quality is excellent and since I use refillable cartridges the ink consumption is not to bothersome but the printer is designed to fail. It dumps to much ink into the waste pads and when the ink pads are at a certain capacity the printer needs to be serviced. 

I bought this printer from Epson.com and bought it because it had a two year warranty. I have received two replacement printers sent fedex overnight free of charge from Epson because of this issue so I am not unhappy over it, I anticipate another replacement in about 16 months. There are modifications you can do to prevent this issue but that would void my warranty and I am waiting to see how many printers they keep replacing before they fix this problem. Had I not bought it from Epson and registered it I think the warranty issue may have been a hassle. That is why I have a love hate relationship with this printer.


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## moorewarner (May 29, 2009)

SSC said:


> As some of you may know i have a hate/hate relationship with my printer. It is only a matter of time before i take it outside and run it over:clap:
> 
> What are all you using out there, and what are your reviews on it?
> I prefer all in ones but am open to new ideas.
> ...


Your field is narrowed with an all-in-one, it's really a matter of what's important to you. Do you need fax? Do you need scanning? I don't need fax and I have a dedicated scanner so just printer for me.

All that said, as far as printing goes, in terms of hassle-free printing and work quality and speed of print; hands down laser printer. If you have some high detail large format pics/plans then some ink-jet perhaps, but for general office duty a nice colour laser is hard to beat, and the costs are down in the $110-$400 range for a nice assortment of choices. Check HP.

http://computers.pricegrabber.com/printers/p/21/tls=3/layout=list


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## Clemens (Apr 18, 2009)

If it is regular office use printing I would look for a laser printer.
For all round printer including photos I would look at either an Epson or Canon. You can't go wrong with a Canon Pro9000 (about $ 450.00)
Very heavy workhorse and will serve you for a long time.
Avoid the all in one printers and in my opinion.
I don't shop at Staples or Office Depot for these things. I order directly from B&H photo and video. They also have great reviews.
Clemens
www.finedecks.com


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## Clemens (Apr 18, 2009)

Man, I just checked B&H and this printer has now a $ 200.00 rebate.
You walk away with this printer for a little over $ 240.00!!!
I bought this one 5 years ago and still without a single problem.
This is a beast of a printer and now at Kmart price!!!


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## SSC (Feb 8, 2011)

I deff. need the fax for invoices contacts etc. and the office jet has been pretty good in that regard. i like having all in one just for the space it saves.

How much ink are you guys goin thru? It's very rare I print something in color and my color ink is always low. I replace both cartridges about every 2 months.


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## davew111 (May 13, 2011)

I recently picked a all in one Kodak at Walmart for $70 and its working great, what sold me on it was the cheap ink. The ink is $20 for both the black and color. Don't get me wrong, this printer is not in the same class as a good Canon or Epison but its not bad. My wife has a photography business and uses a Epison with 7 colors but it costs over $100 to refill.
DaveW


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## Calisota (Apr 15, 2011)

I've had a Canon mx870 a little over a year now. Good all in one inkjet, wireless setup and no problems so far. Light, small office usage. Ink usage is not great, but I stay out of color as much as possible. Does it all, has legal sized rear tray which I like, and Duplex Printing which is a nice feature many printers at the time were not offering in this price group.

I was an Epson guy for years, but got an HP all-in-one over two years ago. It worked flawlessly for 6-7 months, then became a plastic headache. Crapped itself and, like all these devices now, costed more to repair than replace. It's pushing daisies, and I'm happy with the Canon.

p.s. Get off the Fax. I don't plug it in and tell people to email PDF's. Haven't faxed anything in over a year and a half. Save paper and ink.


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

SSC said:


> As some of you may know i have a hate/hate relationship with my printer. It is only a matter of time before i take it outside and run it over:clap:
> 
> What are all you using out there, and what are your reviews on it?
> I prefer all in ones but am open to new ideas.
> ...


Get yourself a HP2025n laser printer.

Cheapest b&w and color printing per page you'll find.
Highest quality printing you can find at this price level (can print amazing photo quality prints)
Does duplex printing (prints both sides of a page)
Multiple paper feeds, can print legal, envelopes etc..
Network ready

Being a contractor you should know that there is no way an all in one can do anything well, it does everything just okay. Jack of all trades don't work in any industry. They have to cheapen and dumb down every component when it tries to be everything in one package.

If you're in business dump the ink jet. They are the most expensive printing you can do. Laser printers are 10 times cheaper to use.

Staples has this printer on sale all the time. I've seen it as low as $299. But usually its around $399, plus they sometimes run a $50 instant rebate if you trade in your piece of junk printer to them.


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

I bought a Lexmark that scans, faxes, copies etc. It does all these things extremely well and for $150 It's a great deal. 

The black ink is $5 and rated at 1500 pages. I just changed it and I actually got 1200 pages which is fine. 

The print quality if perfect. I printed out some photos and they were dead perfect also.

At staples they ran a special if you brought in you old printer they gave you $50 off.

I couldn't possibly more happy with this printer and I've owned them all. I also like the color touch screen, it's not a big deal but It navigates very fast.

Mike


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

Correction, I was thinking about my wifes printer. My lexmark gave me over 400 pages......I just checked. Anyhow, at $5 for ink it's one of the best values for the money. I use to own HP's etc but not anymore. Inkjet for the small business is just fine.

Here is a link for the reviews
http://www.zdnet.com/reviews/product/multifunction-devices/lexmark-pinnacle-pro901/34027610


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## Dirtywhiteboy (Oct 15, 2010)

This is what I was talking about up there^^at the top of the page Lexmark, no wonder you're so insightful Mike you have a Lexmark too:thumbsup:



Mike's Plumbing said:


> Correction, I was thinking about my wifes printer. My lexmark gave me over 400 pages......I just checked. Anyhow, at $5 for ink it's one of the best values for the money. I use to own HP's etc but not anymore. Inkjet for the small business is just fine.
> 
> Here is a link for the reviews
> http://www.zdnet.com/reviews/product/multifunction-devices/lexmark-pinnacle-pro901/34027610


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

Dirtywhiteboy said:


> This is what I was talking about up there^^at the top of the page Lexmark, no wonder you're so insightful Mike you have a Lexmark too:thumbsup:


I use to be a big fan of toner cartridges and cost per page but the simple fact is inkjet is dirt cheap these days and Lexmark has a 5 year warranty. After 5 years I'll pitch it in the garbage and buy a new one. Woopdedo

Mike


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## moorewarner (May 29, 2009)

Mike's Plumbing said:


> I use to be a big fan of toner cartridges and cost per page but the simple fact is inkjet is dirt cheap these days and Lexmark has a 5 year warranty. After 5 years I'll pitch it in the garbage and buy a new one. Woopdedo
> 
> Mike


Inkjets are still generally a larger PITA, clogged heads, alignment issues. This model might have cheaper consumables and a 5 year warranty but the problem is time spent along the way cleaning/aligning print heads, trying to figure out how to make the banding or bleeding go away or deal with other printing vagaries.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

I've been bopping along with an ancient HP 2110 for about 8 years now. No problems whatsoever. Get the carts refilled at Walgreens until they die.


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

moorewarner said:


> Inkjets are still generally a larger PITA, clogged heads, alignment issues. This model might have cheaper consumables and a 5 year warranty but the problem is time spent along the way cleaning/aligning print heads, trying to figure out how to make the banding or bleeding go away or deal with other printing vagaries.


The others have issues to. I bought this on a recommendation from a business friend that bought one and he hasn't had any problems. I'm not saying I wont have problems but printers these days are pretty good.

It works for me, I really don't print much these days. It would be different if I printed out 3,000 copies a day but I don't.

Even the reviews are pretty good on this model. I have the Lexmark Pinnacle 901.


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

Mike's Plumbing said:


> It works for me, I really don't print much these days. It would be different if I printed out 3,000 copies a day but I don't.
> 
> Even the reviews are pretty good on this model. I have the Lexmark Pinnacle 901.


This is what it comes down to, what works for you.

We are a paper heavy company with a good sized job usually means 300-400 sheets of paper involved in it from initial proposals, to revisions, contracts, a office folder and a production binder.

We used to use inkjets, but I'll tell you what, besides the endless dumping of money into color cartridges, the monthly tinkering, cleaning, the annual rebuilding and buying of heads... the last straw was having to get out the door to meet a client and waiting on 50 pages to print which would take forever! With a nice small business laser jet all those things are a thing of the past and printing is super quick, I can get that same 50 pages printed, collated etc in 10% of the time. And don't even get started if you have to print on both sides with an inkjet, you might as well go take a nap or come back the next day. And unless you guys have some really sweet printers that are ink jets, I recall anytime you tried to do anything involving 20 or more pages, those g-damn inkjets would choke, get jammed up with pages stuck together, folded bent over etc!!! and they were guaranteed to run out of ink in the middle of a print job!

Same thing about those all in ones, we are often sending out a fax, printing out documents, all at the same time, we don't have the time to sit there and f around playing around trying to mess with something that is trying to be everything at once, some 4 in 1 thing. Productivity means cutting out all the tiny time wasters in a day. Once you get real busy, you'd be surprised how much time is wasted on little things and how well worth it, it is to spend extra money on professional equipment to boost productivity. I apply the same thought process we apply to professional tools we use in construction to professional tools to produce the work the drawings, paperwork and office productivity. I'm always looking for something to help be more productive. The tip I got from this forum about dual monitor screens was worth it's weight in gold, I'd never go back to a single monitor now either.


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

One of the things I do is print using the fast or draft modes. Not much degradation in quality and fast fast fast. If you are printing up a contract you can use normal mode, usually you are only printing one or two of those so the time isn't gonna kill you.

When I am printing out nesting lists for my plywood cutting I can't get the next picture in fast enough to beat the printer.


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## CrpntrFrk (Oct 25, 2008)

HP Officejet Pro L7680 all-in-one for me.

It works pretty good. We have had a couple hiccups along the way but it is a good all in one.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

I'll toss in a vote for laser, for the reasons Mike Finley and others have mentioned. I've been at this for a little while, including a couple of decades of servicing fax machines (back when they cost money) and several years of online tech support for graphics software (CorelDraw).

There was a period when inkjets were really the only viable solution for those who wanted economical B/W/color printing capability, but even then, low usage meant extra tinkering and expense. That's better today, but still a meaningful factor.

Lasers have become quite reasonable in initial purchase price, and they don't mind sitting idle nearly as much as inkjets. While replacement toner cartridges can be pricey, my feeling is that you get so much hassle-free mileage out of the initial set that just replacing the machine when it runs low is equal to or even less than the cost of running an inkjet for the same amount of time.

I'm not a big fan of HP simply because their drivers are a bit lacking when it comes to some of the more esoteric functions used by graphics software, but the hardware is generally pretty solid. 

I have a $350 Konica Minolta laser that's 6-7 years old and hasn't given me any trouble until now. Been very satisfied with it. But now a jam sensor has gone bad, and I have to decide whether it's worth the bother of opening it up and repairing it. It doesn't owe me anything, so I'll probably replace it with a similar machine.


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

When it comes to technology it doesn't matter what people serviced 30 years ago. Printers in modern times are very reliable, in the course of one year technology changes by leaps and bounds. Buy what what works for you, the Lexmark is my recommendation since a lot of us are not printing the encyclopedia Britannica to run a small job. I can't imagine printing 400-500 pages for any job but hey, that's me.

As far as parts wearing out. Well, for $150 i have bigger fish to fry I guess. But again all my jobs are less than $50,000 and requires less than 20 sheets of paper. My letterhead and envelopes I have printed for me.

Dam, 400-500 sheets? Holy smokes, do you guys have reading sessions? Even in the 90's when I was doing large commercial jobs and people didn't email we were using less paper.:laughing:

Mike


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Mike's Plumbing said:


> When it comes to technology it doesn't matter what people serviced 30 years ago.


Okay, I'll take that as a direct jab. While you are correct that 30 year old technology isn't necessarily very relevant today in and of itself, it does give one some perspective on all the marketing claims prevalent today.

My point in mentioning my experience with printing technology was simply to qualify my opinion with BTDT. If you feel that your BTDT is better than mine, I certainly won't attempt to dissuade you from that belief.


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

Tinstaafl said:


> Okay, I'll take that as a direct jab. While you are correct that 30 year old technology isn't necessarily very relevant today in and of itself, it does give one some perspective on all the marketing claims prevalent today.
> 
> My point in mentioning my experience with printing technology was simply to qualify my opinion with BTDT. If you feel that your BTDT is better than mine, I certainly won't attempt to dissuade you from that belief.


That's not a jab, why the hell does everybody have to take crap so dam personally. Printers made 12 months ago are different than they were made this morning. I'm not asking for you do validate yourself, why would you even think that?

For God sakes man we are talking about $150 printer not marketing, not repair work.........a printer for a small business. It's my opinion, I'm not looking for approval. Chisel messages on a rock if that turns your crank.

Mike


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## SSC (Feb 8, 2011)

Hey Mike,

Your printer has an option that lets you know how many pages it printed? Thats a pretty cool feature.

My black ink is $15-$20 and my color is $20-$24
and I dont think Im anywhere near 1200 pages.


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## SSC (Feb 8, 2011)

Mike's Plumbing said:


> That's not a jab, why the hell does everybody have to take crap so dam personally. Printers made 12 months ago are different than they were made this morning. I'm not asking for you do validate yourself, why would you even think that?
> 
> For God sakes man we are talking about $150 printer not marketing, not repair work.........a printer for a small business. It's my opinion, I'm not looking for approval. Chisel messages on a rock if that turns your crank.
> 
> Mike


:boxing:


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## Metroman001 (Aug 3, 2011)

I’m using HP laser jet printer.


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## AustinDB (Sep 11, 2006)

I bought a Ricoh Aficio SP C210sf five years ago, an all in one laser to the tune of $800, which does a great job of doing it's job. the thing I do not like about it is the warm up time can be up to 30 seconds before the first print rolls out.


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## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

Kodak ESP 9250 All in one. Fax is a royal PITA. Constantly jambs.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

TimNJ said:


> Kodak ESP 9250 All in one. Fax is a royal PITA. Constantly jambs.


Clean the feed rollers and any other rubber with Fantastic or Formula 409. Straightens that out 90% of the time.

Unless it's just a lousy design to begin with.


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