Printer with cheapest ink refills?

[It's Not Lupus]

I'm looking for a reliable printer that doesn't jam and has cheap ink refills. It's for the parents.

Inkjet or laser. Quality is not that important as long as it's readable. What's important is the cost in the long run, like number of pages per cartridge and cost of the cartridge.

 

[lakedude]

Do you need color?

 

[T2urtle]

I love my brother laser. While I heard the newer ones aren't as cheap in terms of toner. I figure they are near bottom in cost per page.

I'm on my factory small toner and its been almost 500 pages.

 

[Morbus]

For large amounts of ink refills, you're better off striking a deal with a specialized company. They can easily cut your ink costs by half for pretty much any printer.

 

[KentState]

Laser is the way to go if you don't need color. For example, you can find a lot of Samsung toner cartridges than can produce 5000 pages for under $100. I have a ML-2525W and the cartridge can do 2500 pages and is $71.

 

[Cerb]

There is no printer that won't jam. Jamming is usually a problem of the users, not the printer itself, unless something is broken. Crinkles at the corners, FI, can cause jams, even on high-end printers (like $10K+ workgroup copiers). Whoever uses it needs to look at the printer's instruction manual, and take in the whole section it will have about how to feed it paper.

If you need ink, but either not color, or not great quality color, Brothers can typically be refilled cheap, and you can get continuous ink systems for several series (I know you already said that, but this is in case someone else finds this thread when looking for the same kind of thing). Canon are not bad, either.

For B&W laser, Brother all the way. 3rd-party toners work fine, IME, but do use Brother drums. HPs still end up having driver and firmware issues, IME. Canons are nice machines, but like HPs, cost too much to operate, with the toner and drum combos.

If you print more than a thousand or so sheets per month, a Brother taking the TN750 would be best. If about a thousand or less, the models taking the TN450 will be fine. It will take quite a bit of time for the more expensive models to become cheaper, with their higher yield drums and toners, if your duty cycle is low enough.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Yep, get a Brother or Samsung black and white laser.

The cheaper ones are periodically on sale for $50 to $80.

I bought a Brother HL-2040 for $55 in 2007. No issues at all.

Still using the original toner. I don't print a lot, but it's good to know that laser toner apparently has a long shelf life.

I was fed up with HP inkjet refill cost and maintenance headaches.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

One of the few good things over at cnet is their printer reviews.

 

[Continuity28]

Back when I was buying a printer, it seemed the price of the printer usually inversely correlated to the price of the ink over time. The more expensive models would gain access to the larger/cheaper ink cartridges.

I ended up getting an Epson WP-4530 and it's phenomenal.

But I haven't looked into it in quite a while, so it could be completely different these days.

 

[Pardus]

My Brother inkjet costs me $20 for refills.

 

[Doppel]

Brother laser jet.

/thread.

Every ink jet printer can die in a fire.

 

[Blue_Max]

LASER LASER LASER LASER! Inkjet cartridges are ridiculously expensive and much, much poorer quality for text.

 

[circusslaughter]

Canon ink is cheaper then HP ink...

 

[piasabird]

Printers belong in perpherals not general hardware.

 

[piasabird]

I think color printers are about useless when it comes to paying for printing colors on them. Print photos at walgreens. Use photo bucket or something like that and copy them to disk or flash drives.

Laser black and white is nice. The cartridges last a long time. These older HP printers can also be rebuilt. For $50 you can probably just buy a new inkjet printer. My black and white HP laser at work can print 50,000 pages for one $180 cartridge. Of course it is probably a bit expensive.

What exactly are they printing?

 

[BrightCandle]

Some inkjets are specifically designed to be cheaper than a laser to run. Toner is cheap but its possible to make an inkjet cheaper (as well as colour) so long as you aren't subsidising the cost of the printer with ink purchases. The HP Officejet pro 8600 plus for example is one of the cheapest printers to run per page costs but its cheaper sibling is quite a lot more expensive in Ink costs.

I don't know of any cheap inkjets that have cheap ink, but if you start spending laser printer money for your printer you can get an inkjet that is cheaper to run and does colour and other all in one functions. You really need to research into the cost per page and you should be able to find some other examples that don't have all in one features etc so you don't end up paying more for it than you need to.

 

[Doppel]

I don't know of any cheap inkjets that have cheap ink, but if you start spending laser printer money for your printer you can get an inkjet that is cheaper to run and does colour and other all in one functions.

I disagree. Please cite a specific example. The fact is most if not literally 100% of inkjets now are all color, and since most (all?) also now require color ink to keep the head in good shape--even if you only want to print black--and considering ink dries out over time whereas toner does not I haven't come across an inkjet cheaper to run for black and whites than a brother laser jet. Last time I looked, even for minimal fairly irregular black white printing it was $5-10/month in ink to keep a modern inkjet going, because even if you aren't printing the damn color is drying out and then you get the most irritating message in all of mankind: provide a color cartridge for your black and white job.

 

[grimed]

I just got this Brother Printer Work Smart MFCJ870DW and a whole set of ink cost $ 25.
This is a color inkjet printer. I have seen laser color printers for a decent price but the to replace the toner it cost almost as mch as the printer.

But if you dont need color Brother has some nice all in one printers that the toner dosnt cost much to replace.

Or you can buy a cheap color inkjet all in one printer for 40-50 dollars and replace it after the ink runs out because the ink will cost more or close to what the printer cost.

 

[nwo]

Printpal.com/life for cheap ink

I get about 2k pages worth of prints on a single $15 XL black cartridge for my HP officejet pro 8600+ 90% of which are black and white prints.

 

[Binky]

Inkjets are more problematic. Avoid them unless you need color photo prints.

Brother lasers are known for being easily refilled, although I'm a big fan of OEM toner.

 

[Matt1970]

My HP Laserjet 5p is still chugging along. A toner cartridge costs me around $20 and I can easily print over 1000 pages.

 

[xgsound]

I use www.swiftink.com to feed my older IP5000 Canon inkjet. The cartridges are no hassle, exactly the same as stock, and $2.99 each for the 5 colors. That's $15 a set (+ $5 shipping)instead of $50+ retail.

Their price for more current Canon inkjets is $5.99 a high capacity cartridge instead of the $64 retail.

Their savings for other brands is not as great as for Canon.

Jim

 

[conradm]

from what I understand, epson's printer is good for refill or CISS, the canon one probably not..

 

[schmuckley]

Not HP;That's all I know.
I'd say a toner-type printer.

 

[bruceb]

I have an HP7410 that is doing very well. But ink costs are high, due to HP price fixing the selling cost at most retailers. You will not find more than a dime or two variance from store to store. Sometimes, you get a good deal on ink right from HP or you can buy OEM cartridges on Ebay (they are usually fine, just check the exp date) As to paper jams, no issues with it, except an double sheet feed now and then. That usually happens with cheap 20Lb paper (I use 22LB for most work, some people insist on 24LB paper, but that is overkill. Seems 22Lb is a good compromise between too light and too heavy, as well as cost) Note the HP units made in the last 4 years or so, now use multiple ink tanks, as opposed to multicolor cartridges, so ink cost does go down. But every now and then you need to buy new printheads (which are part of the old cartridges, but are seperate on ink tank printers) They get you one way or the other.

FYI: When I bought the HP7410, normal retail was like $499
but since it was being discontinued, Staples had them brand new for $200 ... otherwise, it would have stayed in the store.