Home Printers?

[DeeCee]

Gotta get a new printer/scanner/copier for the new home Dell PC because Lexmark doesn't make Windows 7 - 64 bit encryption drivers for the Z82 - which is still a perfectly good piece of equipmemt

Who has what from where? I'd like a reliable one which has reasonable ink prices. Does anyone know what BJs or Sams club has right now? Thx!

 

[Floyd2004]

I love my HP printer BUT the ink is about 50 bucks to fill them all back up.
Prints photos just like a photo lab when you get the photo paper!

It works great but im sure there are cheaper options.

 

[ArkRescue]

Everyone now recommends you check the price of the ink cartridges for a printer you are considering.

Depending on the type of printing you will be doing, you may want to buy a printer that has separate ink cartridges, i.e. black, blue, red, & yellow in separate cartridges so if you end up printing a lot of one color over another, you can replace the color being used up and not be trashing an entire set of colors that are combined in the same cartridge.

 

[GWguy]

Unless you have a need to do lots of photo-realistic prints, go with a laser. The initial cost is higher, but after a few cycles of buying ink cartridges it will more than pay for itself. The print quality of the laser is fine for everyday use.

 

[huntr1]

Unless you have a need to do lots of photo-realistic prints, go with a laser. The initial cost is higher, but after a few cycles of buying ink cartridges it will more than pay for itself. The print quality of the laser is fine for everyday use.

When our Canon inkjet all in one died, we moved up to a laser all in one. Bought the Canon laser from Staples. Not especially happy with the resolution/picture printing, my office printer is MUCH clearer/brighter, but for what we use it for, it is more than fine. If I were to go back and do it again, I would probably spend the extra $100 for the HP over the Canon. If duplex printing is important to you, the HP at Staples did not do it auto when we bought, but they may have upgraded by now.

 

[nicole_M]

We bought a Kodak printer for a little over $100. Ink is $10/cartridge to replace [1 black, 1 color]... It's a copier/scanner/printer.

It's got Wi-Fi printing which I LOVE. Less cords is better. Works great. I don't know the model # off the top of my head.

 

[ArkRescue]

OR KodakGallery.com .... saves tons of $$ on ink.

I wish I had thought of that option when I bought my Canon BJC-8200 years ago. Was intended to print inkjet pictures at high resolution, but the 6 ink cartridges it uses now cost $14 to $16 each ...... not a money saver by any means.

Now I print as little as possible to avoid buying the ink cartridges.

Pics- uploading them to a site like Walgreens and having them print them out and pick them up local is cheaper than buying printer ink and photo paper.

Text- laser is the only way if you print a lot.

Wireless, a must IMHO!!!!

If you print a lot, PPM plays a larger role than I would have thought.

MFC-7840: B&W but 2600 page toner is $22 and a 10K page drum is $30, would buy again.

Brother MFC-J410W: decent quality and ink is fairly cheap, would buy again. I got this for like 80% off at Office Depot so helps offset ink costs.

HP Officejet 4500 or some thing like that: wouldn't buy again. Not wireless, kind of slow, not highest print quality but that may be because I don't use it much (clogged jets?) and use cheap/non-brand ink.

 

[jsouthan]

I have an HP OfficeJet that I love. It does duplex printing, has separate color cartridges and is able to be networked. The HP cartridges do cost a lot, but I get generics off of ebay. In fact, I just ordered a set of 5 (2 black, red, yellow and blue) for $20 including shipping. I have never noticed a difference in color quality or anything, so I don't feel that it's necessary to stay with the HP cartridges.

 

[ArkRescue]

I am sure SOME generics are alright BUT when I used generics in my Canon printers they always caused a problem and I tried 2 different Canons with generics.

I have an HP OfficeJet that I love. It does duplex printing, has separate color cartridges and is able to be networked. The HP cartridges do cost a lot, but I get generics off of ebay. In fact, I just ordered a set of 5 (2 black, red, yellow and blue) for $20 including shipping. I have never noticed a difference in color quality or anything, so I don't feel that it's necessary to stay with the HP cartridges.

 

[Floyd2004]

I have an HP OfficeJet that I love.

I think mine was an Officejet also. It has wifi and bluetooth printing as well as network of course. And the pictures are wonderful. It also has a scanner built into the top!

 

[The_Twisted_Ear]

...Lexmark doesn't make Windows 7 - 64 bit...

Don't give up yet. We just got an old HP Laser running on Windows7 (64-bit) that didn't have drivers. What model Lexmark do you have?

 

[Vince]

Everyone now recommends you check the price of the ink cartridges for a printer you are considering.

Depending on the type of printing you will be doing, you may want to buy a printer that has separate ink cartridges, i.e. black, blue, red, & yellow in separate cartridges so if you end up printing a lot of one color over another, you can replace the color being used up and not be trashing an entire set of colors that are combined in the same cartridge.

That's what my HP has. All cartridges are the separate colors. Don't have to spend $100 to replace them. BJ's has a good price on them.

 

[BlackKnight]

I've got an HP Office Jet as well. The quality is amazing.

 

[Vince]

My HP is a photoquality and it's amazing the prints you get out of it. My aunt had an old black and white of my father and all my uncles. It copied it and printed out a photo that you couldn't tell the difference from the original.

 

[DeeCee]

Don't give up yet. We just got an old HP Laser running on Windows7 (64-bit) that didn't have drivers. What model Lexmark do you have?

It's a Lexmark Z82. I returned the new ink carts for it and got my 78 bucks back! I still have a single black that was in a multi pack from BJs, if yours is the same model you can have it. Shoot me a PM to arrange pickup.

Thanks for all the advice! I compared each one and ended up going with the Kodak deskjet all in one without wifi (didn't figure i needed to spend the extra 30 bucks). I got it on sale at Walmart for 69.00. Print cartridges: 2 color packs $32.00 1 black and white 9.99. The page count was really high for the printer compared to even the HP.

 

[The_Twisted_Ear]

Wow DeeCee - I searched and searched and searched and couldn't find one person that ever found a viable solution. Sorry...

 

[DeeCee]

Wow DeeCee - I searched and searched and searched and couldn't find one person that ever found a viable solution. Sorry...

Me either. That's why i came up off a few bucks and bought a new one. Darn proprietary hardware/software crap. Thanks for looking! Can you use the ink cart?

 

[The_Twisted_Ear]

Me either. That's why i came up off a few bucks and bought a new one. Darn proprietary hardware/software crap. Thanks for looking! Can you use the ink cart?

Thanks for the offer. Years ago I found that Lexmark (in my opinion) had problems with their driver's and never considered another Lexmark.

The funny part is Microsoft says the the Z82 is a 64-bit compatible printer and installs automatically without extra software... Windows 7 Compatibility for Lexmark Z82 All-in-One Printer: Lexmark. Drivers, Updates, Downloads

Further searching stats: Lexmark stopped providing printer drivers for this unit. There are XP drivers but nothing after that. And these are kernel-mode drivers. Vista and Win 7 will not use them.

 

[ylexot]

My advice is to get a cheap laser printer for normal B&W printing. If you NEED to print in color FREQUENTLY, get an inkjet. Otherwise, just go to Staples/CVS/WalMart/Target/etc for your prints. You'll save a lot of money that way.

BTW, I got a Konica-Minolta laser printer several years ago for <$200...I still haven't depleated the "intro" toner cartridge that is supposed to only be half-full.