Printer

Know this has come up many times before but my canon pixma on last legs.
Home use and don’t use regularly so ink just dries up. Windows 7(still!!) but although I mostly print letters, do need decent colour for photos but it’s not as if I will print more than 200 photos if half of that in a year as traveling less.
Do require wifi enabled and being able to print from iPhone. Need an all in one but don’t require the fax capabilities.
Been looking at the Epsom Eco Tank as they claim 2 years supply of ink and it’s not cheap plus out of stock in many places, albeit there are different models and with mixed reviews. But if it’s good and lasts a while, price not the problem.
Don’t need the best or the cheapest, just for my limited needs but for easy set up and reliability for another 4 years perhaps with ink that I don’t have to keep on replacing.
Any ideas appreciated.

Different situation - I evaluated my needs for color printing versus B&W and decided that if I need color I can print to a thumb drive and stop by a copy shop. B&W I use quite a bit more but still not a lot - I’ve had B&W inkjet cartridges dry out on me. So, an inexpensive B&W laser.

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Even more different situation?
I evaluated my printing needs and ditched the printer… 10 years ago. I miss it about 2x per year.

Occasionally I think to myself a hard copy would be nice… but I get over it.

I try to get and save everything digitally.

No printer cartridges, less paper file space, no reams of printer paper, etc.

I will say that getting some government or business to STOP the snail mail hard copy is a challenge, though.

:sun_with_face:
ralph

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Epsom Eco Tank

Great system, have an Epson for printing and scanning with the large tanks. I use 3rd Party ink and it’s been great.

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Been looking at the Epsom Eco Tank as they claim 2 years supply of ink and it’s not cheap plus out of stock in many places, albeit there are different models and with mixed reviews.


Does that come with "salt"? (o;\\

I used Epson printers, back in the dot matrix days and they were reliable.

20+ years ago I/We went to a LJ, HP 4M+ that ran till ~2 years ago. Even worked under 10! ...on the network. The 4M+ still works and I have a new cart for it, but we upgraded to an **HP LJ Pro MFP M428fdw LaserJet** for specific printing needs. BTW, it also doubles as a copier! (o: The cartridge never dries out, toner is a powder and though they cost $100+, they still last us about a year. YMMV and they may even last 5+ for very small printing needs.

I would suggest you may want to look into a low end HP LaserJet... remember that ink dries.
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Different situation - I evaluated my needs for color printing versus B&W and decided that if I need color I can print to a thumb drive and stop by a copy shop. B&W I use quite a bit more but still not a lot - I’ve had B&W inkjet cartridges dry out on me. So, an inexpensive B&W laser.

Same thing for me. I bought a Brother laser since it is one of the cheapest duplex printers. I got tired of tossing dried up ink cartridges.

PSU

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I print a fair amount of color, mostly photos, but CAD and other things too. While ink jets are best for photos, I have found their color lasers to give the best color quality for a laser. I used to have one of their solid ink printers, which was great, but it finally died and I got a Versalink C405. It is a bit more expensive than most of the solutions mentioned here but it does copies, scan to e-mail … and I think it will fax if I ever wanted to fax. Print quality is superb. And, if you buy your supplies from Xerox, the warranty goes on forever.

I too use Brother laser b&w printer for most printing. Toner lasts about a year. Inexpensive toner cartridges work fine.

I also have a $40 Cannon for occasional color printing usually for letters with color header or logos. It is rarely turned on.

Been looking at the Epsom Eco Tank as they claim 2 years supply of ink and it’s not cheap plus out of stock in many places,
I bought an Epson Ecotank in December for my church.
The model I bought they have a rebate program for buying ink for the first 2 years. (So “free ink” except you have to pay the postage to send them the empty bottles, rebate form, and receipt)
Unlike most inkjets, they did not skimp on the ink that comes with the printer. They included 2 refill bottles per color for filling the tank - and one bottle fills the tank to more than half full.

It was significantly more expensive than a $100 HP inkjet.
But is rated for many many more pages per month than your typical residential machine.

Thx all. Looks like the eco tank so far. Appreciate it.

Epsom Eco Tank

Great system, have an Epson for printing and scanning with the large tanks. I use 3rd Party ink and it’s been great.

Canonian… care to share on the third party ink?

Thought you would have a Canon with your name:-))))

Color laser should meet your requirements and not waste ink because it does not use liquid ink.

My default printer is print to PDF. I rarely print paper copies of anything.

That said I bought a B&W Samsung ML-1740 laser printer about 18 years ago. It was fairly cheap. The print quality is ok but not great. I’m on my third cartridge.

If I needed to replace it today I would likely buy a Brother B&W laser.

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Looked into color lasers and supposedly for good quality photos they are not as good, but could be wrong. It’s a long time since I checked on printers…

I bought the epson you are talking about and have been quite happy with it. I may get the after market ink, but haven’t needed any so far…doc

I have an old HP laserjet 1022 that recently ran out of the powder for the laser. I bought the new cartridge online for 15 or 16 dollars. Its for b&w only and has chugged along for many years. The cartridges are after market only as HP quit making them…doc

Correct. An ink jet is definitely better for photos for best quality. But, a good color laser can be servicable if one is not thinking of display quality.