# Whats a good cheap wireless printer,and has cheaper ink???



## LandfillLumber (Mar 9, 2012)

Well I need a new peinter and want to go wireless after getting my laptop last year so what should I buy.My specs are under $100 has cheap ink refills(some are crazy expensive)and really only needs to print black and white,but I guess color would be smart as I will need is at some point(I think).Oh and I want it to have a copier in it as well.Not a big fan of HP,but have owned a few they just always seem to have driver issues(well everyone I owned).Thank for the advice,Victor


----------



## G1Pens (Mar 9, 2012)

I have two HP's and love them both. No issues with drivers whatsoever !! They are my first choice.


----------



## mwhatch (Mar 9, 2012)

Get one with separate ink tanks for each color. I have always had good luck with HP. 

Morton


----------



## OKLAHOMAN (Mar 9, 2012)

If all you need  is black and white and want cheap per page printing the Brother Lazer 
HL2170W is about $100 for the unit and a cartridge refills can be bought on Amazon for about $40 and last for ever (about 2500 copies)


----------



## Dutra (Mar 9, 2012)

I have just the one for you! I have a Brother MFC-J410W and it is great.
It can Fax, Scan, Copy, and it is wireless. Color too. IMO the ink seems affordable.
(this one has seperate tanks for color too)


I think Staples has it right now for $70 ( I paid $100 someodd when I got it...)

It comes with ink, but not full cartriges, just samples I guess you would call them, but they lasted me like 2 or 3 months. I dont print too heavily but at least some each week. either way they lasted longer than i expected.

The first printer that ive had that wasnt HP and im very satisfied.


----------



## alinc100 (Mar 9, 2012)

Victor,
 I recently upgraded to this Brother Printer from Staples
Brother® Refurbished EHL-3070CW Digital Color Printer | Staples®

By buying refurbished the price was $199 less $50 rebate=$149 on line.When I went into the store they had an additional $50 rebate if you traded in an old printer so my net cost was $106 with tax for a color laser printer.

The laser printer rocks vs inkjets ,no ink to dry out,each color is its own cartridge,etc.
Print all my pen decals with it,no problems.


----------



## Texatdurango (Mar 9, 2012)

Victor, What a coincidence, I'm looking at replacing my printer and a friend sent this to me, it's worth reading, especially the last few pages.

The Cheapskate's Guide to Printing | PCWorld

It looks like the printer industry has looked into every possible way of duping the public every chance they get, from half empty cartridges to cartridges designed to "run out" of ink when plenty is left!  I like the phrase... $40 printer/$40 cartridges!


----------



## OKLAHOMAN (Mar 9, 2012)

Texatdurango said:


> Victor, What a coincidence, I'm looking at replacing my printer and a friend sent this to me, it's worth reading, especially the last few pages.
> 
> The Cheapskate's Guide to Printing | PCWorld
> 
> It looks like the printer industry has looked into every possible way of duping the public every chance they get, from half empty cartridges to cartridges designed to "run out" of ink when plenty is left! I like the phrase... $40 printer/$40 cartridges!


 

Yes, the industry seems to want to get into our pockets but on some we can fight back. I found out on mine that when the cartridge started to print lightly to take it out shake it side to side then put black electrical tape over the windows that signal empty and they last from 3-4 more months.


----------



## jdmacdo (Mar 9, 2012)

*Kodak*

I just picked up a Kodak Hero 3.1 a couple of months ago, and it has by far the cheapest refills.  The quality matches any others I have seen and it's nice to have a wireless printer finally.


----------



## Rob73 (Mar 9, 2012)

When I"m reseraching a computer product I usually hit Newegg  first and sort  by reviews amounts.  

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Printers & Scanners, Printer - Inkjet Printers, Wireless LAN

I would then hit amazon and do the same thing.   Last thing is hit up google for reviews or I'll use 'Product name + problems'  for my search query.


----------



## ed4copies (Mar 9, 2012)

The amount of time this deserves depends on how many pages per month you plan to make.  When I do this for a customer, one of the last steps is to get the manual for the printer you plan to purchase.  (Most are available on-line)  Look at what the yield is for the ink and what the expected yield is for fusing sections.  Then look up the cost of these items.

A little work will get you a true "cost per page".  For black only copies this can range from under a penny to nearly a dime.  But, if you only plan to run 2-3 copies per day, who cares???

30 a day can get pricey. ($100/mo)


----------



## PenMan1 (Mar 9, 2012)

I've owned about a gazillion ink jet printers. Today, I approach printer purchasing much differently. Most times, the really inexpensive ink jets use REALLY EXPENSIVE ink cartridges.

So, the question becomes "do I buy the $49 wireless printer and just donate it to Good Will and buy another $49 printer when this one requires $65 worth of ink?"

OR...." Do I buy the $100 printer that uses the $20 ink refills"

I get a little "testy" when I can buy a "new and improved" printer for less than the ink refills.


----------



## alphageek (Mar 9, 2012)

The first question to ask in my mind is:
Do I REALLY need color???

Cause unless the answer is YES, definitely - than seriously consider a low cost b/w laser.  They can be refilled (even most of them that don't advertise it) with toner... but the #1 reason is that ink jets are really a pain if you are a normal user that doesn't print all the time.   They get clogged, need cleaning (which BURNS up ink) and are generally a pain.   A laser is faster overall at printing, doesn't burn up ink just by turning it on (which lots of ink jets do) and is generally less of a hassle.


----------



## ed4copies (Mar 9, 2012)

alphageek said:


> The first question to ask in my mind is:
> Do I REALLY need color???
> 
> Cause unless the answer is YES, definitely - than seriously consider a low cost b/w laser.  They can be refilled (even most of them that don't advertise it) with toner... but the #1 reason is that ink jets are really a pain if you are a normal user that doesn't print all the time.   They get clogged, need cleaning (which BURNS up ink) and are generally a pain.   A laser is faster overall at printing, doesn't burn up ink just by turning it on (which lots of ink jets do) and is generally less of a hassle.



What you are saying, without realizing it, is you don't use your printer often.  If you turn it on daily and make a couple prints, cleaning is far less likely to be needed.

BTW, I did a study several months ago---I picked the HP 8500---I have never had a BAD HP-----UNTIL NOW!!!

One hour session on the phone to set it up (software).  First change of ink, didn't work right.  Another hour on the phone---refill with different HP ink, still did'nt work right.  Another call to HP, they replaced the printer for free and sent me some extra ink.  Worked ok for about three months, now again the "new" one is not working correctly (I think the printheads are poorly made, but the result for me will be dump the junk and buy a decent one (which I will pay nearly $1000 for, so my experiences are not aligned with your needs).

Short answer--no matter how much you know, you CAN make a wrong purchase.


----------



## pinelumber (Mar 9, 2012)

*printer*

Victor I used to go with HP and then their quality went way down.  I then went with an Epson.  Won't go back to HP.Plus they use less ink.


Dennis
Pinelumber:bananen_smilies104::RockOn:


----------



## alphageek (Mar 9, 2012)

ed4copies said:


> alphageek said:
> 
> 
> > The first question to ask in my mind is:
> ...



Yep.. that was definitely one of my points.   I find that of the people that ask my advice for a new printer for home is lucky if they use it more than once or twice a week.   It definitely puts them into the not fun range of ink jets due to lack of use.   At our house, I almost NEVER print (work is a different story) and the rest of the family prints often enough that its USUALLY ok, but every couple of months goes through a dry spell and the heads get to be a mess.   This is also true with most other people I've helped.

However, those that do get a b/w small laser are usually happy for years w/o any maintenance.   Now... that being said.. If this is for a home business or anything where you KNOW you are going to print every day - I say ignore everything I said and go re-read Eds notes.


----------



## LandfillLumber (Mar 11, 2012)

*This is what I'm getting.*

This is the one for me it has everything I need,laser/copier/wirless.It went on sale at Staples today for $129.Thanks for all the great help "again",Victor
Brother HL-2280DW | Laser Printer with Wireless Networking & Duplex


----------



## ed4copies (Mar 11, 2012)

You will pay about 3 cents a copy, Victor.  Not the worst, but certainly not the best these days.
(This does not include the cost of paper nor the drum (1 cent), paper about another penny--total cost about a nickle each time you make a copy.)


----------



## TellicoTurning (Mar 13, 2012)

I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as you guys on printers, but my printer of choice is generally an Epson... I've found they work with just about any system, even when they work poorly, their better than some others... my last Epson lasted about 5 years before it bit the dust and I replaced with my wife's HP, which I find to be a pain to work with... 

At one job I had, we ran dot  matrix Epson's, we had an array of them that had double print heads... print from front or back and they ran about 14 hours a day, almost constantly... we only had problems once... my last job I ran an Epson on my desk and only draw back was the cost of the ink... the color cartridge was a single cartridge with 3 colors and if one ran out, they were all out and cost about $50 each... so the company supply clerk opted for off market refilled cartridges...  sometimes would take a 45 minute wash and dry under hot water to get the cartridge started, but then would last over a month.... I did a lot of printing in the course of my work day...


----------



## PenMan1 (Mar 13, 2012)

One thing about the wireless HP printers is that they are mostly painless to set up printing from Apple products (IPhone in particular) without 3rd party software.

I never knew how much I needed to print from my phone, until it was easy to do.


----------



## Russianwolf (Mar 13, 2012)

when my last ink printer died, I switched to a toner printer. toner is supposed to be dry.


The one in my office prints at least 1000 pages per month (HP 1536 all in one). At home I got a Cannon all in one, toner cost more but I haven't run out of the original on that one yet.


----------



## monophoto (Mar 13, 2012)

LandfillLumber said:


> Well I need a new peinter and want to go wireless after getting my laptop last year so what should I buy.My specs are under $100 has cheap ink refills(some are crazy expensive)and really only needs to print black and white,but I guess color would be smart as I will need is at some point(I think).Oh and I want it to have a copier in it as well.Not a big fan of HP,but have owned a few they just always seem to have driver issues(well everyone I owned).Thank for the advice,Victor



I upgraded our printer two weeks ago.  My old HP printer still worked but it uses a parallel-port interface, so I knew that I would have to replace it when I upgrade my computer (new computers don't have parallel ports), and the cost of a new printer is not that much greater than a cost of replacement cartridges for the old unit.

I created a spreadsheet in which I collected data on a variety of currently available printers.  The data I collected was the information that matters to me - and I would expect that someone else might choose different parameters.  The data I chose included purchase price, footprint dimensions (I have a space constraint in my office that I have to work around), advertised printing speed, advertised number of copies per ink cartridge and advertised price for ink cartridges (so I could calculate a projected cost per copy).  I know the cost per copy number is a flakey average, but it's a metric that is useful for comparison.  And because I have a scanner, I limited my search to single-function printers.

My bottom line was that the HP OfficeJet Pro 8100 was the best deal for me.  OfficeMax and Staples both have stores in our area, and they tend to have this model on sale periodically.   It is wireless, and proved to be sort of easy to set up.  By that I mean it was very easy to set up for the computer in my office, but I had to call HP customer service for help in setting it up to print from my wife's computer.


----------



## SCR0LL3R (Mar 13, 2012)

One thing to note is that the cartridges that come with many new printers are usually just partially filled to 1/3 or 1/2 the level of the replacement refill.

The ink cartridge market is really frustrating. These cartridges sometimes come with as little as 10 ml of ink for $25 to $40. Since I print a lot for my other job, we use a continuous ink system and get ink that is indistinguishable from original Canon ink (by our own tests) for $35 per LITER (saving somewhere between 95% to 99% after I buy the continuous ink system which unfilled was only about $35). 

This is not for everybody but we will never go back! These cheapo $50 printers only last about a year with our volume of printing which is definitely cost effective for the size of our business. BTW our current printers are Canon Pixma IP4600/IP4700. 

Now that Canon has changed cartridges again and they no longer make this model of printer, we will have to make a change this year.


----------

