Printer Questions Threat: The printer was totally fine before it broke

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Printer Questions Threat: The printer was totally fine before it broke

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

I have a family member asking about an all-in-1 printer. As usual my recommendation was to live without colour and get Brother mono laser. However the UK seems to be on short supply of those at the moment. How are HP these days? Any printer-companies-hate-you shenanigans?

# ¿ Feb 1, 2021 18:03

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 01:57

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Laser. Laser. Laser. Laser. Laser. Laser. Laser. Laser. Laser.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2021 13:34

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/legal/canon-sued-for-disabling-scanner-when-printers-run-out-of-ink/

Hopefully they're win and it will start to force a change in behaviour of the OEMs....

Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Oct 17, 2021

# ¿ Oct 17, 2021 09:21

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

ccubed posted:

I need recommendations on a printer that probably will only be used once or twice a month. Needs: color, wireless, scanner, and price range is $100-175 USD.

It�s replacing a HP Envy 5000 that we HATED. It got like 30-50 pages per cartridge and after a few months of disuse the heads became clogged and cleaning basically cost half a cartridge.

Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.
Laser.

A colour laser with scanning will cost a bit more upfront but it won't make you hate life and you'll continually save on not having heads clog.

Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Dec 7, 2021

# ¿ Dec 7, 2021 22:03

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Peachfart posted:

Do you really need color? Can you just go to the local store for color printing instead?
Because the issues you mention are what happens to all inkjet machines, and color laser is very expensive.

Colour laser upfront cost isn't horrendously expensive although outside ccubed's budget. Colour laser plus scanner is another jump up.

At newegg:
Brother MFC-L3710CW All-in-One Digital Colour Laser Printer $580
Brother HL-L3270CDW Single-Function Color Laser $380
Brother MFC-L2710DW Wireless Duplex Compact All-in-One Monochrome Laser Printer $275

$380 is worth it to avoid the hell of inkjets and you'll make it back on not buying refills for wasted ink...

edit: Just done the maths on my mono Brother laser. I've had it 9yrs 2months, printed an average of 0.4 pages a day over that time, spent a total of $115.75 in that time (original purchase + one third party toner with 60% left) to a cost of $0.079 per page (I estimate by the end of the toner the cost per page will be halved). Oh and had a total of one paper jam in that time. Only buy an inkjet if you have great self loathing.

Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Dec 8, 2021

# ¿ Dec 7, 2021 23:51

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

redreader posted:

And I assume I can just get like a $40 scanner or something? (googles: HOLY poo poo so 100 for the cheapest and 200+ for most?)

I think the rise of the all-in-one combined with people just using their phone camera has more or less entirely killed the discrete flatbed scanner market. There's no longer the economies of scale for cheaper models. I'm still using the same Canon flatbed that I got in 1999...

# ¿ Feb 13, 2022 12:08

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/epson-quitting-laser-printers-doesnt-address-its-bigger-sustainability-issue/
"Sustainability" of our shareholders profit via those fat juicy ink margins and printers that die

# ¿ Nov 30, 2022 09:13

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Buy a Brother.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 18:03

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 01:57

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Thanks Ants posted:

If you have the space you might want to keep a mono laser for everday printing and then use an ink tank colour inkjet for the prints you want. The per-page costs of small colour laser is really steep.

Unless you're running a professional print shop, only buy an inkjet if you hate yourself.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 20:28

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Printer Questions Threat: The printer was totally fine before it broke