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tl; dr: I'm tempted to get one of those ink tank inkjets instead of a laser. Am I a fool? All that I actually need is reliable low-volume B&W printing but I'm tempted by bells and whistles that I would occasionally use. I've got a mediocre Epson Inkjet (WF-3520) used for mostly B&W document printing that's coming up on 9 years old this year, and it seems to have picked up some kind of print head problem that repeated cleanings and new cartridges haven't been able to resolve. It was so cheap to buy in the first place that it's surely not worth spending anything to repair. Every 10th line of text is blurred, and on the test pages / printer head cleaning pages I see a regular defect in the repeating pattern. Also, although it's been acceptable for us, it was always kind of a pain to use, with all of the normal inkjet downsides and bad prints happening if it sat for a while without a head cleaning. Basically, I should have gotten the cheap B&W laser in 2013 instead of this thing, but wanted the all-in-one scanner with ADF. That said, it has happily accepted the dirt cheap fake ink cartridges from a series of shady vendors and overall done pretty well for us. My wife regularly prints academic papers for easier reading and marking up, our kids are approaching elementary age and we're starting to print coloring pages and written activities for them, and we would like to replace this thing with something less frustrating. I assumed this was going to be a color laser and we'd be dropping ~$400, but it looks like the printer market has changed some. My wife wants something that will not be frustrating to use and will be able to just spit out prints, even if it's been sitting for 6 weeks unused. I, as an idiot, would like the ability to do photo prints on glossy, with the understanding that they're going to be more expensive and lower quality than if I had gotten the same thing printed at a drugstore. I understand that those two things are at odds, so if the new inkjets suck as much as inkjets always have, I'll suck it up and get a laser. There seem to be two new things on the market: Inkjets with some type of Ink Tank instead of cartridges: It seems like every manufacturer has started offering an Inkjet with some kind of cheaper-than-cartridge official refill system, which are promising printing costs lower than laser. How are these? It seems like this thread is recommending lasers over them still, and these inkjets certainly cost more than B&W lasers and even some entry-level color lasers. What's wrong with these? I'm seeing ludicrously low cost-per-page numbers, both from fluffier reviews like PCMag suggesting that a cheap Brother inkjet does black under 1c/page and color under 5c/page, to RTings reviews suggesting that the Epson Ecotank printers are a small fraction of that and way cheaper than laser operating costs. Entry-level lasers seem to be "LED"?: Cheap color laser things like the Brother-HLL3270CDW are apparently LED-based and not real lasers. Does this matter? Given that the refillable inkjets cost about the same as entry-level color lasers while having a dramatically lower cost per page, what's the appeal of a cheap color laser? Looks more expensive to run, and incapable of doing photo prints. Or is color printing at home a fools errand and I should just get the Brother B&W laser that nerds have been saying is the only sane option for 15 years now?
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Jan 10, 2022 14:49
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Gynovore posted:Any recommendations for a quickie printer for someone who prints poo poo once a month? I just want something cheap and easy to set up without an assbleed ink contract. Also please no mandatory phone app. Monochrome brother laser. It'll last you 15 years of light use with no fuss and work every time. If you want to print color, God help you.
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Dec 19, 2022 00:21
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