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Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer is Cheapest to Use?
Ray asks: "A year or so ago, I got my dad a new computer system that included a Canon PX-160 printer/scanner/copier to replace his aging Lexmark with similar capabilities. On my next visit, I asked him how the new printer was working and he said the ink was killing him. The cartridges are expensive, they don't have much ink in them and there are no third party or refilled carts for it or (apparently) any other Canon. It looks like HP and Lexmark are the most likely to have (relatively) inexpensive supplies but what has your experience been with inkjet All-in-Ones as far as TCO goes?"
Cheap Inkjets? "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." Has never been so appropriate!
Get a b&w printer for regular crap. For photos, let somebody else handle the headache at a cheap price: Wal-mart (or whatever floats your boat.)
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
absolutely any LASER all-in-one printer.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Last time I was in the market for a new printer, I got a laser all in one (HP 3052). That was 6 months ago, and I'm still on the toner cartridge that came with it. Of course, the woman and I are relatively light on the printer (only a few hundred pages since we got it)
It cost me about $300 to buy, so there's a significant initial investment. But it's very fast, reliable, and toner is very cheap compared to ink, and lasts a long time.
My previous laser lasted me 10 years. I expect this one to do the same.
You get nailed for trying to do an inkjet AIO. I got a Brother 7820N (refurb) for about $179 which is a laser AIO and then I have an Epson R220 (about $79 at Sam's Club) for printing photos, brochures, business cards, and CD's. I use InkjetMadness cartridges when they're on special ($28 for 12 single-color carts or so) and Taiyo-Yuden inkjet-printable CD's and DVD's (supermediastore or others). I think I'm still on the starter toner with the Brother, as I try to not print anything for in-house use.
Another upside is my B&W communications (letters, whitepapers, invoices) look more professional as laser-prints.
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For photos, let somebody else handle the headache at a cheap price: Wal-mart (or whatever floats your boat.
That works out well, actually. There are very few pictures most people actually want to print, but then you get good quality for a fraction of what ink costs, let alone the printer. Add in a few gimp edits and you have nice holiday cards.
For regular stuff, there's the printer at work. Who else wants print anymore anyway? The digital copy is more portable and durable.
We are all on one big curve where the ratio of material we read and use, paper/electronic, goes from infinity to zero. Paper, though cheap, is the fifth largest consumer of electricity in the US. It's demise is welcome.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I wonder this every time one of these questions come up. I used to design all in ones for HP. At that time, when I could have had a loan of the best of the line from work and ripped the ink from the supply closet without nayone noticing (hey I need to print tons to test the damn things), I actually threw out my home printer. I realised I had printed 2 documents all year- my state taxes and my federal. With efile I don't even do that anymore. I'd basicly be buying a cartridge per print at that rate. What the hell are people actually using a printer for these days?
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I have an HP PSC 1350 all-in-one inkjet printer, scanner, and copier...with built-in card readers.
Put me in the minority, but I love it. I have had it for years and just this week replaced my first B&W cartridge. I am still on the original color cartridge. Yes, I don't print every single day, but I do print fairly regularly.
The printer was bargain at $79 (US)...and getting the scanner was a nice benefit, which I have used many times. An OEM HP B&W ink cartridge costs $17 and an OEM color cartridge costs about twice that. Given that I have only spent $17 on the printer since I bought it and that only a fraction of that money goes to HP, I think they are still in the hole on this one...and I probably don't have much to complain about.
Price per page? Who knows, but if he prints that much, then you should consider a laser. Yes, consumables are expensive, but they sell inkjet printers at a loss...and they have to make it up somehow. That is the business model. It benefits people like me and penalizes heavy print users.
If he is bothered that much by the cost, I suggest having him estimate page per month counts for printing, faxing, and copying...and then perform a TCO for various all-in-one inkjets, lasers, and dedicated devices for each task based on their initial cost and cost of consumables. Honestly, if the quality of inkjets is inadequate, I would think that some model will still win out. The consumables on my color laser printer at work aren't exactly a bargain.
Another benefit of the all-in-one inkjet approach - I have one device, which does not take up much room, and it was so inexpensive that I will not even think twice about replacing it when it eventually breaks.
I'm all for pulling on the knowledge of the tech community, but seriously-- this isn't exactly difficult information to find. I've seen some pretty nifty questions asked on Slashdot, about things like cosmic rays, full-house renovation tips, clever telemarketer avoidance techniques, and even which button not to press.
But seriously-- this is about a half-step away from Slashdot's front page being a place to ask "ne1 gt dell cupn codz?"
Forget RTFA-- try STFG (Search The Floving Google)
UTF-8: There and Back Again
If you use them a lot, the ink costs a fortune per page, several times what a laser printer costs per page, so that a more expensive laser printer quickly becomes cheaper to own.
But if you don't use them a lot, the ink evaporates and the inkjet clogs up and stops working, forcing you to buy even more cartridges, so that a more expensive laser printer quickly becomes cheaper to own.
Buy a laser printer based all-in-one.
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Kodak came out with a line of printers they were trying to sell by touting the cheap ink. For a lazy person like me (who has also managed to spill ink from a do-it-yourself refill onto my carpet), I'd prefer to go buy a cartridge and not think about it. If you're printing a heap of pages, the Kodak might be the cheapest than the competition due to their cheap ink strategy. Anybody used tried them yet?
That's an extremely strange question... A bit like asking "Which Hummer Has The Best Gas Mileage?"
Getting an inkjet guarantees high prices, lots of maintenance (eg. cleaning) etc. Then, getting an all-in-one printer ensures operating costs will be more expensive still, with a low-end printer, low-end scanner, etc., all in one.
I have a hard time imagining any scenario where space could possibly be that limited, so I have to believe you're just unaware of those problems, or have been sucked-in by the advertising.
IMHO, a B&W laser printer is the best way to go... Cheap purchase price, cheap consumables, far better looking text, and 10X faster than any inkjet printer. Color is unnecessary for the vast majority of people, the vast majority of time, but if you really want it, consumables for a color laser printer aren't much more expensive.
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i'll have to agree with others on this list. i used to run inkjets... epson, canon, lexmark... but they drink thsoe carts like crazy..AND if you dont use them in a while they become painful with nozzle cleaning etc etc. I got an HP 2600n a while back and though the initial outlay was higher, the printing is quicker cleaner and the running costs are lower. for really fancy printing (eg glossy 8x6 photos) i prefer to just head to local supermarket and use their 10p per picture printing service.
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-pa th=10581&pq-locale=en_US
Their new printers have half the ink costs of their closest competitors.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I bought my Apple Stylewriter II in 1991-93 (somewhere in grad school). It still works great, I can get cheap cartridges and/or refill. For a black and white indestructible printer, the quality is fantastic, and the cost (~$150 in 1991) is VERY cheap per year.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
- the 3rd party inks are about $3 each
- inktanks aren't chiped
- there is a lot of good web articles on maintenece.
- provides a flatbet scanner and inkjet.
- interfaces for USB and Parallel
- The downsidse is is is slow compared to more recent machines
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Basically we can't answer this question without having some clue of what and how much he's printing. Is it 5000 B&W text documents? Is he a big photo nut printing 500 full 8x10 photos? Does he only print in red ink? :P
Once you understand what he's trying to do you can attack this from 2 ways.
1) Get a printer that suits his need.
2) make him aware about how he's using so much ink.
If all you are doing is black and white stuff there's no contest -- buy a laser printer. I don't know anything about color laser printers since I don't have one but But I went from taking forever for papers to print out, clogged ink heads, and empty ink cartridges to a laser printer that was fast, never given me a bit of trouble and had a toner cartridge that lasted 3 years.
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Later Canons, notably the Pixma series (like mine) use ink cartridges that are actual cartridges. Unlike traditional "cartridges," where a cheap print head is built into the cart, a better print head is built into the printer. The print heads are in the carts to lower the cost of the printer (E.g. Lexmark $19.99 Wal Mart specials) but jacks up the cost of the ink (30-35 dollars for a color cart for said Lexmark...) when the balance of cost could be put elsewhere.
I dunno from the model the OP is describing, but the "cartridges" in mine are just tanks of ink, and they're drop dead simple to refill with one of those As Seen on TV kits or whatever else you can lay your hands on. I've probably refilled the stock carts that came with my printer about... Oh, seventy times by now. I've had it for about three years, and when the urge strikes me to do graphic design I piss away a lot of ink fast.
Look into it. It's probably about the best you're going to get for consumer inkjet printing...
I haven't seen anyone mention continuous ink solutions yet. I don't have any experience with them myself, but if you are doing any volume they seem to be the way to go. Not all printers are an easy mod so you might need to do some homework. Also they say you need to print at least once or twice a week or else you'll be re-priming the kit, which is a hassle. These kits are definitely worth a look however if you are a high volume printer.
I've gone with a b/w laser myself with an inkjet multifunction (an Epson RX430 because of their Linux support) for when I need colour copy. Looked at colour lasers, and inkjets beat them on cost-per-copy believe it or not(!!!). If I needed to do high volume colour I would have gone with continuous ink. As a side note - check out Xerox... I seem to remember they have some kind of wax(?) print technology which was pretty cheap for toner.
-Mark