Ask Slashdot: Best SOHO Printer Choices?

rueger writes "I can remember trading up from a daisy-wheel printer to dot matrix, and can remember when Jerry Pournelle used to say 'Buy the most expensive HP printer you can afford.' Mine was a 4P. Times have changed, though, and I'm looking for trustworthy advice before buying a couple of new printers. Specifically, a B&W Laser with sheet feed scanner, and a color inkjet with a solid flatbed scanner for copying music. We want solid, reliable machines that will give a few years of small office service, that have reasonably cheap consumables, and that will "just work" with Windows and Linux. Network ready of course. Let me expand. These days there seems to be no market leader in printers — they tend to be cheap disposable items. Part of the reason is that it is hard to find any real user reviews of these machines — most of the comments on Best Buy or other sites are full of fanboy enthusiasm, or extreme negativity — nothing that can be relied on. Between those, and the sock puppets, and the astroturfing, there's nothing I'd trust. I do trust Slashdot, though, for things like this. People here are able to offer realistic advice and experience that can usually tell the story. So, I ask: who's making good printers these days?"

Comments

So, I ask: who's making good printers these days?

[nospam007]

Kyocera.

They're not cheap but they just need toner, everything else lasts forever.

Nobody beats their price per page. I've seen companies who print 50.000 pages a month throw out new HP printers to replace them with Kyoceras because it saved them money after only a couple of weeks to pay for the 'old' and new printer.

I did a lot of doctor's office programming and I always included a Kyocera free with the apps because then I'd never get any calls about printer problems.

My two rules of printing

[jabuzz]

Rule1: You brought an inkjet and use it heavily, it would have been cheaper to buy a laser in the long run.

Rule2: You brought an inkjet and rarely use it. You now spend so much on cleaning the heads that a laser would have been cheaper in the long run.

I have in the past owned an inkjet, these days if I want a photograph printing, I use an online photographic printing service and get my prints delivered to my door printed on real photographic paper. By the time you factor in the cost of the printer, inks and paper it works out just the same for a better result.

Also anything without a ethernet port is a piece of junk not worth considering.

B&W

[MikeZ52]

I can't comment on the cost of consumables, but the office where I work has had a couple of Brother MFC lasers. The Brother site has linux drivers and I've been able to do everything the Windows users can do. These 2 printers get used a lot and have held up well.

Re:So, I ask: who's making good printers these day

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll second Kyocera. The drums eventually need replacing, but even then they're cheap to run and damn near bulletproof.

For the inkjet, I'd recommend talking to a local vendor of continuous ink supply systems about what they'd recommend. Continuous feed bulk ink systems are *much* cheaper than paying obscene amounts per cartridge.

Re:My best advice: ***AVOID INKJETS*** !!!

[Connie_Lingus]

ahhh....Dads...gotta love them :)

I miss mine...he passed away about 8 years ago and I went through the exact same IT-thing with him.

I realize now that he did that stuff on purpose because it was a way for us to connect and spend time together.

Not that you need to hear it from some random stranger, but you need to hear it from a random stranger...enjoy every minute with Dad he won't be around forever.