Home printer

[NetwM]

Hi,

 

Looking to buy a home printer with scanning option.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thanks!!

[6Foot2]

We have an HP Color LaserJet MFP M181fw.

 

We've had it for two years and, it hasn't "misbehaved"

 

Caveat: We don't demand much of it: We are still using the first set of toners.

 

[LeMarchand]

Unless you need to print out high quality photos on photo paper get a laser printer. Got a Dell on offer a few years back, still going strong and not used that much toner. Similar usage to @6Foot2. Got sick of going to use inkjet printers to find the jets had clogged/dried out.

[Aprice]

We've had an Epson Eco tank for a good few years now, on a cost basis it's been excellent.

 

Print quality isn't amazing, certainly isn't a photo printer but for documents it's fine.

[mikeprice]

Before you can decide you need to work out what you want it for

 

for example - we decided that we very seldom NEED a colour printer - so we opted for a cheap Brother DCP-1501 - which is probably superseded by now

we decided that if we really needed something in colour then we could do it at work - when we worked - or get it done at the library

 

It is currently well over 5 years old and we have never needed colour

 

if you need colour then you need to decided on what quality you need - and how often you need to print

 

if you need high quality colour prints quite often then an inkjet is the best - but a lot do not have a scanner

 

but inkjets can have a problem if they are left unused for a long time - as a lot of School IT technicians can attest - nd there are quite a lot on here!

 

lasers are good but might be more expensive initially

 

 

on top of that do you need A3??

 

in other words - more information is needed

[Davit2005]

Bought a Brother Laser Colour 4-5 years back, very occasional use and still on first toners.

 

I'd certainly consider what you are printing as others have said. I did have an Epson Stylus Inkjet many years back that could do A3 quite decently on the correct paper. I've also had a few Inkjets that clogged up due to not been used.

Edited January 2, 2024 by Davit2005

[MatthewL]

I'd purchase a laser printer over inkjet, unless you are using it all time, bigger spend now but cheaper in the long run without having to replace dried up inks.

 

Look to get something networked as well then you can printer from mobile devices and easier to put out the way if you need to keep the place tidy.

[mikeprice]

Good point - a networked printer is a good idea unless you do most things from a desktop which is fixed in place!

 

I should really work out a way to network ours via a Pi or something

but I haven't yet

[mrhall]

We've got an HP Envy - and we've paid for the HP home ink service - I think we pay £3.99 a month, and can do 50 copies. Even with two teenagers in the house - this seems to work well enough - and seems a lot cheaper than needing to buy HP cartridges... The printer works fine - connects to wifi so that we can print from a phone - the scanning works well - windows seems to recognise it as a scanner...

(The printer also creates its own email address - so we can email it something to print... )

[southhamster]

Worth noting some companies are very aggressive about allowing 3rd party, or even "out of date-really?" ink cartridges to work. I'm reasonably happy with Epson WF series - network,USB,wifi,double sided printing/ADF scanning. Not the cheapest but ok for home and tend to last about 3-4 years before failing or getting broken. It gets used quite a lot as Mrs. SH uses it for printing her art (she also has an A2 Epson 3880 beast printer for bigger things). We use Epson ink although it's horribly expensive but the colours are good on the right paper and they don't fade too much.

[Oaktech]

We bought an IJT printer deal - buy a few sets of toners/ink and get a printer for 'free'.

 

There current range is not very inspiring, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

 

https://www.ijtdirect.co.uk/free-printer-deals/?_bc_fsnf=1&in_stock=1

[Stevecee]

We've got an HP Envy - and we've paid for the HP home ink service - I think we pay £3.99 a month, and can do 50 copies. Even with two teenagers in the house - this seems to work well enough - and seems a lot cheaper than needing to buy HP cartridges... The printer works fine - connects to wifi so that we can print from a phone - the scanning works well - windows seems to recognise it as a scanner...

(The printer also creates its own email address - so we can email it something to print... )

 

We use the above scheme as well, has worked well for us now on our third printer over something like 6 years

 

Steve

[LeMarchand]

If all you need is mono, just seen this for £119 on HUKD: Brother DCP-1610W Mono Laser Printer - All-in-One, Wireless/USB 2.0, Compact, A4 Printer, Small Office/Home Printer, White https://amzn.eu/d/58CSscy

[tom_newton]

Agree with those who've pointed out there's a few bits of requirement gathering to do!

 

For me... I'd go with a black and white laser (I have a ricoh Sp311, but it's a little long in the tooth now). I would never trust an inkjet to be ready to print when I want it. Any photo quality printing, I outsource to photobox.

Almost certainly your printer will be networked, so that's a given these days. I prefer an ethernet port because I am a curmudgeon. Also it's usually a sign of a printer that's less reliant on nonky drivers.

I'd always like a duplexer - printing double sided is really useful to me at least.

 

If I replaced my printer today? I'd have exactly the same, but ideally something that supported printing from Android.

 

Edit: Cheap flatbed scanner. Fits in a drawer. No worries about one thing breaking and obsoleting the other, and the printer is smaller and neater.

Edited January 16, 2024 by tom_newton