Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help I need a new printer.

I tried printing out a 2 page PDF and the printer gave up after 1/2 a page. I tried re-printing it, and got a totally blank page. I gave up, shut off the computer and had dinner. Came back, turned the computer back on, and the printer wouldn't power up. ????????? Not 10 minutes later, I start to smell something. I can't figure out what it is until I see smoke wafting up from under the cover of the printer. It quit the minute I unplugged the printer from the wall.

Now I'm sitting here with a 2 year old burned up Cannon Pixma ip4000 and just about 2 complete ink cartridge sets.

Most of my printing is b/w, with maybe 10% color, rarely color pictures, nothing that would need actual picture stock.

This is a straight printer, not a multi-tool. While I wouldn't mind getting a multi-tool, all I would probably use is the scanning capability plus the printer. Printing on 11x17 paper capability would be nice, but not a requirement if cost prohibitive.

Suggestions on what to get? I think I print somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 pages a year.

Our first printer was mid-quality Canon inkjet. It was a piece of junk. The ink jets were forever clogging, likely from drying up. I hate to think that I have to print every color at least once a week or the jets will clog up.
We moved to an Epson inkjet. It came with a scanner, tho we didn't need it at the time. Cheap; under $100, It uses 4 separate inkjet cartridges; blue, yellow, cyan, and black. You replace them as they deplete. It has been worked well for a couple years now.
(edit) the inkjet cartridges can be purchased as generic; very important

We've been using the same HP inkjet for 2 desktops now. We go through about a 10 pack of reems a year (5000 sheets). The only bad point is the cost of ink cartridges, maybe $40 for a pair of black & colored ones.

Any HP office jet series. I have a canon Pixma that went lacking pretty soon, also the ink cartridges are small and expensive. Look for one that has cartridges with the most volume of ink for the least price. I have to have a scanner for emailing docs; it doesnt add any wear to the printer. Most lower end devices are all-in-one, print/scan/copy. As noted $100-130. They would give them away just to get the market on cartridges.
I did find a refill setup for the Canon. I held about 5 cart. worth of ink and had a little rubber finger pump to inject it.Not long after I filled 2 cart. the thing went out.

I highly recommend EPSON. I have three myself, Epson Styplus Photo 1400 for photo printing (takes larger paper too), Epson Stylus Color 880 (old) that my hubby uses, and have an Epson RX620 on ebay that ends today that is a great printer as I replaced it with a Epson Artison 810 as I have created a wireless network in my home.

For what you print there are some really good Epson to can be had on clearance. Doesn't sound like you need any fancy things like I do. Go to your local office supply in the area and I'm betting they have a new clearance one at a decent price. I bought one for my friend for about four months ago and got it for $40 NEW. Below is a link to -
**Epson and what they show as clearance; but again, sure if you go to your local store you'd find an excellent deal:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/BuyEpson/ccHome.jsp

They have the following reburshied one which at $80 is a good deal: Epson Artisan 700 All-in-One Printer - Refurbished

**Office Max has an Epson WorkForce 30 Ink Jet Printer on clearance for $69.99

Good luck on your decision. dot

This is a neat printer for the price, HP officejet j4580, it prints, scans, copies, and faxes, also has OCR (optical character recognition) so you can scan a document into your PC and make changes to it. We've had it 3 months and my wife loves it.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shoppi..._sku=CB780A#ABA

My suggestion is a HP all-in-one printer. I have the 3210 and it has been a good printer. I owned several Epsons and just had problems with the jets plugging up. Others may have good alternatives. Ink prices are always an issue..du

Ahh, there's your problem, you let the smoke out of it.

Jeez, been there done that. I've let the smoke out of drills, a coffee maker, all kinds of stuff. The most spectacular was the TV though - man that TV had a lot of smoke in it and it made a huge POP when the smoke came out.

FWIW, I use HP printers. I have one that is over 15 years old that I've put over 400,000 sheets of paper through it at last count. But then again I have a different requirement set that most folks. That being said I've had great luck with HP printers (I currently have 3). Brother for fax machines and Fujitsu for a scanner.

That's what keeps my office running. Well that and coffee, lots and lots of coffee.

i'll throw my hat in the ring for HP as well. i have abused the ones i've owned with extreme work loads, i currently have an all-in-one thats 5 yrs old, and although i havent counted, i'm sure i'm in the hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper on it. the ink is pricey, but its worth it to me for the dependability of the printer.

Costco now has a cartridge refill program that is hard to beat. If you use the thing at all the cost of print cartridges should almost be the determining factor. They almost give the printers away to hook you on the cartridges. I might avoid Canon. Normally can't go wrong with HP, Lexmark are decent.

I have three HP printers, all I ever use is HP.

5000 Laser, 1220C Deskjet, and a 5200 Laser. All do 11x17.

1220C cost a bunch in cartridges and is used primarily as a backup, or if I have to go on the road and produce "B" (11x17 drawings on site) It is pretty light compared to the Lasers, specially if you have to go up 4-5 floors in a hotel and you split every other weekend. Carrying around the other two would definitely cause some problems as I age.

5000 has been quite faithful, but had a power supply go up in smoke. Fortunately it was under warranty but it took two weeks to get it back. This is at the workshop.

5200 is really sweet! Not for the budget minded consumer.

Just keep them clean! and they will last a long time.

It seems there are lots of HP's out there. A friend recommended this one Anybody have one? Staples has them for $59.00 incl. rebate. That seems to be about the cost of the new ink cartridges!

Methinks I'll be switching to HP.