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Thread: Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

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    Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

    Hey everyone,
    I'm currently looking at buying two printers, one for my parents: They want a lightweight simple printer to use when they go abroad to france to print out a few upgrade documents for the flats they own from a laptop. It will be about the only use this printer gets, used to use HP 3420 for this purpose which was perfect, but has since broken. I was looking at HP Deskjet 2360 or 4260. We're keen to stick with HP printers as they've been reliable and we've never had an issue with them. Any suggestions welcome.

    I'm looking for a printer for uni, ideally fairly cheap and I wouldn't mind if it had fairly basic copy and scan facilites as well. Is mainly going to be used for black/white printing though and doesn't need to be anything to special. Ive been eyeing up the HP Officejet 4315 or HP Deskjet F380.

    The main requirements for both are that they are cheap (around £50 for the printer only and under £100 for the all-in-one if possible), neither need to be top of the range or able to print fantastically fast, just a fairly regular, simple, printer.

    Any ideas greatly appreciated,

    x

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    Re: Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

    Mono laser for uni, add an inkjet later if you need colour. Theres normally loads of cheap scanners on ebay. My wife has just finished her BA, did it all on one toner cartridge.

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    YUKIKAZE arthurleung's Avatar
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    Re: Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

    The Brother AIO machines are quite decent, I remember they have one with ADF which is perfect for scanning uni notes, for about 80 quids on ebuyer.

    I was using the DCP-130C which was good for copying (but scanning to computer is rather slow and crap)

    For inkjet you can get CISS system for certain Epson models. It prints insanely slow however the ink is good for like 2000 pages and only cost a fiver.

    As Flibb said, cheap Laser + Inkjet (may be AIO machine) will be great.

    I don't recommend going for Colour Laser though. The HP Laserjet in my hall cost way more to print compared to a normal inkjet.
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    Senior Member UltraMagnus's Avatar
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    Re: Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

    Quote Originally Posted by whisperer View Post
    Hey everyone,
    I'm currently looking at buying two printers, one for my parents: They want a lightweight simple printer to use when they go abroad to france to print out a few upgrade documents for the flats they own from a laptop. It will be about the only use this printer gets, used to use HP 3420 for this purpose which was perfect, but has since broken. I was looking at HP Deskjet 2360 or 4260. We're keen to stick with HP printers as they've been reliable and we've never had an issue with them. Any suggestions welcome.
    hmm, on ebay i have seen small portable B&W printers going quite cheaply, perhaps take a look at one of those

    Quote Originally Posted by whisperer View Post
    I'm looking for a printer for uni, ideally fairly cheap and I wouldn't mind if it had fairly basic copy and scan facilites as well. Is mainly going to be used for black/white printing though and doesn't need to be anything to special. Ive been eyeing up the HP Officejet 4315 or HP Deskjet F380.

    The main requirements for both are that they are cheap (around £50 for the printer only and under £100 for the all-in-one if possible), neither need to be top of the range or able to print fantastically fast, just a fairly regular, simple, printer.

    Any ideas greatly appreciated,

    x
    i would go with a second hand HP laserjet for this, they are quite big, but they are still the most reliable printer out there and a toner cartridge (that will print a rediculous amount of pages) only costs about £20 for a "non branded" one.

    as for colour... well. I don't know as much about colour printing, but personally i use a HP Deskjet 1220C which is a rather nice A3 colour printer, although its definitely not photo quality, although if you want that there are cheap enough dyesub printers out there

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    Senior Member joshwa's Avatar
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    Re: Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

    I tend to stick with Canon or Epson as the cartridges tend to be cheaper than the others (HP, Lexmark). They all seem to do decent printers from about £30 (ebuyer, amazon etc).

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    Re: Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

    Quote Originally Posted by joshwa View Post
    I tend to stick with Canon or Epson as the cartridges tend to be cheaper than the others (HP, Lexmark). They all seem to do decent printers from about £30 (ebuyer, amazon etc).
    Well my opinion might be out of date but still might be useful:- assuming the cheapy printer will be left in France, is it wise to use Epson because of the internal print heads can get clogged from non use over the months?
    I've never had a problem with the older HP printers (even after years of non use) but their cartridge prices are a rip off.

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    Re: Has anyone got advice on buying printers please :)

    If the Samsung laser cartridges are still refillable, that'll probably be your cheapest option for a laser printer - My ML-1210 has worked brilliantly, and to refill it (for ~3000 pages at 5% coverage, I understand) you just unscrew 3/4 screws, pop the two clamshell halves apart, take the stopper out, pour in toner and reinsert the stopper. £50 for the printer and £10 for a full cartridge-worth of toner.

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