Talk to me about printers

[trapsinger]

Elli was doing our taxes for us (thank god i married a math teacher) and when she went to print them, we discovered we were out of ink. So i went to the store to buy more, and just replacing the black ink is 26 dollars! which i think i think stupidly overpriced.

So we are thinking of getting a new printer, ideally one that's cheap to keep using, and we are willing to pay a little bit more upfront (but not a lot more) to not have to pay through the nose for ink later on.

Any one have any great recommendations?

[Talo]

Well, I don't have a "great" recommendation. Samantha and I went through the same situation with an old Lexmark a while back.

To my frustration refillable ink is going the way of the dinosaur, and most vendors charge nearly price of the printer for each refill! (including black and color here).

It's seriously a racket that some gov oversight committee should turn their eye to.

We ended up going with a Canon because we wanted 1) wireless printing, and 2) cheapest ink cartridges.

Ours has one black cartridge (15$) and one color (15$). That was the best deal I could find, at the time.

Let me know if you want the model number.

[trapsinger]

yes, i would like the model number so that i can compare to this:

www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/Photosmart/1/storefronts/CQ183A%2523B1H?jumpid=ex_r11400_us/en/eprint/IPG/_ps_g_hpphotosmart5514/Photosmart5514Phrase&k_clickid=AMS|45cea8e8-b6a5-f428-aa68-00006644e5db

it looks like the color cartridges are separate, but only 10 dollars each, and the black cartridge is only 12 dollars. It's got the wireless connection, and it will print from the phones or laptops. and 90 to 100 dollars for the initial purchase doesn't seem totally out of line, since it's also a scanner and prints double sided.

[Axel]

Get a laser. They cost more upfront but the toner lasts forever.
I bought a $200 laser about 7 years ago, and I've replaced the toner once.

[pandalishus]

$50 printers are fairly common on Amazon, but you can also find ink from resellers on Amazon for a fraction of the cost in a store.

[Winin]

I second the laser printer idea. I've had my Samsung ML-2250 forever and only changed the toner once. Fast printing, no smudging.

Otherwise, go for a daisy wheel. Dot matrix sux0r.