Printer for Home

[ubercal]

Hi Guys,

Looking for options on which printer to purchase .Below are my requirements ......

- Needs to be a multifunction (print,scan,copy)
- Needs to be both B&W and Colour.
- I will be printing infrequently (ie just for general documents and the odd colour picture such as printing of ID document etc).I Basically dont want to rely on having to print/scan/copy stuff at work or go to PostNet to get things done.

So do i go with a something like an Epson EcoTank L4260 (Ink) at +-5K or a "Budget" laser (Brother MFC-L3760CDW) at +-7.5k ?

Either way i dont see a cheap solution here .Both have there pros and cons .Iam leaning more towards the Epson Ecotank , but my main concern is that i wont be doing much printing so the issue of the nozzles drying up might cause issues long term.The laser print is more robust and should last many years compared to the Espon EcoTank.

 

[bwana]

I got an EcoTank (L3250) not long ago and it's pretty good.

I worried about our infrequent printing but it turns out you can just print something every once in a while.

 

[ubercal]

I got an EcoTank (L3250) not long ago and it's pretty good.

I worried about our infrequent printing but it turns out you can just print something every once in a while.

yeah , was thinking the same .I would actually be printing more test pages then actual real printing just to keep the printer in good nick.Plus the ink refills are dirt cheap so not concerned about the ink usage.

 

[PhireSide]

We have an Ecotank. Seems to have dirty streaks if you don't print often, so I just leave a colourful printer test page on the flatbed and run a colour copy every once in a while to keep it fresh and clean. Easy, as it's just two button presses vs. navigating to a page on the macbook.

If I did it again I would go for a colour laser, just for convenience's sake.

 

[airborne]

Whatever you get make sure it’s wireless, it’s so convenient being able to put the printer in some out of the way place and not have it tied to a computer.

 

[HobieDave]

I got an EcoTank (L3250) not long ago and it's pretty good.

I worried about our infrequent printing but it turns out you can just print something every once in a while.

For infrequent use I do a head clean and then print, without printing a test page.

 

[AfricanTech]

We have an Ecotank. Seems to have dirty streaks if you don't print often, so I just leave a colourful printer test page on the flatbed and run a colour copy every once in a while to keep it fresh and clean. Easy, as it's just two button presses vs. navigating to a page on the macbook.

If I did it again I would go for a colour laser, just for convenience's sake.

This.

My printing was that infrequent that eventually one of the inkjet nozzles partially clogged (just bad luck I guess) so I dusted off the colour laser that had been packed away for ages.

 

[Creag]

I got an EcoTank (L3250) not long ago and it's pretty good.

I worried about our infrequent printing but it turns out you can just print something every once in a while.

Definitely a +1 for this. I have this machine and it gives good quality prints and so far is quite economical. I like the fact that it is available for use by cable and WiFi. It can be accessed by an app.

 

[garyc]

the odd colour picture such as printing of ID document etc

Places tend to accept mono prints of ID documents. Unless there is something specific that you need in colour then maybe you won't need this feature?

 

[ubercal]

Decided to go with the brother Laser MFC .Since the price difference between the inkjet and laser was only around 2k , it made sense to rather go with the more robust solution.

 

[PhireSide]

Decided to go with the brother Laser MFC .Since the price difference between the inkjet and laser was only around 2k , it made sense to rather go with the more robust solution.

Brother laser printers are robust, and about the best brand you could go for from the limited research I've done.

 

[airborne]

Decided to go with the brother Laser MFC .Since the price difference between the inkjet and laser was only around 2k , it made sense to rather go with the more robust solution.

Brother laser printers are robust, and about the best brand you could go for from the limited research I've done.

To be fair if you aren't printing much just about any laser will be robust and reliable, the better metric for me is if generic toner cartridges are available for whatever model it is. Point two is once you have established point one buy the printer secondhand ideally with an almost empty toner so that it's virtually being given away and then just buy a generic replacement toner, profit.