best cheap printer

dknightd · Post by **dknightd** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:33 pm

My old HP Photosmart 8450 appears to be dead.

Sucks because I have spare ink. Can anybody use it? free

So now I need a new printer. Must work with OSX

Any recommendations?
Thanks

ddurrett896 · Post by **ddurrett896** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:36 pm

Do you want the best or cheapest?

Toons · Post by **Toons** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:37 pm

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Canon-PIXMA- ... /108208974

Silk McCue · Post by **Silk McCue** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:39 pm

This recent thread has a number of replies including mine.

viewtopic.php?t=264375

Cheers

CFM300 · Post by **CFM300** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:46 pm

I would just buy whatever Wirecutter recommends.

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best- ... e-printer/

I've done that with business laptops, printers, home router and modem, shredder, etc. Every recommendation has been fine.

Previously, they recommended a Brother all-in-one printer, so that's what I bought four years ago. Haven't had a single problem with it.

Prudence · Post by **Prudence** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:49 pm

Very happy with my Brother black and white laser printer.

livesoft · Post by **livesoft** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:54 pm

I bought a Canon printer for $350 and got a $350 Visa prepaid card plus free paper. I haven't taken it out of the box yet.

So start by looking for deals and rebates.

HIinvestor · Post by **HIinvestor** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:01 pm

YgWe are very pleased with our HP officejet pro 8715 from Costco. It faxes, scans, prints, single & double-sided. Costco also sells the ink and it airprints from my iPhone.

Shortly after we bought it for about $189, there was a coupon for an additional $25 discount, plus $20 off 2-packs of ink, so Costco refunded us $45 (we had purchased a multicolor pack & black pack of ink with printer.

HIinvestor · Post by **HIinvestor** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:11 pm

YgWe are very pleased with our HP officejet pro 8715 from Costco. It faxes, scans, prints, single & double-sided. Costco also sells the ink and it airprints from my iPhone.

Shortly after we bought it for about $189, there was a coupon for an additional $25 discount, plus $20 off 2-packs of ink, so Costco refunded us $45 (we had purchased a multicolor pack & black pack of ink with printer.

cheese_breath · Post by **cheese_breath** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:11 pm

Toons wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:37 pm https://www.walmart.com/ip/Canon-PIXMA- ... /108208974

Be aware the 2522 is USB connection only, no wireless.
https://www.consumerreports.org/product ... /overview/

I made the mistake of buying a 2520 because it was cheap, and never considered it might not connect to my LAN.

radiowave · Post by **radiowave** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:40 pm

I bought my wife a Samsung Xpress M2885FW for Christmas. Price at MicroCenter was about $200. B&W laser with copy and scan (FAX if anyone still uses that), pretty happy with is so far, works on WiFi better than the Brothers MFC it replaces and I can print from my iPhone (ok that's a bit geeky). If you have a MicroCenter near you, they still have the sale price.

Bogle7 · Post by **Bogle7** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:20 pm

Brother color laser.

sunny_socal · Post by **sunny_socal** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:21 pm

Prudence wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:49 pm Very happy with my Brother black and white laser printer.

This. And get the ink from ebay, $15 for a 2-pack. You can print for a couple years.

02nz · Post by **02nz** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:21 pm

If you can live without color printing, a cheap monochrome laser is the way to go. Actually even color laser printers are pretty inexpensive these days, but they are much bigger than monochrome lasers. The problem with inkjet printers is that they suck up ink in maintenance cycles (to keep the printheads from clogging, with the convenient side effect of generating profits for the manufacturer!). For occasional printing, you may lose as much ink to these cleaning cycles as you as you actually use in printing, and the per-page cost (and hassle of buying and replacing cartridges) ends up being way more than you expect. Laser printers don't have the same problem, supplies last longer and are (generally) cheaper on a per-page basis, and no toner is lost to cleaning cycles.

Ready3Retire · Post by **Ready3Retire** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:27 pm

After 3 or 4 printers and ink cartridge costs and challenges, I now put print jobs on a flash drive and print at the local library or FedEx store. Much less frustrating.

noco-hawkeye · Post by **noco-hawkeye** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:45 pm

I used to look for the "best cheap printer" and usually this ended up with an inkjet that worked for a year or two, then ink prices and the frequency of my printing (which is pretty low) leading to dried out ink drove me crazy. I'd then buy another inkjet, it would last a few years.... lather rinse repeat.

Until I bought a color laser multifunction printer on a clearance sale. I don't for-see buying another printer anytime soon and every time I print the output looks great. I think I spent maybe 2x for this printer vs what I might have on an inkjet. I have 0 regrets and believe this printer will be cheaper in the long run. Skip the inkjet is my #1 tip.

Summit111 · Post by **Summit111** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:04 pm

Brother laser jet and haven’t looked back....

Summit

aristotelian · Post by **aristotelian** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:07 pm

Prudence wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:49 pm Very happy with my Brother black and white laser printer.

+1, if you go with color, the ink adds up over time. We do our photos through Snapfish and use a cheap B&W laser printer. My last one lasted for about 10 years but finally died. Just picked up this one and very happy with it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0764 ... UTF8&psc=1

b.lock · Post by **b.lock** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:10 pm

Brother laser printer has been great for me. HP is also fine. At the bad end of the spectrum is Epson.

I would just stay away from ink in general and go with laser printers unless you are using the ink every week or more often. The ink dries up and then you have to buy new ink cartridges or a whole new printer.

CABob · Post by **CABob** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:53 pm

My approach has been to visit my local Staples and see what was on sale. My last two printers have been Epson ink jets and before that a Canon. They were all satisfactory and priced right for me.

Will do good · Post by **Will do good** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 12:13 am

Brother B&W laser printer <$100, our is 4-5 years old and still prints crisp pages.
The replacement toners are $38 and each set lasts a year or two.

Broken Man 1999 · Post by **Broken Man 1999** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 5:08 pm

I bought a HP Deskjet 3637 for $48 at Best Buy a couple of years ago. Rolled into Best Buy while DW was shopping at Michael's and saw a stack at the front door. My Canon was misbehaving, I grabbed one to use when the Canon died, or tried my patience once too often.

It prints, copies, and scans.

It is an even older model now, available for $39.99 at a couple of places, including Amazon.

I print so little the ink cost is pretty much irrelevant. I do scan a bit, and it works to my satisfaction, though like printing, I am not a power scanner.

I have preferred HP for a long time because HP printers play nicely with whatever device I am attempting to print from. Easy peasy, not like Canon printers I have had in the past.

For me printers have reached the toaster status, I'm not going to pay a bunch for one. The more expensive ones I have bought didn't have longer lifespans.

Broken Man 1999

KSOC · Post by **KSOC** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 5:59 pm

Brother Laser B&W all the way.
Wanna print digital pictures? Send them to Shutterfly.

Hockey10 · Post by **Hockey10** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:00 pm

I bought a Brother B/W Laser printer about a year ago at Best Buy for about $100. It is much better than the older Epson color inkjet that I had before that.

StrawMan · Post by **StrawMan** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:03 pm

Ready3Retire wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:27 pm After 3 or 4 printers and ink cartridge costs and challenges, I now put print jobs on a flash drive and print at the local library or FedEx store. Much less frustrating.

I started doing this as well after several cheap printers failed over the years. Much cheaper, easier and less hassle. It's like .05 a printed page I think.

arf30 · Post by **arf30** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:13 pm

Brother is the only brand left worth buying in the consumer space.

SoAnyway · Post by **SoAnyway** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:51 pm

I stick with HP or Brother. My current HP Officejet Pro 8600 is still going strong after ~5 years or more. I've not had good luck with Canon, Samsung or other foreign mfrs. I'm sure their products were fine and probably manufactured at least in part in the US, so this isn't a "Buy American" diatribe. My issue for those I've tried was that I couldn't make sense of the set-up instructions. Either they were a jumble of pictures with no words, or instructions written in English after having been (poorly) translated from the original Japanese, Korean or what-have-you.

SoAnyway, I wouldn't spend more that 100 bucks for any printer these days; indeed, my next printer will likely be subject to a $50 price ceiling. Given the razor/razor blade pricing model of most printers, they're meant to be throwaway items. The trick is to price out the cost of ink for whatever models you're looking at before making a buy decision on the printer.

mindgap · Post by **mindgap** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:30 am

+1000 for Laser Printer. Don’t get ink. To expensive.
I got my Canon LBP6030W for 5 dollars from Goodwill at amazon now $84. Works with Mojave and prints super fast (my older brother Laser always took a while to head up all its elements).

A big plus, it has a small footprint. I really like it.

gnujoe2001 · Post by **gnujoe2001** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:47 am

Brother laser.

We have a Brother color laser going on 5 years. Came with a set of standard yield toner. Twice the printer reported "low Cyan toner must replace now" which I was able to manually reset the counter and resume printing. Sometime in the past year I finally replaced the black toner because of random dots.

mindgap · Post by **mindgap** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:51 am

gnujoe2001 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:47 am Brother laser.

We have a Brother color laser going on 5 years. Came with a set of standard yield toner. Twice the printer reported "low Cyan toner must replace now" which I was able to manually reset the counter and resume printing. Sometime in the past year I finally replaced the black toner because of random dots.

Be careful of the secret yellow tracking dots with color printers

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine ... ation_Code

5th_Dimension · Post by **5th_Dimension** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 11:50 am

Another vote for a Brother color laser. If you get one look for the instructions online to reset the cartridges to show a full level. The Brother doesn't actually measure the level of toner in the cartridge, it does it by page count. For instance if it prints one dot of cyan on a page it counts that page toward the overall cyan level.

five2one · Post by **five2one** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 11:55 am

Brother's are generally the best consumer printers and laser jet ink is even better.

That said, other companies make decent stuff in the sub 300 range but you will decreased quality/longevity and the ink is where they'll makeup profit.
Some use refillable bottles but cheap is cheap regardless of features.

cashmoney · Post by **cashmoney** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:13 pm

Will do good wrote: ↑Fri Jan 04, 2019 12:13 am Brother B&W laser printer <$100, our is 4-5 years old and still prints crisp pages.
The replacement toners are $38 and each set lasts a year or two.

I have a brother laser multi function printer for the last 10 years for my small business and it's a real workhorse.I usually buy the aftermarket toner on amazon for about 12.00 though.Very cheap to operate and reliable.

John88 · Post by **John88** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:15 pm

Ready3Retire wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:27 pm After 3 or 4 printers and ink cartridge costs and challenges, I now put print jobs on a flash drive and print at the local library or FedEx store. Much less frustrating.

Same here, rarely need to print, you can skip the flash drive and just email to yourself. Also there are free smart phone scanning apps like Genius Scan and although I haven't checked them out there are digital signature Apps as well.

Trism · Post by **Trism** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:54 pm

livesoft wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:54 pm I bought a Canon printer for $350 and got a $350 Visa prepaid card plus free paper. I haven't taken it out of the box yet.

So start by looking for deals and rebates.

A friend of mine picks up deals like these and dumps the printer when it runs out of toner or ink. He gets a new printer a couple of times a year sometimes.

Genius.

michaeljc70 · Post by **michaeljc70** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 8:41 pm

You didn't mention whether you need scanning or not. I have an all in one by Brother (J870DW). It has outlasted just about every other ink jet printer I have owned and was less than $100. I'm sure they have a newer model now. One thing I've learned with ink jets is if you are not a regular printer is to try and print something at least once a month. Otherwise things start to dry up and I always had problems.

Laser printers can be less expensive per page, but eventually need new drums which are expensive. For my printer I have found reliable, cheap replacement cartridges on Amazon that work well. It took a while as some non-OEM cartridges are junk. OEM cartridges are very expensive. In either case, it is amazing how cheap you can get a printer for nowadays. Note that some (maybe most) printers come with starter toners or cartridges that are not full.

inbox788 · Post by **inbox788** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:13 am

Any specific Brother Color Laser Printer model or color cartridge to choose? Are the personal ones ok to use infrequently but long term, or is it better to step up to the business units?

https://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keyword ... olor+laser

Where to buy replacement cartridges? Do you print enough color to have to replace drums?

FWIW, I've killed enough inkjets too and have given up on them. Still have a couple that need to be recycled and I have to sort through my replacement supplies to dump out when I get to spring cleaning.

Hmm, wonder if Costco 2+2 Warranty would cover clogged heads...

https://www.costco.com/all-printers.html

dknightd · Post by **dknightd** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:08 am

thanks all

cheese_breath · Post by **cheese_breath** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:30 am

The only problem I've had with inkjets, other than the price of the ink was the ink absorbers filling up. Before her stroke DW printed almost everything she saw on the Internet, and I went through two printers that way. But the printers are cheap compared to the cost of the ink.

DrivingFun · Post by **DrivingFun** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:02 am

Unless you absolutely need photo quality prints, I would never get another inkjet. It's one of the biggest rackets out there. I don't know why I waited so many years to go laser myself.

Jim85 · Post by **Jim85** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:29 am

I have a Canon imageClass B&W laser that copies and scans as well. A great move after years of awful inkjets. The "starter" toner cartridge may have lasted a year and I'm now on my first full cartridge which I've had at least 2 years. I only ever used color on the inkjets for occasional photos. Now I just print photos at Walmart or a drugstore on the rare occasion I need to.

snackdog · Post by **snackdog** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:40 am

We haven't had a printer at home in a decade or so. And we don't keep or want paper at home either. Everything is digital and we view it on a screen of some sort, not papyrus.

5th_Dimension · Post by **5th_Dimension** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 3:07 pm

inbox788 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:13 am Any specific Brother Color Laser Printer model or color cartridge to choose? Are the personal ones ok to use infrequently but long term, or is it better to step up to the business units?

https://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keyword ... olor+laser

Where to buy replacement cartridges? Do you print enough color to have to replace drums?

FWIW, I've killed enough inkjets too and have given up on them. Still have a couple that need to be recycled and I have to sort through my replacement supplies to dump out when I get to spring cleaning.

Hmm, wonder if Costco 2+2 Warranty would cover clogged heads...

https://www.costco.com/all-printers.html

I have a Brother HL-3140CW, but it looks like a newer comparable model might be the HL-L3270CDW.

inbox788 · Post by **inbox788** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 3:34 pm

5th_Dimension wrote: ↑Sun Jan 06, 2019 3:07 pmI have a Brother HL-3140CW, but it looks like a newer comparable model might be the HL-L3270CDW.

Thanks! I don't mind paying $200 for a machine that lasts a few years, but $70/cartridge x 4 colors for toner is quite expensive. There seems to be a generic 4 color replacement for about $70 total that seems to be more reasonable. Reviews aren't so great, particularly with toner use, but there may be some workarounds.

Nicolas · Post by **Nicolas** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:45 pm

Prudence wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:49 pm Very happy with my Brother black and white laser printer.

+1, only way to go if you don’t need color. We finally realized we didn’t need color. We bought a Brother B&W laser a few years ago now and couldn’t be happier.

Bogle7 · Post by **Bogle7** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:59 pm

inbox788 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:13 am Do you print enough color to have to replace drums?

Not me.
If I needed a new drum, I would just buy a new printer.
A Brother HL-L3230CDW is $200 at Amazon or Worst Buy.

TimeRunner · Post by **TimeRunner** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:28 pm

Installed a Brother MFC-L2750DW all-in-one laser monochrome printer today from Costco ($239). Very impressed with build quality, functionality, flexibility, etc. Thanks to many Bogleheads who recommended Brother laser. Fried Canon Pixma going to e-recycler this weekend.

snackdog · Post by **snackdog** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:18 am

Samsung monochrome laser with scanner and copier for under $200 will last forever. Go to a copy store if you ever need color prints.

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 4:13 am

DrivingFun wrote: ↑Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:02 am Unless you absolutely need photo quality prints, I would never get another inkjet. It's one of the biggest rackets out there. I don't know why I waited so many years to go laser myself.

Personally, I've been avoiding it because of space constraints. I haven't seen a laser multi-function that would fit in the space my inkjet does.

Unfortunately, the manufacturers seem to have mostly solved the clogged jets problem.

I say unfortunately, because the solution is an automatic cleaning procedure that consumes ink. I happen to have unwisely chosen a model designed for photos, which means more expensive ink. Regardless of how little I print, it consumes a full set of cartridges worth about $70 in around a year.

Outrageously, Epson programmed it to refuse to print even in black and white if any of the color cartridges are empty.

Some time in the near future, I may re-examine my available space and replace it with a laser printer, and just get a separate scanner if that's what is necessary.

retiringwhen · Post by **retiringwhen** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:52 am

arf30 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:13 pm Brother is the only brand left worth buying in the consumer space.

+1, that goes for small business too. I can't believe how bad HP has become.