Tell me about your all-in-one printer

[MushyMushy]

What kind do you have? Does the scanner work well for you? How about the copier? How much does your ink cost? Does it print clearly?

We need printer ink, and it'll cost us close to $60 to replace both the color and the black. I saw an all-in-one on sale at Target for $68 -- it's a Lexmark P4350. We already have a Lexmark all-in-one. The scanner is so-so, and the copier is worthless. I looked up the ink prices for it, and the ink is $10-15 less than what I buy now.

I'd pay more for a better all-in-one, but I'd like to hear about yours and how it works for you.

 

[cocodog]

After years of Lexmark, Brother, etc. my dh finally bought me a GOOD all in one. It is the HP Photosmart 3310, and I am SO pleased. It uses the Vivara (??) ink cartridges in 4 colors. I can't remember right off how much they are-- not much though. Maybe around $13??
I really LOVE my Photosmart!

 

[Poohnatic]

I have an HP that I purchased two years ago and I love it. It's the Photosmart 2410. At the time, it was one of the best that HP had out. What I loved about it is that it has a digital card reader, so I can just pop the card in to print pictures.

Ink cartridges are not cheap, and for that reason, I very rarely use it to print pictures.

Suzanne

 

[MushyMushy]

That reminds me of another question. I did see some printers where you could buy the colored ink in separate colors. How does that work out for you? Do you end up having to buy all the colors at the same time? That would kind of defeat the purpose for me.

 

[golfgal]

I have had 3 printers, Lexmark, HP and a Dell all in one. The lexmark was HORRIBLE, the $40 HP was the best printer, the Dell all in one is ok. The scanner/copier work fine but the print quality isn't as good as my cheepo HP. The all-in-one came free with my computer which is the only reason I have it.

 

[lynxstch]

1600 series all in one..we love it...scans very easily (I do a lot of crossstitching and use it to enlarge my patterns)..you can use your digital camera cards in it..prints very well..I think we paid like $89 for it after rebate at Staples..inks are about $50 for both a color and black, but one set lasted us from May till Dec..and we use it a LOT!

edited to add..we had a brand new Lexmark when we got the new computer..and we hated it..always had trouble with it..inks were very expensive..and didn't seem to last long..before that we had a Canon all in one..which was 'ok'..nothing special...could get replacement inks for it on ebay for about $4..but it finally died..lol!..good luck in your search!

 

[almacdonald]

You can properly compare ink prices without looking into how much ink is in the cartridges. Sure, one set of cartridges may cost $10-$15 less but it may only have half the ink of the more expensive cartridge. Also, keep in mind that some companies package their new printers with "starter" cartridges that don't have as much ink in them as the regular cartridges.

Now, this is my opinion, but I also think it's very wasteful to think of printers as disposable. If you buy a new printer every time you run out of ink, you're adding a lot of unnecessary trash to the landfills. So, buying a new printer may seem to be cheaper money-wise but it's costing everyone in the long run.

 

[MushyMushy]

You can properly compare ink prices without looking into how much ink is in the cartridges. Sure, one set of cartridges may cost $10-$15 less but it may only have half the ink of the more expensive cartridge. Also, keep in mind that some companies package their new printers with "starter" cartridges that don't have as much ink in them as the regular cartridges.

Now, this is my opinion, but I also think it's very wasteful to think of printers as disposable. If you buy a new printer every time you run out of ink, you're adding a lot of unnecessary trash to the landfills. So, buying a new printer may seem to be cheaper money-wise but it's costing everyone in the long run.

Nah, it's not about the money for new ink. Our printer quality has gone downhill over the last few months. It has lasted me 3 years, and through a lot of hard use through grad school, and especially those last few months as a student teacher where I was printing 100s of sheets a week for my classes and then one final bout of major use for my portfolio (which ended up not looking too great). Now it just prints crappy and I want a new one. I could have eeked out more time with it, but when I saw that a new printer cost as much as new ink, that swayed my decision to start looking for a new one now.

I'm glad you mentioned that about how much ink is in a cartridge though. I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

 

[almacdonald]

A great example of the cartridges containing different amounts of ink would be HP's 27/28 combo and the 56/57 combo. Both are the same size and many printers can use either set of cartridges. There is about a $10 price difference but the print yield is about double for the 56/57 vs the 27/28.

 

[CarolG]

A recent issue of Consumer Reports (January, I think) has a review of all-in-one printers. You should be able to find a copy at the library if it's not still on the newsstands.

Best inkjets:
• Canon Pixma MP800 , $280
• Canon Pixma MP830 , $280
Both were excellent for photos and text and were among the fastest models tested. The MP830 has a document feeder, a fax modem, a 2.5-inch LCD viewer, and low photo costs. The MP800 doesn't have a document feeder or fax modem, but it has a 3.5-inch LCD and optional Bluetooth. It can scan slides, negatives, and prints. However, its photo costs are on the high side.

Best value among inkjets:
• Canon Pixma MP160 , $80, CR Best Buy
It printed very good photos and excellent text, but it was slower than the costlier Pixmas and has fewer features. Still, the combination of modest per-copy costs and low price makes it a great value.

Our old printer had died, and we ended up getting a Canon Pixma MP830 a couple of weeks ago. (Found it on sale at Best Buy and had a 12% coupon.) You can feed the printer either from a cassette or a feeder on the back. If one source runs out, it'll check the other and keep going if the secondary source has the same size paper loaded.

This one uses separate tanks for each color ink.

You can scan multipage documents using the document feeder on top, or you can scan photos, books, etc. using the flat-bed.

It will read various memory cards: CompactFlash, SD/MMC, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, xD. It's also Pictbridge compatible, so you can connect certain cameras directly to a port on the front.

We've been happy with the print quality so far, but it's only been a couple of weeks. I did scan a professional picture of us that was taken in Hawaii in 1982, and was very happy with the print quality.

 

[Aimee K]

We just bought an HP 6180, and in the three days we've had it, I LOVE it!

I did buy a brother all in one, but couldn't get the printer driver to be recognized, and I took it back and gt the HP. It has the camera card ports, a separate 4 x 6 photo paper tray, and the scanner works pretty well. I've only scanned one image from a book though, so it was kind of distorted where the book binding was. I haven't used the fax yet, because we only have one jack in the room the computer is in, and that goes to the cable mode/ digital phone line.

I would show you the scanned image, buuti's currently in use for wpasadi stuff And I don't want to give away our identity if any judges come across it.

It has 7 differrent ink cartridges, and it tells you when you're running low. I don't know how much the replacement cartridges are, but I do know office max refills them.

 

[debden]

What kind do you have? Does the scanner work well for you? How about the copier? How much does your ink cost? Does it print clearly?

We need printer ink, and it'll cost us close to $60 to replace both the color and the black. I saw an all-in-one on sale at Target for $68 -- it's a Lexmark P4350. We already have a Lexmark all-in-one. The scanner is so-so, and the copier is worthless. I looked up the ink prices for it, and the ink is $10-15 less than what I buy now.

I'd pay more for a better all-in-one, but I'd like to hear about yours and how it works for you.

Just to jump in and let you know I buy my Ink thru Amazon.com.You can get your printer ink for half the price you pay elsewhere.My sis paid $60 for both her ink cartridges and I bought both mine from a seller on Amazon for $15 which included shipping and they worked perfect.I don't buy them anyplace else.
Debbie

 

[Poohnatic]

My first bubblejet (12 years ago) was a Canon that had the separate cartridges. I loved it, since I seemed to go through Cyan almost twice as fast as the other colors. It still works well and it'll get hooked up to the kid's PC for my son's homework printouts.

I buy my ink at Costco-a tiny bit more than Amazon for my cartridges, but the shipping makes it a wash.

Suzanne

 

[MushyMushy]

Okay, now I've got myself even more confused looking for the print yields of the different inks to help make my decision. As quickly as we go through ink, between DH printing tons of stuff for choir and me printing for school (even though I'm done now, I'm still a print fiend ), ink cost is a consideration.

That cheapo Lexmark is still looking pretty good. They have a high yield ink that is still cheaper than what I'm paying now. I'm still going to price around some of the other ones you all have mentioned.

I really don't want to put that much money into a printer itself. It's not that we're cheap, but we've bought more expensive printers in the past. We're just really hard on them. Quality isn't all that important for us -- I don't want fuzzy or blurry prints, but it doesn't have to be perfect either.

 

[DVC-Don]

I just last week hooked up a HP Officejet 7410 here at the office that seems to work nicely. Don't know how much it cost and the company sends us an upgrade every three years.

 

[Mom2Ashli]

I just purchased the Canon PIXMA All-In-One Photo Printer/ Copier/ Scanner
Model: MP530. And I did alot of research before I bought it. It received very high rating in all areas and all sites that I checked revies.

I would only purchase an inkjet printer that took separate ink cartridges. I didn't want to have to purchase a new cartridge if only one of the colors was gone. Seemed like a waste to me.

Anyways I haven't had it hooked up long enought to play around with it yet.

 

[Snowysmom]

We have a Canon multi pass F60 and it has been a good all in one for us. After years of Epson printers, we decided to try Canon. I have heard that the Canon Prima series is very good and we are looking at those for younger DS for college next fall. Older DS has as HP which will probably be replaced with a Canon.