Value Printer with Budget Ink-Suggestions wanted!

[tiggrsbride]

Time to replace the freebie Dell printer with a new printer for home use. I am looking for a printer that has budget priced ink refills, since Dell refills average $30 per cartridge.

I would prefer a printer that scans, but overall I am looking for a decent, inexpensive printer that doesn't cost a fortune for ink.

Budget folks, what do you suggest? Please suggest models with approximate costs for the printer and ink refills. Thank you!

 

[Purseval]

Most printers can be on sale for cheap money because they make their cost back on the ink, so look for a printer that you like then see how much the generic cartridges cost through cartridge world, lasermonks or if you can refill them yourself. Personally I used to use Lasermonks but Cartridge World is local so I don't have to wait and I also don't have to buy in large quantities.

 

[pixiemagic30]

Check out the Kodak printers. Their all-in-one printers start at $99, while the black carts run around $10 and the color $15. I know that when my printer dies, this is what I'm getting.

 

[tiggrsbride]

Thanks for the suggestions! Is anyone else happy with their inexpensive printer set up?

 

[4Seasons]

I'm very happy with my Brother printer. It's a MFC-685CW, and copies, scans, faxes and has wireless. I think I paid around $150 about a year ago and I do ALOT of printing since I use it for my business. They have versions that are less without the wireless, but I liked the convenience of being able to print from my laptop anywhere in the house.
I buy generic ink cartridges on Ebay which end up being around $2/each.

 

[RetiredNavy02]

Though the Kodak printer Ink Cartridges are very affordable, I don't think you print as many pictures as what the commercial says with just one cartridge.

We had a ink thirsty Lexmark All-in-One which cartridges were expensive. We fell into the hype of the new Kodak and bought one a little over a year ago (ESP-3). Yes the cartridges are cheap and it prints well, I think I actually go through more catridges with the Kodak then I did with the Lexmark. Another think I dislike (at least with the ESP-3) is, when a ink cartridge runs out, you can not print at all until you replace it. What I mean by that is when you run out of the color cartridge and tell the printer only to print in black ink (which may be full), it will not until you replace the color cartridge. The Lexmark will let you print in black ink only if the color runs out.

Also, we have had the printer head replaced twice through Kodak (their support is excellent), and had the printer replaced once. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the printer in general is not a good inexpensive printers, I'm just saying that though the printer cartridges are very inexpensive, if you print any pictures, you will go through the ink like it's water. I would say that two of the Kodak Ink cartridges would print just as many copies as one of the expensive Lexmark cartridges, so all in all, the price savings is not that much in the end.

That's just our experience, maybe someone else has had more success one of the other Kodak Printers, ESP-5 for example.

 

[worm761]

We have an HP printer that also copies and scans. The best part is that it prints pictures! And at a good quality too. The ink costs very little. I think it is $12-20 depending on if you want color or just black. I know that the last time we bought ink it cost $32 and I got both color and black. We homeschool and print a lot so I cannot afford to spend a fortune on ink.

 

[Danemom]

I've been very happy with my Kodak. Especially happy when I buy ink!
I don't know if ours won't print in b/w if the color cartridge is empty or not, but it does tell you it's low WAY before you run out. I also really like that I can put several pictures on the scanner and it will save them each as a separate file. That was really handy for putting all my old pics on CDs.