• The Forums are now open to new registrations, adverts are also being de-tuned.

How does anyone else print at home?

230K

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 1, 2003
Messages
2,190
Location
Belfast
Car
09 E320 cdi Sport Estate, 98 E300TD Estate, 99 SL 500
Hi

Minor rant but bear with me.

How does everyone else print?? It seems like running out of ink is just a regular occurrence in the 230k household.

I bit the bullet. Few months ago and bought a full XL set of ink at £80 or so and I am told we have been empty for at least a month.

Wife and 5 kids in the house. The kids have to print the odd thing for school but only essentials really.

Is there a better way??

I ranted previously and looked at laser jet or whatever but decided to just fall back into the inkjet rut..

Suggestions anyone?

Rant over

230k

Sent from my GT-I9505 using MBClub UK
 
I've been in the same boat. Varies hugely depending on the printer you have. I had a Lexmark and whereas it worked well and was cheap it always needed ink as the kids seemed always to be printing. Swapped it out for a HP one that had good reviews on ink useage and it's made a big difference.
 
Ive banned all but text based prints at home as the kids were printing full page pictures and using all the ink at an alarming rate.

Things are much better since doing so.

Longer term I need to invest in a laser printer.
 
I am lucky to have laser printer at home, where the efficiency is far better than previously used ink jet ones. As far as the general printing, the printer is set to black&white by default and only my computer can print in colour. Have you tried thermal printers? I have never used it myself, but meant to be the best thing since sliced bread.
 
Laser printer every time--- colour ones are quite cheap now. You take a bit of a hit with the cartridge but the beauty of them is you can leave them for months without doing anything and they will pick up just as you left off-- unlike the inkjets. OR buy a B/W laser for text and keep the inkjet for the colour reproduction when required?
 
Wife and 3 kids here, no silly/gratuitous printing allowed ... helps a lot.

Worth looking at ink costs when choosing a printer as they vary quite widely. Just bought a set of 4 genuine Canon cartridges for ours ... £48 delivered from 7Dayshop. My dad has used cheaper 'compatible' cartridges in his printer for years with zero issues.
 
A warning here several manufacturers are now "chipping" their cartridges so that compatible or refill cartridges cannot be used.
 
Back in the mists of time, it felt like had to buy a new injet cartridge every time I wanted to print - it drove me mad. The cartridges were always drying out.

As a consequence in 2005 I bought a samsung B&W laser printer for something like £80 and I've never looked back, it's only on it's 2nd cartridge but it just keeps going always ready and the ink doesn't dry up as grober mentions.

We have kids now but the eldest is 4 and hasn't started printing random things yet, I imagine the B&W nature of our printer will dissuade him from too much nonsense printing.

When we want to print photos we either do it at boots if it's bulk or larger sizes - or we use our canon selphy dye sublimation printer which produces superb glossy snaps and similar to a laser printer doesn't mind being left for years and then started back up again. The ink never dries up.

I haven't found too many occasions when A4 B&W or colour photo snaps didn't cover our requirement. I can print in A3 or A4 in colour at work if I really have to, but in reality it's so rarely needed I don't think its a problem.

If as said above colour lasers are now cheaper maybe I'll look at those next time the samsung needs a new toner cartridge.
 
I've had an HP psc 2210 all-in-one for over 10 years now. I've tried so called compatible cartridges but they don't last as well as HP's own which I can usually get hold of somewhere at a reasonable price. Not having kids at home no doubt helps to make the cartridges last, but I do print out quite a lot of colour photos. As a default I have set everything that uses the printer to 'fast draft' which uses far less ink. I use this setting for the bulk of documents for personal use that don't need to be high quality.

I like an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax for all the facilities it provides on a small footprint. Whether or not the modern wireless equivalent of HP Photosmart 5520 is as good I don't know, but at just £61.95 from Amazon it's not the most expensive thing you'll ever have to buy.
 
can anyone recommend a colour lazer printer for home use? (smallish footprint)
 
I went from lasers to ink jet. A mistake that will be rectified.
 
I have a HP 3600dn (three actually as they were made redundant, brand new, by apple). I have changed the 4 cartridges once in the last 4-5 years, at a total cost of under £50 for the lot.

I'm a pretty heavy printer too, printing graphics on a regular basis, as well as reports several hundred pages long weekly.

Why anyone would use an inkjet baffles me...
M.
 
I use a network-attached black and white laser printer. Network attached, so easy to use from any computer connected to the home network. Cheap as chips to run as the toner seems to last for ever. When the toner runs out one has a choice of buying a new toner cartridge or having it refilled for much less than a new one.

For colour photo printing I use online printing services that are cost economical.
 

Why anyone would use an inkjet baffles me...

M.

I went to inkjet because at the time I couldn't find decent wireless multifunction machine. They are now available, so in time I'll change back to laser.
 
Our household has an inkjet printer that hardly ever gets used, meaning full cartridges simply dry up. As BTB 500 says, the point of having inkjet is meant to be for photo printing, except never actually print them :D Used to have a Samsung laser printer/scanner/copier - that was brilliant! The cartridge lasted ages, nothing dried up and it worked even after I dropped it (oops :D)
 
I've had an Oki Colour laser for getting on 7 years. Toners are expensive at £40-£50 a set, although after markets are only £15, but last for a long long time. I'm now having to replace drums for the first time - again at a cost of £40 per colour.

It is bloody bulky though.

Also have a Brother Multi-Function inket for printing on A3 and as a backup. Never dries up nor gives grief.
 
I don't print a lot at home. I bought a HP 2600n colour laser 7 years ago and I've still got 30% on the black and 40% on the colours.

A complete set of (genuine) toner cartridges is around £300 - roughly double what I paid for the printer. :wallbash:

Cheers,

Gaz.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom