Printer?

[demarpaint]

I'm looking for a printer/scanner reasonably priced, $100-$150 range. Much to my disappointment I'm seeing they all have some kind of ink subscription nonsense associated with them, or buy something from Brother in the $400 range. Is there a printer in the price range I'm looking at that I don't have to be tied into a subscription or have problems with the printer opting out of a subscription? I print about ten pages a month, but do a lot of scanning. Thanks!

 

[rijndael]

I don't have much advise other than to let you know that nearly every new printer you buy, laser or inkjet, will probably come with an "introductory" amount of ink/toner.

 

[Pew]

Do you prefer ink or toner? Monochrome or color?

The Brothers AIO that I order for some WFH Employees have been great as far as reliability goes but for $150 and under you're going to be limited to ink for all-in-ones. If you're fine with ink, I would get this Brother all-in-one. Best of all, it has a tray if you don't want to scan one-by-one on the glass.

 

[demarpaint]

I don't have much advise other than to let you know that nearly every new printer you buy, laser or inkjet, will probably come with an "introductory" amount of ink/toner.

Yes sample size ink cartridges. I'm reading all kinds of horror stories with HP and some of the others, which is what prompted the question. I stumbled upon a Cannon printer for About $80 that has no mention of any kind of subscription I'll might roll the dice and give it a try, worst case Amazon gets it back. Waiting for other suggestions first.

 

[2005jettatdi]

I do not use anything other than laser printers and copiers. Much cheaper in the long run.

 

[Tdbo]

While I don't have a specific recommendation, I'd advise staying away from HP.
I just threw a 6 month old HP in the trash a couple of weeks ago. It would not print, even with a full color cartridge and a black that was one bar down on the monitor. After five hours going through the book and performing every step, I had had enough.
Ended up with a Canon and have been very happy with it.

 

[demarpaint]

Do you prefer ink or toner? Monochrome or color?

The Brothers AIO that I order for some WFH Employees have been great as far as reliability goes but for $150 and under you're going to be limited to ink for all-in-ones. If you're fine with ink, I would get this Brother all-in-one. Best of all, it has a tray if you don't want to scan one-by-one on the glass.

I've been using ink jet for years without issue. Thanks.

 

[demarpaint]

I do not use anything other than laser printers and copiers. Much cheaper in the long run.

For the ten or so pages a month I print I get a lot of years out of the cheaper printers.

 

[racer12306]

My personal preference is laser, but those are expensive when you start getting into the color multifunctions. However, I have been liking Brother Inkvestment printers when the laser is cost prohibitive.

The "inkvestment" series has ink tanks in the printer that are climate controlled for life so the ink won't dry or gunk up. The refill tanks are pretty reasonable for the page count as well.

If it were me, I'd be looking at one of these:
Flatbed Scanner
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092YXNZT...7fe80e724b9899b20711b25&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

Feed Scanner
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092YN1JK...tbs_67fe8156fe4f54d2d3d73f7b&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[demarpaint]

While I don't have a specific recommendation, I'd advise staying away from HP.
I just threw a 6 month old HP in the trash a couple of weeks ago. It would not print, even with a full color cartridge and a black that was one bar down on the monitor. After five hours going through the book and performing every step, I had had enough.
Ended up with a Canon and have been very happy with it.

I'm done with HP too. My printer died and when I started looking I was instantly turned off to HP.

 

[Donald]

I do not use anything other than laser printers and copiers. Much cheaper in the long run.

I agree. Laser and color laser.

I have a Samsung multi function laser and a Xerox color laser.

If you do not print a lot the ink dries up and you waste a ton of ink cleaning the cartridge.

 

[demarpaint]

My personal preference is laser, but those are expensive when you start getting into the color multifunctions. However, I have been liking Brother Inkvestment printers when the laser is cost prohibitive.

The "inkvestment" series has ink tanks in the printer that are climate controlled for life so the ink won't dry or gunk up. The refill tanks are pretty reasonable for the page count as well.

If it were me, I'd be looking at one of these:
Flatbed Scanner
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092YXNZT...7fe80e724b9899b20711b25&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

This looks like it would work for me. Thanks.

 

[2005jettatdi]

No HPs for me. They block aftermarket toner cartridges from working. All printers are sold on the premise they will hook you for their brand of toner or ink.

 

[Pablo]

Brother, they only have some software battles and don't REALLY like knockoff juice.

I will whine but this Brother MFC-J805 inker is still going 6 years now. Yes I print little, but some shipping labels.

Gripe: Will print something or test page perfectly, print a shipping label and the bar code goes all cattywampus

Gripe 2: Every Brother ink printer uses some different ink cart type. Seems REALLY stupid.

 

[JTK]

I wish I had jumped to laser/toner printers way before I did. I struggled with ink jets from the 1990s until 2020-21. We've had our Canon imageclass MF232w for about 5yrs now. It was around $100 when I mail ordered it thru Walmart back then. Aftermarket toner cartridges off amazon or the likes work perfectly in it. 1000's of sheets have been run though it.

 

[demarpaint]

Brother, they only have some software battles and don't REALLY like knockoff juice.

I will whine but this Brother MFC-J805 inker is still going 6 years now. Yes I print little, but some shipping labels.

Gripe: Will print something or test page perfectly, print a shipping label and the bar code goes all cattywampus

Gripe 2: Every Brother ink printer uses some different ink cart type. Seems REALLY stupid.

I had issues many years ago with Brother, and switched to HP. No more HP. I might roll the dice on Brother, hopefully it plays nice with Linux. I probably got 8+ years out of my last HP, and had no issues with the ink drying up. It took less than a minute of shopping to be done with HP. All those good years of a loyal customer gone. lol

 

[Nukeman7]

I've been using ink jet for years without issue. Thanks.

I had an expensive Brother color laser for about 5 years before it died during the Covid WFH period. I replaced it with an EPSON ECOTank inkjet and won't be going back to a laser printer since the ECOTank ink is even cheaper per page than the laser printer. Here is an EPSON ECOTank printer on sale for $159 at Target and also on Amazon. The ink refill bottles are $54 for an entire set at COSTCO, Sams Club and BJ's Wholesale. No subscriptions or any online nonsense to deal with.

 

[Rand]

Do you need color? Walmart has a all-in-one brother laser for 152 currently

 

[demarpaint]

Do you need color? Walmart has a all-in-one brother laser for 152 currently

On occasion.

 

[JohnnyG]

I just bought a Canon MF652Cw, which is a color laser, scanner, copier. Notice I didn't say FAX machine, no phone line on this one, but they do offer those too.
Anyway, Canon would like for you to subscribe to their supplies/toner service, but you don't have to.

It works great on documents, but it's photo printing is terrible. My Canon Ink Jet multifunction (with phone line) and automatic document feeder worked MUCH better.

So, my point is you relly have to be careful when you buy one of these, they leave out a lot of features to make the price appear more attractive.
This one was about $220.00