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Paul Douglass

Paul Douglass

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4,995
Location
S E Washington State
My HP Officejet Pro 8625 has died. Been a good printer and we have put a lot of paper through it, between me printing scrolling patterns and my wife printing quilting patterns. I like the HP but I do not care for HP attitude.. Their ink is a super ripoff and some how they have made it so anything but their brand will eventually foul up the printer... I also carry an old grudge from way back in my Mainframe computer operator days... Their maintenance/repair people were always very aloof and they first thing out of their mouth was, must be operator error... Trust me it was never operator error as I remember.. Any way anyone have suggestions on a good reliable, all in one color printer? May have to end up with another darn HP product!
 
I have always used a HP printer. But, never an all in one unit. But, I have never bought my toner cartridges from them. Lots cheaper from other online stores. I have had great success with Ink Technologies, for whatever it's worth. I only have now a b&w hp laserjet as that is my only need and it has, as it's predecessors, flawless in operation. I have friends who have Brothers and like them. I also have used after market toner's in my older hp laser printers with no issues. Good hunting for your replacement.
 
Our current we've had for the last 4-5 years is a midsized office HP all in one laser (M477fdn it's VASTLY overkill for our use and we'd have gotten something a lot smaller / normally cheaper .. but there was a really good sale at the time that put it down in the same price as printers 2 tiers lower).

Before that we had two Brothers and they were both quite good as well. We ended up switching from the last Brother because the boss wanted color for knitting patterns.

If you can swing the upgrade from injet to color laser it's significantly more reliable and less of a pain plus the consumables are cheaper per page. The downside besides the price jump, is if you use it to print a lot of actual photo's then a photo inkjet is generally still quite a bit better.
 
I'm on my fourth HP printer now as I recall. The current one is an Officejet 3830. Although I agree about their service being a pain sometimes, I've found their Instant Ink program to be a good bargain for the ink. I pay about $3.00 per month for up to 50 pages of printing per month. When my printer needs ink, it contacts the mother ship and they send me a new cartridge. They also have cheaper and more expensive plans, depending on your anticipated printing volume. In the 8 or 9 years I've been on the Instant Ink plan, there have only been a couple of times when one of my cartridges ran out before they sent me a new one. In both cases I contacted support, they had me try a few things to troubleshoot the problem (even though I'd already done them), and then once they'd run through their script they agreed it was an empty cartridge and sent me a new one via 2-day FedEx.

Years ago I saw a quote from the then-CEO of HP saying that consumer-level printers are generally sold at cost, because they simply consider them to be ink delivery vehicles. The real money is in the ink. It's much like how when King Camp Gillette invented disposable razors he wisely deduced that he'd sell a lot more blades if he gave away the razor handles.
 
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I switched from HP to a Brother J985DW because of the ink cost. The Brother has proven to be flawless. My wife used it heavily for Sunday school lessons and events, Ink lasts forever and costs about $17.00 for a package of cartridges including all 3 colors plus black.
I do have a HP M402n laser printer that I used heavily when I was really active in the Lions club. I bought bootleg cartridges from Amazon for it.
 
Another vote for Brother. I had a Brother about 10 years ago that worked very well but thought I needed to 'upgrade' to something that could handle 11 x 17 and moved to an Epson. It was trouble from day one. I had to delete and reinstall the printer at least a dozen times for the 8 years I had it. Every software update was a challenge, it revolted against non-OEM ink by flashing all kinds of warnings and adding steps to the replacement process. When it died I was a little happy as it gave me the excuse to replace it with another Brother with which I am very happy.
 
I have a couple of Epson printers, both have worked well. They have individual color cartridges. My only complaint is that when a “color” runs out, it won’t let me print in black and white, even though there is a black cartridge???

That said, I’ve purchased a Brother label printer recently, and been really happy with their software for it.
 
I've always been partial to Epson printers... I used HP printers at work and the ink cartridges always cost more than the printers themselves.

I use an EPSON XP430... relatively inexpensive printer and uses individual cartridges which run about $10 each. My printer is at least 7 years old and still working great... also can be set up as a wireless, plus has a scanner bed that also works great.

Not the same as what you're looking for, but at one of jobs in Houston, we ran a bank of Epson dot matrix printers that ran about 10 hours per day... they only got to rest when we closed down for the night, usually about 10 or 11 pm and opened again at 7 am.... I had about 12 clerks that were cutting airwaybills, multiple pages, two copies of each almost all day long.
 
For me I know absolutely nothing about computers, printers or the mouse. Randy and Jarrod get things set up. Randy is a wizard with all the devices. Over the years we had an HP but image the dust destroys everything. Randy looks for the best price for your money and efficiency for the business.
 
Presently using an HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e which replaced another HP all in one last year. The previous one, now discontinued, was a great machine and gave us over 5 years of heavy use before giving up the ghost. This one is more flimsy and does not handle the Avery shipping labels we use in the missus’ ETSY shop very well. Nor does it like the heavy card stock she used for product labels. As usual, every time we replace an HP machine none of the previous ink cartridges will work in the new machine. Like Vaughn, I subscribe to HP’s ink replacement program and it works well so far.
Next machine will probably not be a HP and will look at ink reservoir type machines from Epson or Brother.
 
To be the HP line has became "also ran". Our HP ink jet got clogged up a fw years back and without though I bought another HP. That one worked for 2 days and I emailed HP. lmost immediately they sent me a replacement (a "refurbished" one) advising mt to return the original in the box I just received. the replacement worked for about 2 weeks. Emailed HP again and got another refurb sent out. That one lasted about a month (at least they were lasting longer. I gave up and bought a Brother laser printer after that, and it's did just fine since then. We really didn't need color, if that turns out to be an issue I'll probably buy another Brother.
 
They are all a rip with the ink. Have had a variety of printers over the years. Current one is a $39.00 Canon from Walmart. I don't use the color at all. The xl size black cartridge has lasted me a long time. But, the Epson lasers get high praise. They use a dry toner. Cartridges are expensive but last a very long time for most home use.
 
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