Colour Inkjet Printers

[mexx]

I'm looking for the least expensive, most ink-efficient, barebones colour inkjet printer. Nothing fancy, no mutifunction capability, just something to strictly print colour and b&w pages at a decent speed. Preferably a model that uses 1 cartridge for black and 1 cartridge for all 3 colours instead of the 3 individual cartridge system commonly seen today (which I think is just another way to ripoff consumers). And of course replacement cost for ink should be very low with ability to use generic cartridges from somewhere like Staples or if you know any reputable ink refill shops you can recommend that would be appreciated too.

I had a bad experience with Brother in the past and refuse to buy another. Design was so poor and the thing went through ink like crazy!
Canon, Lexmark, HP seem to be the other main competitors.
Does LG or Samsung make inkjets?

 

[papasmerf]

I like EPSON but reality is it all comes down to ink costs

 

[Garden of Eden Ladies]

Try looking at a color laser printer. I use a bw laser printer and my cost per page is 100 times cheaper than inkjet. I think a $100 cartrige for my printer lasts for over 5k prints. Try doing that with an inkjet


Thanks


Nicole

 

[thirdtime]

I've had Epson, HP and Lexmark inkjets and I'm fed up with inkjet printers.
You almost have to print a color photo once a week to keep the ink heads working properly. If not, one would always dry up and then you had to jump through hoops trying to get it to print properly again: clean the head with rubbing alcohol, set it on a piece of damp warm paper towel to try and draw the ink out, then countless test pages and gobs of ink to get the photo looking right. By the time you've resurrected it, it would usually be close to out of ink.
The inital expense of a color laser is more, but they're a hell of a lot cheaper to run than an inkjet. Now you can get one for under $400. I strongly suggest going that route. I bought one 2 years ago and the toner has cost me a fraction of what ink would have.

I'm surprised you had problems with Brother. I also have a Brother b&w laser that's over 10 years old and refuses to die!

 

[Never Compromised]

Why on earth would you want a 1 cartridge - 3 colour system? If you run short of 1 colour, you are wasting the other two colours.

Injets printers are cheap. The ink is not.

A laser or dye sub printer is more expensive, but the consumables are much less expensive.

Over the lifetime of the product, the inkjet is much much more expensive.

That being said, I've had both epson and HP inkjet printers, and all have worked fine.

 

[mexx]

Thanks for the advice.

Which model colour laser printers have you had success with? Does the toner allow you to print both B&W and colour prints or do you need 2 different laser printers with different toners?
Where is a good store to purchase?

Why on earth would you want a 1 cartridge - 3 colour system? If you run short of 1 colour, you are wasting the other two colours.

My experience has been that I have gone through replacing far more individual cartridges in the separate 3 colour system than replacing just the single cartridge colour format. The single cartridge lasted much longer so was cheaper for me over the course of time.

 

[Edifice]

Has anyone tried the new wireless printers from HP?

 

[papasmerf]

Has anyone tried the new wireless printers from HP?

I use a wireless print server for both a Brother lasr and an Epson photo ink jet....works great but did take some savey to set up.

 

[Robio]

Epson that prints on CD any good?

I like EPSON but reality is it all comes down to ink costs

Have you tried the Epson or any other type that prints directly onto a DVD or CD? I would like to know how well it works

 

[ThePunkPanther]

re: epsons that print on cd/dvd disks; YES they work very well. I publish software and use one of these units for labelling.

as for general use colour printers... I agree with Nicole in that the colour laser printers are eminently more cost effective. I'm using an HP colour laserjet unit and its got a toner lifespan of about 7500 pages per tonerset. [in typical use] versus an average of 100 pages or so for most inkjet colour printers. [the tonersets for laser and inkjet printers cost about the same].