Our old HP 842C deskjet is on its last legs. We need a new PRINTER to work with our new PC for "home office" use. A combo unit with print/ scan/ copy capability would be terrific.....and fax would be nice too (but not essential).

Being a frugal person, I would like to have black and color cartridges available at a reasonable cost, and available generically. Kathy likes to print out 4x6 photos, so a reasonable color quality would be nice. It will also be great to gain copy & scan capability!

I would like to pay around 100 bucks but would pay up to 150, if there was a good reason in quality output or reliability etc.

Kodak brags about their low ink cost ???? Consumer Repts rates Canon pretty highly but likes some HP models too.

Hearing about your experience and preferences would be great....thanks!

 

I have an old hp photosmart 7760. It works fine for me. I am going to guess it's around 5 years old. I bought it for making photos but it is my regular computer printer, too.

 

I bought a Canon MP830 a few years ago. The photos are great and can be printed right from a card, so you don't even have to open up your computer if you don't want to.

We also have a Dell 964 and it is pretty good, but the pictures are not as nice as the Canon.

We also have an ancient HP 4L laserprinter for black and white documents (save ink).

 

I have an Epson CX3810 printer/copier/scanner. It must be 3 or 4 years old, so I'm sure it has been replaced by newer models. I've never had any problems with it. It gets very light use, so I don't know if its reliability is due to quality or just spending most of its time turned off.

I've never tried printing photos with it. It does a good job of printing topo maps though.

Ink prices are OK. It has always been easy to find.

I think I paid about $100, and then got $40 back from a mail in rebate.

 

Printers these days all seem to be 'throw away' machines. Cheap prices, cheap materials, etc. When I was looking Cannon was best for doing photos -- but along with that you must buy Cannon ink. I've tried the much cheaper Ready Refills and the quality goes down hill fast on photos.

 

Canon here, and all printers seem to be cheaply made these days. The real money makers for companies are the cartridges, ouch!

 

I have a Lexmark X6550. Works great!

 

I have an HP All-in-One, Model J-5780. It works fine for normal printing/copying/faxing, but not so great for photos. It's also a cartridge hog.

Printer makers have discovered the brilliant Gillette marketing philosophy: Sell 'em a bargain razor, then make it so that only Gillette blades will work.

 

Just a tip, look for OEM refill cartridges on Ebay. You can usually find them for about 50% off retail.

I have an Epson and its ok. It prints some photos very well and others poorly, but I have found it was not so much a function of the printer but the photo software utility I used at the time. Some made lousy images, other printed with great color and detail.

 

John: this sounds like a good rept on HP. is the 830 a wireless model? our HP has been a workhorse for +8 yrs and the generic and/or re-fill cartridges are not too $$$

thanks to everyone else for comments....hoping for some more. i'm also interested in comments about hardwired vs. wireless printers