Does any company make a decent printer any more? After spending all morning researching all in one inkjet printers I am beginning to think there is none out there. My only requirements are exceptionally good text and photo printing, must scan, and must duplex print. I don't care about print speed, hopper size, ADF, etc. Ink costs are not high on my list as long as I get a good printer. Price is flexible; I prefer to keep it under $300. But my research suggests price doesn't really mean anything when it comes to quality. The number of 'one star' ratings does not seem to be price sensitive. Maybe they are all just large plastic paperweights anymore, given the number that are rated piss poor by 20-40% of the buyers.

My Canon Pixma MX882 died after 6 years. Amazingly its so called replacements do not have some of the features it had. One of the things I find really frustrating is many of the feature lists do not tell a person if it does duplex printing.

Suggestions welcomed.

 

I've had my Brothers MFC-9130CW for about 4 years, now. The most trouble-free of all the printers I've owned (knock on my wooden head). My printers goes all the way back to the HP LaserJet II. The more recent made HP (since 2000) have had reliability issues (at home and work).

https://www.brother-usa.com/products...180725172014:s

 

I have a good old HP DeskJet 3510 that was inexpensive, does scanning and copying, and produces very nice quality photos on generic photo paper as well as good text print on plain paper. It has held up well. Of course HP means High Price when it comes to ink cartridges.

Laser printer prices have plummeted from a few years ago and good color laser printers are well within your budget and the cost per page is a fraction of the cost for ink jet printing. Many are wireless and some offer faxing, scanning, and copying functions. Here is a link that might interest you. If you do decide to go laser, be sure to check out toner prices before deciding on a brand..
https://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...aser-printers/

 

Inkjet printers have been $90 items for years. Hard to find one that isn't wireless,won't print on both sides and doesn't include a scanner and FAX. Ink is cheap if you don't buy the OEM stuff.

I've been running the same pair of HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 units for at least 4 years of daily service. I've not used HP-branded ink for at least 3 years. Pretty sure they were well under $200 each and prices for comparable printers are now less.

-- Chuck

 

I have a pretty cheap HP Envy 5530. I think it was about $80. It does everything you want. Good quality print, at least for docs. I don't print photos much. I scan a lot.

 

I've got a Dell 1265dn for B/W and a Dell 1320 for color.

The 1265 has worked flawlessly, has all the features and does duplex (the "d" in the model number, the "n" for network")

I haven't used an inkjet printer at home for at least10 years now.

 

I've got an older HP inkjet at home. It refuses to die. I don't print much of anything, so I have not replaced it. I just bought cheap ink off Amazon. I got what I paid for. If/when I need a new one, I'm guessing I'd go wireless. We use Brother and HP at the office. None get a huge amount of work. They were not very expensive, and so far, they've been reliable.

There are way too many choices out there.

 

When shopping for a printer it is important to also shop for refills. I don't really care what the printer costs (many are relatively cheap) as long as the refills are reasonably priced.

 

We have the Epson Work Force 3640 all-in-one inkjet printer for 2-3 years. It was bought from Costco for a little less than $200. It does scanning, faxing, printing, and works over our Wi-Fi network, so that means that I can print out email messages or web pages from my tablet or laptops when sitting in my living room. Print quality and speed are excellent. The text print quality is even comparable to our trusty HP LaserJet printer. Photo quality is so-so. Not outstanding.

One disadvantage is that the ink cartridges seem to run out very quickly. They are expensive to replace. Costco offers a replacement package of black plus 3 colors for around $50. I tried Costco's generic ink replacements, and the Epson electronic would not accept the re-filled cartridge. So, we are stuck having to use the genuine Epson inks.

Epson does make a comparable inkjet all-in-one with larger ink tanks. These are called EcoTank printers, and are rated for two (2!) years normal usage. These will print more pages, but of course ink replacement costs are still high. The Costco sale price on one of these printers is $380

We had the HP OfficeJet 8600 printer for two years previous. It broke down, and frankly I didn't have patience to try to download and test new software drivers.

 

Our Epson WF-3520 seems to work well. Copy, print, scan, wi-fi. We've had it 4+ years and hasn't broken yet.... Ink does go fast though.