Printer Recommendations?

[Thomason]

I was wondering if perhaps you guys in the know might help me out with a printer recommendation. There are so many out there I get overwhelmed. Looking for - iMac compatible, don't need any color so black only if fine, it will get very low usage, speed is no big deal, not a lot of room on my desk so the smaller the better. I don't want to spend a lot of bucks because that cuts into the knife budget. Plastic body is OK but I would prefer stag or maybe a nice jigged bone. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Cougar Allen]

Sounds like anything small and cheap will suit you fine, so just go to your local Walmart, Staples, etc. and see what's small and cheap.

They sell printers at a loss hoping you will be cooperative enough to buy ink from them for $10,000 a gallon or more. That scam won't work on you because you aren't going to use any significant amount of ink.

 

[j22knife]

What is your budget? If all you need is B&W, low end lasers are a good deal. You can spend a little less up front on an inkjet, but they're a real hassle and the ink is expensive.

Here's some Dell lasers:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/blackandwhitelaser_landing?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

[wiredgargoyle]

Pretty much all the printers out there will work with Apple or PC, they're all USB connections these days so it's all the same port to them.

Same for the sub $100 printer choices, they're all pretty much the same printer. The ink cartridges will cost more than the printer but you can get empty ones refilled cheaper if you're the daring kind of person. I don't recommend it as my experiences have not been good. Lexmark seems to be the leader in the cheap printer market, they work ok for what you pay for them. Generally, anything under $100 or so are considered throw-away printers where they work for a while and die or the ink runs out and you look at the price of more ink and say to yourself: 'Damn, I could buy another printer for that much' and then go out and buy another printer instead.

If all you want is text and or B&W copies an inkjet will do you well enough. Look for something that does around 20 pages per minute (ppm).

That being said, I recommend the Epson line of printers for overall quality and life expectancy. I've used them for years and only replaced them when I needed more resolution (dpi), all my old ones still work well and have found new homes.

Basically, it comes down to size. Pick the one that fits the space you need.

 

[jerrinfla]

If you aren't going to be using the printer very often and don't need color, I would say definitely go for a low end laser printer rather then an inkjet. A lot of the new ones are pretty small and not very expensive.
If an inkjet sits for a long time without printing anything, the nozzles in the cartridge and/or printhead will dry out and not function any more. Laser printers are not affected that way.

 

[j22knife]

If an inkjet sits for a long time without printing anything, the nozzles in the cartridge and/or printhead will dry out and not function any more. Laser printers are not affected that way.

Exactly. I have a cheap HP laser and it takes me 2 years (or more) to go through a cartridge. But every time I print - the page is perfect.

I have a color injet that I also use infrequenty. I have to jump through hoops every time I use it - to clean out the heads.

 

[PerformanceFirst]

I also suggest a laser. I hear Brother is making good ones

 

[Win Heger]

I bought my wife an inexpensive Brother Laser printer. Works fine and costs almost nothing to run. She does print very little, though.

I use an older Epson inkjet in my office and would love to replace it with a Laser at some point. I'm just too cheap. I get my cartridges from Abacus 24-7 on Ebay, cheap and they work fine for B&W.

Win

 

[Thomason]

Thanks for all the input, gentlemen. There is probably no question that knife knuts around here can't answer. The small laser printer seemed to be the top recommendation and the reasons for that seemed to make a lot of sense to me. However, Cougar is a SuperDuperWhuperModerator and his advice trumps all others so I went to WallyWorld and got a little HP for 35 bucks.

Seriously, thanks guys.

 

[mycroftt]

If you think you might want to hook it up as a network printer at some point, you should consider buying one that is already network capable - even wireless network capable if you will build a wireless network. Otherwise you will have to buy a printer server to put it on the network. If you know you will never put it on a network don't pay extra for a printer that already has that stuff built in.

 

[ronsec]

Low end laser! Mine is a Brother and absolutely no problems. I don't print all that much and every inkjet I owned would have the cartridges dry out or clog from non use. For my digital photos I use a dye sub so no dried up ink for me there either. Good luck.