I purchased my HP Printer back at the same time I purchased my MacBook Pro. About 10 years ago. Needing to get a new printer but which one should I look at. A new HP? A Cannon? An Epson? Anyone have any preferences? This is a home based situation. Some pictures but not a lot.

I've been using Brother laser printers at home and the office for years and they've been great.

I have a 10-year-old HP that still works fine but when it doesn't, my 2 requirements will be scan to file ability (jpeg and PDF) and bulk ink vs cartridges. I'm not hung up on manufacturer.

Definitely Brother laser for B/W printing. We have quite a few in the office & they're reliable and cheap to run.

The few non-commercial models we have that are full color are HP MFPs
Toner is definitely pricier on the HPs

Well you said, “new printer,” and that’s exactly what we have, only purchased about 6 weeks ago, so I can’t say anything about long term. I researched quite a bit and settled on this one from Brother. It’s an ink tank printer and should save trouble and money in the long run.

Brother “Inkvestment” Printer

Cost is just a bit over $200

These new (inkjet) tank printers are a total game changer. I would have vociferously advocated AGAINST any sort of inkjet before they came along but now I'm a big fan. I had given up on inkjets 15+ years ago and gone to laser but after our laser printer died and I looked at the cost of a new color laser and the toner and compared it to the new tank printers, we went tank printer.

We got an HP Smart Tank printer about 18 months ago and with 3 kids at home being homeschooled we print a ton every day and this thing has been great and just keeps chugging along. It prints pretty fast, the print quality is good and the best part is that when the 4 ink tanks run low, you just refill them as needed and it's not costing an arm and a leg:

I think Epson makes a line called the Eco Tank. I like HP as I get a work discount on their stuff:

HP Smart Tank Printers

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Definitely Brother laser for B/W printing. We have quite a few in the office & they're reliable and cheap to run.

The only way they may die is if you use cheap non-Brother toner. I print about 10,000 pages a year and found out the hard way.

We have an Epson ET-3850 eco-tank ink jet printer at work. It prints fast (2-sided, too), scans well, and the ink is SO much cheaper than the old inkjet cartridges, and comes in bottles that you use to refill the on-printer tanks.

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Originally posted by Anush:

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Definitely Brother laser for B/W printing. We have quite a few in the office & they're reliable and cheap to run.

The only way they may die is if you use cheap non-Brother toner. I print about 10,000 pages a year and found out the hard way.

Yep, we only get genuine Brother & HP toner for our 'small' printers.
I think the HPs can recognize aftermarket toner & may reject them.

Best solution - Kinko's

Once my current printer dies, or I get tired of getting raped on ink, this is my plan. There is almost nothing I actually need to print, and when I do it's never urgent.

Scanner? The app on my phone is better resolution and faster than walking to a printer.

Home, not work.

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Originally posted by mark60:
I've been using Brother laser printers at home and the office for years and they've been great.

Agree!

I too used to advocate for laser only but look at the cost of the toner compared to these new tank printers, the set of bottles lasts a long time and they are not expensive.

I had a Brother laser and the OEM toner was very pricey and I used an Amazon knockoff which eventually killed it.

Very impressed and happy with my HP Smart Tank printer now

I bought an HP Smart Tank 6001 a few months back and it has been great. Comes with a 2-year supply of ink (so they say) already loaded.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dbgeek:
We have an Epson ET-3850 eco-tank ink jet printer at work. It prints fast (2-sided, too), scans well, and the ink is SO much cheaper than the old inkjet cartridges, and comes in bottles that you use to refill the on-printer tanks.[/QUOTE

^^^^^^^^^This^^^^^^

I’ve been happy with a HP color laser all in one. Best Buy had them on sale a couple years ago. I’ve yet to replace a toner cartridge

My Epson 4810 "all in one" works great. I like to print a lot of color pictures. The ink in bottles that you fill the tanks with lasts far longer than any cartridge.

A a general use printer I would look at the Epson Ecotank printers.

Simply looking at the "brand" without the specifics of use is not a sound buying strategy.

All the major brands are good but you have to match up to need or use.

You will find plenty of "I use XXX, I haven't had any problems, etc" but really those are not meaningful.

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Originally posted by phil in indy:
I purchased my HP Printer back at the same time I purchased my MacBook Pro. About 10 years ago. Needing to get a new printer but which one should I look at. A new HP? A Cannon? An Epson? Anyone have any preferences? This is a home based situation. Some pictures but not a lot.

If you are doing photo printing DO NOT GET A BROTHER. Currently I have two of the MFC-J6555DW printers in my home. The reason why I have two is that with photo paper the print head scrapes the print leaving a pattern of white streaks in one specific area. After some back and forth with Brother they shipped me a new printer of the same model that does exactly the same thing. What is irritating is that I had an older model of the same size and features that printed photographs perfectly. Bad news is I'm retired now and that printer hit the trash when they cleaned out my old office. I will also note that Brother doesn't have a repair center within driving distance Which is why they ship replacements for warranty issues.

If you want to print photographs then get a Canon printer. They really do have the finest printers for photography. One I am squirreling away money for is the imagePROGRAF PRO-310 at 971.99. If you want something less expensive there is the PIXMA PRO-200S at 549.99.

I'll also note that while these will do plain paper printing they are a bit limited for that task. So getting a much cheaper 8 1/2 x 11 plain paper printers a good choice. Me, I'll just keep the brother I currently use, it's great for 8 1/2 x 11 or 11/17 and the plain paper color prints are somewhat useful for a test print.

Finally if you want a printer that is Drool Worthy Canon has 12 color printers up to 60 inch roll widths. The problem with these pro level printers is that 1 set of print cartridges is over 1500 dollars. Which makes 150 dollars or less for the smaller printers I suggested rather economical. BTW you won't find these inks in any local stores so sign up for the ink replacement program. By doing this if your printer is WIFI connected the printer will report when a color is low using the Net and they will send you a replacement cartridge.

I will also state that I will not recommend Hewlett Packard for a reason. We had a 36 inch HP Engineering Printer at work that cost over 3000 dollars to purchase. 10 years after that first turn on of that printer to the day, hour, and minute that printer put up an error code. When I called HP about this code I was told the printer was 10 years old and expired. They pre-program their products to turn off after what HP feels is the "service life" and will not do a damned thing about getting what was a perfectly functional printer to work. The Bastards won't even offer a discount for all the new ink cartridges you have to get for a new printer. Which is why my employer now has a 2600 dollar 36 inch Canon 4 color Engineering printer.

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If you want to print photographs then get a Canon printer. They really do have the finest printers for photography. One I am squirreling away money for is the imagePROGRAF PRO-310 at 971.99. If you want something less expensive there is the PIXMA PRO-200S at 549.99.

You're not wrong and quality photo printing is a whole 'nother animal.
I just got the Canon Pro 200S with the future of getting the Pro 310.
The Pro 200S prints great pictures but you get pigmented inks and bigger prints with the 310, I wasn't ready to go there experience wise yet.

FWIW, Epson makes some very, very good photo printers as well ~ a worthy competitor.

What you will find with photo printers is more different ink colors are used, they are more expensive to maintain and the ink costs are higher.
Epson does make a great photo printer the ET-8550 that also deploys the ecotank system, I almost got one but I didn't want the scanner and opted for the Canon.

Lastly the best of the best use Pigmented Inks vs Dye Based Inks.
They print better with Black and White and the print lasts much longer (fading) and are used for the best art prints. Dye printers can print just as well with 85% of most printing needs though. It's all in the quality of the printer, and Dye based printers are generally better with glossy paper.

EPSON ET-2803