Time To Buy A New Printer

[Sheryl]

The evil demons who inhabit printers particularly hate me and way too many hours I'll never get back have been spent trying to coax the pages out of a number of printers. repeat paper jams or misfeeds being the main affliction. And then of course there are the outrageous toner costs.

I'm ready to buy a new printer and looking for recs for a brand and model that is reasonably fast, economical in terms of toner costs, and that has a paper feed mechanism that doesn't jam at the least provocation. Of these the reliability and speed matter most but would be nice if the toner didn't cost a fortune.

I'm buying it in Phnom Penh so not limited in terms of available brands, it's pretty much all here.

Some coworkers have suggested Brother brand.

While scan feature would be nice I could live without it as that aspect of my old printer works OK. What I really need is just to be able to rapidly and reliably print out long documents without having to stand over the bleeping thing. while it gives false error messages, misfeeds the paper, jams etc etc

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[msg362]

I assume you want a laser printer?I've had a Fuji Xerox one for about 4 years now, no problems,in fact it is identical to a Brother laser printer, my wife has one.

No problems with either with jams, just go on working.

[Guest]

I have been happy with Brother. First one lasted for 4 years. Now I have Brother MFC-J415W http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=MFCJ415w#.TyrT7xbJq7Y

The shop installed refillable toners to the printer and the price per print is next to nothing.

Printer have scanner, copy, (fax I'm not using) and WLAN so I just need to plug the power cable and can place the printer where ever I wish as long as it get's signal from my WLAN router. I would not go back to cable version anymore.

[mamypoko]

How do you plan to use the new printer? pages per xtime and desired quality.

If you can settle for deskjet speed and quality, then the after market inkwell feeders are a gOD send.

[impulse]

Buy good paper and keep it dry (tough in this humidity) and you won't spend nearly as much time fighting "printer" problems.

I have a Brother 2240D and it's fast, reliable and relatively inexpensive.

[sirholly]

bought a Brother MFC-J415W printer/fax/copier/scanner 18 month ago, put in large refillable ink tanks

ZERO problems

much better solution to the ink tanks with flexible lines on canon printers

I had HP, epson, and canon before

and had more or less problems with all of them

[PattayaParent]

Buy a cheap laserjet printer if you don't need colour prints.

This topic was raised about a week ago in the computer forum so a search will find you more answers.

[Pacificperson]

The HP Laserjets are the pick-up trucks of the printer world. They seldom jam and seldom break. I think that I have two, maybe three in the past 20+ years. Eventually, you have to buy a new one when the old one gets too old to find replacement toner cartridges.

[mikewet88]

I too brought a Brother MFC-J415W printer/fax/copier/scanner. Very nice printer with good support for Mac OS too.

[Sheryl]

Sounds like Brother gets the most votes

The idea of a printer with "ZERO problems" is beyond my greatest hopes. Will head out tomorrow in search of Brother MFC-J415W

When you say put in large refillable tanks, I take this is something any computer store can do?

Thanks for the tip re paper, I have been being the cheapest, as I mostly print just for my own use (drafts to edit and papers i need to read), I submit nearly all completed work electronically. I'll give better quality a paper a try if the new printer also jams.

(Though I remain convinced that printers are possessed by evil spirits who have it in for me.)

Thanks all!

didn't realize that was part of the problem.

[Phil Conners]

Refillable tanks are only applicable to inkjet printers. Unless photo and/or color printing is important for you I would recommend a laser printer. I've had a few Fuji Xerox's over the years and they have never let me down.

[Utley]

If you want to go the refillable ink tank route rather than use expensive ink cartridges, DO NOT purchase an HP inkjet printer. They have a little microchip in the ink cartridge that will not allow you to refill it or replace it with an ink tank. And to make matters worse, the cartridges will need to be replaced every 3 months whether you use the printer or not as the ink dries out.

[Sheryl]

Update:

I bought a Brother 2130 (as that was the only no-frills model readily found(), US $135 and (I'll probably jinx myself by saying this) thus far it works like a charm. Fast and no fits of temperment.

[hedonist44]

I have been happy with Brother. First one lasted for 4 years. Now I have Brother MFC-J415W http://www.brother-u...5w#.TyrT7xbJq7Y

The shop installed refillable toners to the printer and the price per print is next to nothing.

Printer have scanner, copy, (fax I'm not using) and WLAN so I just need to plug the power cable and can place the printer where ever I wish as long as it get's signal from my WLAN router. I would not go back to cable version anymore.

I'm in BKK and having a hard time finding a shop that carries this model. Can you tell me where you bought it please? Thanks !

[Guest]

I have been happy with Brother. First one lasted for 4 years. Now I have Brother MFC-J415W http://www.brother-u...5w#.TyrT7xbJq7Y

The shop installed refillable toners to the printer and the price per print is next to nothing.

Printer have scanner, copy, (fax I'm not using) and WLAN so I just need to plug the power cable and can place the printer where ever I wish as long as it get's signal from my WLAN router. I would not go back to cable version anymore.

I'm in BKK and having a hard time finding a shop that carries this model. Can you tell me where you bought it please? Thanks !

I got mine from Phuket, small shop on bottom floor of BigC.

Google found some reference, that there is a Brother shop in third floor of Fortune tower in BKK.

http://www.thebangkokshoppingguide.com/fortune-town

Brother

0-2642-0820-1

Br, Pekka

[hedonist44]

I have been happy with Brother. First one lasted for 4 years. Now I have Brother MFC-J415W http://www.brother-u...5w#.TyrT7xbJq7Y

The shop installed refillable toners to the printer and the price per print is next to nothing.

Printer have scanner, copy, (fax I'm not using) and WLAN so I just need to plug the power cable and can place the printer where ever I wish as long as it get's signal from my WLAN router. I would not go back to cable version anymore.

I'm in BKK and having a hard time finding a shop that carries this model. Can you tell me where you bought it please? Thanks !

I got mine from Phuket, small shop on bottom floor of BigC.

Google found some reference, that there is a Brother shop in third floor of Fortune tower in BKK.

http://www.thebangko...om/fortune-town

Brother

0-2642-0820-1

Br, Pekka

Thanks much, I'll give it a shot !

[PattayaParent]

^there's also a shedload of printers available downstairs in Seacon Square but I don't know if the model you want is specifically available.

[Gary A]

If you want to go the refillable ink tank route rather than use expensive ink cartridges, DO NOT purchase an HP inkjet printer. They have a little microchip in the ink cartridge that will not allow you to refill it or replace it with an ink tank. And to make matters worse, the cartridges will need to be replaced every 3 months whether you use the printer or not as the ink dries out.

I had an expensive Canon with ink tanks. The genuine ink tanks were quite expensive. It became very difficult to find the replacement Canon ink tanks so I gave in to the temptation to refill the black one. It worked fine until the next time I used the printer. I got a print head fault. The dealer said a new print head would cost 2,500 baht.

I bought an HP F4280. It scans, copies and prints great. Yes, the cartridges are expensive and can't be refilled because of the chip. (500 baht) To make a long story short, the printer is over two years old and is on the second black cartridge. The second one is getting low on ink and I have a replacement for when it stops working. I dispute the statement that the ink dries up. The best part is that the printer cost less than the Canon print head. If/when the printer dies, I'll try to find an identical one to replace it.

[PattayaParent]

A problem a mate reported with the HP colour printer is if you want to print a document using only black (and set to only black) but one of the colours has run out you can't print until you have replaced the defunct colour head.

[mikewet88]

I have been happy with Brother. First one lasted for 4 years. Now I have Brother MFC-J415W http://www.brother-u...5w#.TyrT7xbJq7Y

The shop installed refillable toners to the printer and the price per print is next to nothing.

Printer have scanner, copy, (fax I'm not using) and WLAN so I just need to plug the power cable and can place the printer where ever I wish as long as it get's signal from my WLAN router. I would not go back to cable version anymore.

I'm in BKK and having a hard time finding a shop that carries this model. Can you tell me where you bought it please? Thanks !

I got mine from PowerBuy. Their website: www.powerbuy.co.th

Had to make order first, then powerbuy would send from other branch to the Chiang Mai branch where I am

[Jayman]

A problem a mate reported with the HP colour printer is if you want to print a document using only black (and set to only black) but one of the colours has run out you can't print until you have replaced the defunct colour head.

My HP printer will print in black only just buy pulling out the tri-color cartridge.

Now I can't speak for all injets but I prefer Epson and I'll tell you why. The epson ink cartridge is just that, only hold ink. The print head is not meant to be tossed with the ink cartridge when empty. The HP ink cartridges (and maybe many other brands) have the print head built into the cartridge and are disposable so that even refilling them is not going to extend the life of the printer head as it was designed to be thrown away where as the ones in Epson as designed to last the life of the printer.

It sounds like maybe brother is more like epson than HP in this department. I see lots of good comments on the brother inkjets here but the ones I have owned before always had issue with ink smearing as it was printing on envelopes. I tried several models for my business and ended up returning them all due to this.

HP wins my vote for laser jets but the toner is not cheap.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Jayman

[schoolies]

I am not sure if this is the right place for this fix I've found. If everything works on your Canon Pixma printer except black??

Check all the usuals;

print head alignment,

clean, deep clean,

wash print head luke warm water dry carefully,

reinstall latest drivers etc.

Try printer USB mode on any OTHER PC.

Download and use canon My printer utility from their site. This is a diagnostic programme for your printer.

If all else fails it is probably the printer head. I have a Canon Pixma IP400R. Couldn't print in Black. I had spare black cartridges (smaller size) so I replaced Cyan Magenta and yellow cartridges with black cartridges.

I select font colour to standard green (the default green in MS Office). After printing a few "green blocks" to purge old colour still in head. Hey presto can now print in black!! It also helps to set printer preferences to high quality.

If you are like me and want to screw the last ounce out of every device this will work with most Canon Pixma range as the ink cartridges are the same size for small black and colours.

This is for anyone who mostly prints black text. As you are basically turning a non functioning colour printer into a BW printer.

[astral]

My research showed that Brother is not good on half tone images,

fine for text I believe

I went for the Samsung SCX4623

[h90]

on many Brother printer you can get a lot more out of your toner with just a piece of black tape.....