Help Me Find a Printer, Please!

Lsmac on 31/08/2018 - 14:26

Hey there

My Canon Maxify has decided to die – so I'm in the market for a new printer. Can you suggest any? Lost with all the models.

  • preferably under $200 but can stretch if needed. Cheap ink costs would be good too.
  • mainly used for printing uni notes(I know I could just use these on the iPad but I like a paper copy) and some school assignments for my younger siblings
  • occasional photo printing would be nice and this was something the maxify didn't excel at
  • would like auto 2 sided
  • must have AirPrint capability as I use an iPad Pro quite a lot

I was almost sold on an Epson EcoTank but the lower end (ie more affordable) ones don't have AirPrint.

Cheers

Computing Printer

Comments

  • Baysew on 31/08/2018 - 14:37
    +14

    Do you need a TWAIN driver to use with a program you use rather than the software it comes with?

    • dcep on 31/08/2018 - 14:42
      +5

      compulsory for all printer posts from now on

      • CyberMurning on 31/08/2018 - 14:52
        +1

        oh…… the twain saga

        • spackbace on 31/08/2018 - 15:02
          +3

          Gonna be riding that twain for a while

    • smac on 31/08/2018 - 14:55

      I feel like I'm missing a joke here haha… but I googled and no.

      I'm running all macs and i devices if that's relevant.

  • CyberMurning on 31/08/2018 - 14:52
    -7

    Help Me Find a Printer, Please!

    ok. let me help you. see on the top right there is a place do search, type in printer.
    thank me later, mate.

    • smac on 31/08/2018 - 14:54

      Duh. If I had of found one there I would have not asked… Most of the deals are expired and no one is asking for what I want.

      Thanks for your constructive comment though!

    • giventofly on 31/08/2018 - 15:00
      +2

      This a forum for people to ask for advice and help.

  • giventofly on 31/08/2018 - 14:53
    +3

    Honestly think you're better off with a mono laser printer. The cheap brother printer ($98 from officeworks) has AirPrint capability and works really (for me).

    Any photos I need printing get done at a store that has a discount, but I almost never need to print photos.

    Inkjets are expensive to run.

    My brother toner has been lasting for yonks even with the low toner warning.

    • smac on 31/08/2018 - 14:56

      I had one years ago, not a brother but the cheap Fuji at the time. Was good for documents but really annoying if you go to print something colour and can't.

      • giventofly on 31/08/2018 - 14:58

        Yeah, fair enough. I never need to print in colour.

      • spackbace on 31/08/2018 - 15:01
        +1

        +1 to laser mono printer. Might be annoying that you can't print colour, but wouldn't it be more annoying if you couldn't print at all? When the ink dries up, or the ink jets get clogged?

        Just use the uni/officeworks to print colour when you need to

        • Savas on 01/09/2018 - 12:39

          why would you get a black and white printer? seems bad advice unless your uni for colour printing is cheap, officeworks is expensive.

        • spackbace on 01/09/2018 - 12:41

          @Savas:

          Not often a uni will need colour printing. Most of it is essays

          Hell, a lot of it is submitted digitally so they can process it for plagiarism. I'm actually not sure how many would print off their assignments

        • Savas on 01/09/2018 - 12:46

          @Spackbace: OP is talking about printing off uni notes, are yours in black and white?

          still sometimes we have to print stuff off, last session I had to print off 400 colour pages for a report. a lot of kids were complaining how expensive it was but for me it only cost a few dollars and mine were in colour.

      • dcep on 31/08/2018 - 15:25

        get proper mono duplex laser for docs print

        and $19 HP inkjet for color print

    • pantsparty on 31/08/2018 - 15:23
      +1

      Agreed, I have a Brother mono laser printer from Officeworks and it is awesome. Much better than inkjet printers which always used to jam and break down on me. This is the current day equivalent of mine, very handy to be able to connect to your printer wirelessly and scan documents using the Brother app on my phone:

      https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/brother-mo…

  • coxjon on 31/08/2018 - 15:10
    +1

    If you have a mac running at home you can set up air print, I think the utility is called Handy Print, to share any printer with your iPad.

  • rxjb on 31/08/2018 - 16:04

    id go a secondhand HP laser of ebay - cheap to buy and cheap to run. The drum/toner cartridge can be had for $10-$15. Get one with duplex printing and get a raspberry pi to make it a networked printer for cheap.

    • neo on 31/08/2018 - 19:03

      Got an example?

  • bargainhunter87 on 31/08/2018 - 16:33

    Officeworks.

  • Gauntlet on 31/08/2018 - 18:38

    Look at getting a printer with continuous ink capabilities. https://continuousinksupplysystem.com.au
    That is, if you are constantly buying ink refills. You will save a boat load. Some do take up a bit of desk space but I've been on the same tanks I originally bought for ages. Ink refills are a rip off.

    • neo on 31/08/2018 - 18:56

      How does this work compared to buying the ink cartridges?

      I have the HP 8600 that I constantly need new cartridges for and was just about to spend a crap load on more. Luckily I saw this message!

      • Gauntlet on 31/08/2018 - 22:37
        +1

        You buy the tanks which you fill with pigment and the little hoses adapt to your printer head. It's really easy to set up.

        • neo on 31/08/2018 - 23:02

          What about print quality?

        • Gauntlet on 01/09/2018 - 09:52

          @neo-X: yeah still the same

  • Daabido on 31/08/2018 - 21:27

    I would also suggest a mono laser, but check the cost of non-genuine toners. I was deciding between two Brother mono lasers recently. One had duplex, one did not. I discovered the one without duplex had reasonably priced non-genuine toners, while the one with duplex were twice as expensive. This was because the newer model had a chip as part of the toner replacement. I got the non-duplex one and turn the paper over manually if I want to print double-sided.

    This is the one I bought; https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/brother-mo…

    This was the replacement toner I bought; https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3x-TN2350-HY-COMP-Toner-for-Brot…

  • deal88 on 01/09/2018 - 12:35
    +1

    I have an Epson EcoTank (higher end) and would recommend. The eco tank series of printers are very economical to run.

  • Savas on 01/09/2018 - 12:37

    ink tank printers are fantastic. i don't understand why people are recommending laser printers or refilling ink cartridges which is a complete waste of time.

    • deal88 on 01/09/2018 - 13:20
      +1

      Agree. My HP laser printer is a POS. Very happy with the Epson EcoTank.

  • whooah1979 on 01/09/2018 - 12:47

    Hp mfp are reliable and economical to operate. Generic inks are inexpensive.

  • Baniya on 01/09/2018 - 13:26

    I’ve owned a number of inkjet printers over time. Now days, these sorts of printers are cheap (<$100), but the ink cartridges run out really fast. So you pay a fortune replacing them. When I started using non-genuine cartridges, I thought I was managing better- until the non-genuine cartridge shredded the internal ribbon and I had to throw the whole printer out!

    I know it’s more than $200, but after extensive research, I landed on this Brother colour laser printer.

    https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/brother-wi…

    I found the cheapest price and got OW to price beat. I’ve had it for about 5 months and am super happy with it. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a new printer.

    • Savas on 01/09/2018 - 13:55

      thats still expensive though, looks around $0.05 a page? with ecotank or the canon/hp versions printing is about $0.005 per page for black and $0.02 for colour (according to the choice testing but it seems about right).

  • johnlev on 01/09/2018 - 16:20

    We have Epson wf3640.its the best printer I have owned. It does double sided printing cheap to run in fact according to Epson cheaper than laser printers. Pricing $188 from officeworks

  • Tigercjn on 01/09/2018 - 21:25

    Brother Wireless Ink Jet printer multi function ( I have a 790CW which is old now and does not meet a beat), check on ebay first for the ink you can bulk buy cartridges 30 for $40 so you always have them in stock. Very cheap running cost.

  • Plug on 01/09/2018 - 21:34

    Get a wireless laser printer. Maybe more initial outlay but you'll save heaps in costs over any inkjet plus colour gives you way more options than mono.

  • cicada001 on 02/09/2018 - 12:51

    Timely post as I'm sink of the bubble jets - one of the colours runs out and you can't even print in B&W. Can anyone provide a link to a good value continuous ink. I really don't need colour but do want it to have a document feeder for scanning please? TIA

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