Economical ink Jet Printers

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beenz

501 posts

Ultimate Geek

#154850 10-Nov-2014 16:16

Hi

I am in the market for a inkjet printer, budget max $200

Used for school work, some colour printing, want scanner with it as well.

Do not want it to cost a fortune to run though, any recommendations please ?

thanks

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Vocus

#1172288 10-Nov-2014 16:19

Yep - get a Brother Mono Laser printer.

If you really need colour prints, and you'll probably find this is less often than you think, get them done at a print shop.

http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=PTRBRT1510&name=BROTHER-DCP1510-Mono-Laser-MFP-PrintCopyScan--150-

wellygary

4999 posts

Uber Geek

#1172295 10-Nov-2014 16:26

The words "economical" and "inkjet" should never be used together, :)

If you are going to use it mainly for B+W you can get a brother B+W laser with a scanner for $150,

if you are desperate for colour and only use it ocassionally buy a seperate cheap colour inket

beenz

501 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1172300 10-Nov-2014 16:32

wellygary: The words "economical" and "inkjet" should never be used together, :)

If you are going to use it mainly for B+W you can get a brother B+W laser with a scanner for $150,

if you are desperate for colour and only use it ocassionally buy a seperate cheap colour inket

These are great printers, but do not want Laser, specifically want inkjet thanks.

richms

23675 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#1172302 10-Nov-2014 16:38

Make sure you get one with decent long lasting inks, the cheap ones all use crappy dye inks which will fade really quickly, and IME bleed a lot more if you use the DVD printing ability compared to the epson with the durabright or whatever they call it now.

Generally ones with cheap inks are crap inks, so you get a crap result even with the proper inkjet paper, and IME the paper is a more expensive part of running an inkjet printer in anycase.

Richard rich.ms

Fred99

11128 posts

Uber Geek

#1177036 16-Nov-2014 21:46

A change seems to be in the wind.
Epson have released inkjet printers with refillable ink-tanks, 70ml bottles, claimed "90% lower print costs".

That photo printer uses dye based ink, so unlikely to have good longevity on matte papers (some dye can have good longevity on gloss/semi/pearl photo papers).
Not the answer for serious/pro printing - but it's a step in the right direction, as Canon/HP/Epson have been milking the inkjet cartridge market for years.
It would be trivial for Epson to release a pigment ink version. They've even been selling re-labeled bulk ultrachrome gloss pigment ink (not K3) to users of Fuji/Noritsu dry minilab systems for years (I believe that the minilabs may be made by Epson - but at least use Epson piezo inkjet technology).
These printers don't seem to be available in NZ yet.

mattwnz

16849 posts

Uber Geek

#1177041 16-Nov-2014 21:52

Speaking to a professional printing company, you either buy an expensive inkjet printer, where you benefit from cheaper inks. Or you buy a cheap inkjet printer (eg $200 would be cheap) and you then endure expensive consumables.

Fred99

11128 posts

Uber Geek

#1177046 16-Nov-2014 22:18

mattwnz: Speaking to a professional printing company, you either buy an expensive inkjet printer, where you benefit from cheaper inks. Or you buy a cheap inkjet printer (eg $200 would be cheap) and you then endure expensive consumables.

Even the pro wide format printers, the ink is expensive, and a lot is wasted priming/purging when changing cartridges (or in the case of Epson - when changing from matte to gloss media).
More in the case of Epson - if you can find the Japanese model name for the same model printer that they sell in Japan (they give different model name / numbers), then find Japanese online retailers, the same cartridges are sold in Japan for 1/3 NZ price. They won't work in same model / different name printers sold outside Japan though - as they're chipped not to.
HP/Epson/Canon have been running a global cartel for a long time.

RileyB

247 posts

Master Geek

#1185304 29-Nov-2014 10:40

Inkjet is expensive, that's just a fact of life. Second to that, they break very regularly and are expensive to fix. The ratio of stuff that comes back broken where I work is about 1/3 inkjet printers, 1/3 laptops, and a 1/3 everything else (desktops/all in ones/phones etc). At a guess I would say printers make up about 5% of our sales by number so that says a lot about their reliability.

Geektastic

14848 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#1201764 22-Dec-2014 09:38

Fred99:
mattwnz: Speaking to a professional printing company, you either buy an expensive inkjet printer, where you benefit from cheaper inks. Or you buy a cheap inkjet printer (eg $200 would be cheap) and you then endure expensive consumables.

Even the pro wide format printers, the ink is expensive, and a lot is wasted priming/purging when changing cartridges (or in the case of Epson - when changing from matte to gloss media).
More in the case of Epson - if you can find the Japanese model name for the same model printer that they sell in Japan (they give different model name / numbers), then find Japanese online retailers, the same cartridges are sold in Japan for 1/3 NZ price. They won't work in same model / different name printers sold outside Japan though - as they're chipped not to.
HP/Epson/Canon have been running a global cartel for a long time.

A friend of mine has a $5,000 Epson photo inkjet printer with 9 colours or something.

Great prints - but a set of replacement cartridges is $950+ GST....!