Brother, for me. I’ve had two Brother laser print/scan/copy machines. Both have been triffc. I got a 2nd because I left the first with my neighbours in Valancia.
I’v got an HP, as well. It drives me bonkers. The s/w to wirelessly connect and maintain connection is AWFUL. Someone on SF, on a similar thread, described HP s/w as ‘not fit for purpose’. Amen to that, too. I can only use it these days via USB.
When I used to go awol for some weeks, the printers went into sleep mode. Getting the HP to reconnect was a head-banger. On the other hand the Brother used to wake up, connect and I was in biz. Jus’ like that.
At the moment we have an epson all-in-one unit and a deal that means they supply cartridges as needed for about £3 per month with us printing up to about 20 pages per month (I forget the precise figures). It’s probably 3 or 4 years old now and still fine. Before that we had an HP AIO, and while the hardware was fine, the drivers were not fit for purpose as described already - it was a relief to scrap it.
The other brand I would avoid apart from HP is Lexmark, assuming they are still going. Consumables seem more expensive than typical and the hardware is unreliable, both inkjet and laser printer, in my experience.
Beware the costs of inkjet! And then of course the makers that claim laser that are not: such as HP. Does your old printer still work as a scanner? if so, consider a Pantum from Amazon. Toner cartridge same cost as a inkjet black cartridge but will not dry out and will produce between 5000 and 7500 black and white prints. Easy to set up, has both USB and Wifi connection with a one button press to connect to wifi. In sleep mode uses less than €0.08 cents per day electricity.
Which version of Eco Tank, Mark ? On some reviews I looked at on amazon were not so good.
Faced with colour Epson Eco Tank or black and white Brother laser, which would you pick? Scanning may not be needed if my old HP’s scan still works (debatable as it’s an HP. For sure its printing doesn’t work due to spurious paper feed latest error).
My only need to print is for French officialdom so guidance appreciated. I prize reliability above all and it would be nice not to have the ink dryout problem. As I tend to print in huge batches then nothing for months.
If I may step in - if you don’t really need colour, don’t get a colour-capable printer, just get a black and white laser. Simples.
Especially if you tend to have long gaps where it will be sitting inactive between bursts of printing. That’s the number one cause of inkjet printer failure - clogged heads due to lack of use.
Running it off big tanks is more economical if you do a lot of (colour) printing but there’s no point if all you need is black and white. And I think a laser will still be cheaper to run.
The print head clean for inkjet printers stops the heads from clogging so it’s not a great idea to stop it doing this. It’s even more important for gel printers, of which I had one, a Ricoh. It was mistakenly unplugged when we went on holiday for 3 weeks and when I got back it wouldn’t work, heads clogged solid. It would cost more to repair than buy my new printer, a Brother all in one A3 printer which has been with me for about 3 years now and works faultlessly. And although the Brother ink is quite expensive I have found that third party ink at half the price works just as well.
You could get cheapish mono laser printers 15-20 years ago but they were a bit crap and Windows only as all the processing was done on the computer with Windows only drivers. Don’t think the idea really caught on.
We bought a second hand HP Laserjet over 20 years ago from a local University that were upgrading and getting rid of the old ones cheap. Cost us £40 and was rock solid and cheap to run until it finally went wrong after about 10 years use, and I couldn’t get the spares to fix it. Very good buy
Edit : And the Laserjet did get a hammering with OH being a University Lecturer and Researcher and applying for all sorts of Research grants etc.
A laser printer scanner is ideal for that - this morning I scanned an official letter and printed out a copy using the same interface within a minute - no switching machines / cables etc. Our printer is eight years old and we’re only on our second cartridge.
But I’m not going to recommend a make because our printer’s eight years old, though I’d certainly recommend a model that accepts generic cartridges.
Yes, it’s a +1 for Brother from me as well. I did need a colour printer and an A3 one at that so went the inkjet route. They don’t seem to try to stop you using third party ink and mine’s been faultless so far. It was about € 250 at the time I think.
Third party ink is a bit of a lottery. I’ve had some good stuff for my Canon iP8750, and some other Amazon-sourced ink cartridges that it rejected or which produced stripey prints.
Yes, it can be a lottery, but I stay away from the really cheap ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ sellers on Amazon and go for something from a reputable seller at a higher price and I haven’t been disappointed. It’s still around half the price of the Brother ink as well.
I have one of those somewhere now I come to think of it, from my days with that company. Doubtful I could find it though. And I suspect cartridges might be quite expensive if they could even be found. But built like a brick um.house.
Doesn’t France official stuff require colour copies of things like passports and birth certificates though ? I think.color laserjets are a huge step up costwise still?
I acquired a very used HP b/w Laserjet about 20 years ago. I can’t remember what went wrong but it eventually died after a hard life. Back in 2010 I was en route to some work in the UK & I needed to have printer with me. I was hell-bent on buying a colour laser, due to all the bad press & experiences with inkjet units.
The sales person at a very well known computer shop managed to convince me that the colour laser option was expensive compared to a good quality (i.e. office use) inkjet unit. I parted with a sum that would have brought maybe three or four consumer quality units for an HP OfficeJet 8600. It’s a printer/scanner/copier & it hasn’t missed a beat since the day I bought it. It can do double sided prints & scans via a flatbed or via a document feeder. It’s also a fax machine, but as we’re not in 80s anymore I’ve never used that feature.
Genuine HP cartridges are not cheap, but our local Bureau Vallée does compatible ones for half the price. I’ve never had ink dry up - the printer can stand unused for weeks completely powered down (unplugged!) with no ill effects. Paper jams are unheard of & wifi connectivity is very simple.
I guess it’s an antidote to the ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ that used to be the norm for printers.
. You can still get toner cartridges for them, unbelievably you can still get original cartridges from HP.