Printer Recommendations?

[FalTorPan]

I seem to have terrible luck with printers. My current printer, a now-ancient Epson Sylus C62, has two ink cartridges: black, and cyan/yellow/magenta. The thing often has clogged nozzles. Just now I installed new cartridges, and the printer has run through a half-dozen so-called "nozzle cleaning" cycles, each wasting vast amounts of ink from both cartridges -- and the thing still has huge gaps in the cyan printout, and absolutely no output from either cyan or yellow.

Can anyone recommend a decent printer that's compatible with Windows Vista, actually works reliably, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg in ink refills? I'd prefer a printer with the following capabilities:

* The ink nozzles are in the cartridges
* Each color (black, cyan, yellow, magenta) has its own ink cartridge
* The software can do self-maintenance (nozzle cleaning, etc.) on a per-nozzle basis rather than all of them at once
* The ink cartridges (name brand, store brand, self-refilling, whatever) don't cost over $30 a pop

Thanks! I'm about to give my current printer some much-deserved Office Space treatment.

 

[USS KG5]

I'm a very big fan of Canon's offerings myself - I recently bought a Canon MP610 multi-function, it has seperate cartridges for each colour, a seperate dye-based black for photo printing, and uses ink reasonably as well.

Produces superb quality in phot prints, scans and copies, and all for £100!!

This might be OTT for your needs but pretty much any printer in what in the UK would be the £50-60 bracket would be streets ahead of your old Epson.

That said, I'm a Canon fan at the minute. They do other models lower down the range which also do great work. Heck, I even bought the super-portable IP90 for work and even that produces great prints.

 

[StolenThunder]

I'm very pleased with my Canon AIO (an MP510) also, for the same reasons. Good ink economy, good prices, good quality printing and scanning. I love having a convenient photocopier.

 

[Sean Aaron]

I recently picked up an HP -- I'll get the model if you're really interested -- which has WiFi and a loading tray (I greatly dislike the top load with the paper flopping over).

Costs more than any printer I've owned before (got it on clearance at Staples for £70 incl. 3-year guarantee), but it works a lot better than my old Epson C60.

 

[Saturn0660]

All you need..
HP Baby

 

[USS KG5]

HP are a good brand, no denying that. Also if you are interested in Wireless out of the box HP printers tend more than others to include it as a default.

 

[JustAFriend]

Epson R200 or R300 series. I've been running one for many years now with zero problems.

Here's the tip to stop the clogged nozzles on ALL inkjets:

NEVER TURN THE POWER OFF. Leave it on; it doesn't consume much.
And make sure you print a page or two every week to keep the ink flowing.
(just some double-spaced text is fine....)

 

[Red Ranger]

FalTorPan, et al.,

Thanks for starting this thread. I posted a similar thread the other day, as I've had a similar problem with my old printer, and it's been difficult to find printers that say they are Vista-compatible. So I'm grateful to get other recommendations here. Thanks, all!

Red Ranger

 

[USS KG5]

NEVER TURN THE POWER OFF. Leave it on; it doesn't consume much.
And make sure you print a page or two every week to keep the ink flowing.
(just some double-spaced text is fine....)

I'd agree with your second tip, the first will not make a blind bit of difference except add a couple of dollars a year to your electricity bill.

 

[Sean Aaron]

My printer is a Deskjet 6980. I've had no previous experience with HP printers. What sold me was the build quality, paper tray and WiFi (mostly the latter). The printer also has standard USB connections (one on the front for attaching a PICTbridge camera) and an ethernet connection for wired networking.

What's funny is that two years ago I was looking for a WiFi printer and they were either really expensive or the multi-function jobs that I hate (I have an excellent standalone scanner already, thanks); now it seems that every other printer is WiFi-enabled so when I saw the printer closeouts at Staples I was able to judge on the actual quality of the machine.

 

[MikeGainer]

All you need..
HP Baby

I absolutely agree. I have a HP Photosmart D5360 that only cost me about 100 dollars for the printer and the color cartridges only cost about 18 dollars! And you can print on DVD which is pretty useful for me. Check it out.

 

[Red Ranger]

Well, people, after seeing your answers here and in my other thread, then doing some Consumer Reports research, I settled on a Canon Pixma MX300, which has all the functions I wanted, including the ability to fax. I ordered it online and should get it by next week. I'll update you on it after I hook it up and use it a bit. -- RR

 

[StolenThunder]

I really like my Canon Pixma so I'm sure that will do the job for you. I've found that I don't go through much ink and the cartridges are pretty cheap. Separate colours too, which I strongly believe in.

 

[Saturn0660]

Well, people, after seeing your answers here and in my other thread, then doing some Consumer Reports research, I settled on a Canon Pixma MX300, which has all the functions I wanted, including the ability to fax. I ordered it online and should get it by next week. I'll update you on it after I hook it up and use it a bit. -- RR

Pix'es are good but does that model do separate colors?

 

[FalTorPan]

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll keep them in mind as retail stores panic from the state of the economy and heavily discount their electronics for the holiday season.

 

[Red Ranger]

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll keep them in mind as retail stores panic from the state of the economy and heavily discount their electronics for the holiday season.

Very nice strategy, FalTorPan. Have to say I've been happy with the competitive prices of Newegg.com, though. Plus, you don't have to deal with a pesky salesperson trying to sell you an extended warranty or other crap! -- RR

 

[RobertVA]

I had a terrible time with the nozzles clogging on my Epson printer when I was using store brand black ink tanks from a major office supply chain. All the cleaning cycles were not only more than negating any savings from the lower store brand tank price, the cleaning cycles were wasting the ink in the color tanks as well. The clogging problems ended as soon as I went back to using the printer manufacturer's black ink tanks. As a result I've come to the conclusion that, despite their high price, Epson's tanks are a much better value than at least that particular office supply chain's store brand.

The older HP printer had that tri-color cartrage issue. I bought the Epson for its higher resolution, separite color tanks and the fact that it was on clearance and cost little more than a set of replacement ink tanks (and included regular size ink tanks!).