Our all-in-one printer died. It was an old HP model we liked, but admittedly the ink cartridges seemed expensive. Any recommendations for new models? (functions needed: wireless, duplex, sheet feed, scan-to-pdf).
I am especially interested to hear feedback about HP InstantInk (monthly fee ink refill).
Definitely pay attention to the price of ink cartridges. I have heard that they are one of the main profit centers for some companies.
We are happy with our brother printers, one of which also scans and fax’s. The ink cartridges seem to be a bit more reasonably priced than most. None of them are particularly new.
We normally just buy whatever Costco has when we need it, that has the features we need, and hope Costco carries the ink cartridges a long time.
I purchased an HP Envy Photo 7855 less than a year ago. Both my parents passed away in 2019 and I have been dealing with a lot of documents that need to be printed, signed, scanned, etc. and I also scanned a ton of family photos. It has a fax feature as well which was handy when I scanned something that needed to be faxed instead of emailed as an attachment. I really like the feeder. I haven’t needed to duplex so I don’t know how that works.
I signed up for the InstaInk but turns out I don’t print that often and haven’t been going through cartridges very quickly. I’ve only received them in the mail once. I did have an issue with the cartridges that were sent - first time, the cartridges were a different number and wouldn’t work. I looked the number up and it didn’t appear to be compatible with my printer. I called support and the guy INSISTED it was the correct number, but sent a replacement after I did all the steps they said to do and it still didn’t work. They sent the replacement overnight mail. The replacement cartridges were a different number (the number that said my printer should use) but while the black cartridge worked, I got an error when installing the color cartridge. They overnighted a NEW color cartridge and the third time was the charm. I haven’t needed ink since then.
We purchased it because it was the highest rated one on sale at Office Depot/Staples (can’t remember which store we got it from) that had the features I wanted (wireless, feeder, scan). I haven’t tried printing any photos and don’t know if I will use that feature.
We also have an HP Envy, but the 5660. We were talked into the InstaInk program by the sales rep because we got a certain number of months free. After almost 2 years with the printer, we have been paying every month after the free trial and have not used enough to get any refills yet. DH keeps paying thinking we must be due to get some soon and he wants to have something to show for all of the payments.
I have an HP8030 and like it. It copies, scans, and prints on both sides of the paper, which I really like. I also have the HP instant ink thingie. I too have only received one new set of cartridges, but unlike @college_query above, they worked. You sign up for a certain number of pages per month, HP monitors how full your cartridges are from afar, and they send you new cartidges when you need them. I think it’s more economical.
We have 3 printers in the house- one with less bells and whistles that had been in my office (its a 3830), and 2 identical HP Office Jet pro 6978 printers, that do everything you want. They each offered that ink deal, but I wasn’t sure if it was practical to pay monthly for something I wasn’t buying. I guess it is paying for convenience. The upstairs printer (which I now use more) has been telling me its low on 2 colors for a long time, but its been fine. When the colors start to get wonky I’ll change it.
I tend to buy the ink cartridges when they go on sale at Costco. I’ve never tried the refilling service at Costco and not felt comfortable with off brand cartridges. Has anyone had good experiences with recycled cartridges?
I have a pile of empty cartridges that I recycle at Office Depot when we need something and get a small credit for them.
When our last HP printer died, we replaced it with the HP OfficeJet Pro 6968. We bought it at Best Buy and signed up for the Instant Ink program.
We’ve had the printer for almost 2 years now and are very happy with it. It uses less ink (the self-maintenance of the previous model used a lot of ink). We are on the $2.99/month plan with Instant Ink-- 50 pages per month, with rollover pages from the previous month, and if we still run over (but we never have) it’s $1.00 for every additional 10 pages. That’s only $36/year for ink-- much less than we used to spend when we bought ink cartridges at BJ’s.
We started off with the $4.99 plan but after seeing on the website exactly how many pages we were actually printing daily and monthly, we switched to the lower cost plan. You can change plan at any time, and drop out of the program at any time. It’s the same cost per page whether you are printing color-rich pages or plain black text. The cartridges are mailed out automatically when you need them. The Instant Ink cartridges are larger than the ones you buy at the store, so they last longer. Seriously a good deal.
In my home office I have a Black & White Brother laser printer. It’s a workhorse & gives me zero trouble.
Although it will not print in color, it will scan in color.
I have the Epson WorkForce ET-3750. Love the EcoTank. This is 3-4 years old and I’ve only had to refill the tanks once (and that was recently). It comes with two bottles of each ink so haven’t needed to buy ink since I bought the printer! I think it has all of your requirements. And there’s probably a later/greater version on the market.
While it does have a scanner bed (which I use for images) and sheet-fed scan/copy options, I prefer the Epson ES-200 for documents. Had to scan hundreds of pages for my mom, most two sided, and it did it in a flash. The OCR software is decent too.
@aMacMom - Thanks for the input. It’s good to hear the EcoTank lasts so long. Was it fairly easy to replace?
Model numbers have probably changed, but I bought a Brother J985DW over three years ago - a package from Amazon that included 3 sets of print cartridges. They were an extra $70 or so - I just put in the last of the 3rd set of color and am only 1/3 way through the second Black. So it will be about 5 years until I’m through the color and 2 of 3 Blacks. I just purchased a set of color to have a backup - $39.
It has done everything I need, including a sheet feeder for multi-page scanning. I remember researching a fair bit before landing on Brother as the low-cost long-term option based on ink costs. I think it’s been accurate.
I agree with Midwest67, I went with a Brother B&W laser printer. Not as cheap to buy as an inkjet but got tired of paying ridiculous prices for ink refills which my HP seemed to require with increasing regularity. If you don’t need to print a lot of color then I highly recommend the Brother, it’s a workhorse.
@colorado_mom Refilling the EcoTank ink was as easy as switching out cartridges and not messy at all.
I’ve had HP all in ones for a very long time. I’d never subscribe to the monthly ink thing. I do resent paying for ink but it lasts a long time. I get 10% at HP or I use a coupon or some type to pay less.
My current HP printer is extremly old. When I buy a printer/computer I buy something that is much better than average but not the tippy top model Usually 4/5 or 5/6. Those models tend to last and include all of the things you need and a bit more without paying for the new fangled stuff. We do this with appliances also.
Thanks for the quick feedback, CC gang!
So far, my husband seems to like the HP 9015 option (#1 in this review) - https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-all-in-one-printer/. However Amazon has a surprising amount of bad reviews, especially from Mac users. So still researching.
Luckily I got some important paperwork printed before the old printer decided to have printhead errors. That gives us some breathing room while we explore options. I do see many “out of stock” notations, I assume due to so much covid work/school from home.
A laser printer may be better for high volume printing (because of the cost of ink jet ink) or low volume printing (because ink jet ink dries up before it gets used up).
Oh yea, if you have apple products, it may be worthwhile checking to see if the printer is compatible with it or not before you buy it. It’s nice be able to print with your iPhone instead of having to go to your desktop.
We have an Hp 8715 all in one we got from Costco some years ago. We didn’t get ink program as it’s our backup printer and we don’t print much on it.
We have a xerox color cube printer (that is now obsolete), but we are using it as our primary printer until it stops working. It’s provided us with very good printing for many years and uses solid wax sticks that it melts for the ink. We are on the xerox aprogram where we buy our ink from xerox and have lifetime on site maintenance included, which has been a huge savings for us. Yes, Xerox contract repairmen have come to our home and serviced and replaced what was not working properly at no extra charge to us.
We also switched to a B&W laser printer to avoid the expense of replacing expired ink cartridges.
We have an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw.
It was what was on sale when I went shopping at Best Buy.
When our Cannon died, we bought an HP officejet 5746. We only have Macs. I didn’t know anything about the Instant Ink program until I opened the box and read about it. Best thing ever.
I pay $3/month and never need to think about ink. A couple times a year I get an email that I’m charged a couple $ more because we went over our 50 pages. Even at Costco one cartridge can be the $36/year I’m paying. Before, I’d get a warning or I’d start to see things weren’t printing well and need to get to the store to buy a new cartridge. My old one had multiple cartridges and they’d run out at different times. I’m stunned HP offers this program because, at least for us, it represents a huge financial savings but also eliminates the hassle of needing to deal with figuring out which cartridge I need when and going out to get it. We’ve never been sent the wrong cartridge. Also, they include a pre-paid envelope to recycle the old cartridges that you can just put in your mailbox. The program has worked perfectly for us.