Fed up with dead HP printers. Any recommendations for something?

[Grasswire2]

There are four HP printers in this house. Two are new. None will now print from my newish HP laptop. Either hard-wired or wifi. The most recent one died as I was just into the second ink cartridge -- died of a failed internal power modem, evidently.

I'm done with HP crap printers.

I need:


DEPENDABILITY
color & b&w
scanner
SD disc slot
printer cable compatible

Preferably under $300

Advice very welcome.

[pwb]

1. They are shit.

I still do paper taxes and every year it is a fight with the printer.

[radical noodle]

2. We've had an Epson for several years

and never had a problem with it. I don't remember the cost. It's relatively fast too. Ours doesn't have an SD slot but it's at least 10 years old now so that's why. It's a WorkForce 845, which I'm sure is obsolete now. I keep thinking it will die and I'll have to get another one, but it just keeps chugging along.

[NotANeocon]

19. Epson is not honest about built in obsolesence

If you use them enough they advise you that the "ink pads" are full - which is code for "too costly and time consuming to keep this working printer running properly".

[radical noodle]

21. I have fortunately not experienced that

[targetpractice]

3. I worked for a company that tested consumer printers...

... I recommend Canon printers to anyone who asks. I was the analyst for printer testing.

Great color quality and reliable. I'll circle back with a particular model if you'd like.

[Earth-shine]

28. +1 I've had Epson and HP. But, by far, the best ink jets for me have been Canon. nt

[Haggard Celine]

4. I have a very dependable b&w Brother printer.

I've had a lot of shitty printers, too, but this one is good. You'll have to price their color printers, but I think I got mine for less than $200.

[canetoad]

16. I second Brother printers

Had various types since the 90s and they are dependable work horses.

I prefer them because the paper lies flat in the tray, ink is super easy to change and you can use generic cartridges.

[tableturner]

18. YES to this, especially the reference to generic cartridges.

[Susan Calvin]

24. I have a brother

Color laser all-in-one that has been serving me well for many years.

[NBachers]

5. After going through any number of name brand printers, most of which I was not that happy with,

I have settled on a Canon, and I will not look back. I had one for several years and it broke when my son dropped his keys into the paper spool and didn’t retrieve them. I had no doubt about the fact that I would go out and get another one.

The model number is MX410. It’s one of their lowest priced ones, but I am happier with this than I have been with any other printer I’ve had starting in the early 90s.

[vercetti2021]

6. I found Lexmark is great

Ours lasted from 2012 til 2020. It was a great machine but age got it

[SWBTATTReg]

7. Me too. The Lexmark seems to hold up well. Mine has and still is going strong.

[vercetti2021]

10. Awesome!

So we can both recommend Lexmark

[SWBTATTReg]

12. That's what I'm going to go for, I'm going to have to start looking again, the printer is getting

old and I do want to replace it, it'll work if need be, but I got to baby it too much.

[empedocles]

8. My HP, b&w, has worked for years.

[jimfields33]

15. My HP is going to be 7 years in September.

Works great. Occasionally, I have to turn the power off to get the laptop to “find it” but that's only happened 3 times.

[bucolic_frolic]

32. I have a 2006 HP b&w laser

Bought it used, low mileage, small office printer for 10k pages a month, I print about 400 a year. No problems going on 4 years.

[YorkRd]

9. Have had good luck with Brother laser printers.

😎

[CanonRay]

11. I bought a cheap Epson over 10 years ago

and it still works fine. Has everything you want except the SD slot, but they probably make one with it.

[SheltieLover]

13. Brother has worked great for us!

[Fullduplexxx]

14. I cant get ink for mine it'll be a cold day in hell before I buy another

H p(piece of shit)

[Grasswire2]

17. Understood!

I snapped up several cartridges of ink for my most recent printer, and now I'm stuck with them, too, because it's DoA after just one cartridge used.

[empedocles]

20. I just bought 2 cartridges for the fear of not able to buy another

[though it does seem like one could find one on the net]

[UTUSN]

22. Almost all of my low tech experience has been with HP, with peaks of frustration & overall O.K.

Two HP printers back I tried the "Instant Ink" thing and went batty: Am not a high need printer user, but when I needed something right that minute the danged thing would not work - whether it was my WiFi being interrupted or whatever. So I ended up ditching their Instant Ink thing and sticking to hard wiring. That allieviated tons of frustration.

Then thought I'd make up the savings by ordering cartridges online and got a klinker here and a printer failure there. HP said the printer failed because of non-HP cartridges. In fact, at least two different machines, when I called HP I was told that the machine was discontinued and a new one was needed.

Yet, overall, for my low needs they worked all right. It's a matter of the Devil-You-Know for me.

[Grasswire2]

23. Yeah.

I don't print a lot either. All I ask is for the printer to be attached by USB printer cable -- NO WIFI -- and to print when I send the command. It's nuts. And very bad for my blood pressure.

Tomorrow because my printer won't work and I need to send an important letter to a government agency, I have to put the document on a thumb drive and take it to UPS and have them print it (and then mail it from there). Ugh Ugh Ugh.

I tried every workaround I could think of today, including sending it by email to my daughter's tablet to print. Her android tablet and her HP printer actually print! But no. It didn't work.

If the public library only was open .... but pandemic still has it shut down.

[Ron Obvious]

25. Our HP LaserJet 4P from 1993 is still going strong

It's still supported under Windows 10 too. The cartridges last for years too, but they're getting a little tougher to find.

I just replaced the cartridge and it had been so long I'd forgotten how to do it, so had to go to youtube to find a video.

The guy on the video said he bought his used for $10 or $20 and all he had to do was replace that cartridge.

HP used to stand for quality but, like so much else, turned into shitty planned-obsolescence merchants when the founders were forced out and the bean-counters took over.

ETA: I should add that ours is connected via a parallel cable, but you could fix that with a parallel port ethernet device (our OfficeJet G95 - which also still works - came with it).

[Grasswire2]

26. I don't know what a parallel cable is.

But it's interesting to know that a printer that old is still chugging along.

[Ron Obvious]

27. It's just a cable connected to an old parallel port

I don't think any computers made in the last 15 years have them anymore, but I bought one for a dollar and put it in my home-built case several years ago.

I bet there are parallel to USB converters out there, like I know there are for RS-232 serial connections.

[LeftInTX]

29. I had Brother lasers for 20 years!

My last one was purchased in 2009, but it's circuit board went out in Oct 2020. When I went to Office Depot to buy another, they were all out (Covid). I had to purchased an HP.

I sure miss Brother. They are good and reliable without a lot of bells and whistles. Mine were all B&W. Cheap and toner efficient.

My scanner is on a mutli-function printer. The printer is an inkjet and doesn't print.

[Paper Roses]

30. Had my old HP PSC for years, never a problem. It just wore out.

On the advice of a clerk at Staples, I bought a Canon. I dislike it. Hard to turn off, uses ink like it was water. It also takes forever to decide to print.The scan function drives me nuts, I never use it. If this one dies, I'll certainly come here for advice, not Staples clerks.

[Grasswire2]

31. Hi!!! nt