Cheap basic printer

Associate
Joined
17 Mar 2004
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Hi all,

My Mum is after a basic printer now that she's got a PC in her house. Dosen't want anything fancy, just the ability to print color.

I've warned her away from the £30-40 printers you find in PC World etc, because when it comes to buying a new cartridge your talking at least £25+!

So, the requirement is a cheap printer, that have the "compatible" cartridges which are say £5-10 available.

Thanks.
 
Soldato
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Id say Canon all the way. Especially the Pixma ip series. Have a look at the Pixma ip4000. Canon ink tends to be cheaper than Epson as well, so work out more economical in the long run. They also don't suffer from some of the printhead clogging that affects some Epsons.
 
Soldato
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yep £0.94p per ink cartridge from a place i know ;)

got R220, official Epson cartridge cost £10 each from No competitor talk please! so needs 6 = £60!!! cost more than the printer itself :eek:
 
Soldato
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Scottish Highlands
messiah khan said:
Id say Canon all the way. Especially the Pixma ip series. Have a look at the Pixma ip4000. Canon ink tends to be cheaper than Epson as well, so work out more economical in the long run. They also don't suffer from some of the printhead clogging that affects some Epsons.


Edit;
utherpendragon said:
Epson all the way there are places only which sell cartridges for UNDER £1!

I would really steer away from ink this cheap, as it can end up damaging the printer by clogging it up. Fair enough, you dont need to get Epson/Canon official ink, but look for fairly decent stuff.
 
Soldato
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Search this forum for 'cartridges'.

It seems a lot of the newer printers are using chipped cartrigdes that don't come cheap (they may in years to come)
I would have selected canon as they never used to do this, but it seems the newer models are chipped.

HP ones (on some models) are worth re-filling, but it can be fiddly.
Older Epsons seem to block, but the ink is dirt cheap.
Much the same with older canon, but they tend to block less and they take small re-fills (don't last as long as epson)

What you use it for counts as well.
My epson C84 has never blocked, but it aint cheap to run as is uses chiped cartridges.
It decides when it's empty, and the ink drops a lot every time I turn it on (it does cleaning thing every time it starts hence it dont clogg)
Cheap to run once on, but seeing as I don't use it a great deal (few pages of black and white a week) the colour ink level drops as fast as the black even tho it's not used.
It prolly uses more ink turning it on than it does printing out a few A4 pages.
Once on, it uses very little ink when printing tho.

There is a plus side to this.
I can't stand printers that clogg and then you have to wait ages for it to clean etc.
I get this with the epson, its just that I don't like the fact it can run itself out of colour ink without me ever printing colour!!
 
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