Best cheap printer

We've just bought a HP Pixma for about £40. The trouble with cheap printers is that the inks tend to be astronomically priced.

I normally go for a canon as so far they will accept non canon ink cartridges.

Sorry, ours is a Canon Pixma, not a HP Pixma!.

All printers are cheap - it is their loss leader - then they charge a fortune for the inks! I do use compatibles on my Epson - it does not like it and ticks me off every time, but I plough on with them!

All printers are made in hell!

I wouldn't buy another HP printer.

Ours is law unto itself, I've often thought of taking a sledgehammer to it. If we used a printer more often I would.

As others have said, with cheap printers the price of ink can be exhorbitant, although there are schemes you can sign up to such as HP Instant Ink which can help with costs.

My advice, if you can afford it, is to buy an Epson Eco-Tank printer. I do graphic design and magazine work and have to print a lot of pages in dense colour.

Upgrading to an Epson ET2750 15 months ago was the best thing I could have done. Ink use is very economical. I have only just had to buy replacements for the bottles which came in the box.

Looks like the ET2750 has now been replaced with the ET2850 currently retailing for £259 on ao. It's wifi so no cables and having to site the printer next to your device. ao do have payment plans too.

It depends how much printing you have to do and whether your overall print needs warrant spending that much but worth considering.

My grandson came today and tried to rig up an old printer of his . We then went up to Rymans but they said that the ink cartridge needed wasn't available anymore and I might be lucky finding one online but at a huge cost . I was advised to buy a new printer but when I said that I was still on Windows 7 he said that nothing would be compatible and to buy a new computer ! Back to the cave to do hand painting !

I have an HP one and get new ink cartridges through their instant ink scheme. I now pay £2.99 ( used to be £1.99) for 50 copies a month, unused ones are rolled over. It still works out cheaper than buying separate cartridges but only just! I did get six month free on the plan when I bought the new printer.

It means I can print out recipes and patterns without worrying about the cost, I just but paper when I see it on offer.

I use a laser printer at home for cheapness, but have an inkjet one which I use when we're away. It doesn't get a lot of use, but I do need it sometimes, as I do bits of work here. I don't want a subscription to ink, as I don't run out too often, and we can't get deliveries here, so I buy it as I need it and get it delivered to home. The printer is a Canon TS3450. Does anyone know where I can get compatible (but cheaper) cartridges for it? The last ones I got were from Amazon, and were about £30 for a set of two small cartridges.

Also, I very rarely need to print in colour - do I need to get a colour cartridge, or will it just print B&W if the colour one runs out? I know little about inkjets, but had an idea that if B&W runs out they mix the coloured ink to compensate, which is, of course, much more expensive. That may be out of date though.

Do you have a local computer repair shop that sells ink cartridges? I asked the boys in ours to recommend one a few years ago and he recommended the Epsom ( which I had to purchase from Currys as the computer repair didn't sell them) as they sold they ink cartridges and they were only £8.00 a set , it has been fine and the cartridges haven't increased in price that last time I bought them, but to be honest I very rarely use it any more as we print off very little, I am even thinking of giving it to the local recycling centre. The local library has a printing service for about 10p a sheet so would use that in an emergency.

We don't have anything like that any more. There used to be a place where you could bring old cartridges to be refilled, but I think lots of people now store everything online and don't use much ink, and it closed.

I only usually use the printer to print copies of work things for editing, but the other day I broke cinema tickets online and couldn't find a way to download them to my phone, so I printed them. Unknown to me, the 'tickets' included 3 full colour pages of adverts for the venue, including one for the cafe?. By the time I realised what was happening it was too late to stop the printing. I was NOT amused.

I use a printer at public library, 20pence a page though....

I dont know if this might interest you.

LINK > viking-virtualprinthouse.co.uk/

I haven't used them yet, but if you only want some printing occasionally, it could be cheaper than keep buying ink cartridges.

Teacheranne

I have an HP one and get new ink cartridges through their instant ink scheme. I now pay £2.99 ( used to be £1.99) for 50 copies a month, unused ones are rolled over. It still works out cheaper than buying separate cartridges but only just! I did get six month free on the plan when I bought the new printer.

It means I can print out recipes and patterns without worrying about the cost, I just but paper when I see it on offer.

I am exactly the same, it has saved me a fortune in ink.

I think my printer has seized up. I can't remember the last time I used it. My Dad, however prints out every single bill, email, interesting article and probably a thousand other things then files it in a box in a cupboard somewhere.
He spends a fortune on ink. I would do a bit of research and see how much ink cartridges are before buying the printer.

StarDreamer

I dont know if this might interest you.

LINK > viking-virtualprinthouse.co.uk/

I haven't used them yet, but if you only want some printing occasionally, it could be cheaper than keep buying ink cartridges.

Thanks, StarDreamer. That's a good idea, but it won't work for me, as when I need prints I need them immediately, so that I can read from them when talking to people on Zoom. Also I can't get deliveries when I'm away (we have a lodge on a holiday park), so I wouldn't be able to pick them up without a lot of organisation.

It's worth bearing in mind for other uses though.

all printers are narcissistic idiots that need to be buried in a deep grave with some battery power so they feel the pain we feel every time we use them
hth

Doodledog

StarDreamer

I dont know if this might interest you.

LINK > viking-virtualprinthouse.co.uk/

I haven't used them yet, but if you only want some printing occasionally, it could be cheaper than keep buying ink cartridges.

Thanks, StarDreamer. That's a good idea, but it won't work for me, as when I need prints I need them immediately, so that I can read from them when talking to people on Zoom. Also I can't get deliveries when I'm away (we have a lodge on a holiday park), so I wouldn't be able to pick them up without a lot of organisation.

It's worth bearing in mind for other uses though.

It is a delivery service. Depending on the size of the job, either by Royal Mail or by courier.

Apparently they send the output to up to five different recipients for any one job.

So one could publish a book and use two of the delivery addresses to comply with the law on Legal Deposit without leaving home, including a compliments slip showing to where to post the receipt.

LINK > www.bl.uk/legal-deposit

LINK > www.bl.uk/help/how-to-deposit-your-print-publications

Was it you that designed that Christmas card with the forest scene?

Goodness, no! I'm not a designer (I wish I were ).

When we are away I can't get deliveries (from RM or a courier) as we are on a holiday park and they don 't allow vehicles other than owners' cars, so it wouldn't work.

I am a lecturer, and in the summer I supervise dissertations, mostly over Zoom. If a student sends me something that they want to discuss, I print it, so that when we discuss it I can see them on screen at the same time (rather than screenshare). It's not vital, but I think it's more personal. I also have things that need to be edited, and I prefer to do that on paper - I can write straight to a screen, but like to edit with a pencil.

As I say, I'm talking about an occasional basis, which is why I have an inkjet over here rather than a laser. It lives in a drawer most of the time, but sometimes I need it for convenience. I was just hoping to find an alternative to expensive Canon cartridges.

JaneJudge

all printers are narcissistic idiots that need to be buried in a deep grave with some battery power so they feel the pain we feel every time we use them
hth

JaneJudge ???

So you don't reckon I should put it out of its misery first with a sledgehammer?

Callistemon, abuse it in any way possible. I imagine it deserves it

tiredoldwoman

My grandson came today and tried to rig up an old printer of his . We then went up to Rymans but they said that the ink cartridge needed wasn't available anymore and I might be lucky finding one online but at a huge cost . I was advised to buy a new printer but when I said that I was still on Windows 7 he said that nothing would be compatible and to buy a new computer ! Back to the cave to do hand painting !

You've answered your own question really haven't you? It is unfortunate and annoying when I.T. hardware becomes either obsolete or incompatible but I guess that's progress. Bite the bullet, treat yourself to a new computer and printer.

midgey

All printers are made in hell!

So true!