In need of an efficient multi-function printer

[Tony M]

I have a Canon MP980 multifunction printer, which is the printer-equivalent of a gas guzzler. If it were a car, I would have to fill it up every time I put the foot down. I have finally become fed up with it, and want to replace it. So I want something that prints photos well (although I don't print a lot of them) and has WiFi, USB and ethernet.

And of course I has to be fuel-efficient.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I have looked at a few reviews, but none mention ink consumption. The Canon MP980 suffers from an obsessive compulsive self-cleaning disorder, and I want to avoid that type at all costs.

Tony

[DanK]

Unfortunately, if my experience is any indication, I don't think you will find an inkjet that does good prints that does not use a fair amount of ink. That's why people periodically post a note arguing that it is cheaper to use a lab. I have two Canon printers, both of which have the self-cleaning cycle you mention. I have a hunch that this is why they never have clogged, even with very irregular use.

For printing other than photos, the Canon multi-function printers allow you to drop the print quality to save ink. It's in the printer properties dialog box.

[Carl in Louisiana]

I have had Canon printers for a long time now and am happy with the MP620. Like Dan said above I set mine to fast print when not printing photo's. I am well pleased with the print out of images as well. I am loyal to the Canon line because I like being able to replace one ink tank at a time as needed and only had to replace one printer which Canon did right away.

[Shadowman]

You can always go with an ink refill kit but wait at least until your warranty runs out.

[Tony M]

I notice that I posted this in the wrong forum. Perhaps one of the admins can move it to the Printing one.

Thanks for your comments. I still think that my printer is unusual in its consumption of ink. I'm sure I've only printed about 10 15cm x 10cm photos and less than 50 A4 standard (i.e. non-photo) prints on the latest batch of cartridges. In any case, given the cost of the ink, the cost of buying a new printer is negligable, so I'm going to do so.

I also searched for comments on the Internet about the Canon MP980's ink consumption, and there are a lot of very negative comments. One even said that a Canon service engineer said that that model uses too much ink. I didn't find such comments about the Epson PX730WD.

If you're happy with your multifunction printer, please let me know.

Tony

[FrankMi]

Many years ago I did a study comparing ink jet printers to lasers and found that back then it was costing three times as much to print text per sheet then it did to print on the laser. In fact, back when ink jet printers were dirt cheap and lasers were expensive, you could pay for the laser printer with the money saved over ink cartridges with just two reams of paper usage and still have 75% of the toner available.

For over 10 years now I've been using the same B&W laser that cost me about $40 after about 4,000 sheets of paper (mostly text) for a toner cartridge refill.

Three years ago I got an HP 3600DN color laser for about $400 for printing pictures. So far I have printed around 400 full page color images and I am still on the original toner cartridges which can be refilled for about $70 each color.

The color prints come out perfectly acceptable for what I use them for and I always have the option of using a lab if I want better quality or any of the larger sizes.

Based on what I have experienced and my requirements it doesn't make sense for me to ever buy another ink based printer or cartridge.

[rpcrowe]

Just as IMO you cannot get a single lens which will cover all your imaging needs, I don't think that any one printer will cover everything that we need for our various printing tasks.

We are fortunate that we have a large room which we use for an office. We are able to have three printers set up with room to spare. The three printers were not all that expensive to buy and are fairly economical to use.

1. Canon Pixma Pro 9000 ii - I use this for printing my color prints and is seems to bee somewhat frugal in its ink consumption. It will also print up to 13" wide prints on a variety of papers. Tell you the truth I don't really remember just how much this unit cost because there was a great rebate in effect when I purchased it. It was either one hundred or two hundred U.S. Dollars from B&H in New York City after the rebate. The unit came with free shipping and I did not pay state sales tax since I do not live in New York State. This unit is connected to my computer by a USB cord.

2. For our B&W document printing, We use a Brother HL 22700W laser printer which is a small footprint but very economical printer which pumps out text documents at a very speedy pace. It is connected to both my computer and my wife's computer through WiFi. I purchased this laser printer for right at one hundred U.S. Dollars, again with free shipping and no sales tax.

3. My wife has a multi-purpose Epson Workforce 840 unit which she uses for sending and receiving faxes, scanning and for occasional non-photo color prints. We got this printer free when we purchased her computer several years ago and it is running strong. Since we don't print great quantities with this machine, the ink consumption is a moot point.

The total cost of our three printers was either two hundred or three hundred dollars and they do eveything that we need at probably the least expensive route. I even use a third party toner for the Brother Laser which reduces my B&W document printing costs to between one and three cents per copy (the toner consumption is predicated on the type documents we need to print). Since we need to print large quantities of documents for our Maltese Dog Rescue operations, the laser really helps us!

The Pixma Pro uses a number of ink cartriges and I just need to purchase those which run out. It is certainly less expensive to use than was my previous HP color printer.

[Tony M]

Thank you Frank and Richard for your advice. I don't have much space at home (that my wife will let me use for printers ) so I use the ink jet multifunction solution. However, given that I don't print many photos, I may go the laser route now. I really just need something that prints colour, but not necessarily good photo quality, and scanner/copier capability. I'll use a lab when I want really good photo quality prints.

Tony

[FrankMi]

You could go for a colour laser for both B&W text and images but I use two printers simply because I keep heavy ultra-white paper in the colour printer and cheap rag paper in the B&W text printer.