[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by guru_max

Should i go for ink tank or laser for very minimal use. This may not be used for months.

The bold part above is good enough reason for you to go with Laser printer. Inkjet/Inktank printers need usage atleast once or twice a month to keep them working in prime condition.

[JithinR]

Is it really necessary to get an ink tank printer? Doesn't Amazon/Flipkart still sell CISS kits that can be Frankensteind onto ink cartridges or have modern printers found a way to defeat this exploit?

I am reluctant to spend anything close to the amount All in one Ink tank printers are selling for these days. 10k+ for something that we might need use of occasionally is a lot. I was hoping Laser printers would be more affordable but boy was I in for a surprise.

I actually managed to repair the cartridge of my old school printer (not referring to the print technology, it's actually the printer I used during my school days) and have put it to use in Bengaluru.

Now I am looking to purchase another one for my parents' house and I can't believe the amount that people are plonking down on these.

[UPS_Guru]

Printer for Home – Layperson Edition

1. Do you need a printer?

Yes, if you:

• Print often or print occasionally but prefer doing it independently (for confidentiality, convenience, or cost reasons).

2. Do you need a color printer?

Yes, if you:

• Often need color printouts.

• Occasionally need color printouts but prefer doing it independently (for confidentiality, convenience, or cost reasons).

3. Do you need an ink tank printer or a laser printer?

You need a monochrome ink tank/laser printer if you:

• Need to keep the ownership and operational costs low. *

• Primarily print in black.

You need a color ink tank printer (NOT color laser printer #) if you:

• Often need color printouts.

• Occasionally need color printouts but prefer doing it independently (for confidentiality, convenience, or cost reasons).

* The new generation of monochrome ink tank printers have a lower ownership and operational costs compared to similar monochrome laser printers.
# Color laser printers do not make sense for low volume printing due to expensive consumables.

4. In an ink tank printer, do you need a printer that uses dye ink or pigment ink?

You need an ink tank printer that uses pigment ink for black and dye ink for colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow), if you:

• Need to keep the ownership and operational costs low.

• Print documents in black for exceptional detail (crisp and sharp text) and archival quality (fade, water, and highlighter resistant).

• Occasionally print photos in color on glossy photo paper (for vibrant colors and saturation). *

* You need an ink tank photo printer that uses 6 colors for professional photo outputs (for more accurate colors and smoother gradients) and borderless printing (although high-end ink tank printers may support it).

You need an ink tank printer that uses only pigment ink (for both black and color inks) if you:

• Print documents in black/color for exceptional detail (crisp and sharp text) and archival quality (fade, water, and highlighter resistant).

• Occasionally print photos in color on matte photo paper. *

* You need an ink tank photo printer that uses 6 colors for professional photo outputs (for more accurate colors and smoother gradients) and borderless printing (although high-end ink tank printers may support it).

5. Do you need a multifunction/all-in-one printer (for print, scan, and copy)?

You need a multifunction/all-in-one printer, if apart from printing you also need:

• Digital version of a document (scan a physical document and save it as an image/document file on a computer/mobile). *

• Copy of a document (scan and print a physical document independently without a computer/mobile like a photocopier).

* High-end multifunction/all-in-one printers support USB/memory card slot to save a scan directly to a USB drive/memory card. Most such printers also support printing images stored in the USB drive/memory card.

6. What automatic document feeder (ADF) options do you need in a multifunction/all-in-one printer * (for scanning/copying documents)?

No ADF, if you:

• Prioritize lower initial cost of the printer over the time taken for every scan/copy through the platen (flat glass surface of the scanner).

• Do not need the option to scan documents larger than the platen.

A simplex ADF/single pass ADF, if you:

• Prioritize lower initial cost of the printer over the time taken for every scan/copy with manual intervention.

• Need to scan/copy one-sided documents larger than the platen (such as a legal-size paper through the ADF when the platen supports up to letter-size paper).

• Often scan/copy, especially a large set of one-sided documents.

A duplex ADF/reversing ADF (RADF)/dual pass ADF (DADF) if you:

• Prioritize the time taken for every scan/copy without manual intervention over the higher initial cost of the printer.

• Need to scan/copy two-sided documents larger than the platen (such as a legal-size paper through the ADF when the platen supports up to letter-size paper), each document in one attempt.

• Often scan/copy, especially a large set of two-sided documents.

* The new generation of ADFs have a compact/foldable design for aesthetic (does not add much to the overall size of the printer) and functional (protects the printer from dust when not in use) purposes.

7. What connectivity options do you need in a printer * (USB, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi)?

You need:

• A USB printer, if you connect your printer directly to a computer.

• An ethernet printer if you connect your printer to a wired network. In such cases, you will share the printer with all computers on the network. Further, if a wireless router is part of the network, then you will also share the printer with all mobile devices on the network.

• A Wi-Fi printer, if you connect your printer to a wireless network. In such cases, you will share the printer with all computers/mobile devices on the network. Most Wi-Fi printers also support Wi-Fi Direct to directly connect your printer to your mobile device bypassing your network.

* The new generation of printers support multiple connectivity options (typically both USB and Wi-Fi).

8. What other options * do you need in an ink tank printer?

You need an ink tank printer that supports:

• Removable print head, to clean it if not replace it when the print head gets clogged.

• User replaceable maintenance cartridge/box (that stores waste ink during printing/cleaning) to replace it at your convenience.

• Large ink tank for black ink to prevent frequent refilling of black ink.

• Keyed ink bottles to ensure an ink bottle only refills its dedicated tank to avoid mixing up colors.

• Covered paper tray to store large quantity of paper for printing and protect the printer from dust.

* The new generation of ink tank printers can print as fast and at similar resolution and duty cycles as laser printers.

[itwasntme]

Seems to be some good offers for home printers on the Amazon and FK sales. Any recommendations for a SOHO printer with a focus on B&W printing?

Sick of buying expensive cartridges for our HP 3545e inkjet.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Seems to be some good offers for home printers on the Amazon and FK sales. Any recommendations for a SOHO printer with a focus on B&W printing?

Sick of buying expensive cartridges for our HP 3545e inkjet.

I have learned the hard way that home printer should be super minimalistic in features. It should just work even if lying unused for ages. Every feature is a liability :-) I stick to monochrome laser with wi-fi support. I avoid other features (multi-function, duplex, colour) even if they are offered at a lower price.

I'm happy with my HP Laser 1008W Wi-Fi Monochrome Laser printer. It's very compact - has the footprint of an A4 sheet. You can consider similar category laser printer from other brands. Search for printer cartridge spare part on Amazon to confirm the easy & cheap availability of the same - this is a good indication of how popular and well-supported the printer is.

These days phones do a great job of scanning documents. "iPhone > Notes > Scan document" has completely eliminated the need for copy/scan equipment.

When I have a rare need that can't be met by my humble printer, I get it done from a commercial shop.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Seems to be some good offers for home printers on the Amazon and FK sales. Any recommendations for a SOHO printer with a focus on B&W printing?

Sick of buying expensive cartridges for our HP 3545e inkjet.

Inkjets with bottles are super cheap. The business logic here is that, with cartridge-based printers, the printers themselves are cheaper with the printing companies making money on the supplies.

With ink-tank printers, the business makes money upfront with dirt-cheap supplies.

It's like a comparison between petrol car and EV.

So I would suggest an ink tank printer.
The one thing you need to be careful of with inkjet is to leave it on always. The reason is that the nozzles get dried up otherwise, while if left on, the printers usually have some kind of a lubrication cycle to spit some ink and keep the nozzles clean. I sometimes print just a few pages a month and my 8 year old hp ink printer still works well.

Now coming to laser, it's easily the least trouble among all. Since laser printers basically have toner in the form of a powder, you can abuse it a lot and it will still work. The only challenge is that the price of a basic laser monochrome printer is similar to a color inktank printer. So effectively for the abuse friendly laser printer, you are trading off the more advanced color printer (assuming printing cost is nearly the same with inktank models).

So color inktank is more value if you actually are going to print in color even once a while.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by UPS_Guru

Printer for Home – Layperson Edition

8. What other options * do you need in an ink tank printer?

You need an ink tank printer that supports:

• Removable print head, to clean it if not replace it when the print head gets clogged.

• User replaceable maintenance cartridge/box (that stores waste ink during printing/cleaning) to replace it at your convenience.

• Large ink tank for black ink to prevent frequent refilling of black ink.

• Keyed ink bottles to ensure an ink bottle only refills its dedicated tank to avoid mixing up colors.

• Covered paper tray to store large quantity of paper for printing and protect the printer from dust.

* The new generation of ink tank printers can print as fast and at similar resolution and duty cycles as laser printers.

Any recommendations?

Originally Posted by androdev

I have learned the hard way that home printer should be super minimalistic in features.
I'm happy with my HP Laser 1008W Wi-Fi Monochrome Laser printer.

Well said about the useless features which one rarely uses. Unfortunately in our case, we frequently print official confidential documents needing coloured ink for letterheads and signatures in blue ink etc. The HP looks a good option except for the colour thingy.

Originally Posted by deep_bang

Inkjets with bottles are super cheap.
So I would suggest an ink tank printer.
The only challenge is that the price of a basic laser monochrome printer is similar to a color inktank printer.
So color inktank is more value if you actually are going to print in color even once a while.

Our requirement fits the colour ink tank format. Any recommendations?

[akhil_007]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Any recommendations?

Our requirement fits the colour ink tank format. Any recommendations?

Brother DCP-T820DW- Bought it in 2021. Not issues so far.

This is a beast of a printer. It had all the features one could think of at that point of time. When I say all features, I mean all "usable" features. 2 most useful features I find is that 1.It does Duplex printing. I don't need to worry about flipping the paper and 2. Works even after lying idle for extended period of time. Goes to sleep when not used and wakes up once in a while to "work" all parts.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Our requirement fits the colour ink tank format. Any recommendations?

I have a good experience with HP Ink Tank 316 which was bought by my society for its use a few years back. However this may be an older model not. Please look at the latest models and decide. Things to watch out for:
1. Whether it has wifi capability or not. Please decide if you need to access it on wifi or not. Wifi helps if you plan to print from mobile and scan docs directly from mobile without using a PC in between. If you don't have this use case, you can buy a model that is a little cheaper. However, I feel wifi is always helpful.

Another usecase of scanning from mobile is also helpful. Effectively, you can get rid of your PC for printing if the device is connected to wifi.

2. Whether it has a duplexer that can print on both sides of the paper. This may be helpful if you frequently need to print on both sides. If you don't have a duplexer, you can still use manual duplex from a PC. But I have not seen manual duplex options when printing from mobiles.

3. And the usual pages capacity from the bundled ink and cost of new ink bottles. I have seen that these generally are in the range of 4k black pages and some thing like another 4k color pages from just the bundled ink bottles.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Our requirement fits the colour ink tank format. Any recommendations?

After three HP printers I moved on to a Canon G3770 https://www.amazon.in/Canon-G3770-In...4&gad_source=1 recently and it has been a good decision. The current HPs are flimsy and only focus on fancy stuff whereas the Canon speaks about pure fundamentals. The quality of the printer is ages ahead of all the three HPs I have had and the image quality is good as well. The only downside is the screen which is going to be visually challenging. But rest of the printer and its performance just stands out. And like others said, the inks are cheap and so is the print head which is some 700. I have only filled the tank to halfway mark and only see a slight dip in the levels after a lot of use.

[itwasntme]

Thank you all. I’ll look for a single function colour ink tank printer with WiFi, auto-duplex, large paper trays and large ink tanks too.

[yosbert]

Another satisfied user of Brother DCP-T820DW. Have been using it for a couple of years now and am totally satisfied with its performance.
Please adhere to the suggestion of keeping the printer powered for most if not all the time, and you will have a trouble free ownership.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Thank you all. I’ll look for a single function colour ink tank printer with WiFi, auto-duplex, large paper trays and large ink tanks too.

Originally Posted by yosbert

Please adhere to the suggestion of keeping the printer powered for most if not all the time, and you will have a trouble free ownership.

I’m more than happy with a print-only device. MFDs are largely superseded now with smartphones and advanced scanning software. Any suggestions for such a Brother model?

When you say keep it on, I’m guessing you mean with the power plug on? My current HP 3545e switches itself off in ~20 minutes of idleness.

I’ve never heard or seen it do any maintenance though. Guessing it doesn’t do any such because it’s a more basic inkjet cartridge model.

[yosbert]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

When you say keep it on, I’m guessing you mean with the power plug on? My current HP 3545e switches itself off in ~20 minutes of idleness.

I’ve never heard or seen it do any maintenance though. Guessing it doesn’t do any such because it’s a more basic inkjet cartridge model.

Yes, that is exactly what I meant. Even though it goes into power save mode after some time, it wakes up sometimes to do maintenance activity.

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by akhil_007

Brother DCP-T820DW- Bought it in 2021. Not issues so far.

This is a beast of a printer. It had all the features one could think of at that point of time. When I say all features, I mean all "usable" features. 2 most useful features I find is that 1.It does Duplex printing. I don't need to worry about flipping the paper and 2. Works even after lying idle for extended period of time. Goes to sleep when not used and wakes up once in a while to "work" all parts.

I second your opinion. Bought the same printer last year, use it rarely, but whenever I do, it works without a fuss, and the duplex printing is very useful, saves time as well as paper. Printing speed is fast too, as compared to my earlier Canon. Very happy with the quality of the material, and the service. Works without a fuss, just the way I like it.