asisted Printer killing
 

Yesterday I unplugged my Lexmark Z51 (via the dc plug-in at the printer) so I could 'dust' (read 1/2 in thick) the shelf it's on. When I went to plug it back in It arced. Pretty good too. Of course I was highly entertained and kept making it arc. The cat even came and watched for a bit. Yes I am very easily amused, however, since I know not if it's the power brick, or the printer for sure, I decided. Well actually the wife decided when she saw me playing with the plug. That I would be getting a new printer.
Since I haven't bought or really looked at a printer since 1998 I was hoping for some peoples experience/reccomendations with recent printers. There are just too many avail.

It doesn't need to do photo output, I've got a dye/sub for that.
what it does need is:
a decent speed in black
the ability to do color
separate black/color cartridges
decent printer sharing. (this lexmark sucks with that)
$150US and under.

Thanks.

nevermind. I'm an idiot. plug in unit, then plug in to the wall.

If you want a nice printer for a low price I reccomend HP's. I have owned several and never had a hitch. I also sell them, and so far haven't had any complaints. If you want a cheapy color printer here yah go:
Fast cheap color printers

for $79.99 you can get one that will do 10ppm black 8ppm color and has a pritning resolution up to 2400*1200 dpi. Just check out that link, you will find something there I bet.

I agree.

HPs might not be the fastest, but they are reliable, and because they're so popular, you avoid odd incompatibility issues.

What they lack though, is a cheap ink replacement solution: Canons deal with this better. I've tried refill kits, but no luck yet...

I like Epsons too, but I'm so more used to their dot matrix lines.

All in all, you have to take a look at the ink solutions: a cheap printer can have an expensive replacement cost; that's how the printer is cheap...

Here is my take on printers:

HP inkjets are crap! I say that because after having to deal with well over 100 customers that come to me compaining that their HP deskjet XXX does not pick up the paper correctly, it has made a "slight" bad impression on me. :) NO COMPLAINTS ABOUT THEIR LASER PRINTERS THOUGH!!! They are wonderful and highly backwards compatabile.

Epsons are wonderful and fairly reliable. I do recommend them and they have excellent photo/color printing quality, even in draft mode.

Canons are a mixed bag. My first printer was a Canon 200ex and that thing would NOT die. I even had to fish some bobby pins out of the paper feeder one time and it ran like a champ for years (still to this day that was the best printer I have ever owned) Their color printers seem to have too many problems when it comes to the ink heads dying on you and you have to spend $50-$200 to replace them.

Lexmarks I am not really fond of either. I got a Z32 for free from my mom when she could not get it to work and all I had to do was replace the ink tanks. I have never been able to get it to network print correctly and the ink dries up too quickly (but then again I only print once in a blue moon)

If I ever get another printer, I am going to bite the bullet and get a small sized laser printer, probably from HP. Ink just dries up too much on my and I am tired of having to deal with all the crap that inkjets give me. It is worth my time and money to invest in, say the HP LaserJet 1200.

My .002cents

I agree 100%.

Canons are indeed a mixed bag, I've also seen one act as if it was bulletproof.:D

The Epson inkjets have given me driver problems in the past. It's really hard to mess up a printer driver... I'd like to assume that that's not a problem now.

My experience with HP is that if they fail, it usually becomes garbage, because repairing it is cost prohibitive (welcome to America, the home of disposables!)

As for Lexmark, they're the ones guilty of having an expensive ink solution.

The best bang for the buck IMO is an old HP laserjet: no colors but if you don't need it, you'll be eternally grateful for not having to buy a new cartridge because your kid "accidentally" printed the whole Barney website!

thanks all.
HP printers were the main reason I asked.
At my office we use the HP4, 4plus, 4mplus, and a few of the newer ones. No problems except with a few of the specific programs. (Yardi, love it and hate it. I wouldn't give it up) I've seen soda spilled in them, cookie crumbs, and I still don't understand how but a whole PB&J in the envelope feed. They just keep working.

The HP inkjets on the otherhand, some of the problems we've had I was never sure if it was the users or the printers. Probably both.
I don't print much off the inkjet any more. I've probably replaced the ink cartridge twice since I've had the Lexmark.

Here's the wierd thing though, I started to take it apart to see if there was anything I may want. There was a staple inside the printer. It was fused across the +/- of the DC input. I assume that it was shorting something else out for the last 2 years since it now has no problem being run off the network. When I moved the printer it must have been jostle around.

If you want printer recomendations, go to www.tomshardware.com It's the only thing usefull of that site. :rolleyes:

Seriously, my limited experience tells me that canon's are cheap in ink, and epson's are high quality for photos on special paper.

I have had good experiences with my HP inkjets. I used to eat and spill food on my desk with the printer, and one day it stopped feeding paper. I opened it up pulled 2 pencils out of the paper feed along with a cookie and some crumbs. It still prints just like the day I bought it.