Suggestions for a new printer?

[jtbell]

The Canon MP560 all-in-one printer that I bought in January 2010 just died on me, I think. When I turn it on, it comes up with a B200 error which seems to mean the print head has gotten fried. The instructions I've seen for clearing that error all start with removing the ink tanks, but I can't do that because the ink-tank carrier is parked in a position where I can't get at the ink tanks.

It wasn't very expensive to begin with, so it's probably not worth the cost and effort to try to fix it. Any suggestions for an inexpensive wireless printer/scanner? Canon vs. HP vs. xxxx? I use it much more for scanning than for printing, actually. I use the scanner almost daily, but I print a page or two maybe once or twice per week. The Canon won't even let me scan now, while it's hung up on that error code.

 

[turbo]

Have you looked at the Brother MFC series? You get a scanner, printer, and photocopier all in one. The machine uses laser-type toner, which seems to last pretty well. Good luck.

 

[Psinter]

That is really bad luck or the printer was really defective.

I've tried many HP and only one Canon, but it's quality cannot be matched by any of the HP I've tried before. Maybe they can, but I think that for the same money spent on a good HP printer, you can get a better quality one from Canon.

The only pro I've found when using HP is that has HP has abundant linux drivers for its products. For Canon it is most likely that a new printer will not support linux.

In my experience:
HP Printers are very mechanical and hence very noisy.
Canon Printers are silent.
Non of them recover gracefully from errors. A simple error can render both of them useless even when other parts could work.
There is a bigger community for HP printers.
Canon printers does not have that big of a community.

EDIT: I just eliminated my funny note from here on HP printers. It was not funny at all.

 

[Chronos]

Check out the ink replacement cost. That can easily exceed the cost of the printer over a couple years. Canon tends to fare well on that count.

 

[Borek]

In my experience ink jets are a waste of money, unless you happen to use them in a very specific way. If you use them too often - ink cost is a killer. If you don't use them often enough, ink dries out clogging the jets and everything, so you have to replace ink cartridges when they are not empty - ink cost is a killer. Since at least 2007 I am using HP LaserJet 2605dp, it is always ready and never failed me, doesn't matter if I need to print 500 color flyers for the conference, or just 3 bw invoices in a three slow, summer months. Yes, it is huge and wasn't cheap - but in the meantime my neighbor bought three or four ink printers*, so I don't think overall I am paying much more.

*which doesn't stop him from occasionally asking if he can print some important document here, as his printer is temporarily out of order

 

[Dr Transport]

Stay away from the IBM's, they use wax as the printing medium as opposed to a toner powder like most printers.

 

[jtbell]

For better or worse, I decided to stick with Canon to simplify comparing models, and ended up with the MX922. The deciding factor turned out to be the ability to print on the stiff card-like stock that I use for stamp-album pages. The lower-end models that I considered (MG5420 and MX452) have sharply curved paper paths and cannot handle card stock, according to comments on Amazon.

I now also have the ability to fax, which I'll probably never need, and automatically print double-sided pages. The automatic document feed might be occasionally useful for scanning. And this thing is significantly larger than the old printer.

I'm going to try to remember to print a few pages at least once a week, to keep the print nozzles from clogging, which I suspect happened to the old printer.

Setup on my Apple-centric network was very easy. It found my wireless access point and I entered the network password. On my desktop Mac Pro with the latest OS, I went to System Preferences --> Print & Scan, clicked the "add printer" button, and there it was. Likewise on my wife's MacBook with an earlier OS, except that it also prompted me to download and install the printer driver automatically from Apple's database.

The VueScan software that I've used for years, with all my scanners, is also compatible with the MX922. It's nice to have the same interface for both flatbed and film scanners.