[alex_anglin]

I too have a Canon POS inkjet printer/scanner. Recently had to change change out the black ink cartridges, because those are the only ones that really deplete. Picture my frustration when all of the cartridges needed to be replaced at the same time (even those full of ink), lest the printer not register the new cartridges.

I will never buy another Canon printer again and think twice about any of their other products. At least they're giving HP a run for seeing which firm can burn their brand the fastest.

[GordonS]

I got totally sick of it a couple of years back - I'd had HP, Epson and Canon inkjets over the years, and with all it seemed like every time I just wanted to print something, I had to do a silly dance of "realigning print heads" or "unclogging" or whatever, all of which consumed both time and ink. And invariably after printing more than 3 pages it'd moan about low ink levels.

And genuine ink cartridges are expensive! The practice of locking to prevent using generic cartridges is terrible.

Inkjets are a scam, plain and simple.

So, I bought an inexpensive Brother laser printer. It's black only, but I switched to printing most photos at Costco years ago anyway - the quality is just so much better than you can achieve at home. Anyway, what a revelation! It starts up in a couple of seconds, and when you hit "print", it just does it, again in just a couple of seconds. No moaning about maintenance. No asking me to change a cartridge every 3 minutes - just a printer that works when you need it to!

And it came with a "small" ink tank, that is somehow still going! Even when I do need to buy another ink tank, a full sized one, it'll only cost something like £30 and probably last for at least 5 years!

[tagoregrtst]

Epson’s more professional line is (was) pretty decent. The cartridges are big and cheap, and they even have a printer line that takes straight ink (ie there’s a tank you top off).

The printers are more expensive though (at least $100 more for the same functionality - which is probably the profit they estimate they’re forgoing on the ink), and the last one I bought was cheap (still going though).

Never buy a consumer grade printer though.

[GordonS]

The HP and Canon ones I had were actually pretty expensive, and one of the HP ones even did A3. So I don't think this is only an issue with low-end consumer models.

[tagoregrtst]

I don't know about HP, Ive sworn off HP since Corina brought it to the ground.

[alex_anglin]

Yeah, the consensus view these days seems to be that Brother laser printers are the way to go.

[MandieD]

Our Brother color laser (purchased around 2013, I think) cheerfully accepts whatever generic toner we’ve thrown into it, and allows them to each be replaced when they’re actually empty.

[zerof1l]

Every time some news about printers pops up, I see people praising Brother printers. Not a long time ago, I had to purchase a printer and decided to buy Brother one, since so many praises it. Seller included cartridges, but the printer refused to acknowledge the full black ink cartridge. It simply reported it as empty.

I was unable to find any way to trick it or to bypass that check. I ended up having to purchase a new black ink cartridge for about 1/5th price of the printer. Now I either need to purchase some device to reprogram the chip on that cartridge or throw it away.

Bottom line, Brother printers are no better than the rest of them.

[wizzwizz4]

People praise Brother laser printers. Sounds like you got an inkjet. (But that's rubbish regardless.)

[wildzzz]

I've got a Canon MX920 series printer. I only use third party cartridges (EZ Ink or something). Carts are cheap and I've got no issue only replacing them one at a time. Sometimes the wireless printing gets a little wonky but this has probably been the best printer I've ever owned. It just works and the ink is so damn cheap. One thing that is a little annoying is that you can't print without all of the carts being non-empty and you need both black pigment and regular black but this is typical of any inkjet printer.

[JKCalhoun]

HP already burned their brand to the ground. I did pick up an HP color laser printer on eBay — but a model for which the toner-pirates have already hacked the chips. Apparently HP's more recent offerings don't have such a ready supply of 3rd party toner vendors.

Definitely a fucked up world we're living in. I feel bad for those less tech-savvy. Worst still for our planet though as I suspect that rather than lining HP or Canon's pockets, the less sophisticated users are simply tossing out these peripherals faster than an old VHS player.

[SAI_Peregrinus]

The original HP is now Keysight. HP the printer company got the name, but Keysight has the engineering.

[ezconnect]

HP burned their printer brand a long time ago, my last HP inkjet was the HP 720c and was very reliable and had a big ink that can print tons of documents. After that they made the ink so tiny you have to buy ink every month.