The Great Cheapest Printer Hunt

[MSE Martin]

Time to tap MoneySavers collective knowledge and expertise again. This time the question is simple can you find the UK's cheapest printer. This isn't just a question of the price to buy it for, but should also include the cost of cartridges and how often they run out.

Over to you.......

[SmartRRRR]

Great idea, and someone's got to be first...

But could we have some goalposts, please?

There are too many variables to just say 'cheapest, including the cost of the cartridges'

If we take a look at the Samsung laser (1510) that some resellers have on offer at the moment, £60 buys 2000+ sheets of top quality print, but no colour. A toner replacement costs about the same as the printer, so you could replace it and start again. Not very eco-friendly, although it's still cheaper than inkjet.

If you want colour, then are we allowed 'compatible' inks? That can save money but I've never trusted them since my Epson still hasn't recovered from 'compatible abuse'. :

Lexmark HP and Epson are probably too expensive for consumables. Canon have the cheapest genuine cartridges, so it would probably be something like the i250 at £50, with ink at £19 even at PC World prices. Shopping around can get the ink down to £14 a pair.

So far I haven't seen a site that has information on cartridge yield, so I can only say that my HP uses less then my Epson, but mainly because the Epson needs cleaning for every other print. >

I wish I could afford a colour laser... :'(

[avantra]

Got to be Canon
I am running i250 and i450 for a year now always on compatible ink which cost like £0.70 for the black and £1.0 for the colour. Got my i250 from Ebuyer for £30 and the i450 for £45 from the same source. There was never any problem with the compatible from phonix. 8)

[jackbremer]

A toner replacement costs about the same as the printer, so you could replace it and start again. Not very eco-friendly, although it's still cheaper than inkjet.

careful though, because the toners/carts that come with printers are invariably half full or less.

but, buy the printer cheap with half full cart, finish the ink, buy another printer, sell it or the old one on ebay and use the toner from the new one... You'll always have a new printer (unless you sold the new one), and you will only be paying for ink, at a fraction of the cost of new toners!

Or... buy about ten printers, nick all the toners out of them, flog the 9 brand new printers on ebay. On eBay, simply list the specs and don't mention the ink anywhere - noone would assume it has ink if not listed, and yet they will pay near market value for a brand new guaranteed boxed printer... hey presto

Personally, I think you are best going for a cheapish printer anyway (£80 or less) and using compatible carts which are super cheap (e.g. www.maximans.co.uk ) and as soon as the print quality drops, flog the printer and get a new one.

[Cameron]

I used to have an HP, but I got sick to death of almost buying a new every time I filled it up with ink (refill kits are not worth the hassle)

When I got the chance to offload it (sorry sis) I jumped at the chance to change brand - Its most probably not the cheapest or the best but I swear by my Epson Stylus CX5200 - it got a scanner/colour photo copier and best of all individual colour cartridges - oh yes I buy compatible cartridges from www.printerowners.co.uk - a full fill up saves me £29 - supposedly there’s 30% extra ink as well.

Now for those that I can hear saying "but the print quality will suffer" a bit of Cameron advise (advise is cheap you can take it or leave it) -90% of what most people print is b/w and 10% is low quality colour - and 99.9% of the total ends up in the bin - For those that want colour photos go to Boots, let them do the messing around.

An Epson CX5200 and www.printerowners.co.uk fan ;D

[Cameron]

Dammm!! I’ve been ripped off! ??? – don’t use my link use jackbremer’s I can save another £15

Thanks jackbremer

A CX5200 and www.maximans.co.uk fan ;D

[MagsC]

Please can I tap your (obvious!) expertise??? I have a colour printer (Epson C82) I'm happy with, except when it comes to buying ink of course, but I want to use old colour photographs in documents and would have to scan them in. Thought I'd buy a printer/scanner in one but after a quick look the dpi on the combined ones look pretty low. Not knowing much about it, I don't know how much I need for reasonably good reproduction of my precious photos and whose machines are worth having. Anyone out there who can help? (This is my first post, so forgive the longwindedness!) ???

[tomtface]

HI

Was looking for a printer today actually, prior to reading the latest email, ebay came up with complex printers for high prices - but PC world came through with a steal for £29.99. A basic printer, but compact and fairly fast, for around the price of an expensive cartridge! Doesn't include the data cable (another £9.99) but I think a good deal.

Cheers

Tom

[sparked_out]

I do not know about cheapest printer, but £9.99 for the cable is crazy ???. You can buy USB A-B cables for 0.59 p for ebuyer (www.ebuyer.co.uk). Admitted you have to pay £1.99 post and packing but you can still get 3 cables for under £5.

[pennymakespounds]

quite agree about printer cables.
i got a new dell laptop this week.. came to attach it to hp printer and saw computer was usb fitting which i didn't have ..... dixons were £12.99 for the lead ... local computer shop was £8.99 .. and whilst i'd seen them on ebay etc for next to nothing .. i bought one at wilkinsons for £2.99

[mutley74]

I did not realise that these cables are so cheap...worth buying separate rather than paying the £7 to Dell!
Cheers for the tip!

[cafenervosa]

Got to be Canon
I am running i250 and i450 for a year now always on compatible ink which cost like £0.70 for the black and £1.0 for the colour. Got my i250 from Ebuyer for £30 and the i450 for £45 from the same source. There was never any problem with the compatible from phonix. 8)

I just got a Canon i250 from a computer fair today for £25. It came with spare ink as well on top of the cartridges thats inside the printer. While I was at the fair I bought some more ink (compatible) Black was £1.50 & colour was £2.00. So all in all I hope it turns out to be a wise move getting this printer. The only other option I would have had was to buy new ink for my Lexmark printer and you know how much that is!

[glennh]

Dell are doing a great offer on a colour printer:


http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/to...l=en&s=dhs


£9.99 and that includes VAT and delivery. (If you subtract the printer cable otherwise it's 23 quid.) Sounds a bit too amazing. Has anyone any idea what it's like?

The deal lasts until 04/10/2004

Glenn.

[scattycat]

This is a re run of an older Dell Offer £9.99 delivered, saga,

It is really a re-badged Lexmark basic £29.99 Z23/605. The cartridge tops have been altered so that the Lexmark ones wont fit and you will have to buy Dell high priced version, OR SO THEY THINK :

This time the printer is supplied without the USB lead which costs £13 on its own from Dell, another "Polaroid" tactic, you can get the leads for a pound or less, at £1 shops or on markets and dont be fooled by the USB " hike, a USB1 version will work . its only a bit of wire :

SAGA 2

Delivery 3 days this time

Saga 1 When I find it, Scat

[glennh]

Does that mean that other cartridges fit? If so which ones have you had experience with and which would be best?

[scattycat]

Hi Glenn,
The Lexmark cartridges will fit if you swop the tops, You need to crack the glue used then sellotape the top back on. this I have done.
Alternatively you can possibly alter, (cut) the Dell clip that holds the cartridge, so that the Lexmark type will fit. Which I havent done YET. I looks simple enough, might try it later today if time permits. Lift the cartridge clip and to the right of the spring is a little peg set at 45 degrees, I reckon if you cut/break this peg off, that the Lexmark cartridges (and Lexmark compatibles) will fit.

They are Lexmark 17/27 low content black/colour (10ml of ink)

and 16/26 full content ones (20ml of ink)

You could also try to fit a Lexmark clip

HTHs Scat

PS, do what I do, cultivate a Staples or PCWorld employee to save empty returned (for RECYCLING!!!!!! :

[AnnieP]

Just tried what Scat said about cartridges for the Dell printer, which Lexmark cartridges are you talking about? I have also got a Lexmark printer, but the cartriges from mine are much too large even without the top! Can you help as I print a lot and need to save money. I do refill the black ones anyway and find that fine for just printing text or black and white, but do need to save money on colour. Anyone help on this.
AnnieP
ps tried to add a picture to this, couldn't do it, can anyone tell me how please?

[webwonder]

I use a lot of ink through my business and decided eventually to change my printer from a Hewlett Packard with ink cartridges costing between £17 and £29 !!
I invested in a Canon i455 from Currys for £39.95 a great Photo colour printer which does exactly what it says, nothing fancy but good enough quality for my business.
The store tried to tell me that the cartridges were cheaper because they only had half as much ink in them!! Complete nonsense, they last as long as my previous printers cartridges. Best of all after purchasing the printer i crossed the road to Tesco and bought the cartridges at £1.99 each for the black and £4.99 for the colour, my printer is now 10 times cheaper than before..
I am unsure if this printer is still available to buy in the U.K. but it is definately worth shopping around and finding out about cartridge costs before purchasing a printer.

[donkeyote]

Great idea, and someone's got to be first...

But could we have some goalposts, please?

There are too many variables to just say 'cheapest, including the cost of the cartridges'

If we take a look at the Samsung laser (1510) that some resellers have on offer at the moment, £60 buys 2000+ sheets of top quality print, but no colour. A toner replacement costs about the same as the printer, so you could replace it and start again. Not very eco-friendly, although it's still cheaper than inkjet.

You can refill the Samsung cartridges yourself, they have a little cap on the side that is removable with a screwdriver, and I've bought toner bottles for £9 from Ebay, so it's a pretty cheap printer.

If you want colour, then are we allowed 'compatible' !inks? That can save money but I've never trusted them since my Epson still hasn't recovered from 'compatible abuse'. :

Lexmark HP and Epson are probably too expensive for consumables. Canon have the cheapest genuine cartridges, so it would probably be something like the i250 at £50, with ink at £19 even at PC World prices. Shopping around can get the ink down to £14 a pair.

I have a Canon i250 from Ebuyer, and I only bought it because their cartridges cost :
£1.76 for black

I bought 50 of each.
The printer gives excellent quality prints as well! (£35 for the printer itself).

I've also just found out that Ebuyer do a black cartridge for the Canon BJC2000/4000 that only costs 72p!

[nemo183]

I dunno about the cheapest, but I had delivered from Comet a Lexmark 2250 combined printer/fax/scanner.

Price, including delivery, was £39.95. When it arrived, there was also a free DVD offer (Choice of 10, we choose Nemo), which arrived within 48 hours.

Quality is great, as is easy of use as you can use it as an offline copier (both colour and B/W).

I guess this is not a great choice if you want a printer and print a lot - I think the cost of the new ink carts will exceed the price of the printer - especially if you include the added value of the CD - however, for ease of use, and small printing rec, I don't think it can be beat.

Finally, there's loads of cheaper options when replacing carts - but even if you stick to originals, 7dayshop.com (which can be reached through rpoints.com) saves around 40% on OEM.