Help finding a new printer

[AccountingDrone]

Pretty much what it says, my ancient workhorse of an HP [built back before they cheaped out] is now on its last reactor rollers and I need a replacement.

I am OK with just black/greyscale, though I would love an all in one, as I have a separate scanner that is also sort of decrepit, color isn't all that important to me as I normally print text only.

I understand HP is really not the recommended product any longer, expensive cartridges and noisy fans and a power hog. So I am not entirely certain where that leaves me. I have about $150US to play with and am open to suggestions.

[Gravekeeper]

Printers are so dirt cheap these days ( The ink is where they get you of course ). You can pick up a Canon All In One for half that. Canon is still decent quality far as I know.

[csquared]

Couple years ago I bought a Cannon MX330 at Fry's for $60.00. I have no complaints with it. Ink prices are reasonable.

[Arcus]

The last printer I bought was a Brother DCP-7360N All-in-One laser printer. I love the thing. It never gives me any trouble. Unless I need to, I will never go back to inkjet again. The lifetime cost per page is lower and you never have to worry about the ink drying out if you don't use the printer for awhile.

[RichS]

Since you print mostly text, I'd suggest a laser printer. You can probably find one on sale within your price range, and there's the lower cost per page and no ink drying out that Arcus pointed out.

One of the churches I support bought a Brother all-in-one (copy/print/scan/fax) that's been used for over a year, and have had no problems with it. Only maintenance done is that they had to replace toner a couple of months ago.

[AccountingDrone]

Sounds good, I think I will go for one of the all in one Brothers, my scanner just croaked this morning.

[emax4]

One word of warning with Brother printers is that they use a drum in addition to a toner (if memory serves me). The toner gets replaced at normal intervals (depending on the frequency of printing), but the drum gets replaced at fewer intervals though. If you plan on printing mostly text, I suggest a laser printer as well. If you won't print text as often, go for the inkjet. When it comes to those refillable inks, it is best to use those only for printers that will print text. If you use the refillable inks for photos, it's best to replace the inkjets or color toners rather than getting them refilled.

[Kaylyn]

We recently got a Brother J430W all-in-one for a cheap price. It's an inkjet but it's fast, and less prone to panic attacks than my old HP. The ink is reasonable and doesn't seem to be going out nearly as fast as the HP did. You replace black and each of the three primary colors separately as they go out, and you have 2 choices for black cartridges, a regular size and an XL capacity. I wanted a laser printer when we bought it but hubs wanted to keep it below a hundred and I think the cheapest laser ones we could find at the time were about 120 or so.