I have a client that wants us to add a wireless printer. Technology is not their strong suits and asked for us to just provide something that works. I have no problem with that, but I don't keep on on printers. Any recommendations on what works well mainly for print and scan, is easy for this client to use, and isn't a money drain in terms of toner or ink?

If it's for pictures than I can't help you.
For regular printing, I use Brother MFC9970 [Link: google.com]
I love that thing.
I had MFC9840 before, and the 9970 is better, nicer, faster and it has built in duplex scanning.
Because it's laser, I don't have to worry about ink drying out.
But it does suck at printing pictures.

I used to stick with HP but in recent years the associated software was becoming troublesome, exhibiting erratic behavior, failing to print, failing to scan, etc.

So I bought an Epson. It worked without issue.

Next time I needed a printer I bought another Epson. It also worked without issue.

And another after that.


Based on that very limited sample I would suggest looking at Epson.

here is the printer I have [Link: amazon.com]

it has been the single best printer i have ever owned. 2 years in and its been rock solid, easy to use, nice features and the ink is actually pretty reasonable.

Network printers suck unless there is a decent network in their. The key is to give it a static IP and Mac address reservation to keep it "printable" this goes for being on a comcast modem/router or on a mikrotik system etc

I just had to recycle one of these. Got about three years out of it. The two-sided printing started jamming paper pretty regularly. I turned it off. Then it said the color ink carts were low. Bought new ones. "Printer Failure". Put empty carts back in. No printer failure, just low ink. Two more sets of new carts also gave "Printer Failure" and online forums suggest that happens more often than it should. Bye Bye 8600.

I used to be fanatical about using only HP. The quality of their hardware has gone down imho. Their software has become a major issue as mentioned as well. I've sat there for over an hour waiting for their software to load on numerous occasions. I'm hoping to go with something else and will check out the suggestions.

EPSON WF Series. Personally have the WF-3540. It is connected via wireless and have had zero issues. Fast printing and good quality. Epson Durabrite inks don't smudge. Good printer. Have a few Epson printers in customer houses. No complaints.

Outside of this thread I have heard good things about both Epson and Brother so I'll give both lines a look. Thanks.

wow.

it amazes me that someone would do this. What good can come from it?

Printers all suck nowadays. Companies want to sell ink and toner. they dont want to make money on the printer. They get built like crap.

and just for fun. whats the point of having a wireless printer anyway? Is it really that hard to plug a printer into the network switch?

its bad enough we end up being responsible for things like Cable boxes and other client owned AV gear that we leave in systems(Against our recommendations usually)........

Now I'm going to get a phone call every time they $79 printer wont scan a photo or gets jammed?

no thanks.

Whether printer is connect to LAN or not, don't forget AirPrint feature.

My goto printer is Xerox Phaser series printer with AirPrint, but it is out of budget range to most people

Thanks for the help

I bought an HP all in one a few years ago and it chronically has problems with recognizing cartridges. I try to print a document and it shows that the black cart is bad, so I replace it, even though it still has plenty of ink. I put the new one in and it tells me to check the color cart. I'm going to keep it but only to use as a scanner. Screw it! I'm done with ink jet, so I bought a Brother HL-2360D laser jet. $119, out the door. Works great, it uses wired or WiFi, setup was easy and I can print from my iPhone. Screw ink cartridges! I know someone at a local computer store and he uses generic toner that he buys on ebay, without any problems. The Brother 2270 cartridges are over $50 and he pays about $16 each. The ones for mine aren't available in generic, yet, but even the "starter" cartridge is supposed to be good for 700 pages, which is far more than I got out of that POS HP in the whole time I have owned it. Even if I have to pay the regular price for the full-size cartridge, it's supposed to yield 12K pages- it may last the rest of my life.

No more HPs for me. Too many issues with jamming, double feeding, etc. Not to mention crazy ink prices.
For my office, I am using a Brother 6920. Got it for 229. Does a great job, even prints 11x17. Grabbed a multi-pack of ink from Amazon. IIRC it was $35 for a 12-pack with 3 of each color and black. Been going strong almost a year.
I don't do a lot of photo printing though. If I need high-quality photos printed, I upload them to Costco or WalMart photo lab, then grab them an hour later in the sizes and quantities that I want. The cost is lower, quality is better, and I don't have to maintain a photo printer.

I bought two Brother printers a new of years ago. 1 for me and other for a friend. Both stop working, as far as not putting ink to the paper. Or rather it was fading one color but not the others and what not.

I found out it was because of the piss poor craftsmanship. Basically these printers had the ink cartridges stored on the front and had tubes that ran from them to the head. They dried out rather quickly, like with in a month or so. And they constantly did a cleaning process 2 or 3 days a week. (Maybe that's where the ink went?) So stay away from printers where the inks are stored in the front/side of the printer.

Now I have replaced those two with a Canon MG5320 (idk what the current model would be). I've had then for 2 years and they are awesome. The ink resides on top of the print head, so the ink last a super long time with out use. It does not go through a cleaning process at all during the week.

I love the fact that it can do double sided print by itself. (Depending on the program settings. Which aren't set up for double side print by default.) My model can only do Apple's AirPrint, but not Google's version of AirPrint. However the follow year model could so I'm assuming that the current can too.


One thing to note though. If this printer is truly going to be hooked up via Wi-Fi. The "SCAN" button on the printer will not automatically open a program on a computer to scan to. The user will have to place the document in the scan tray. Then open the program in the computer and have it do the scanning process. However, if this printer is hooked up via USB to a near by computer. Then pressing the "SCAN" button will open a program and the document will be scanned into said program. This should be true for all printer/scanners.

Most printers can be set up both Wi-Fi as well as USB. So if the client wishes to have the printer plugged in via USB to a near by computer for the "SCAN" button to work. Then for the most part it is possible.

I also would suggest to have a printer that has the separate color cartridges. As they client will be able to change out just the color that is out. I go through a lot of cyan but not the others. At one point I went through 2 Cyan before changing the other colors. So I am glad that I am not throwing the other colors away because one went dry.

KOT

+1 on Brother. I have a 440CN Multifunction network printer/scanner/fax that's been kickin' since 2007 with no problems. The ink cartridges are reasonably priced and, unlike gravity feed bubble jets, they are pressurized and do not dry out if the printer is used infrequently [unlike my prior HP].