(Part 2) Best office printers & accessories according to redditors

Honestly, if you're going to buy a printer go for a laser printer. Brother makes some very good cheap laser printers, like this one which you can get for only $70. The advantage if a laser printer is that the quality is better, they print faster, toner ends up being a lot cheaper per page than ink, and unlike an inkjet where the ink cartridge will dry out after a while, a laser printer doesn't care if it doesn't get used for 2 months.

I'm gonna have to suggest something for myself! :P

I suggest this printer/scanner, these MLP stickers, and The Two Towers Extended Edition!

Congrats everyone on winning! :D

High-quality color laser printers are under $300 now. I have this one.

I quite like my Samsung ML-1630 (amazon link). It's small, pretty, and gets the job done.

This one.

The MFLB does have a high learning curve to it so keep that in mind. Personally I would recommend you get yourself a joint roller like this one and just smoke a joint for your first time. It rolls perfect joints every time so you wont have trouble with that.

Vaping is nice but I have found it to be a very different high in the sense that it's much weaker in my opinion. At least with the MFLB.

If you have the evening all to yourself, just roll a joint and smoke it outdoors. Afterwards rinse your mouth with vodka for a minute straight. Change your shirt and you'll be golden. Eye drops if you're that paranoid.

You can find [these smell proof tubes] (http://www.amazon.com/Doob-Tubes-Airtight-Packaging-4-Pack/dp/B006WCSP8Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416441877&sr=8-1&keywords=doob+tube) at any smoke shop. Theyre good to keep your joints fresh, airtight, and ready to go once your over there. This way you can pre roll them and store a couple per tube instead of having to roll them out here. Excellent for stealth. I've had joints in my pockets at meetings in these things and no smell. You can even drop them in water and you'll be fine. Lol.

Let us know how your first time goes. I'm always interested in hearing about people's first.

I love our Brother printer. We bought a wireless version to replace the wired one we had, but both are monochrome. Is that okay? If so, this whole line is great.

I can vouch for Brady Label Maker. I have used these for over two years and had no issues. I do know where I work now they have used the same label maker for about 4 years without any issues.

A friend of mine who does frequent B&W printing likes his Samsung, it doesn't seem to give him much trouble and doesn't eat toner for breakfast.

Canon MF644Cdw

I have the 642 which is the same printer as the 644 but without the duplex scanning (and $50 cheaper) and it’s been working without a hitch so far, though the software isn’t the most intuitive.

Definitely go with a mono laser printer. For printing text, it's always been the most economical option.

EDIT: This one fits your budget and has pretty good reviews on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/B07N23D92N/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
Link to see all sellers \^

Get a laser printer. Make sure you can get cheap toner cartridges for it!

Put in an alert at Slickdeals.net and you'll get alerts when they go on sale.

I got a Canon imageCLASS MF247dw early this year for $110 on some great sale ($125 plus $15) as I applied some Citi points (or something) to make it worth it. GREAT PRINTER and it's priceless to have in the classroom!

Get a Brother HL-5470DW. They aren't terrible, I've had one at home for over a year and haven't had to replace even the toner or drum yet. I've only printed about 1500 pages off it since I had it, mostly tax stuff. $240 brand new on Amazon. We also use these at work for lower-volume printers. We use HP Laserjet M605s for high-volume applications (or Ricoh/IBM Info-print printers depending on application).

Alternatively, see if you can find a used older HP Laserjet around and connect it to an older computer with a wireless card, make it your print server and share it on the network in your house. It'll be easier to replace the fuser/etc on these and cheaper to find replacements. I currently own a Laserjet 4 Plus and it's still working fine, although the next time the fuser dies I don't know if I'll be able to find a replacement (Printer was discontinued by HP in 1994). Get an HPLJ P4015 or P4250 if you can find one being sold as used/surplus somewhere. They've very reliable, comparatively easy to service, and high-quality/high-volume printers that can be had for right cheap if they only need a little work. Usually a used one will need a fuser and paper feed kit swap, it takes about half an hour of work and a replacement maintenance kit can be found online for $120 for those models.

Some caveats to both: First, they're only black and white. If you want a color laser printer it's gonna cost you a lot more.

If you buy the brother, realize they will not do warranty claims or service calls unless you have a brother toner and drum in the unit. They'll verify serial number from the drum and toner, so keep the original one it comes with and give that to them on the phone. Brother replacements are inordinately expensive and most of the third-parties are less than half the cost and work just as well.

If you go the "Older used laserjet" route, make sure you find one where x64 drivers exist and can be installed on the print server. Often times configuring the print server to use the HP Universal PCL5E or PCL6 driver works fine (note, in my experience most HP Laserjet PCL drivers will work with ANY printer that can emulate PCL language, which includes Kyocera printers, brothers, ricohs, and just about any other business-grade laser printer). If you have an old laptop with USB and wireless you can set it up as a print server pretty easily and it won't use a whole lot of power.

Unless your house is very humid the toner will be fine to use if you only print twice a year. You'll never have a dried up ink cartridge to worry about and the printer will just work 99.99% of the time when you need it to.

Fuck inkjet printers with a passion. For color printing I have access to an HP Color Laserjet M553dn at work which is a damned good printer also and makes higher quality color prints than most injets. If I need photos printed I go to CVS.

If you have a wifi network at home as well as a desktop PC you can connect the printer to that desktop PC and share it and still access it on wifi. You don't necessarily need a wifi printer. The brother model I suggested to you has wifi though. None of the older HP models I suggested do -- you'll have to create a print server for these.

$350?

The Brother printers I use for desktop printing are $150 for monochrome and $200 for color. I'm 100% onboard for throwing printers the fuck away if they have a problem more complicated than "paper jam."

Amazon always came in clutch for me :)

I spent $270 got it on sale. uscutter vinyl cutter mh 34in bundle - sign making kit w/design & cut software, supplies, tools https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CDQGCTW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_gCn.BbDB90ZBH

Before you buy a printer, go on Amazon and look for compatible refills, and figure out what 10 sets of refills will cost you, and tack that onto the price. Look for printer lines that have substantially cheaper third-party cartridges, and you'll never pay full price for ink again.

The Canon PIXMA series of printers happens to have third-party refill cartridges that are so cheap, you can get this pack of 20 off-brand refills (4 complete sets of CMYK plus 4 bulk black refills) for $36 instead of paying $42 for this pack that is only CMYK, and another $22 for a single black bulk tank.

If you don't have your calculator, I'll save you some trouble: the 20-pack of ink you buy for $36 would cost $256 ordered from Canon. That's an 86% discount, or a savings of $220, which is almost enough to buy one of the mid-range Pixma printers.

Seconded. Mine is great. They work out to be cheaper because the toner lasts forever (3000 pages, give or take), not to mention not having to clean print heads. Stick with the business class models.

Something like https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HLL5100DN-Business-Networking-Replenishment/dp/B01BBL2TRS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1485448116&sr=1-1&keywords=HLL5100DN

This one works: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QNRKL6J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I didn't do any fancy setup at all. Just went into the Chromebook under "Printers" and added it. I'm not 100% sure on what buttons to press but it definitely works.

It's a low cost, low quality printer. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

Compare the specs of my printer, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00450DVDY/ to the one you linked, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BDMP8M

The Brother one can be connected via wifi, has a higher resolution, and prints about 50% faster. But, you're paying an extra 50 bucks for it.

So, it's all up to you. I'm sure the canon will be fine. The brother will be better.

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL4570CDW-Printer-Wireless-Networking/dp/B00439GOKY

Not cheap, but you won't buy a new printer for 10 years.

Consider the Canon Imageclass MF236n. The MF236n is a highly rated feature-packed monochrome laser printer that will handle scanning, copying, fax and printing and is currently available on Amazon for only $115. This printer has an automatic document feeder, and comes with both USB and Ethernet connectivity (wireless and duplex available for $25 more, see Canon Imageclass MF244dw). The printer runs at a speedy 24ppm, and supports both Windows 10 & Mac.

Unlike inkjet printers that use expensive liquid ink cartridges that can dry out and clog if the printer is left unused for a few days, this printer uses toner cartridges that do not dry out or clog up. Best of all, generic toner cartridges are widely available on eBay and Amazon for around $12 per cartridge. Each cartridge is good for about 2,400 pages, which makes this printer VERY ECONOMICAL to operate! Good luck.

https://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS-MF236n-Mobile-Printer/dp/B01K1KUQHK/

https://www.amazon.com/Compatible-Cartridge-Replacement-9435B001AA-ImageClass/dp/B01GHQC6AW/

ummm... heres one

http://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Cutter-USCutter-34in-BUNDLE/dp/B00CDQGCTW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418429056&sr=8-2&keywords=vinyl+cutter

It's a neat idea, but I'll stick with my brady labeler

The labels will never fall off either.

Plastic tubes are very durable http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ethernet-Cat6-5e-5-Lan-cable-Number-of-tube-label-tube-number-ring-mark-No-0-9-/261259026670

We use this one at work http://www.amazon.com/Brady-110889-BMP21-Label-Printer/dp/B003X27H9O but I can't speak for how long the labels last for, cause we just got it a few months back.

I bought a color laser printer for less than $300. That thing does everything: color, two-sided, Wi-Fi, scanning.

I frequently scan and have it email the scan to me. I also use the scanner to scan directly to my computer.

I love the two-sided scanning, copying, printing.

The menus for settings are a little painful, only slightly easier to connect to it from a browser (like a router) and adjust things. I will admit some stuff was a huge pain in the ass to set up (like email and mobile phone printing), but easy to use once set up. My wife loves the wireless printing!

Toner is pretty cheap and it lasts forever.

I got the Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QK2KDYC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_9ppWDbDX09QJD

We bought one of these about 2 months ago and I love everything about it. I'm actually amazed at how great it is for the price. We have used every feature except the fax. You will find some criticisms regarding graphical banding in a couple of the reviews - we've printed a wide variety of things with ours and haven't experienced that, so YMMV.

I have NOT put 3rd party ink yet, because despite some pretty heavy printing (for home use) we're still on the original cartridges, but from what I've read, /u/StillMissedTheJoke is correct, they don't do any of these shenanigans. And the ink gets sucked down to the last drop (supposedly) into an internal reservoir - unlike other brands that force you to throw away the cartridge when there's still plenty left.

We have printed to it from Linux, ios, Windows, and macos. Setup on Windows was the hardest, of course, but still not that bad. IIRC we ignored the driver disk and all its crap, and just searched for the printer on the network, and were able to add it and have the drivers pulled in automagically.

It gets 2 thumbs up from me. My one and only criticism is that it seems a little slow. For our usage that really doesn't matter, but if you are printing in high volume regularly, it might. We print multiple times per day, but rarely more than 6 or 7 pages at a time, and at that level it's noticeable if you stand there watching it print, but not annoying.

Tagging /u/CainPillar since they asked the question initially.

I have been using the previous version of this Canon printer for 5 years and only replaced the toner once about a year ago. The toner was 2 for $20.

Most colleges use a dye sublination badge printer or laminated card that are not horribly expensive that any group could use to imitate most colleges ID cards. The blanks are $15 for 100 on Amazon. And they generally don't use holograms and other security features that drivers licenses must now use.

I have a samsung ML-1630. I bought it used at circuit city when they were going out of business for $25. I think it was what they used behind the counter to print invoices and such, because it had pretty heavy signs of wear on the surface (scratches etc). It is very basic, but built like a tank. No flimsy plastic parts stick out of it so not much can break (it doesnt have a paper tray though). It is also low profile so you can stick it on a low shelf or stack other office stuff on top of it (sound receiver, phone, etc)

I used it my last 2 years of grad school. Printed hundreds of pages of research papers, manuals, even full textbooks from open courseware classes. (all on one toner cartridge, but thats standard for monochrome lasers) Even printed stuff for my friends since it was more reliable than the shit lab printers that get broken by every idiot with a student account and a PDF of their Calc I book. It's been through two moves and sat in the back of my car. I even let a friend borrow it for a while once I was done with it. Now I have it back and it still works great.

It rarely jams but it's easy enough to open. However the lack of paper tray means I have to clear a space in front of it or stand there to catch the paper as it comes out.

replacement toner is $50-70, they last about 1500-3k sheets

Well no, not if you don't really need it. Some phone apps do decent jobs at scanning now anyway. Ink is the big cost with home printers. If your son is mainly going to be printing black and white documents then a laser printer is the one to go for. This gets decent reviews on the budget end and this has colour for a bit more and should be more than adequate for home use.

I have a Brother HL5470DW. No problems.

https://smile.amazon.com/Brother-HL5470DW-Wireless-Monochrome-Replenishment/dp/B0081TYO72/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504530990&sr=8-1&keywords=brother+hl-5470dw

i've had very good experiences with windows and linux mint with my brother multi-function inkjet.

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFCJ450DW-Wireless-Scanner-Printer/dp/B00EANURCE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426617081&sr=8-2&keywords=brother+inkjet

i use aftermarket ink with it that amounts to about $2 per cartridge.

Toner is still expensive. And there are plenty of things that can get shitty on a laserjet. Imaging drums, fuser. And the worst is buying cheap knock off toner, once that toner gets onto the rollers and around the drum, getting it to not print ghosted images sucks...

For 100 bucks you can get an epson wf-3720. It works on iphones/ipads, google cloud print, can scan to smb shares, email etc.

It can print double sided, single sided.

Here are some of the stats. Still on the included ink cartridges.

https://imgur.com/a/BtAfmE2

Prior to this i had a Samsung CLX series color laser AIO. It ghosted for years. I changed the fuser, imaging paper, toners etc and it just wouldnt work. I had to run a xp/serve 2003 box WITH an autologin script for scan to SMB shares, no scan to email working, wouldnt work with mobile devices etc etc.

Frankly i dumped way more money trying to make that old workhorse work again (my wife used to print a lot of color for her students).

For daily random printing and scanning. this does fine and is a cheap enough investment ill never think twice of replacing it should a cartridge blow up inside it and it needs a cleaning or the roller fucks up or something like that.

Anyone know if this printer is a steal? I would like a printer and my mom needs one. Reviews aren't stellar, but DAT price: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EHDZMGI/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?qid=1416934861&sr=1-11&m=A20F6RQJB8XGLY&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

If you’re just printing black and white, get rid of the inkjet altogether, it’s a waste. Buy a cheap laser (can get for $70 from Amazon) and toner is cheap, off brand you pay around $20 and it’ll get you over 1000 pages easy.

Save the inkjet for color and photo printing.

Price History

• LEXMARK B2236dw Monochrome Compact Laser Printer, Duplex Printing, White/Gray   ^PureLink
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Using a Brother MFC-J475DW, because I don't actually print a ton but I do like having a color printer that has a feeder for scanning a stack of shit. The ink I use is 8 bucks for 600 pages, actual printer is $85

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Printer-MFCJ450DW-Easy-To-Use-All-In-One/dp/B00EANURCE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404797770&sr=8-1&keywords=mfc+brother+printer

http://www.inkgrabber.com/Brother-LC103BK-Black-Ink-Cartridge-Compatible-s-IJMLC103BK?CAPCID=45767860025&cadevice=c&gclid=CjwKEAjwiumdBRDZyvKvqb_6mkUSJABDyYOz9c7ZYkfdzTPqDt62Q9roZOHX3hOAXy_ukmmOvle45xoCYxvw_wcB&CA_6C15C=500001840000104060

:D

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ESPADQ/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687462&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001GPJY64&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=GE7SXSP2V3AZ2G9T12NA

Or you can just buy a laser printer. Not to be pedantic or anything, but it's the easiest solution to escape the "overpriced ink" bullshit. They're not even any more expensive than inkjet printers.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS-LBP6000-Compact-Printer/dp/B004BDMP8M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396031092&sr=8-2&keywords=laser+printer

Untrue. https://www.amazon.com/Epson-WorkForce-WF-3720-Wireless-Printer/dp/B01N7RZ6AR/
Wired Ethernet, has Scan to Email (SSL), but something I've never used. Would love to go off recomendations, but these exist, especially if you don't care about the printer portion.
https://epson.com/For-Work/Printers/Inkjet/WorkForce-Pro-WF-3720-All-in-One-Printer/p/C11CF24201

amazon.com/Brother-HL4570CDW-Printer-Wireless-Networking/dp/B00439GOKY/

If money is no object, then you could buy one of the machines they use to actually make ID cards.

Then, just make one of yourself based on some existing design (there is special software for this, but Photoshop or similar should be fine) – student ID cards tend to be the easiest, because they tend not to have holograms etc.

Bonus ILPT: now that you have the machine, you can start your own fake ID business!

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-MG5520-Wireless-All-In-One-Printing/dp/B00EHDZMGI/ref=sr_1_1?m=A20F6RQJB8XGLY&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1416935639&sr=1-1 CHEAP PRINTER!

OK I see. I'm checking to see how much we can spend but the idea is to get a printer that would handle every day color and b/w printing as well as brochure printing 3-5 times/year. Any thoughts on this printer?

Yeah, it's this one specifically: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL4570CDW-Printer-Wireless-Networking/dp/B00439GOKY -- that price is stupid though, we paid appx 400 bucks for it in 2013.

I believe it will do legal size if you flip the tray down. I never do legal size documents, though :).

It seems they have some newer models on amazon that look pretty solid -- like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HLL8350CDW-Wireless-Color-Printer/dp/B00JBVWDB8

That said, I only print docs maybe once a week, so it's been good enough for that. And you don't get the weird issues like you do with inkjet printers if you leave them idle for too long (like the jets gumming up and getting weird ink splotches on the roller)

thought it might be useful to link all the equipment I use:
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-SE400-Combination-Computerized-Embroidery/dp/B003AVMZA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459416274&sr=8-1&keywords=brother+se-400

http://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Cutter-USCutter-MH-BUNDLE/dp/B00CDQGCTW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459416319&sr=8-1&keywords=vinyl+cutter

http://www.amazon.com/Fancierstudio-Industrial-Quality-Digital--15-Inch-Sublimation/dp/B00DP5629K/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1459416331&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=heat+press&psc=1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140479764626

With a $250 budget, for your use-case I would buy 2 printers: 1) a cheap monochrome MFP for color scanning and b&w copy/print, and 2) a single-function photo inkjet. This gives you the best of both worlds and provides you a backup. Canon MF247dw ($125) plus a Canon IX6820 ($136). If/when the inkjet clogs, you simply rip and replace, without interrupting your MFP workflow. Slightly more than $250 but way more flexible than a single inkjet burdened with doing all jobs.

If you must have only one box, the HP OfficeJets are good, especially for just standard letter-size printouts, but they lack rear paper feeds, which are typically better for card stock or photo paper, and also so you don't have to remove/re-add media out of just 1 tray. I'd look at the Brother MFC-J5845DW ($199) for starters.

One last point - the SD card slot. You see it offered on photo inkjets, but not on much else. Better to just get a USB adapter to plug the SD card into, then plug the adapter into the printer. The quality of the adapter's reader will often be better anyways.