Let me start by saying-DO NOT even mention the letters H and/or P in this thread. I "had" an HP that worked flawlessly. The print quality was excellent, it fed paper correctly, and a print cartridge would last me about 20 pages.. That is NOT an exaggeration either. I've counted them, on multiple cartridges, and they only yield about 20 pages (double sided) which included text only-no graphics, no pictures! I use this printer to print invoices and really most of the page is left white after it is printed. This was even with the settings set to "ink save mode". So, I decided I would not be held hostage by those jack-wads at HP ever again. I took their fine HP product, and I smashed it down on the shop floor, then repeated multiple times until the pieces were small enough to fit into the dust pan.

Fast forward-I bought a Brother J825DW that was "supposed" to be able to print 300 pages on a single cartridge.. Can you guess how many pages I can actually get out of a $41 cartridge? Between 55-60. That's it. At this point, I am just sick of the out & out LIES that the printer manufacturers print on their cartridges, and also on their packaging.

Can anyone recommend a decent quality printer that can be utilized with a continuous ink supply set up? I want to permanently cut the shackles placed upon me by the printer manufacturers. I'd like to scan a picture of my hand holding up my finger that shows how much I care, and then send it to all of the printer manufacturers.

For the record, I tried refilling the ink cartridge at Wally World and it destroyed my Brother printer. It would not print with the refilled cartridge at all, then when I put a real Brother cartridge back into it, you have to print like 30 pages before it will print anything legible. It starts out "ghost" printing really lightly, and after about 30 pages, it will finally reach a point where you can read what is being printed.

If there is another way, even with a different style of printer, someone please let me know. I feel like I'm wearing a dunce cap and HP & Brother are rolling on the ground laughing at me for being stupid enough to have given them my money for printers and cartridges (over & over & over)..

The funny thing is we used to have a dot matrix printer that was probably 20 years old and it was SUPERB. The only reason we canned it was because we can't find ribbons for it anywhere anymore. I guess the printer manufacturers realized that they could not rob us as often if the ribbons lasted so long and they shut that down real quick. This is akin to going to buy a new car and the dealer tells you it only gets 2 miles to the gallon because you have to buy gas from the same people that made the car. It should be illegal what they are doing with print cartridges. Ounce per ounce, ink is MORE EXPENSIVE than gold!

Get what's ever on sale and use the Draft setting when you print. My B&W cart last 6 months and I use it everyday. As long as I use the "Draft Setting" or "Grey Scale". Its different on other computers/printers.

You're going to pay for ink for any of them. If you want to stay with ink look at lexmark.

I'd suggest a laser printer.

We have a Cannon

Cannon here too. Copier/scanner/printer with wireless. No issues, easy to use and does a good job.

Kodak here, love it.

I'd have to ask you guys the same question-how many pages (text only!) can you get out of a single cartridge?

I guess I'll research laser and see how much the replacement cartridges cost, and how many pages can be expected out of each one.

I really needed to vent. Thanks for that. If I stay with a traditional type of ink-jet printer, I'm going to go the continuous ink supply way to cut the manufacturers out of future earnings.

If you are going to go with an Ink Jet printer... look at the size and cost of the cartidges before anything else.

Some printers (like HP all in ones) have very small cartridges. More heavy duty printers have catridges that contain 3X the ink and are only $5 more. The printers also last longer BUT they cost twice as much. If you print a lot they are worth the money.

Call Alpha Laser in Houston for replacement cartridges if you get a laser printer. The cost will be about half of an oem cartridge.

The other thing about the new Brother ($225) printer, is that after each, and every, page-it stops to clean it's print heads. It has done this since day one.

For example-you print a page, and then 5 seconds later decide you need another copy so you hit print again. After printing the first page, it will stop and clean it's cartridge head, then print the 2nd copy and stop again and clean it's cartridge head. It takes almost 2 minutes between each copy.. It is frustrating to say the least. The only way I'm buying a new printer is if I can hook it up to my computer, and use it for a day or 2 first to see what quirks it has. This Brother is a real "OH Brother!" when it comes to speed (sssssllllllloooooowwwwww).

Now I've done it.. I was having to keep reloading old pages to try and get it to print instead of wasting good paper and now the screen says paper jam and refuses to print. There is no paper jammed in it but I can't clear the error message. I've unplugged it and re-plugged it but it instantly shows "paper jam". Yes, I've opened the entire thing up and there is not a single piece of paper ANYWHERE inside. I'm about one 2 amp fuse short of picking it up and performing an "HP Exorcism" on it... Should I video it?

I have an HP printer that we bought about 4 months ago and we love it. I can print wireless from any laptop and all our iOS devices, scan, copy etc. etc.

Also, it's on the original print cartridges. Of course they are empty, we ran out a couple of months ago.

Most companies will kill you on the cost of ink. We print so infrequently that it really had no influence on our decision.

We're using an Epson right now and so far have only printed maybe 20 pages but the ink levels are still showing full. My favorite printer of all time is my old HP 1100 (B&W only) that I used for over two years on the used toner cartridge that was in it when it was given to me. Prints very fast but the toner cartridges are expensive.

Artisan 710, we buy the cartrides off of Amazon.

Back in 2001 I bought a used Lexmark S Optra laser printer, 18 pages per minute. It is an office grade printer, with network card.
AND cartridges are rated for 10000 and 17000 pages. Yes, 17k pages in b&w, laser quality. If you dont believe, check Optra S 1625 series cartridges.
Right now I am on my second cartridge...

Laser printerz forewer!

have had lexmark and epson and I know you don't wanna hear it but HP was the best I've had. Canon did pretty well too

HP Officejet 4500 Wireless has been a jewel for us at home. Oops I forgot you didn't want to hear it.

X2
I travel and the HP with the X3 cart last forever on the Draft setting. Somedays I print 100 docs.

I would definitely recommend going with a laser printer. The toner cartridges are more expensive but their yield is higher than the ink jet cartridges, meaning that the cost per page printed is actually cheaper. Lexmark's are workhorses. FYI-if you need to print in color, it will most likely require 4 separate cartridges. Lasers are much faster than inkjet as well.

Be careful with reman cartridges. There are some good ones out there, but many more are trash and will ruin your printer. The most common problem with remans is that they leak all over the inside of you printer.

Lexmark

Kawabuggy,wife says go into the software and cancel all print jobs. "That's probably what it is" so she says.

Now I've done it.. I was having to keep reloading old pages to try and get it to print instead of wasting good paper and now the screen says paper jam and refuses to print. There is no paper jammed in it but I can't clear the error message. I've unplugged it and re-plugged it but it instantly shows "paper jam". Yes, I've opened the entire thing up and there is not a single piece of paper ANYWHERE inside. I'm about one 2 amp fuse short of picking it up and performing an "HP Exorcism" on it... Should I video it?

Ok I have to say this...... P-P+H=HP....... Use them at home and at the office and they work great. Some issues yes, but nothing like the Cannon. The Cannon engine is better but the HP is a workhorse. At home we use the HP1420N and it handles every job we throw at it. The wife picked up an All-In-One the Photosmart C4700 that eats the colors up but is good on the B&W... I can't remember the model numbers of the one's we use at work. Once the 1420 dies I will get one like we have at work. I think we print about 400-500 daily on it.