My dad rarely uses his computer and his printer even less. He has a Hp inkjet all in one that must be clogged up somewhere from non use. He put in new ink cartridges and it does not print.

He wants to get a laser to print and also copy occasional documents.

What is a good buy for someone that rarely prints or copies and not real computer savvy.

gg

your Father needs a Brother.

We've had good luck with our Brother laser all-in-ones. I just set up (an hour or so ago) an old one from my office, and it works perfectly. Not terribly pretty, but it works. The one we have looks like a predecessor to this:
Brother MFCL2700DW
[www.amazon.com]
If he doesn't need fax, the DCPL2540DW is a little less expensive.


Note that there are injets that have separate tanks and printheads, and ones that have the printhead built into the ink tank. The first type can be a pain when it clogs from non-use. The second type, when you replace a cartridge you've replaced the printhead, so no more clogs.

One example is the Canon Pixma MX-492 I looked at last year. It's a better size than some, and less office-y looking. Comes in black or white. But read the reviews - some love it, and some not so much.
[www.amazon.com]


Good luck.

- Winston

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Be seeing you.

Ok thanks, I was wondering what the current feedback was on Brother.

I think his Hp is the 6500, which looks like it has a replaceable print head. Genuine one is about $65 on Amazon. I think it cost about a $100 when new....

gg

There's a Canon AIO on sale this week at Staples for $115. The only thing it seems to lack is duplexing.

[www.staples.com]

I'd stick with Brother/HP/Canon.

And for minimal use, stay far away from any inkjet. Toner doesn't evaporate, and there are no heads to clog in lasers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2016 10:53PM by Bimwad.

I have had a whole parade of inexpensive Brother laser printers in the house over the past ten or more years, and they have all served us well. The latest is the Brother MFC-L2700DW that Winston pointed out - I paid $120 for it last August, but it's worth the current $149 on Amazon.

It prints nicely, it copies well (you do not need to use the computer to make a copy), it scans acceptably, it integrates well with the Mac OS, and it has the features I will never overlook in a printer again: wireless and duplex. Replacement toner cartridges are so inexpensive on Amazon and eBay that I will never refill a cartridge again. Not everyone cares anymore, but I like the fact that it also has fax capabilities - not all of the all-in-one printers do.

Lack of duplex would rule out the Canon printer Bimwad suggests - once you know you could have had that feature, you'll be ever-so-slightly annoyed every time you print one-sided.

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tenders
Lack of duplex would rule out the Canon printer Bimwad suggests - once you know you could have had that feature, you'll be ever-so-slightly annoyed every time you print one-sided.

This was why the older Brother that we have got retired, even though it worked fine. Duplex printing is really nice.

Note that few of these machines will do duplex scans or copies (i.e. scan or copy a two-sided original), but some will.

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goosegunner
I think his Hp is the 6500, which looks like it has a replaceable print head. Genuine one is about $65 on Amazon. I think it cost about a $100 when new....

gg

HP removable printheads can sometimes be brought back to life by removing them and soaking the print head end in a shallow bath of rubbing alcohol, then running a couple three cleaning cycles on the printer. They contain some ink, so it depends on how far the drying up of the ink has gone as to whether this works or not. I resurrected the printheads on an HP OfficeJet d155 that had sat for well over a year (maybe two).

My parents have a summer place that's closed in winter. We used to have a Lexmark printer, now an have an HP, with the combined ink/printhead cartridges. We take them out and wrap them in Saran wrap (not regular cling wrap) with a rubber band around them, put them in a ziplock bag, and they seem to survive the winter and will work again the next summer. (The house is in Michigan and not heated.)

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Goose,

There are some deals on refurbs from HP and Brother at staples. They're actually 4 in one models with an ADF. Each is $99 before factoring coupons and discount codes and such. Tough to beat that.

Robert

we bought the Brother MFC-L2700DW online for about $110 several months ago and are very happy with it. just wish we'd known that another model does duplex scanning for only slightly more.