Hey ya’ll! Welcome to another homeschool curriculum forum. I had a specific request for a forum on printers, and I thought it was a great idea! After all, ain’t no homeschooler getting’ by without printing stuff and lots of it!
Right now I have a Brother 490CW. I’m sorry Brother, but I really don’t recommend you. Sadly this thing uses a ton of ink, and the quality just isn’t that great anyway.
So as soon as that bad boy accidentally falls off my shelf and breaks, or gets lost in the move… I’m looking into the HP Envy 120 All-in-One printer.
Pros:
- Inexpensive compared to others
- I like the smaller size, it won’t take up as much room on my shelves.
- Offers two sided printing, energy saver, ink cartridge recycling, can print from your smart phone.
- Printing, scanning, fax, wireless.
Cons:
- I haven’t used it yet, so I’m not sure, we’ll see how it does on ink usage…
As a side note, I know most homeschoolers are printing fools, so I just wanted to throw out a website that has traditionally offered really cheap color printing if you’re interested. I don’t normally suggest printing at local printing companies as I’ve found they can be quite pricey! Here are a few favorites I’ve used over the years.
So, now comes the fun part!
Do you have a favorite printer? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.
Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!
It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!
And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.
Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards PRINTERS, I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.
Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!
Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.
I don’t have any reccomendations, but am so thankful for you all leaving yours. I’m about to throw ours out of the window. I was just thinking how I’m going to have to put a new printer on the same list as our curriculum. This was so helpful!
I am trying to nurse our Brother DCP8065N for a little while longer. I have used this printer for over 5 years. It only prints BW. That is what I use the most.
What I’m looking for in my future printer:
–wireless (our current one isn’t wireless)
–high copy capacity per cartridge (I only need to change the current cartridge on toner save about every 10-14 months)
–duplex (Our current printer has this and I love it! I use it all the time. I think that it is wearing out on my current machine.)
–document feed (Hubby uses this more than I do.)
–hold lots of paper (ours is very picky about how many sheets it will hold at a time.)
–copier feature (I use this often for copying tests for various curriculums.)
–scanner (rarely used so optional)
Taking notes about recommendations!
Copies in color won’t do homeschooling stuff. Does anyone know why?
I am not sure why, but “Simply Teach” offers colored prints for just a few cents more. They also do all of the prep for you, too, if you like – printing, laminating, and cutting. Take a look: simply-teach.com!
I just love my Lexmark pinnacle pro 901. It is wireless, has duplex printing, automatic feeding of up to 50 pages for scanning, black ink is only $4.99 and I get around 500-600 pages printed from 1 ink cartridge.They also have a rewards program you can sign up for and for every 5 cartridges you buy or return you get one, so i always send back the black empties and I can get an xl color for free. No problem printing on cardstock and they have great customer service if needed, live chat and interactive online problem solver. I have already gotten 4 other people to get this printer when they replaced theirs and everybody loves it. I have had for 3 years now with no problems at all. Just thought I would put in my 2 cents 🙂
This printer has been discontinued. just FYI if anyone else is searching through this forum 🙂
Money is always low in my household. I just started homeschooling my three and two year old. We barely have funds to buy the supplies we need. I was going to ask do you think that copiesincolor.com will be good for me to use since I don’t have the funds for a printer.
It has been a while since I have had an inkjet printer, I currently have a laserjet b/w which is great. I am looking for a color printer for the upcoming homeschooling year because we need some color!!! Can anybody give me pros/cons of having an inkjet color printer? From a cost point it would be much more affordable, but I don’t know if it would be practical for worksheets. Will they bleed and smudge when colored on? I like the idea of ordering color copies online, but in my mind adding up the cost of everything I will be color printing throughout the year for 3 kids makes me just want to buy a printer.
So is laserjet the way to go? Or can I get away with inkjet? Help!!
I was in the market for a new printer this year. My HP inkjet used a lot of ink and the cartridges were quite expensive. It also had the single cartridge which was a pain. I really wanted a laser printer, but I wasn’t sure if I could justify the cost. I saw a consumer report special on the news channel I watch and ended up buying the color ink jet all in one that they recommended. The price was right and the replacement cartridges were affordable. But I haven’t used it much yet. Brother DCP-J140W is what I bought. I love that it is wireless, however it took me forever to figure out how to install it! It’s not hard, I was just not understanding. Great idea for discussion with homeschoolers.
I have a Canon Pixma MX360 and I love it, I can print easy on any type of paper and it doesnt go through a ton of ink either.
I have a Canon Pixma 1800 it came Free with a computer we bought a few years ago and after we couldn’t afford ink for our HP Photosmart one we opened the Pixma because it had ink in it and it is a beast. It’s lasted pretty long too and it isn’t too large. It eats color ink but it is great for b&w.
I just bought a Brother MFC-J425W. So far, I love it. I like that the ink cartridges are inexpensive. Sometimes with the HP we could not afford to buy ink and I never had luck with refilled cartridges. I hope I will continue to love this printer. It was recommended to me by the owner of Cartridge World. She also said that printers, like so many other things, are made to be disposable and only last 2 years.
Whilst not specifically printers… But for ink we use a product from Rihac digital solutions… Only works if your printer has stationary cartridges, but saves literally hundreds of dollars…. I dont worry about how much i print or copy anymore, its fantastic!