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.
One of the best investments towards our homeschool was my HP Color Laser Jet printer. It has given me practically no problems, has wireless printing & has saved lots of $ on ink. The first thing I noticed when I started homeschooling was how quickly the ink ran out on my Ink Jet.
After much research, I ended up with my HP Laser Jet Pro CM1415fnw Color MFP (HP website says the newer model currently available is Laser Jet ProM276nw Color MFP). They sell for around $450, but on sale at Staples they are currently $350. I was even more blessed when Staples had an extra $50 off & a $50 trade-in your old printer special. I ended up getting mine with tax for $285.
The ink cartridges are expensive, but the replacement time is after thousands of sheets & you only replace the colors you use. Actually, I’ve owned the printer for 3 years, schooling 3 kids and I’ve only replaced the color cartridges once & the black one twice.
You can always turn the colored printing off & only use it when necessary. One time it automatically shut off my colored printing when I was low & I found the override which allowed me to go several more months before running out.
I don’t typically use cardstock because I laminate & use sheet protectors, but I do occasionally put greeting cards in it & they’ve worked fine. I’ve only had 1 paper jam ever!!!
It doesn’t print on photo paper. We order prints so inexpensively that it’s not an issue to place an order & pick it up an hour later somewhere else.
I will be purchasing another one of these in a heartbeat when the time comes.
We have a brother HL 8820W printer. It is a copier and scanner as well as laser printer. We LOVE it. It is very inexpensive, does duplex printing (I use that ALL the time), wireless and we LOVE the copier function. We’ve had it 9 months and I’ve had to replace the toner cartridge twice, but we print a LOT. It is just b&w (I use our old inkjet if we need to print in color which is not very often) I figured the cost is less than a penny a page.
I have the Dell1250 Laser printer. I absolutely love this printer because I bought it at Sam’s Clubs for less than $100 and it’s a COLOR LASER PRINTER! The best part about this printer is that I was able to print your entire LOTW Curriculum on one set of ink cartridges and those aren’t expensive either. You can get ink from various sources and I buy a 5 bundle pack for 80. The color ones last 1700 pages and the black last 2500. The only draw backs to this printer is that it is slower, isn’t wireless and doesn’t print double sided. BUT for the cost saving on ink I print everything that I want one sided and then flip and reprint what I need to on the other side. It prints about 12-20 sheets per minute too. Perfect for me to print, print, print and unload dishes, laundry or whatever while it does multiple jobs. This way I am not eagerly awaiting fast printing and get other things done off my to do list.
I bought a canon pixma mp560 during Black Friday for $50 2 1/2 years ago. I love it! I print mostly in fast black and white and buy compatible ink on amazon for less than a $1 a cartridge. I usually just spend $10 a year on ink!! But I just printed the Letter of the Week program so it will be more this year. : ) I printed it all out in fast color and figured with the cost of my cardstock and ink, it cost me less than $50. I am very pleased with how it turned out. The quality is good.
I have the same printer, had it for about 4yrs and today as I was trying to print out letter of the wk for 2nd child (1st I did last yr) something has happened to the print head! I did all the usual cleaning but it just wasn’t printing clearly! So took all inks out took the head out and cleaned put back in and now dead! Hopefully husband will be able to take it to someone to fix tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes, if we need new one or was able to get a new head. Ink wise I don’t have to change all that often I print in colour as I’m doing letter of the week and k4 curriculums so maybe 2/3 times a yr and get cheap versions of them and in sets that cots me about $20 shipped for about 2 sets
This Brother HL-2270DW printer on Amazon is $78 SHIPPED and has over 1500 reviews with a total of 4 stars (over 900 of them are 5 stars). I haven’t used it but am ordering it right now! Im SO excited. I have another (inkjet) printer that will copy and scan or print in color if I need, but honestly I do those things maybe 3 times per year. This printer seems like its right up the homeschoolers alley with cost and productiveness!
We have two brother printers and I absolutely LOVE them both!! We have a b&w one (HL-2270DW) and a color one (LC-61 series: DCP-J140W). I spend a fraction of what I was spending for ink with the lexmark we previously had! I would, and do, definitely recommend brother.
Thank you for the two printing resources. I was just starting to look so I can print the World Geography file we bought from COAH as well as the other files I have bought for the 2013/14 school year:)
Thank you Erica for posting this! I am also scouring the ads and deals and doing research to find the right printer for our family. Here are our needs:
Auto Duplexing
Auto Document Feeder
Printer/Copier/Scanner
If I am looking for a new printer, I would like to get a color. I have looked at both laserjets and inkjets. I have compared purchase price along with cost/frequency of ink replacement. Based on my searching, I am considering the HP Officejet Pro 8600 and Epson Workforce 3540. Both of these seem to have low per page cost based on the number of pages you are able to print with their “XL” type cartridges.
Love reading these reviews! 🙂
It’s probably too late now, almost three years later 😉 But we have had awful experience with Epson Workforce. We just returned it after 5 calls to Epson.
I used an HP Photosmart Premium (all in one) injet for a year and HATED it. I’m a Canon girl. I print photos at home in addition to homeschool papers so I use inkjet printers. The HP was a total ink hog. The cartridges didn’t last anywhere close to their advertised life because the printer kept cleaning itself before print jobs. The copier on this printer worked intermittently. I have a new Canon MX892 and so far I love it. I’ve noticed it prints more blue that I’d like in photos so I have to color correct in the printer profile but it’s been fine for regular document printing and my homeschool needs. Canon printers have been a faithful office tool in our home for over a decade. I’ve had about three HP printers in my lifetime and have hated them all. If I didn’t print photos I would definitely have a color laser printer. I think my next printer will actually be laser since I print a lot less photos now that my boys are older and will likely find it more cost effective to just have my photos printed at Walgreens when I need them.
We switched from a Brother that I was ready to throw out the window almost EVERY day to a HP DCP 7065DN that I LOVE! It is a laser printer, scanner/copier. It was out first Laser and I will NEVER go back to ink again. The toner last forever and prints SO fast – you get spoilt very easily!! I have been looking into a color laser because I can just imagine how much easier this would make printing, and we do A LOT of printing. It does take up space, but well worth it in my opinion 🙂