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’m trying to get the most for the money.. I figure if your going to invest 200.00 in a printer your bound to get good print quality so for me its more about how many pages I can print and how much the replacement ink will be. That being said, what would you ladies recomend, laser or inkjet?
After researching the first comment about the HP Officejet pro 8600 that seems like the best for your money and has tons of great features. I compared it to the laser version from hp laserjet pro 100 which is about $ 70.00 more.The laser cartridges are far more expensive, plus you dont’ get nearly as many pages per cartridge based on the websites estimates as you do with the hp officejet 8600. Hoping this is the one for us, I am tired of researching and need to get in gear with printing!
We recently purchased the HP Envy printer that you are looking into… We’ve had it for about 3 months. The print quality is great. It has some really neat features, and it is a great printer if you’re not looking on printing a lot! A few weeks ago we purchased another new printer because the Envy just couldn’t keep up. We spent a little more, and we purchased a laser color printer. The up front cost is higher, but the toner lasts and lasts and lasts! I was doing quite a bit of printing with the Envy, and I was replacing both black and color cartridges more than once a month. (several times per month)… Since we’ve purchased the laser printer, I have printed probably 400-500 color pages, and we still have over half of the ink supply left!!!! I’m so excited to say that! If you’re planning on doing lots of printing, it’s worth it to pay a little more up front! Here is the link to the one we bought. We are kicking ourselves for waiting so long to buy this : http://shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Printers/HP-LaserJet/CE956A?HP-LaserJet-Pro-400-color-Printer-M451nw&aoid=44661&003=6663635&010=CE956A#BGJ&ci_sku=CE956A#BGJ&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw=
The Workforce 845 has been a total rockstar/workhorse for me. I have a Mac and it has paired well (in addition to printing from my iPhone – AWESOME). The ink is a little pricey, but for me it’s worth it! I will give a little advice. When the reminders to change your ink cartridge – do it! The extra pages you get out is not worth the time you may find yourself spending on a dried up inkwell head.
I loved my HP all-in-one, but it decided it didn’t want to play with my Mac – GRRRRR.
If you are looking to outsource, consider the local not-for-profits in your area. I volunteer at 2 different NFPs that have Xerox Color AIOs that have a print contract (there is a popular program call Xerox Free Color Printer that signs up lots of small businesses/charities but requires 4500 prints a month). As a result, they “sell” copies at cost to meet their quota. The machines have auto-duplex, wifi, remote-print, and business level output.
As an example – at these two places the cost is .04 per page for b&w and .08 per page for color. It’s .01 less if you provide your own paper. The machines also take a thumb drive. So for example, I loaded my preschool curriculum onto my thumb drive and then dropped it off and the office manager plugged it in and printed it for me. I came by the next day and gave them a check and picked up my copies. It was great. Although I use a LaserJet at home for regular B&W, taking the time to take my big batch of colors to the local charity is a win-win.
So before going to Staples or Kinkos, consider contacting your local churches, Schools, community charities, etc. and just ask if they allow public copying for a fee and see what they say. It’s great for bulk printing.
I have my favorite printer HP 8500, it’s an All-In-One, wireless, duplex printer. It’s been working for 2 1/2 years also! My biggest suggestion is to get one that accepts refilled ink. Our local Costco refills cartridges for $9.99 for the XL compared to $47-$67 for a new cartridge I’m so happy with the savings.
I love my Brother laser printer:
Brother HL-5380DW
Awesome duplex. Fast. Cheap operating costs (toner lasts forever). Easy work around for the ‘low-toner’ problem (printer stops printing when it thinks toner is low, even though toner not low). put black electrical tape on cartridge. Search web for info. I love that paper doesn’t jam, and if it does (see duplex problem below), it is easy to get paper unjammed. I had a HP laser printer that was a nightmare to unjam.
Only bad thing is that duplex won’t work if paper is 3 holed punched. You can easily print one side on 3 hold punched paper, but 2 sided won’t work (printer seems to need to grip where hole is in order to flip paper).
some people might be bothered by paper curling when you print duplex. I only notice htis if I print a lot of duplex copies. Doens’t bother me– I stick the paper under some books immediately after I take it out of printer
I used to work at Staples for years and years before I had kids. Whatever brand you prefer I always tell people to SHOP INK FIRST! Basically you may get a screaming deal on any printer but the ink may be $50 or more, if you select an ink that’s closer to $20 or $30 you can then take a look at all the printers it’s compatible with and you will spend much less in the long run. Oh and if you can buy laser up front, go for it! Way more affordable than ink in the long haul, the toner cost much more it will last so much longer.
Great advice! Thank you so much!
I “LOVE” my laser printers. I’ve been using laser printers for many years now. Back when they were huge and bulky to the more modern ones that aren’t as heavy and more compact. There is NO going back to “ink” after you have a laser printer. There is NO comparison. Hands down, laser will outdo and outrun any inkjet out there. Inkjets are a money pit, and a waste of time! Laser printers print FAST, they print HIGH QUALITY, and you will love owning one. If cost is a factor holding you back, don’t let it hold you back. There are many economical laser printers. Try amazon, or try purchasing a refurbished one through staples. Honestly, you won’t regret it…! I love laser color, but currently have a B&W as my laser color – my old faithful, died a miserable death after a long lived life of a homeschooling momma – the printheads gave up after 5 years of printing abuse! I happened to have my b&w laser on hand, and just haven’t taken time to seek out another color replacement yet. I will go back to color laser when I have time to research the modern ones. Just my humble opinions.
What brand was it?
I switched printers when I bought your Road Trip USA curriculum – over a year ago. 🙂 The HP we had was on its way out, so we bought a laser bother mfs-9970cdw. It was spendy, but worth it! It printed out the Road Trip curriculum – for four kids, plus the teacher guide with ease….and it’s still going strong. The drawback is that it is big, but if you can find a nice place for it, like I did, it will just blend in to your décor. 🙂 I love it!
I just ordered a wireless, compact, black and white laser printer. Can print from my iPhone/iPad, prints duplicate sides of paper, works really fast. I don’t really have a need to print color and grew tired of replacing ink cartridges in my ink jet printer.