Suggestions on a new AIO Printer for home office

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marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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Hi All,

I figured i see if anyone had some recommendations on an All In One / Multi function printer for home office.
My old canon MX850 needs to be retired. It lasted a long time, but canon is not supporting it on W10 plus its missing some of the neat new features offered today. I had this printer since 2008, so it served me well.
Time to move on to something new.

I'm looking for full duplex ADF. Wireless, app printing (IOS/android). Full color with photo quality if possible. I dont need a fax but it's nice to have for rare occasions i need to use it.

Any experiences welcomed.
 

StammesOpfer

Active Member
Mar 15, 2016
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Might try the Win8.1 drivers or download software from a similar model that does have Win10 support they probably work. My MX870 from the same era is still supported. If/when mine dies I will either go with the current gen Canon or step up into the Dell Small Business Laser Multifunction printers.
 

CreoleLakerFan

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Oct 29, 2013
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I have had an Epson Artisan 735 for seven years, which is still running and I have been extremely happy with. When I needed a second printer for my office I went with a Brother ... very happy with that as well.
 

marcoi

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Blinky 42

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Aug 6, 2015
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My only AIO printer is just a monochrome laser HP 425dn that I use as a light duty copier and scanner which works well and has been reliable so far, but I would also be curious on the Epson WF and if it is usable with Linux if you do end up going that route.

On a related note - one of the best investments I have done in the past year is getting a Fujitsu ScanSnap unit (the ix500 in my case). I was consulting in an insurance office for a few days last year and they all had variations of them on every desk and they were zippy and reliable (outlasting the mix of laser printers everyone also had on their desks, Brother/Epson/HP). I ended up picking up one when newegg had a sale that let me take a % off of an item since they are still > $400 new. They are as fast or faster than huge office copiers in terms of scanning speed and reliability and the software does a great job making PDFs or pushing it to a printer to use as a copier. If your needs include a decent amount of scanning for storage or emailing documents I would recommend them vs a AIO.
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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@Blinky 42 -That's a good idea. I might consider getting a nice scanner and getting a cheaper printer for photo prints/documents printing. I'm going to look over the scanners as well.
 

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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There's only two printers...working ones and non working ones. Working ones include HP & Brother.
I wouldn't waste money on the rest of them. Printers really are one of those devices that you often buy in haste, but regret at leisure with :)
 
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pricklypunter

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HP M277dw is what I use at home and does a good job but for photos... photos go to an external printer which is cheaper and heaps better

HP M277dw Color LaserJet Pro MFP | HP® Official Store
I agree. Whenever I need proper photos printed, it's way cheaper per print and much higher quality than you will achieve with any small printer, to just give em to the local Kodak or Fujicolor shop etc to print on their big digital machines.
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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after much research i decided to order the following two products for my home office.

Fujitsu iX500 ScanSnap Document Scanner (PA03656-B305)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G3JYVYM/ref=pe_2640190_232748420_TE_item

Brother MFC-J985DW XL Inkjet All-in-One Color Printer with 12 INKvestment Cartridges, Duplex and Wireless, Amazon Dash Replenishment Enabled
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DBXM87A/ref=pe_2640190_232748420_TE_item

I figured since i dont print a lot, the brothers with extra ink will last me a long time. I decided on the scanner based on @Blinky 42 post. I plan on doing more scanning and pdf with OCR of the document is good thing to have. I plan on scanning in all my paper work and shredding the paper so i dont have drawers full of paper anymore.

I should get the items this weekend, ill let you know how they work out.
 

hweisheimer

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Dec 9, 2015
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It's been a long time since I've had an inkjet printer. Since I don't print often, I've been very happy with my Canon monochrome laser AIO, an MF4370DN. I'd be curious to hear how your modern inkjet works out for occasional use, since my older units have always clogged up after sitting around too long.
 

cheezehead

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Sep 23, 2012
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Running an HP M477fdn currently, it's basically the big brother to Evan's M277dw. It adds a larger paper tray, double the copier resolution, cheaper cost per page (on toner), and it's pantone calibrated (better color reproductions). It is a bit physically larger and power draw is slightly higher.

Ignore the MSRP pricing....HP's have a lot of markup on them. BB is running $150-180 of the units current which is ok, but I've seen better discounts even at BB. Most models are also carried at Amazon, for price matching plus can see historic pricing on camel.

For me the larger unit was cheaper over 5yrs given my printing needs.

Regardless of the vendor, a couple things I always recommend
1) If it's got networking make sure it can do PCL5, PCL6, and postscript level 3....some of the real low end units don't and it's a pita later in life
2) Avoid inkjets, Laser or LED...better operating costs, toner can't dry out, more consistent image quality without needing to re-calibrate every couple of weeks
3) If your looking for an ADF, make sure it's fully automatic and has a decent hopper.
4) If your going color, make sure the scanner can also handle color for copies and scanning (sometimes vendors skip this)
5) Run the numbers on consumables, every toner has different capacity options....some have transfer rollers/belts which are $$ (Samsung :mad:)
6) Avoid models which have unique toners, years later they tend to get spendy
7) Make sure it fits, when you have the scanner/ADF i've seen more than a few people forget that they need extra room above the unit to actually open for scanner access or toner replacement
8) Go to the store and play, you'd be surprised in how cheaply some units are made and how crappy of a touchscreen there is.
 
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pricklypunter

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@marcoi I don't think you'll be disappointed in the Brother inkjet, they are real workhorses usually. I would say though, as with all inkjet printers, you'll want to be printing a few pages at least once a week to keep the head clean :)
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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It's been a long time since I've had an inkjet printer. Since I don't print often, I've been very happy with my Canon monochrome laser AIO, an MF4370DN. I'd be curious to hear how your modern inkjet works out for occasional use, since my older units have always clogged up after sitting around too long.
@marcoi I don't think you'll be disappointed in the Brother inkjet, they are real workhorses usually. I would say though, as with all inkjet printers, you'll want to be printing a few pages at least once a week to keep the head clean :)
THIS!

I would never (and haven't in 15 or so years) buy another Ink Jet printer.

I have a brother all in one laser, scansnat scanner and a B&W HP Laser.

I buy the generic ink on amazon with best reviews for the B&W and I haven't needed to replace the color yet since I don't print much color at all.

I like being able to go months or year without printing color and having it still work perfect.

Ink Jet you pretty much have to replace yearly and if you're like me you're wasting 1/2 cartridge or more :(

If you spend the $$ on a laser it will last years in a home/home office... my HP B&W has printed xx,xxx pages over 10 years and still works fine... the volume is extremely low for what it's rated for (I think about 30k a month), but over these # of years with moving parts, etc, I'm extremely impressed especially for a $300 (Less now?) B&W printer.
 
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pricklypunter

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I still have an old HP 1020 personal laser that I bang out all my daily crap on, I have tried to kill it several times, but it just keeps going :)
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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I had an old hp Laser jet BW LaserJet 1100 printer and it lasted for over 10 years. I think i only bought 1 new cart for it and have over 20k prints from it. But eventually i needed to print out in color and occasionally on photo paper for few times I want a photo done thus the inkjet. my last printer the canon MX850 is still running and I got it back in 2009 and used it to print out all my wedding invites. (printer and paper were cheaper then pro doign the invites plus i could customize the invites as we wanted and i ended up with a printer in the end so a win-win)

This is my first brothers printer so I'm hoping for no issue based on rep they have. With two years of ink, i dont need to worry about purchasing ink for a while. With the canon i was able to buy generic which saved a lot of money over the years. I think I got like 3 full sets a few years ago for like 20 or less from amazon. they just ran out now and thus wanting a new printer.

The brothers ink also seemed the cheapest vs canon/hp and also includes generic carts and refill kits which is good for when i eventually run out of ink. I also like the epson WF, but the models i were looking at had newer cartridges which didnt have generic and they also required some kind of maintenance part that needed replacement every few months. Costs of part plus ink made it more costly then the brothers model. I also like the epson ink tanks models in theory but in practice they seem to have a lot of gen 1 issues that they need to resolve first.
 

cheezehead

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Sep 23, 2012
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My old 2nd hand Laserjet 5000dn tank is still lurking around and works just fine on any OS. 17yrs old and a pagecount of over 1.2M old but wanted an AIO and color support.
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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Gotha Florida
Initial impressions of both items so far:

Fujitsu iX500 ScanSnap Document Scanner (PA03656-B305)
I really like this scanner. It comes with some nice software. Which I started using to organize my content. I already scanned in a lot of docs I had in a filing cabinet. I filled a kitchen size trash bag with shredded documents. It also has the option to convert pdf to OCR version which I like.

Pros:
Super fast scanning and software is amazing for organizing content.
Small footprint.
Can connect via usb3 or wifi

Cons:
Does require some maintenance as during usage, I still need to figure that out.
Wifi is limited to only one pc - I guess that makes sense.

Brother MFC-J985DW XL Inkjet All-in-One Color Printer.
I wasnt expecting how much smaller this printer is verse my outgoing one. Setup was easy, i set it up using network not wifi. I was able to print using my cell phone. So far it seems like an average printer. I also like having the flat bed scanner for items that cant go into the scansnap scanner. The scanner isnt auto duplex but i knew with the scansnap it was a big deal for me.

Pros:
Easy to setup
A lot of ink from start. ( ink is sealed in vacuumed bag to preserve it)
Can print from mobile devices

Cons:
Seems slow in comparison to other printers in the same category.
photo prints are not as good as existing printer. But they will do for now since i dont print photos that often not a big deal
No duplex scanning


I'll post more as i use both items over the next few weeks.
 
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IamSpartacus

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Mar 14, 2016
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I bought a cheap Epson W.F-2630 AIO about 4 years ago and it's been rock solid for an $80 printer. Does everything I need (albeit I don't need much)
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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I almost went with Epson WF AIO model, but i decided on the brothers due to two year warranty on printer and the ink carts. The Epson i was looking at had a new model ink carts and there weren't any generics or refill kits for it vs the brothers does and brothers oem ink carts costed a lot less then epson.
 
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