Recommendations for a cheap printer?

November 28, 2013 8:54 PM

I remember reading a thread here, probably on AskMe but possibly on MeFi, in which a person who was in the business of either selling printers or selling ink cartridges recommended a certain little-known brand of printer. I think the thread was in the past 3-12 months. Help?
posted by jaguar to MetaFilter-Related at 8:54 PM (6 comments total)

This? Although maybe not because Kyocera is pretty well known, I think.
posted by gman at 4:18 AM on November 29, 2013 [3 favorites]

I think it was a thread about Honest Beelzebub's House O' Printers, where you can get a printer and/or printer cartridges for a low, low price plus your immortal soul. The printers only print in blood, however; and the cartridges are cartridges of human blood. But if you only want to print red things and if you don't mind being damned for all eternity, it's a good deal.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:23 AM on November 29, 2013 [10 favorites]

I've been happy with the Brother HL-2270DW B&W laser, about $100 at Staples and I see a cartridge for $50ish at Amazon. The intro cartridge lasted a ream of paper so hunt for the replacement cartridge right away. It's not silent but not enough to bother me, and photos are quite good (in b&w). Way way cheaper than ink jet. It's just a printer, no scanner, fax.
posted by sammyo at 7:43 AM on November 29, 2013 [5 favorites]

That was exactly the answer I was trying to find, gman. Thank you!
posted by jaguar at 8:39 AM on November 29, 2013

I've decided that I'm never buying another HP printer after having had three of them die in less than a year. I guess I'm a slow learner.

I've had good luck getting my ink jet cartridges refilled at Costco^*. It's much less expensive than buying new ones. $7.49 for a refill there vs. $40 at Amazon for a high-capacity cartridge.

* - Full disclosure: my wife works there, but she doesn't get paid extra commission on ink jet refill sales. Costco isn't the only place that does this. I'm sure that other places that refill cartridges are similar.
posted by double block and bleed at 11:24 AM on November 30, 2013

I have the same Brother printer as sammyo, and it prints duplex, is wireless, and is more or less fantastic and reliable. FYI, Brother printers (and many others) are programmed to run out of toner at a specific number of pages, rather than because all the toner's actually used up--but there's an override/workaround mentioned in late 2010 here.
posted by tapir-whorf at 2:46 PM on December 1, 2013 [1 favorite]