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Comment by halper | Hacker News Reader

A more important question: is there a printer that can be bought for money that is good, lasts long and is made to actually delight the user?

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Finally bought one of the Epson EcoTank printers last year (ET-3850 to be precise). Yes, they are more expensive, but I find them a delight to use. Printer comes with a full set of ink and even an extra bottle of black ink, which will probably last me for another year (one bottle lasts for ~7000 pages). Pricing of ink is at least not outrageous, given how long it lasts. Zero problems with clogged print heads or similar, but I also print pretty regularly. We use that thing over the network for the whole family, also has Linux drivers which have worked flawlessly for me.

I post this every time I see this recommendation.

You will only find joy with an EcoTank if you print more than once every week or two. If you want a printer you can ignore for 18 months and expect it to Just Work, inkjet is not for you.

Unless you're printing dozens of sheets a month, you will likely waste the vast majority of your refillable ink on cleaning the nozzle.

If you're like most people today and print a dozen pages a year then you want a laser printer. Laser printers will happily sit in the corner neglected forever and will always spit out a clean print when you want it to.

Inkjet, including refillables and EcoTank only makes sense if you're printing frequently and a lot. Inkjet is not suited for infrequent single page jobs. That's the domain of laser printers.

I 100% agree. For very little use, a cheap laser is absolutely the best choice. If you print very little, you'll probably don't even use up the included cartridge in your lifetime. My recommendation was for people who print a lot and who also need color. Why would you shell out 400$ for a printer you hardly use anyway? EcoTanks are small office printers for people who at least print a couple thousand pages a year. Why else would you need a tank that lasts for 7k pages?

What delights you?

Get a B&W Brother laser (or LED, nowadays), it'll be good, last long and… I expect it won't delight you because you want to print in colour, or if you don't want that, people will send you things that you need to print and they presume colour.

I replaced my B&W Brother with a colour LED a few years ago, because some documents really need colour. Sigh. MFC-L3770. The colours aren't good but the printer does what I want and without any hassle.

I have a Brother DCP-9020CDW which I've owned for over a decade and which still keeps humming. A bit expensive with four toners and a drum, but that's color laser for you. I'm very happy with it, and I guess I'd be equally happy with any Brother MFC-LxxxxCDW that's one market now.

If one wants an inkjet, I'd go for an Epson EcoTank.

The Brother HLL8350CDW I picked up in 2014 is still rocking along, with cartridges for the color laser being reasonable. My Bride has a brother mfc-l3770cdw, which she has been happy with - that was picked up a few years ago.

You forgot cheap, that's a criteria for most people. People on HN tend to be higher income then most, so money is not as important factor.

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