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Recommendations for a printer!


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Hi

 

I have recently taken over a nursery and we need to get a new printer fast!!

 

I was looking for recommendations as there seems to be so much choice out there.

 

It is a 48 place forest school nursery. As we are committed to reducing paper at the nursery, we will be sending as much information out as possible by email to our parents. Inevitably we will still be sending some forms/letters etc home and all of the usual management/ planning etc paperwork.

 

We also would like it to print colour photos to a good standard.

 

I also don't want to be spending a fortune on ink cartridges which I understand were so expensive the previous owner restricted the use of the printer.

 

I was recommended http://www.staples.co.uk/printers-shredders-machines-calculators/printers/inkjet-all-in-one-printers/officejet-pro-8600-4-in-1-eprinter-claim-cashback at Staples but i lost confidence when I heard him trying to sell it to the next guy that came along who'd said he needed it for home! He said that inkjet was more economical than lasers and would be just as good quality.

 

Thank you in advance!!

 

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maybe worth while joining Which? online for a trial at £1.00. We use it all the time , I have a subscription.. but having a brief look there is so much info on printers, and cost of running them etc it is too much to pass on..

They have a best buy, what to look for and lots of other information there.. like looking for individual colour cartridges, not one that has all the colours in one as it is cheaper to replace them, and do you need all the features, will you use the fax part, or e printing, or wi fi... double side printing, scanner .. slot for a memory card,

like you say the choice is huge..

 

ps.. to reduce our costs we always printed on fast draft or quick print, or whatever the lowest was until the ink got too pale before upping the quality.. it was always more than enough for the forms and general paperwork that had to be printed..

Edited by Inge
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Don't spend money on repairing the printer when it breaks. A new one is cheaper! I tried to have a laser printer and a inkjet printer fixed, was asked to get new toners and cartridges, and lost the money spend on both the checking what needed fixing and the toners and cartridges.

We don't print our photos. Parents bring in labelled USB sticks half termly onto which I put photos. I used to hand out CDs. Occasionally I send them via e-mail with a comment about the child's discovery or achievement. We're also outdoors. Printing, cutting and glueing photos is too time-consuming.

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Have you thought about leasing a photocopier/printer? This is what we do, and although you have the cost of the lease, all the toner cartridges you need come free as does next day repair. We lease a good quality printer, photocopier and scanner and wouldn't be without it.

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I have just bought a dell laser printer so have been doing all the reviews etc recently. Mine doesn't print duplex though so I think you pay more for that, I didn't need it, but if you are printing long documents you probably would.

Colour laser printers are so much smaller and cheaper than they used to be, and yes the inks are dearer, but then last an awful lot longer too. One of the things that swayed me was that I go through times when I dont print anything for weeks on end then do a splurge for a few weeks then nothing again. I had read that lasers are better for this as the ink doesn't dry up and block the jets. I haven't had mine long enough to check if its true though!

I think I read somewhere that if you print more than about 1500 pages a year, laser works out cheaper in the long run. So I suppose its down to how much you actually do print? If you really don't print very much at all, then any printer will probably do, I tend to read the reviews to get a sense of what others are saying. I will say one thing having had a lexmark, once I said never again as they seem to eat ink and I was forever buying cartridges, so cheap printer dosent mean cheap ink. Ive had my HP printer for 4 years with no problems at all, again just seems to eat ink if I'm printing photos.

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Don't spend money on repairing the printer when it breaks. A new one is cheaper! I tried to have a laser printer and a inkjet printer fixed, was asked to get new toners and cartridges, and lost the money spend on both the checking what needed fixing and the toners and cartridges.

We don't print our photos. Parents bring in labelled USB sticks half termly onto which I put photos. I used to hand out CDs. Occasionally I send them via e-mail with a comment about the child's discovery or achievement. We're also outdoors. Printing, cutting and glueing photos is too time-consuming.

Thank you for your reply. The manager was asking for colour photos for the development records and displays. Do you print for those purposes?

 

I think the USB is a great idea!

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Have you thought about leasing a photocopier/printer? This is what we do, and although you have the cost of the lease, all the toner cartridges you need come free as does next day repair. We lease a good quality printer, photocopier and scanner and wouldn't be without it.

do you mind me asking how much you pay for the printer etc?

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I have always had epson three in one printers and they last for years and years - real workhorses! The inks are definitely cheaper in the newer models than my originals were. My very first 6600 is just starting to make odd noises now, and I think that one must be about 15 years old. It has put up with a lot over the years, all the preschool could throw at it! I loved it so much I bought another on eBay after a few years so I could have one at home and one at work. When that died last year I replaced it with a 4 in 1 although I don't use the fax facility, it has wifi for printing off the iPads which is useful too.

When my 6600 does die, I will be replacing it with another epson unless someone has a very good case for a different brand!

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I'm a Canon fan! We've had one at home for donkeys years and it's still going strong! I needed a new printer for pre-school recently having killed off 2 cheap HP printers (bought by the committee) in 3 years! I did lots if research and have bought a Canon MG 5350. It has slots for the USB and photo memory cards and prints really good quality photos. So far I'm really pleased with it. Ink cartridges are expensive, but they all are, but they last for ages.

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Thank you for your reply. The manager was asking for colour photos for the development records and displays. Do you print for those purposes?

 

I think the USB is a great idea!

A lot of forum users have Tapestry or prams for children's records.not used them myself but.. it is online so less paper ink etc.. and that seems to balance the cost of using it... may be worth a look if wanting to keep paper etc to a minimum..

top of the page has tabs for both.

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I'm watching this with interest as I have just got a laptop with windows 8.1 RT; this is not compatible with my current printers at home or work so I have to email myself any documents I want to print and print from another computer. So if anyone could tell me what I need that would be fab. :1b

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I've always used Printerland.co.uk. Lots of info online but also very helpful when you ring them and ask for their best deal. My latest is an OKI to replace the old OKi as we got window 8 and its not compatible. Still use the old one at home though.

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We have Epsom and dell printers here at FSF HQ and they are both very good. I particularly like the Epsom one...really reliable and if you pay for an extended warranty then that helps cover repair costs.

I would endorse what was said about buying a printer with separate cartridges for the 4 colours...if for example your setting logo is predominantly blue you would want to be able to just replace your cyan cartridge not all the colours.....it is worth thinking about the documentation you print out, it is lovely to have it all colourful but sometimes black and white is fine.

It is worth seeing if the printer you buy can use compatible inks, we alternate with ours using say Epsom originals then compatibles then Epsom etc

Also...especially with the dell printer when it says ink low replace cartridge keep clicking 'continue printing' button until it actually will not print....we have found it will print loads and I mean loads more pages before it actually has properly run our of ink!

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