I work for a non-profit and we have 10 HP printers that take the expensive 56/57 or 94/95 cartridges. I'm wondering what other brand of printer to look for to replace all of them that won't cost us too much money (if it's even possible).
We only need to print in b&w and color. We don't need an all-in-one (unless it's cheaper). We need individual printers and can't use a "centrally located" one because of logistics and politics.
At home I use a Canon and Epson (Stylus CX3810) that I buy ink for cheap from www.megatoners.com.
I'm thinking that even though we might have to pay $600+ to replace these 10 printers, maybe the "payback" in ink savings would be fairly quick.
Any idea where I can get some $60ish dollar printers and what brand names are good???
I've tried Newegg, Staples.com, officemax.com and the other big names and just don't know how to compare apples-to-apples.
UPDATE - No idea on how many copies per month. Most users just do the type of printing that you would do at home. No one is printing checks or hundreds of invoices from these things (we have a laser for that). Rough guess.... 5 pages per day x 20 days per month = 100 pages per month.
Why do you guys hate Epson? I love the one I have at home. Always use remanufactured carts from megatoners and never have a problem.
Thank you!
FINAL UPDATE *******************************
Thanks everyone...
We found some really great printers (14 of them) at less than what we budgeted. We can also get ink for them at $1.99 each (takes 4 per printer).
The ones that we will be ordering on Monday are...... (drum roll)..... Epson Stylus C88+
Both Amazon and Google have pretty good reviews on them. Of course you'll always find someone who says something is a POS, but I go with the majority.
Anyone have any final thoughts before I order them?????
Right now I'm looking at some Epson Stylus C88+ that Staples has for $79.99 (yet I know that's way beyond our budget). The carts for them are only $1.99 at megatoners (4 carts are needed).
I was hoping that someone might point me to a website with some GOOD printers for around $60ish, then I'd check the web for the price on the carts.
jayK said: You could also look into a shared color printer, and get everyone cheap laser printers so they can print B&W locally.
Shared color won't work - 1. Offices are too far apart 2. Computer users would be clueless how to pick a shared printer (would be much cheaper to spend $500 per printer for each desk, than the wasted time for the rest of my life). 3. Computer users need a "default" that they print to 100% of the time.
You didn't state how many copies will be printed on a monthly basis. It's useless for us to recommend personal or SOHO printers if they won't stand up to the needs of YOUR office.
Otherwise, you're just wasting money (assuming it's not your money).
buyus
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Sep. 6, 2007 @ 3:29p
jimmywalt said: Thanks jayK.
Right now I'm looking at some Epson Stylus C88+ that Staples has for $79.99 (yet I know that's way beyond our budget). The carts for them are only $1.99 at megatoners (4 carts are needed).
I was hoping that someone might point me to a website with some GOOD printers for around $60ish, then I'd check the web for the price on the carts.
If you can do it follow this idea. buy at least how many printers u want (mainly epson 3-4 models have rebate on it) and just get some crappy digital camera too. each epson printer has $75 rebate. sell the camera on bay. your net price will b lower than your estimate.
though the promotion ends soon. there are two promotions. promotion one you buy any camera from any store and printer from epson online (they have $10 shipping if u have less than $129 item) promotion two buy camera and printer from the same store.
buydotcom has this c88+ for 69. but u have to find some crappy camera from them. if WalMart sells any of these rebate printers then they have many crappy $ 20 camera. they may or may not fly on bay but then this is the price u pay for your printer.
If you can do without color, get some B&W lasers. You can find HP laserjet 2200D's on eBay for around $50. There are lots of refilled cartridges for around $30.00, carts last over 5000 pages.
Do all of your people need to print color? If not then look at some cheap laser printers. If they do then I would go with jayK's suggestion of some older Canon printers as they have very cheap ink.
OP - you need to include consumables in the yearly budget for printers you present to your management. Looking at the printer cost alone will burn you.
For example, instead of saying that it will cost $600 to buy 10 new printers, work out your current yearly budget for printers + ink. It's a sure bet that you will reduce that yearly cost by going with some older Canons, even if you spend $2000 on 10 printers + a couple spares. One black and one color cart per month per person, at $20/cart, works out to be $4800/year. The same usage at $1/cart (CMYK) works out to be $480/year.
jayK said: Still ~10 times the ink cost of an older Canon.
OP - you need to include consumables in the yearly budget for printers you present to your management. Looking at the printer cost alone will burn you.
For example, instead of saying that it will cost $600 to buy 10 new printers, work out your current yearly budget for printers + ink. It's a sure bet that you will reduce that yearly cost by going with some older Canons, even if you spend $2000 on 10 printers + a couple spares. One black and one color cart per month per person, at $20/cart, works out to be $4800/year. The same usage at $1/cart (CMYK) works out to be $480/year.
I totally agree. I planned to go to the office tomorrow and figure out how much we spend in ink per year and then do exactly what you suggested!
I'm set on getting printers where I can buy ink cartridges for a max of $3 each (like a Canon with ink from megatoners.com).
I bet your numbers are pretty accurate. We have 10 HP printers. Assuming that they need ink refills once per month for black ($19.99), and every other month for color ($28.99). Doing the math on that we spend $4,138 in ink a year!!!
If we purchased 10 printers at $80 each, and used the same ink consumption (black $1.99, 3 colors $6.00) it would cost us $1,398 per year.
Our payback would be roughly 4 months!!!!
Ok here's the million dollar question...... where can I find 10 Canon's that cost $80 each and take the ink refills that cost $1.99 each????
CrazyRus
Ancient Member
posted: Sep. 6, 2007 @ 9:01p
you can't find for $80, but you can find for ~$200 or so. Even with this price you should get your money back in ink savings fairly quick
musix4me
Happy Member
posted: Sep. 6, 2007 @ 9:40p
About 6 months ago, I bought a Brother DCP-120C from Costco online and it has REALLY cheap ink. I love it.
jimmywalt said: We need individual printers and can't use a "centrally located" one because of logistics and politics. If its politics ("They have a personal printer, I want one too", "Its too far to get my printout", "I want color too"), then go work the real issue here. I did
We migrated from everyone having a personal inkjet to only those having a real need (e.g. required secure printing because of sensitive documents, and a couple of people for status) having them. For everyone else, we went with monochrome laser network printter.
Make the real case about who needs a personal printer and doing the rest with a networked laser, and you will save a ton of money. You are a nonprofit. Less money wasted on overheads means more money to fulfill your mission
Canon started chipping their printers about 2 years ago. For awhile, there was a huge premium on eBay for models like the ip300 and ip4000. Nowadays, you are unlikely to find 10 new units anymore even if you were willing to pay $200 each. Personally, I would hesitate to buy a used printer that has the printhead built into the machine. Unfortunately, the vendors make it hard for users to buy generic cartridges anymore, so there are so few choices. Anyway, if you are having no issues with Epson, you might consider the R260 (units made before May 2007) that is fairly cheap on eBay because they often came with a bundle. Because your users print daily, there is less chance of clogging.
ellory said: jimmywalt said: We need individual printers and can't use a "centrally located" one because of logistics and politics. If its politics ("They have a personal printer, I want one too", "Its too far to get my printout", "I want color too"), then go work the real issue here. I did
We migrated from everyone having a personal inkjet to only those having a real need (e.g. required secure printing because of sensitive documents, and a couple of people for status) having them. For everyone else, we went with monochrome laser network printter.
Make the real case about who needs a personal printer and doing the rest with a networked laser, and you will save a ton of money. You are a nonprofit. Less money wasted on overheads means more money to fulfill your mission
This is the best option truthfully. Not everyone needs a printer and everyone will get use to using the network printer.
ellory said: jimmywalt said: We need individual printers and can't use a "centrally located" one because of logistics and politics. If its politics ("They have a personal printer, I want one too", "Its too far to get my printout", "I want color too"), then go work the real issue here. I did
We migrated from everyone having a personal inkjet to only those having a real need (e.g. required secure printing because of sensitive documents, and a couple of people for status) having them. For everyone else, we went with monochrome laser network printter.
Make the real case about who needs a personal printer and doing the rest with a networked laser, and you will save a ton of money. You are a nonprofit. Less money wasted on overheads means more money to fulfill your mission
Ellory,
Thank you for that thought, but because of limited time (this is just my "after hours and on weekends" responsibility where I'm employed) it's just not worth it to try to do what you said. If each day had about 60 hours, then yes I would be able to take this advice. Also, and most important, pretty much anything that gets printed is highly sensitive so that's why we have this need for individual printers.
Since everyone prints senstivie stuff and you want cheap cartridges you may want to wait for Staples to put a Brother AIO on sale again. I've seen the Brother printers for around $50 AR often and they may be in your price range. On the plus side they don't use chipped cartridges and Megatoners sells the generics about $3 each. On the other hand they are AIO's which means they may take up more space and they have scanners which were not part of your requirements.
OP - you need to include consumables in the yearly budget for printers you present to your management. Looking at the printer cost alone will burn you.
For example, instead of saying that it will cost $600 to buy 10 new printers, work out your current yearly budget for printers + ink. It's a sure bet that you will reduce that yearly cost by going with some older Canons, even if you spend $2000 on 10 printers + a couple spares. One black and one color cart per month per person, at $20/cart, works out to be $4800/year. The same usage at $1/cart (CMYK) works out to be $480/year.
thing is JAYK, older products are scarcer than newer items. PLUS the OP said cheap, i thus was searching for consumer retail cheap. GOYS
jayK
Senior Member - JayK
posted: Sep. 7, 2007 @ 2:45p
FrugalFreak said: thing is JAYK, older products are scarcer than newer items. PLUS the OP said cheap, i thus was searching for consumer retail cheap.The huge savings on ink are worth the premium and the time invested in finding the older products. "Consumer retail cheap" can turn out to be very expensive in the long run.
Also, the Epson Stylus CX5800F - Refurbished, for $49 including shipping, at their website. Cheap replacement ink. My experience with "refurbished" has mostly been absolutely new product, re-packed in a plain box, or with refurbished stamped on box and/or product. In extremely rare cases has the product not been new, and actually refurbished. Other than maybe some cosmetic blemishes, or the "disappointment" that someone else touched/opened the product before you did, there is no compelling reason not to buy it.
No HP's or Lexmarks unless they come with 10 years of FREE ink. It's the inks in these 2 brands that KILL you! That's why everyone throws out those and just buys a new one - you get new ink and a faster printer when you do that!
We are attempting to get away from 14 HP printers.
The Stylus C88 that you mention, 14 for $600; where are these? Also, did you look into the rebate with the Digital Camera? Appears to be no limit of one per address, only one per product; which implies that one can get only one rebate per boX.
The reason for not using the LJ 1018 is that color is a requirement. Also I bet the rebate form for the Epson Printer/Camera deal says no organizations which there printers are going to. Since jimmywalt found the printers in his price range and also can take generic inks which he also wanted I think he did a good job.
ellory said: If I were a donor to this organization, I don't think I would be happy with how my donations are spent
That's true. With what he was tasked to do I think he did a good job. Still having a couple of network printers would be a much better idea and a better use of resources.
Erick13 said: That's true. With what he was tasked to do I think he did a good job. Still having a couple of network printers would be a much better idea and a better use of resources.I disagree. jimmywalt is also the organization's CFO. That obligation was not fulfilled.
Even fighting the battle and losing this one would have moved the thinking forward. I have lost the battle about individual purchases not making sense, but in the long run, I won the war
ellory said: Erick13 said: That's true. With what he was tasked to do I think he did a good job. Still having a couple of network printers would be a much better idea and a better use of resources.I disagree. jimmywalt is also the organization's CFO. That obligation was not fulfilled.
Even fighting the battle and losing this one would have moved the thinking forward. I have lost the battle about individual purchases not making sense, but in the long run, I won the war
I didn't realize that he is the CFO. The I completely agree with you on this.
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