Recommend my father a new Printer

[Tudor]

Ok, so what printer did your dad get in the end?

 

[CakeHole]

He has not bought one yet, for now he has actually dug out his old Epson LQ200 dot matrix LOL, and making do with just text documents. I think he is getting photo printing withdrawal though Im going to buy him the Canon MG6450 for his Birthday in the next few weeks.

 

[Tudor]

hehe

My first printer was a 24 pin dot matrix, but I can't remember the make and model. The printhead went bad at some point and I opened it (of course) to repair it... never managed to put it back again...

I found part of the printhead. It reads 04F5139. I think the printer was an IBM PROPRINTER X24E.

 

[CakeHole]

I actually (or rather the family) had a Seikosha dot matrix printer years ago (Yes they made printers as well as watches) it lasted years, i can remember as a very young pre-teen the miracles of being able to print text and basic blank and white images, i was fascinated how it even managed to print anything close to a circle
I would not be shocked if its up in the loft at parents home somewhere. Think the only problem with it was actually finding printer ribbons for it in the end.

I then later had an Epson LQ100 the black and white version of my fathers LQ200 that still works to this day over 20 years later (yes i had it hard as a kid he would not even buy me a colour printer LOL), i actually sometimes use it for draft text though the noise now feels like someone rattling a tin of screws next to your ears.

(Puts on old man hat)
Ah kids they dunno how good they have it now, they whinge their printer whirls on warm up and call that noise, id love to see them in an office with half a dozen dot matrix printers going or a couple of dozen typewriters. You can just imagine the screams.

 

[The Hat]

I am half deaf from working in a print room for 40 years, now that’s noisy, in fact the rats could make more noise that a dot matrix…
What's that you said Sonny !

 

[CakeHole]

Ah the good old days when health and safety didn't get in the way of production eh @The Hat

 

[gailkeys]

Hi,

Apart from Canon,I would like to suggest HP Photosmart 7510 e all in one printer ,HP Laser Jet P1606 as well as Brother HL-2270 DW.

 

[Sherden]

Why don't you reconsider a Brother instead?
They are very cheap and if you don't require the "Canon printed text" quality they are good value for money (e.g. DCP J 132W or 152W or even the pretty cheap new A3 models).

The cartridge's price is increasing but still cheaper than Canon\Epson\HP (at laest as street price), they give you less problems when using compatible inks and, from the independent test results I read, they waste a lot less ink during cleaning cycle than Canon

 

[CakeHole]

Hi,

Apart from Canon,I would like to suggest HP Photosmart 7510 e all in one printer ,HP Laser Jet P1606 as well as Brother HL-2270 DW.

The HP 7510 looks a bit bulky and the screen too feature rich for him (too many icons will confuse him). Also although you can refill the carts on HPs you can not fully disable the "empty" warning on them and apparently it will randomly throw up a message which needs cancelling, at some point this may confuse my father and lead to him phoning thinking he is out of ink every few hours when he is not. Original carts and after markets are not the cheapest either. The HP P1606 appears to only be mono laser, no scanner and toner carts are around £20 a time for a decent non-original brand £60+ for a HP. That brother likewise only appears to be a mono laser, not what he wants.

Why don't you reconsider a Brother instead?
They are very cheap and if you don't require the "Canon printed text" quality they are good value for money (e.g. DCP J 132W or 152W or even the pretty cheap new A3 models).

The cartridge's price is increasing but still cheaper than Canon\Epson\HP (at laest as street price), they give you less problems when using compatible inks and, from the independent test results I read, they waste a lot less ink during cleaning cycle than Canon

Brother and Canon were what i originally looked at, Brother mainly because you could get non-original carts cheap (around £3) and the lower end range printers looked simple to use for my father, IE no over the top confusing buttons etc. The only things that put me off were earlier tails that they may clog like Epsons if not regularly used, photo quality is apparently not as good as other brands which i gleemed from many review of brothers and the very bottom of the range has a dull LCD rather than LED screen on them, making it harder to read in a room lacking light or in the evenings under incandescent lighting (not good for a person of an older age). I may still pick up a Brother J132W as a spare printer or use it for basic tasks though, ive seen them for £50 so it may be worth an experiment. If its anything like a low end Epson C44 i had a few years back though it will be a pain, fail to use that for 3-5(ish) days and you had to perform head cleaning, clogged way too easily.

To be honest as mentioned many times it is not an easy choice nowadays, they all seem to have their plus and minus points, be it cart cost, functions, refillability (if that is a word) etc. Some scoring better on some fronts than others but none of them an outstanding star in all regards now.