Recommendation on a Good, Cheapest Continuous Ink All-in-One Printer

[Alvin777]

Hi Apple friends, we're in a hurry to print a medical document (the printer's almost a goner and no more parts, especially the cartridge which is next to impossible and expensive to get- "thank you printer for the years of service"), what's the:

✅ cheapest but good
✅ continuous ink
✅ all-in-one
✅ has built-in Wifi
✅ ink that's easy to get (hopefully not expensive)
✅ will work on macOS Sonoma & Windows 11

printer you could recommend (any brand, must tick all the boxes above)?

Thank you. Have a great week.

 

[Chuckeee]

Avoid anything HP

 

[Alvin777]

Avoid anything HP

Thanks. What model and brand do recommend that fits the requirements mentioned (all boxes must be ticked)?

 

[AlmightyKang]

Don't buy anything inkjet to print documents. Even the continuous ink ones are garbage.

Also HP are fine was long as you stay away from the consumer junk. If it's not got Pro in it, don't touch it. I've got an HP LaserJet Pro (M148 AIO) and it has been absolutely reliable for 3 years and will take any old toner cartridges without complaining.

 

[Unami]

I’ve had good experience with the cheapest canon inkjet I can get. I don’t buy “all in one“-printers, but printer and scanner separately, because when one part dies, you got a zombie printer/scanner. If necessary you can usually install the scanner’s software and have that “press abutton to copy” function - but I usually don’t bother with that bloatware, printers and scanners usually run just fine without extra software.

Either way, my canon printers usually last at least more than a decade and you can let them sit idle for at least a month or two and the ink doesn’t dry out (like hp or epson).

 

[Mike Boreham]

Don't buy anything inkjet to print documents. Even the continuous ink ones are garbage.

I am very happy with my Epson ET-8500. Why is it garbage?

I print documents and photos with it.

Not recommending to OP because of price, not a cheap option.

 

[AlmightyKang]

I am very happy with my Epson ET-8500. Why is it garbage?

I print documents and photos with it.

Not recommending to OP because of price, not a cheap option.

I've run a predecessor to that before. Firstly the ink reservoirs and feeds get gummed up occasionally resulting in a horribly bad cleaning mission or a completely knackered printer. Secondly the cost per sheet of printing documents is much higher than a laser. Thirdly stuff printed with toner doesn't run if it gets damp. Fourthly when your magenta runs out suddenly for no reason after you've been printing black for days, no one has any in stock at all anywhere so you're screwed because it won't print a damn thing until you satisfy its cravings for an unrelated colour. Fifthly, it takes somewhere between an millennium and an aeon to print more than a few pages. Oh and laser text reproduction quality, even at the bottom end, is an order of magnitude better than a mid to high end inkjets.

Trick I found was to keep a B&W all in one laser handy and order prints from someone who uses a decent dye-sub printer (Anyone who uses Fujifilm). Lower TCO over 3 years.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I've run a predecessor to that before. Firstly the ink reservoirs and feeds get gummed up occasionally resulting in a horribly bad cleaning mission or a completely knackered printer. Secondly the cost per sheet of printing documents is much higher than a laser. Thirdly stuff printed with toner doesn't run if it gets damp. Fourthly when your magenta runs out suddenly for no reason after you've been printing black for days, no one has any in stock at all anywhere so you're screwed because it won't print a damn thing until you satisfy its cravings for an unrelated colour. Fifthly, it takes somewhere between an millennium and an aeon to print more than a few pages. Oh and laser text reproduction quality, even at the bottom end, is an order of magnitude better than a mid to high end inkjets.

Trick I found was to keep a B&W all in one laser handy and order prints from someone who uses a decent dye-sub printer (Anyone who uses Fujifilm). Lower TCO over 3 years.

I haven't had my ET-8500 very long so I will watch out for those. I haven't got space for two printers, and the volume I print (photos and docs) wouldn't justify. I am very happy with quality of text and photo printing. I can't imagine what an order of magnitude improvement of text would look like.

The ET-8500 replaced an Epson XP 850 cartridge inkjet which was faultless for many many years, but was expensive to run and finally gave a service warning requiring return to Epson. (I probably could have reset and repaired myself but decided against in view of its age). I never experienced your problems though I was diligent about keeping spare cartridges in stock.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Hi Apple friends, we're in a hurry to print a medical document (the printer's almost a goner and no more parts, especially the cartridge which is next to impossible and expensive to get- "thank you printer for the years of service"), what's the:

✅ cheapest but good
✅ continuous ink
✅ all-in-one
✅ has built-in Wifi
✅ ink that's easy to get (hopefully not expensive)
✅ will work on macOS Sonoma & Windows 11

printer you could recommend (any brand, must tick all the boxes above)?

Thank you. Have a great week.

As I said earlier I am very happy with the Epson ET-8500, which ticks all the boxes except cheapness. The Epson ET-8500 is rated very highly in the respected respected ratings.com.

While the ET-8500 is ruled out for you by price, the link includes many reviews of other printers which may be useful to you.

 

[Ifti]

I have had my Epson ET-4850 running for several years now - the ink seems to be never ending!
Best printer I've ever had.

 

[Fishrrman]

Does it have to be color?
Or is b&w (grayscale) acceptable?

If you can do with b&w, get a LASER printer, not an inkjet.

 

[Mousse]

As I said earlier I am very happy with the Epson ET-8500, which ticks all the boxes except cheapness. The Epson ET-8500 is rated very highly in the respected respected ratings.com.

While the ET-8500 is ruled out for you by price, the link includes many reviews of other printers which may be useful to you.

I highly recommend getting the inkjet with the large ink reservior like Epson's Eco-Tank or Canon's Megatank system. It's worth it if you print a lot. They're usually $100 more upfront than the cartridge based version. In the long run, it's cheaper because cartridges are insanely expensive.

I have a Canon G-series inkjet with the Megatank system. Decades ago, I relied on jerry-rigged system that syphoned ink directly from refill bottles into the cartridges.

 

[RUGERMAN]

Does it have to be color?
Or is b&w (grayscale) acceptable?

If you can do with b&w, get a LASER printer, not an inkjet.

I agree, I have a Brother B/W that scans, copies, prints and is sharable on my home network. All this for about $100 might be able to get it cheaper now.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

OP, the entire printer landscape has devolved into a mess where greed has driven design & development to poor places. I wish someone would build a printer with 100% focus on "what's best for customers" instead of working every possible angle to maximize present & future revenue for themselves.

If you are in a hurry to print only ONE document, export it to a USB stick and visit a local print shop or office store and print it on their professional equipment. You might even be able to email it. They will charge only a few dollars and you should get a perfect print.

If your needs are such that you only need to print on occasion, that can be the best general printing option in 2024.

If you have regular print jobs and thus actually need your own printer, you've got good advice in this thread already. The most fundamental issue is you are wanting "cheapest" which dooms a pursuit of a quality product... paired with "but good" which is wide open to individual interpretation as to what "good" means.

Basically though, "cheapest" is going to get printers loaded up with ways for the manufacturer to make their profit later... which gets you locked down printer parts, ink sources with chips so that you can only get it from manufacturer (at higher than market rates), etc. Pay up into more premium printers and you can filter out some-to-much of the "cheap" printer shenanigans.

If printing on your own printer is very important to you, perhaps change your perspective and buy like a business buys a printer. You might spend an iPhone price or two or more for one but it will lift you out of the swamp of self-serving tricks & hooks built into those where retail price dominates the proposition. In short: you get what you pay for.

Recommendation: use a local print shop for the urgently-needed medical doc print job. Then dig into online reviews for a good business-caliber printer if you want to avoid the nonsense of cheaply-priced consumer models.