When buying a printer, you're likely to compare prices and go for the cheapest printer available. The downside of that is, the ink catridges can be damn expensive. Buying an expensive printer on the other hand will cost a little more but you'll find that the ink catridges are cheaper. What would you choose? Save a little money on the initial buy and spend more later or fork out that money and save more later? How do you save money when buying a printer?
Depends on how much you print. At my house, we don't print very much, basically just photos here and there and some black text documents. We have a cheaper printer and don't have to buy ink very often. I know someone who runs an AVON business, and he has a several hundred dollar printer. He has to print several thousand pages a year though, so the savings are huge for him.
Well, if you're going to just print a document every two months or so, then you better go for the cheap one, maybe choose a black&white model if you're not planning to print any pictures and just documents. But if you're going on a printing spree, then go for the more expensive ones because you can be assured of the quality. But i guess it more on the ink that you'll be spending too much, I mean you can just refill ink cartridges but in doing so you put your printer at risk of ink spills or anything like that, also buying brand new ink cartridges are too expensive.
Regardless of ink, the two cheapest printers I have purchased have broken down very quickly. I think printers are the sort of item where, if you buy cheap, you will get a very poor designed and built model that won't last long at all. My more expensive printer of around £120 has lasted years without fail. Older printers seem to work well too, but modern cheap ones are not worth it.
It is all about reliability. If the printer is cheap but it is reliable then go for it. There are those printers that are expensive but still running them is expensive in terms of the ink they use. I would say you need to read several reviews about the printers before deciding which one to use. That is what I would do to get the best printer between either an expensive or cheap.
I bought a tiny little Epson printer a couple of years ago to go with a new computer I had just purchased. When I got home I discovered that the ink cartridges were only 25% full out of the box, what a ripoff. The cost of the cartridges was more than the printer itself cost. Plus the unit had a tendency to constantly "clean" itself (waste ink on purpose so you had to buy more). Yes, it's a total gimmick, but even with expensive printers, the ink is still expensive no matter what you do. I just avoid printing as much as humanly possible. I only printed things from it once last year, for example.
Same here. Mine is just the occasional black/white printing for documents that need mailed off. It's not worth it to me to have an expensive printer. That being said, my cheap printers mean it's almost as cheap to just buy a new printer than to get ink cartridges when they run out, lol.
I always factor in the replacement cost of the toner. I like Brother printers because they are relatively cheap. They are also workhorses. They last a very long time. The toners can be pricey, but the toner does last me awhile because I go a print shop for large print jobs.
I've always just bought the cheap printers. I don't use them that much and as long as they are of a good brand I'm not too worried about the build quality. From time to time some of them have given me some trouble but nothing too drastic and even then I know I could just buy another cheap one since I didn't spend too much on it anyway. I think I'd only consider getting a higher build quality expensive printer if I knew I would be using it everyday or if I know I'll be using it for very important things.
When I bought a new printer I actually looked at the cost of the ink first and bought the printer that would be the most economical and cost the least to buy more ink later on. It worked out well for me. I've had it for I think 3 years now and it's still going strong and I print out quite a lot from it. I'm sure I've saved a fair amount of money by picking the one that printed the most pages for the cost of the cartridges.
Most people can do well with an all-in-one cheap printer. I know that cartridges and paper costs some money, but in the long run, the cheaper printer will pay off. But, if you're a company or something, then you need to use the bigger printers because they are cost-effective.
I think the real answer is no printer at all if you can avoid it, but of course that is not everybody's reality. I guess I am pretty fortunate because I can print anything that I need at work for free so I am spoiled, but when I did have a printer at home I did have a cheap one and it always was a problem, so I would say that an expensive one might be better if it can last you a while.
In my house it would be worth it to buy an expensive printer. Since we always have someone in the house that needs to have an essay print out, we get a lot of use out of our printer. If you are only going to print like once a month or less don't even bother with buying a cheap printer. I can go to my library and print 10 cents a page.
Lol Dude! That's what I do too. But, I still have one at home. I always felt it important that the company pay me a little more so I use the printer whenever I need to. When I was younger, I used to print out whole ebooks out of the thing, but now I have grown up, and the company has put in a limit of like 100 per person, so I print fewer pages. Besides, why waste pages and trees.
I'll say it all comes down to where you want to use the printer and the amount of printing work you have. If you just want a simple domestic printer to print the occasional letter or picture, then you wouldn't need an expensive one. If you are looking for a heavy duty printer to handle bulk printing jobs at your workplace then definitely go for an expensive printer and save on things such as cartridges and ink in the long run.
