Buying an All-In-One Printer - Comments Page 1

Bob, I've used MFP's exclusively since the B/W laser printer I owned died when its fuser went, about 10 years ago, give or take. I have two MFP's, an HP 4200 for me, and an HP 4510-G510n-z for the Mrs. Hers is wireless, mine is wired. Both were most inexpensive, relative to the others available at the time of purchase (I was being cheap!) It killed me to toss the broken laser printer, but I would toss either of these in a moment if they had a major failure. Why? I have printed REAMS of paper in each of them and scanned/copied dozens of documents and scanned many old family pictures, too. They have paid for themselves. (I won't fax to anyone, because I have only Cell phones.) Good review, though I wouldn't buy anything but an HP. Personal preference.

My old HP 2355 all in one is starting to act up sometimes it thinks it's out of paper and it was failing to scan a photo the other day. Can it be taken apart and cleaned and adjusted? I would just like to buy a little more time with it. It's at least 4 years old but it's not really used with great frequency, way less then once a week and never large numbers of pages. I think we just replaced the black ink cartridge for the first or maybe second time.. I'm not real impressed with the durability of home based printers in general. This one does a good job when it's working though.

I use the popular sites you mentioned for reviews on electronics but, I think often it's better to rely on a bunch of user reviews to find out how good something really is. Because they are pulling it out of the box brand spanking new, so they will mostly all seem pretty good. I want to know how a printer or whatever is going to work after has been in use for a good while. I just wonder how many pages the reviewers ore going to crank out before giving their assessment. Even the really cheap ones that they give you with a new computer will print OK when they are brand new but what about 6 months or a year later. So I use the professional reviewers to tell me about the features and overall design, but I listen to the general public who bought it and use it on a regular bases for the real story. You just have to read more of those, to weed out the idiots that just don't know what they're doing.

I agree with your assessments on the Brother & Epson models, but wholeheartedly disagree on the HP 8500.

The older HP printers were fine, but the newer 4500, 6500, and 8500 models are fraught with problems. Most notably, the "power save" feature puts the unit to sleep and it will often not "wake up" for a new print job or incoming fax. HP's work-around has been to manually remove power from the unit, and then reconnect. Well, I'm sorry, but that sort of defeats the entire purpose of having a wireless connection to the printer. Review HP's forums for a long list of complaints on these models.

For me, the decision is clear. I will never buy another HP printer again. Your mileage may differ! ;)

I have had a HP officejet pro 8500 premier for about a year now. I love it. The cost per page is significantly better than other ink jet printers. I love wireless. I love scan to email. I also like working with HP for help with problems as they arise; I think you will always have some issues with any machine in our technology advance world. These issues may not just be mechanical they can also be interconnectivity of machines. The warranties are well worth the cost because you are not alone to troubleshoot these issues by paying one cost at the front end when you purchase the product. I did a lot of research before my purchase and I am very satisfied with my choice. Even with that being said there is still a couple of things on this machine I would change but, it is still a very good product.

Another "bad" feature of all in one devices is when the manufacturer no longer supports the device with new drivers when a new version of windows comes out, you have to replace everything rather just one component. I ran into this with a Panasonic all in one device, and had to chuck the whole thing because they didn't support it with windows XP when I migrated to XP. Old drivers did not work with XP either.

Much appreciated the write-up on AIO devices but would like to make one suggestion and one comment. Suggestion: differentiate between duplex SCAN and duplex PRINT capabilities -- just saying duplex does not really help. Comment: HP makes great hardware but the software that drives their AIO devices is beyond abysmal with NUMEROUS and constant failures on both Mac and PC platforms. Long a user of HP, I have sworn off them solely because of the software. Third party software cannot activate all of the features and so that is not an answer. HPs help and warranty policies are also anti-user and leave you to figure it out or throw it away in frustration. Avoid HP at all costs

I have the Kodak all in one, your comments are right on....when it was new. I have replaced the print head twice the quality goes away... it needs a new one again, but kodak now says it's out of warrenty, and want $$ to replace the head. It will be cheaper for me to go out to wal mart and buy a cheap HP again.

I bought a lexmark for two reasons.
1)I can print using only the black cartridge, which saves a lot of money.
2)they don't charge for tech support every time I call.

I bought the Kodak ESP Office 2170 based on user reviews. They were evidently impressed with its photo copying capabilities but as a small office printer it is really really bad. By far the worst printer I've had. Print quality is bad, skips. The much-vaunted long lasting toner is a myth; it burns through ink faster than any machine I've used. One of the necessary functions I must have is the ability to scan to e-mail; the specs say this machine will; however, I learned after purchase that that function only works if you're on a network which I'm not. Prior to this machine I had a Canon Pixma MP530 - far superior to this printer; I wish I'd bought it's updated version. Oh, yes, my scanner has stopped working but it's under warranty so hopefully it can be fixed.

I have owned and HP C 7280 for about five years and I have been completely satisfied with the multifunction aspect of the printer. The only difficulty that I have had has been with the Wi-Fi connection when I want to scan a document into my computer. For some reason, which I have not gotten a satisfactory answer from HP, I am forced to make a USB connection from the printer to my computer in order for the software to work properly. Other than that, the Wi-Fi connection procedure was simply flawless and much easier than Brother Printer which I also own and uses way too many pages to make sure that the Wi-Fi connection is correct.

Very nice article. What I need to know is if an inkjet type or a laser type. Pluses and minuses would be useful.

About HP -I'm fed up. Have all in one wireless 600 series for only two yrs. Get message print head failed every time I turn it on. HP suggested we buy a new one. Buy a new HP every two yrs??? Laser black and white HP are indeed work horses, but color, even though photos are good quality, are a real disappointment.

I have an Epson Workforce 610; it has been outstanding, both faxing, scanning and printing.
I love it!

Bob,
Recently, I began to receive a "Please wait while Windows configures scan" message each time I try to use the scan feature on my HP 2355 AIO. After the attempt to install fails, I get another message telling me that "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package "Scan.msi" in the box below." When I click the Cancel button an error 1706 box pops up.

I have searched my computer as well as the original installation disk for this file but am unable to locate it. I've found several suggestion on the internet as to how to fix this problem but sadly none has worked for me.

Strangely, after cancelling all of the messages including the error 1706, the scanning program opens and I'm able to use it.

Hopefully there is a fix for this that will work for me.

Obviously this is not an isolated problem since I've read about it in several different forums.

I've owned a Lexmark X4270 all-in-one for several years and although I have no complaints about print quality or economy, I do have a pet peeve when it comes to Lexmark printers. It's the services that run in the background when you are NOT using your printer.

I am very vigilant about my system resources and can see NO reason why anything needs to run when it's associated function is not being used. Why software developers can't seem to design software that shuts itself off after use is beyond me. And Lexmark is notorious for that.

I disable every service associated with my Lexmark after using it, and even unplug the unit from the power source. Otherwise, it turns itself on then goes into standby mode every time I boot up. Why is this necessary?

Thank you Mr. Rankin for this article and for the opportunity to inform your readers of some of the pitfalls with certain printer manufacturers.

I have an HP, I believe that it is an 8200 Deskjet and I couldn't be happer. It does all that it was advertised to do and is simple to use. I have used other printers but it seems none are as dependable as an HP.

I narrowed it down to the Hp8600 or 8600A (able to do 81/2x11) or the Kodak Hero 9.1 I decided to go with the Hero 9.1 (any of the older models don't make the grade) for a couple of reasons, 1 you are able to lay 4 or 5 photo's on the scan bed scan them in and it will read each photo as a separate file, second you are able to print from anywhere, I can print from my phone in the house, or email a file to my print (you set it up with its own email address thru Kodak) or you can also print thru Google cloud. I went with the Kodak because of the photo and remote printing these were two big deals for me, other than that both machines seem pretty comparable. Ink is very close in price although the hp has the higher yield cartridges. But cost per page is very close. I love HP had a few in my days but for photos I trust Kodak

Good article, I have an older HP Officejet 6110. It has been a great work horse. I refill my own cartridges and replace them after every third fill. It still works great after ten years and I bought it used.

I have the HP 8500A Premium. For my home office. I do like it. But, it is set to always copy color and so far I have not been able find how to change that default. It's a real pain. So everytime I need to copy something I have to manually go through several steps to change that. Also, I had another HP before this one and I could set the copy default tray. Can't do that with this one. :(

I owned 2 Kodak 5100 printers and gave up on them. They had permanent (but replaceable) printheads that constantly either clogged or became defective. Kodak was good about sending replacements, but it became a hassle to call to customer service, go through the protocols and wait for a replacement. I have had some experiences with epsom printers (with permanent printheads) also clogging at times--and a pain to unclog.
I am adamant that I just will not pay $30+ for an ink cartridge. It is fascinating to me to read about the ink wars, how much is made on ink cartridges, the battles by manufacturers to prevent ink refilling to protect their profits, and the resulting legal fights. Bob is right to advise to price cartridge replacements before buying any printer.
My current preference is to use printers that use cartridges with integral printheads, such that they can easily be replaced. I also look for printers that use cartridges that I can refill or buy refilled. Currently I have been using older HP all in ones (e.g. psc 750). They seem to be workhorses with acceptable performance and inexpensive available refilled cartridges.