Best home office printer, scanner?

June 2, 2010 3:22 AM

Having had 3 all-in-one printer/fax/scanner units go kerblooey after less than a year of moderate use each, I'm thinking I need to go to separate printer and scanner units. (I don't need the fax function; this is done directly from the computers.) Looking for recommendations for color / black-and-white printers, and scanners, that you've found to be robust and reliable. Please cite brands and models. Thanks!
posted by charris5005 to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Depending on volume, I work at a medical office and for a cheap ($200-250) scanner to have everywhere we use Xerox Documate 510s, about 25 of them. (For high volume stuff we use expensive Fujitsus). I've only had real problems with the first generation 510s with the metal hinges (latest have plastic spring-loaded hinges). They get thoroughly abused, we replace the adf pads way less than recommended by the manufacturer and the only real damage I've seen is with staff "ripping" open the document feeders to pull out jams, which causes one of the latches to fail (They actually still keep going after that, I just tape them down). So as long as you aren't trying to use the auto document feeder to capacity (they claim 30 to 50, somewhere in there, it's more like 20 tops) that's my recommendation.
posted by syntheticfaith at 3:35 AM on June 2, 2010

Oh, on second read that makes it look like they fail often, I've only seen that rip related latch failure twice, and again, if you aren't running 50 pages at a time whilst removing the gravity feed tray (I don't know why they keep doing that), the unit hasn't jammed that frequently for us. We get ours from Newegg.com (Actually I just looked this up and can't find it, maybe they are discontinued... sorry to have taken up all this space, but it does speak to how often we need to buy them).
posted by syntheticfaith at 3:44 AM on June 2, 2010

I have a home office and I've recently got a Samsung Colour Laser Printer CLP-310. (I am in the UK). Very happy with it so far. I got sick of ink jet printing and the frequent need to clean the print heads.

I also use a HP Scanjet G4010 which is also great.

Hope of help.
posted by JtJ at 4:39 AM on June 2, 2010

Totally satisfied with my HP Officejet 5610 for middling-intensive home office use, if that helps.
posted by aqsakal at 7:00 AM on June 2, 2010

I have a Canon CanoScan LiDE 600F (current version is 700F), and I swear by it if you need a scanner for low-to-moderate use. It has a small footprint design that allows it to be stored and operated in an upright rather than flatbed orientation (it converts to flatbed when you want it that way), it runs off of a single powered USB connection, and it is very portable (about the size and weight of a large notebook computer). Best of all you don't have to replace it every time your printer dies.
posted by kowalski at 7:33 AM on June 2, 2010

I'm with kowalski about the CanoScan LiDE 600F. It's been very reliable for me. Pretty good color for a cheap scanner.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:28 AM on June 2, 2010

B/W Printer: HP Laserjet 4000 series. The N models if you want to hook it up via Ethernet. I picked up one for a friend the other week for $100 off of craigslist, YMMV.

B/W Copier: If you can find one, A Canon PC-6. It's very large for a home copier, about the size of a large microwave. Mine has been running for close to 20 years.

I guess both of these recommendations assume that you have a car, and don't plan on moving any time soon.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 8:49 AM on June 2, 2010

B/W Copier: If you can find one, A Canon PC-6. It's very large for a home copier, about the size of a large microwave. Mine has been running for close to 20 years.

Caution on the PC-6 family... as a copier repair tech, parts and supplies for these are getting a bit scarce. Could be a factor. These things are built like tanks though. The LJ4000 series is a very solid printer as well.

I think you'd do fine with a laser All In One (AIO), like a Kyocera FS-C1020 or a Samsung CLX-6250FX (Stay away from the CLX-31xx series, though, the consumables will kill you). They'll last a long time, they are designed to be economically repaired (unlike inkjet models) and they'll get the job done quickly and easily. There's a very good reason why a reliable color laser AIO is $1,200 ~ $1,800 and why the inkjet AIOs are a tenth of that.

If what you've been buying is lasting less than a year, you're buying too low. Don't write off all AIO models as unreliable, give a quality product a chance and I'm sure you'll be happy. Also keep in mind that inkjet printers and AIOs are built simply as disposable vehicles meant to sell overpriced ink. They are in no way meant to be a lasting, reliable product. They want it to crap out on you a year from now so you can throw away all the ink that you've bought but can no longer use, and buy all new supplies for the equally crappy printer that will die again on you next year. The low-end makers don't care that they have a reputation for shitty products, enough people buy them anyway that they're making bank on supplies over and over and over again. Shop smart the first time and while it may cost you more up front, you'll almost certainly save money in the long run. Plus, you're not landfilling a printer every year, which is always nice.
posted by xedrik at 1:12 PM on June 2, 2010

Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer, which has been quite reliable.
posted by cranberryskies at 12:37 PM on June 11, 2010