Need rec's for a wireless inkjet printer, all-in-one? Older model OK!!

October 13, 2017 2:36 PM

Short and sweet, we need a new all-in-one inkjet printer and we are having trouble navigating reviews online. Your personal experience much appreciated!! We'll be printing from iphones, macbooks, and a laptop running windows, but printing from mostly the apple devices. $50 to $150 range.

We last had a Brother, which towards the end made shitty picture copies, so we would love something that prints decent photos. We'd love to avoid printers that eat tons of ink, require an ink subscription, or are otherwise "smart" devices.

I think it is criminal manufacturers program these things to fail after x number of prints and they're not serviceable. We realize we can't avoid this, just mentioning this factors into our decision. We'd like the least disposable, most self-serviceable home printer possible.

We are very open to any new or old model that has worked well for you, so lay it on us if you have any recommendations. Thank you!!

posted by jbenben to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

I have this Brother all in one. ( Model FC-J885DW)

We love it. My husband did A LOT of review reading before we got one (our previous all in one would go to sleep, which pretty much makes wireless printing useless. And the old one didn't print certain colors properly.) This one works on both our Mac and Linux stuff, and his Android phone. Quick and responsive. It has a "manual" feed tray on the back so you can put a "special" paper in one-at-a-time. It's perfect for me to print my shipping labels so I can put my label paper in there and not have to trade out the paper in the main feed.

It also has a document feeder which can fax and scan. It's been great if I've had to scan a stack of things. Also does front and back printing.

I've been able to print with just the print option from my iphone - though I'm sure their app has more settings, etc.

I used to print my art prints on it and it did a decent job. I did have some slight quality issues - but I think part of it had to do with the high quality prints and printing on thicker matte paper. I ended up with a Canon Pixma Pro 100 (huge ass) printer for my business art prints. But for personally stuff (especially glossy) the Brother did great.

And in general for my "BEST" quality was better than "PHOTO" quality on my Mac printer settings when I printed photos on it.
posted by Crystalinne at 3:18 PM on October 13, 2017

What wireless bands are you using? Many many many wireless printers can only use the 2.4Ghz band, which is problematic with some mesh configs.
posted by aramaic at 4:27 PM on October 13, 2017

In the seven or eight years I have had my Canon MX870 my partner has burned through three HP inkjets. On the strength of that machine we bought a MG5200 for use during summers. They weigh quite a bit, they clunk and thrash some when you start them up, and they are as stable as they get. If you run out of color ink they will still print in B&W. Mixed Mac/Win/Linux/BSD household. You can get an Android app called Canon Print and print over wireless from your phone, can't advise about iphone apps.

There is one MX870 left at Amazon, and it's outside your price bracket - it might be worth investigating some of the more recent models.
posted by jet_silver at 8:53 AM on October 14, 2017

I had a Canon Pixma (can't recall exact model number) and it was fantastic until it died after several years. Never failed to print or copy perfect b/w and color pages, fast for an inkjet, and not terribly noisy. It was also very easy to use. After it died, I elected to buy a different one because I'm an idiot and ended up with an Epson XP-420 and it is CRAP. The control panel is not intuitive, the inkjets clog constantly, and it's slow and noisy. Oversimplified bottom line: Canon yes, Epson no.
posted by scratch at 1:45 PM on October 14, 2017