How To Pick The Best Inkjet Printer
Posted: Saturday, January 09, 2010
by John Dow
jdWebWorks
I shouldn't say this out loud without knocking on wood but I've always had good luck with every inkjet printer I've purchased. I really don't think that it's luck; it's most likely due to my method of picking the best inkjet printer for my particular budget and common uses. My buying system is pretty simple and it's always saved me a few bucks, plus it also provides a good inkjet printer for years of use.
I usually try and go for the best-cost verses value on my inkjet printers. You don't want to go with the cheapest models unless you have no choice due to a meager budget. And the real cost of any inkjet printer is the ongoing materials costs, like ink cartridges and paper. In fact I've seen ink cartridge duo packs (black and multi-color cartridges together) cost more than the purchase price of entry-level inkjet printers.
And as far as I can tell, all of the major brands like HP, Epson, Canon, and Lexmark make good quality inkjet printers for the most part. Every once in a while they may come out with a model that fails to deliver what's advertised but most are low end models which I recommend to avoid.
OK, so here's the system in a nutshell:
1. Decide what features you must have, like scanning, faxing, copying, or what ever. Many of the newer models do all three so it might not be much of a deal breaker on any manufacturer.
2. Go to the top 3-5 brands and find the models that fit your criteria. I never choose the cheapest, or the most expensive. I look for something right in the middle.
3. After I pick one model from each of the top five sellers I check any review websites for user comments. I don't check the expert websites, I prefer the everyday users. Experts sometimes get caught up in the technical issues that most normal user would never use.
4. On the remaining models I now go check the ink cartridges prices and yields. Now you can't depend on the print yields but they are one factor. The yields stated by the manufacturer are under perfect conditions and low coverage, so take them with a huge grain of salt.
So the price of the ink cartridge and the semi accurate print yields are the deal closer on which inkjet printer I end up choosing to buy. The features, recommendations, and models are to make sure I get what I need, but the actual purchase price of the inkjet printer is no where near as important as the ongoing ink cartridge cost. This is especially true for heavy users and people who print a lot.
The last time I bought an inkjet printer was last spring. I wanted to be able to print on CDs and my current inkjet printer couldn't do that. I ended up spending about $100 on the inkjet printer and the duo cartridge pack is about $34. I'm happy with my choice and it does everything I need for a very reasonable cost. I really didn't have a lot of choices due to the printing on CD requirement but there were 5 different models.
Even If you don't look at any other thing about the next inkjet printer you buy, check out the ink cartridge price and at least you'll get the best deal on the operating cost long term. And that's where the real money is spent.
Looking for the best deal on HP Printer Cartridges? Get help here: Hewlett Packard Ink Cartridges . Want to save money on any ink cartridges? Learn how here: Ink Cartridges for Printers .
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