I'm in the market for a new printer and have narrowed it down to two main contendors:

The Epson (http://www.savastore.com/products/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=Savastore&product%5Fid=10276722&pid=1) V.S. The HP (http://www.savastore.com/products/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=Savastore&product%5Fid=10276272&pid=1)

The HP is a copier/printer/scanner combo but the price seems really low if it is any good. The Epson was my first choice, cheap and Epson cartridges aren't too expensive, but friends told me Epson aren't too reliable in the long term.

I would like to know:
a) What "Monthly Duty Cycle (max) 1000 impressions" means (on the HP specification), and
b) which cartridges the HP takes - it's not apparent on the specifications and I don't want to be spending excessive amounts on cartridges - as I had to do with my current printer (which has now finally died).

Also if you suggest a different printer then I only have a USB printer cable (my 'computery' friend told me that newer printers need a different cable sometimes and that it might not come with one - the only cable lifted on SaveaStore is a USB parallel one and about £36, so though the printer might be cheap I don't want to get a new cable if my old one will still work).

Any advice?

The monthly duty cycle is the maximum number of pages/month that you should expect to print on that copier/printer etc. This is a factor of speed and durability.

HP printers take cartridges specific to their model (and maybe a couple of close related models). I have the HP PSC 1210 which appears to be fairly similar to the 1215 that you are looking at. It is a fairly decent printer/copier and the scanning isn't bad for an all-in-one. I am on my original ink cartridges but, when I last checked, the cost of a getting one black and one colour ink cartridge is more than what I paid for the printer.

Edit: Actually I just checked and the cost of the ink is currently only 3/4 of the cost of buying a replacement printer. The printer I have is currently $100 Cdn, the colour ink is $49 Cdn and Black is $28 Cdn.

) What "Monthly Duty Cycle (max) 1000 impressions" means (on the HP specification), and
I used to sell this stuff for many years, and have been to more HP training sessions, had discussions with HP techs, reps and factory enigineers. Everyone gives a different answer to this. But this is the closest I've ever come in ten years to figuring this one out. The duty life of the device is five years. You should take the monthly duty cycle and figure 1000 X 12 months (12,000) X 5 = 60,000 copies. That's right. 60,000 copies before the device junks out. So, you can certainly print more than 1000 in a month. Just keep in mind that if you print 60,000 copies in one month that your device will turn to junk.

Also, the HP cartridges have the printer heads built in. Everytime you change them, you get a fresh printer head. The others have the heads on the unit, and over time the heads breakdown, and so does print quality. The life of built-in printer heads can vary. But keep that in mind when comparing prices. Also, compare how many millilters are in each unit. Just don't go by the price of the unit. This can vary a lot also.

Thanks everyone. I actually decided, after talking to my computery friend, to get neither and instead went for this one (http://www.savastore.com/products/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=Savastore&product%5Fid=10268239&pid=1). Thanks for the help :thumb:

There's just one solid piece of advice I can give you after using inkjet printers for nearly 15 years - get a laser printer. The initial price of an inkjet printer is low, but you'll pay way more for cartridges over the years than you would if you were using a laser printer, and there are constant problems (this can vary depending on your luck, and how often you use the printer) with the output quality with inkjet printers (and head cleaning uses up a lot of ink!), plus lately most printer manufacturers are resorting to cheap tricks like forcing you to replace a cartridge after a certain number of pages are printed (even though the cartridge is not empty), artificially emptying the colour cartridge even if you're printing only black (and forcing you to replace the colour cartidge if it's empty even if you only want to print black!), and the list goes on.

Unless you simply must have colour, don't get an inkjet. Or, it'd probably still be cheaper if you just get one for the few pages you'll print in colour, and get a laser to print everything else with. Colour lasers are still way too expensive, but you can get a very good price on entry level lasers already - or buy an used one.

It really depends upon volume of printing - I personally don't print anywhere near enough to justify getting a laser printer in addition to my colour inkjet . I tend to print on average less than five pages per month of which at least a third would be in colour so it would take a hell of a long time to make up the cost of the laser printer, and I wouldn't want to take up any more space with a second printer anyway.

I suppose a large factor in this is that I tend to print out anything significant on my office's laser printer. If I had to do any significant volume of printing the inkjet would be way too slow for me to put up with let alone the higher cost/page.

I don't like HP. Cartridges are insanely expensive, and I never saw one actually work properly on Windows XP. Tried installing an older USB model at home (on Win98) and it wasn't fun.

A friend of mine recently bought a Canon i250. Really impressive, prints almost as fast as a Laser printer, and a snap to install and set up. Excellent quality too. One drawback: the cartridges get empty pretty fast compared to an HP. However, considering they're MUCH cheaper to buy, it's probably the same investment anyway.

Yeah, what Taluntain said.

Laser printers are stunning. I have a couple different ones that I use on a daily basis. My old Hewlett Packard 6P at home (2meg onboard, with 16meg expanision) nails everything I throw at it. I use a Samsung 1740 (8meg onboard, non-expandable unless you solder new IC's) at work, and it's excellent.

However (I'm not kidding), the lights flicker when that 1740 goes to work. Even when it's just sitting there with my machine polling it over USB, it makes my desklamp flicker. It puts out about 6 pages the first minute, and climbs up to around 14 after that; about a page every 4 seconds at top speed, but it can print faster than my USB port can send. ;)

There's some others I have a bit of experience with, but those two I can definately recommend. The Samsung was very cheap, for what I get from it. The only reason I put 16meg into the 6P was because it was only about $4 more than the 8meg module ($22 vs $26) years ago when I got it.

8meg is enough for any document that I've ever printed. Honestly, I dunno where someone would need any more.

Get a laser one if you can afford it. I've had too much trouble with my Epson Stylus Color 640. Epson is difficult in maintenance, as well. It still seems to have better quality than HP, but HP's tend to be seen as much more user-friendly.

Really? I have a Stylus 640 and have had no trouble whatsoever.