I’m in need for a new printer for home use. General low volume printing of documents and photos.
No specific requirements other than wifi.

What’s recommended ?
Preferably from Currys as my son has just started working there and can get a discount.

Really happy with my Epson XP960.

Low volume seems no issue for it, photo prints are excellent, up to A3 too.

Any Epson with AirPrint capability, might be worth paying more for the printer to get one of the large capacity ink tanks, which have cheaper refills.

HP Envy working well for us, and I’ve had a few over the years. HP much improved over the years. It basically ‘just works’.

We looked at the Epson with the ink tanks but wasn’t worth it for low volume, not enough printers available with it when we looked but it was a new concept back then.

HP have always been good, as the ink cartridge also includes the clever bit that does the printing. If it drys out, a new cartridge will usually get it going again. Epson cartridges are just ink, so a dried print head isn’t going to be fixed with a new ink cartridge.

Colour laser?

A low use inkjet, in my experience, would always clog and need cleaning (which uses ink). I’m not sure if the latest models are any better, though.

You could get two printers?
A cheap B&W laser for documents and something more photo based?

I had looked at the HP Envy range.
Clogging and cleaning does always seem an issue after a year or so.
Not really thought about the Laser option…

Had an Epson xp215 for a couple of years, still working despite being used very little which has killed most of my previous printer by blocked heads

We had a succession of crappy inkjets which always dried up and failed. Pleased with the slightly more expensive colour laser which has worked flawlessly for a while now. Some sort of Brothet, works via wifi.

I’m yet to take my own (err, other people’s/forum) advice (I have a Canon Pixma Pro 100S A3 photo printer), but to prevent clogging, print a test page once a week/fortnight – you know, the one that will print a small block of every colour, but use little ink

My mono laser is a Brother – cost about £60 and has wifi. Not used a great deal but absolutely fine for my requirements.

A colour will be more – what about this?

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/printers-scanners-and-ink/printers/brother-hl3150cdw-colour-compact-wireless-laser-printer-21405955-pdt.html

Jeez too many choices to make.
Can’t make a decision on a new bike let alone on a printer at the same time !
I liked the idea of a laser but not sure if the additional costs will be justified.

I had looked at the HP Envy range.
Clogging and cleaning does always seem an issue after a year or so.

Had ours three years ish, very light users, no clogging at all.

^^ hey that one up there is our Brother! As I said, very happy with it. Not big users but whenever we want it, it just works.

I like my old Canon Pixma for the kinda,thing you’re talking about OP. hated the Epson we had before that – if a cartridge ran out it refused to print anything, even if yellow ran out it wouldn’t print a black and white letter!!!

Canon will tell you ink is running out but happily print regardless. Amazing how much more you get out of each cartridge that way. Epson were probably only 2/3 empty before needing replacement…

Laser printer.

If you’re going to buy an inkjet it would be worth wrapping it in bubble wrap so that it survives when you inevitably throw it out of the window in frustration.

I’d love to be able to recommend a cheap home printer, but in my extensive experience, there is simply no such thing.

Buy an expensive laser printer.

@oldnpastit & mattyfez – I think you are both right tbh but every £ spent on a printer for the wife is a £ less for my bike !

Canon mg6450 here and highly recommended. A few years old now but it’s been faultless.

Cheap ink from first call inks on Amazon which is excellent stuff.

+1 for HP Envy. Endless problems with 2 preceding Epsons.

Prior to the Epson (top of thread) we had a Canon Pixma and a Hp? before that.

They all have / had the extended 3 year guarantee.

That guarantee has been the best thing I’ve bought. I’ve not paid for a printer for the last 6 or 7 years.

When I asked the bloke in Currys why my printers have shockingly poor life expectancies, he replied that they only last about 2 years or so if you’re lucky! Quite why they offer 3 year guarantees on them I’ll never know.

Whichever you get, buy the extended guarantee.

We didn’t use our printer for long periods and it just kept getting gummed up, threw it away when we had a clearout.
On the odd occasions we need stuff printing i do it on the works printer or family print it off for us.
In reality most people do not need a printer.

In reality most people do not need a printer.

That’s what I love about this forum. People telling other people what they don’t need

I work backwards when buying printers (for myself & family, etc)

I pick a bunch in my price range, and search for them on amazon to see which has the most amount of compatible ink manufactured for it. I then buy that printer safe in the knowledge I’ll still be able to buy 3rd party ink for it three years on.

I’m a ‘pro’ photographer and am perfectly happy with 3rd party ink. Any high quality printing I outsource online / to a local print shop… For printing invoices and anything else, which let’s face it, is all you will be printing, what’s wrong with slightly off colour ink? For 1/10th the price. Also, black is black.

I couldn’t imagine spending £40-70 on a set of inks that last realistically 200 pages. What on earth! On my current canon (sorry I forget the name, it was about 80 quid, has high DPI scan and print) I can get 4x sets of full ink (CMYKBK) for about 20 quid.

Having said all this. My next printer will be a colour laser. If they exist in a somewhat reasonable price range yet with a scanner on top. Can’t imagine I’d ever have to change the toner on one of them, in its life span. Used to work with them a lot. They just go and go…

I couldn’t imagine spending £40-70 on a set of inks that last realistically 200 pages.

That’s what the Epson tank system is for or the HP auto subsription one.

Re third party inks, there are some bad ones. My dad bought some, pictures were a total mess, and I’m not just nit picking.

3rd party inks do seem a bit of hit and miss in my experience even when buying from the same source.
Maybe the 3 year warranty is the way to go but I think my printers tend to last 37 months.
The HP subscription is interesting but I’m not sure whether the costs would justify the usage, need to look into costs in more detail.

Anyone had a bad experience of the HP Envy range ?

We now have a colour laser. All the inkjets we had were cheap but the ink dries out as we use it so rarely

Colour laser doesn’t dry out so no risk of that happening. We use it once every couple of months but it’s so useful for those times we do

Laser everytime