I currently have a Dell 922 all in one printer. I enjoy it but replacement of the of the ink cartridges are probably more high-priced than the cost of a newer printer. We live in a rural area and can't get to a Cartridge World, etc. within the time period required for refills of Dell cartridges, about 24 hours.
Any recommendations of a quality all in one printer I should seriously consider would be appreciated!
Answer:
I sincerely doubt you’re going to benefit by purchasing a new printer that has very low price of cartridges that are significantly cheaper than the rest. I would suggest sticking with what you have, and doing what I do for ink–go on amazon.com, type in your all-in-one, and look for x-compatible cartridges. I purchase compatible cartridges for my HP laserjet 1018 for 26 bucks (including shipping); HP wants me to pay 70 for the OEM cartridges. You might find similar savings that way.
Answer:
Look at the Epson Workforce or NX series. If you can find a CX7400, 7450, 8400 they're also great but do not buy a used or refurbished one. It's not worth the savings, particularly if there's a problem since you won't get the same warranty.
As someone who was in the personal hardware business for years (though I rarely sold printers since I couldn't compete with the crazy rebates) I have always recommended Epson. The print quality is excellent, even on plain paper. I’ve pics I printed on a 640 about ten years ago hanging in my office which still look good, though not as good as the ones from the CX8400 on glossy paper. The warranty is excellent. For a year, Epson will express-ship a replacement and pick up the old one. I had one customer who needed this. He called one afternoon and had the replacement two days later. Another client purchased a Canon. It needed two fixes within a few months. Each time it was taken to the repair center, then picked up a few days later. This client runs a specialty printing business and this really injured. They have since bought an Epson and have had no down time since.
Epson has also made things easier for their customers by standardizing their cartridges. Most of their printers use one of two types. The three-color plus black use T069 (CX5000 CX6000 CX7000 CX7400 CX7450 CX8400 CX9400FAX CX9475Fax NX100 NX105 NX400 Workforce 30/40/500/600 and C120) and the 5-color plus black use T078 (R260 R280 R380 RX580 RX595 and RX680). This means you should be able to find a lot of people who use the same cartridges you do. When it's time to replace the printer, the next model will probably also use the same ones.
The biggest complaint about all inkjets is the high cost of ink cartridges. http://ccs-digital.com has cartridges for about $4.50 each. They also have a one-of-a-kind product - a two-piece cartridge where the ink is in a separate tank inside the cartridge. When the ink runs out, you replace just the ink tank and the original chip resets itself to full. By keeping the same chip, you save 1.50 per cartridge. Ink tanks are only $3 and hold 50% more ink than disposable cartridges.