Thread by @wirecutter

Yep. A few years ago, we said that all printers suck.

In 2021, we're still saying that. Instead of finding the "best" printer, it comes more down to finding the "least-terrible" printer.

So here's a mini-thread on why all printers suck:

https://twitter.com/originalphb/status/1360347388913864711

Like most things in life that you have no control over, you’ll be happier if you accept printers for the janky money pits that they really are.

Most of you are going to hate something about any printer that you buy, & there’s nothing you can do about it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Instead of fighting it, try to reframe the issue in your mind:

You’re not buying a printer because you’re supposed to have one at home.

You’re buying a printer because it’s (just barely) less inconvenient than going to a copy center.

Common pain points for anyone buying a home printer:

• Ink/toner costs
• the feeling that ink/toner constantly needs to be replaced & always seems to run out at the worst times
• networking that never seems to connect correctly

(cont 👇)

•drivers that go out of date, never to be refreshed, & seem to disappear whenever you update your computer’s OS

•cryptic interfaces that make it near impossible to troubleshoot w/o the help of customer support

•unhelpful customer support, making it impossible to troubleshoot

Unfortunately, we can’t solve all of these problems.

But our years of experience covering these apparent boxes of junk give us a better understanding of why they exist.

⚖️ Here are some other general truths that you may have never considered (or willingly ignore when you feel like throwing a tantrum about your printer).

Assume that these apply to all printers from all manufacturers unless we say otherwise:

1️⃣ Your printer is worth a lot more than you’re paying for it.

Seriously, there is some amazingly complicated tech in a printer (printheads, ink, mapping software, etc). That box can cover a piece of paper in millions of dots of precisely located, color-matched ink in seconds.

You’re probably buying the printer for the cost of parts & distribution, which means:

The manufacturer is effectively subsidizing the thing on the premise that they’ll recoup their research & development costs (& the rest of their overhead) from your ink purchases.

2️⃣ You should not expect a good experience if you use knockoff ink cartridges.

See above. Part of R&D is designing ink to have the right physical properties to work with the printheads. Knockoff ink might not have those properties, and, as a result, may not work very well.

Also, most inkjet printers designed for home use actually have the printhead built into the cartridge itself

There's no permanent printhead in most cheap printers So you might be buying crap ink & a crap printhead.

3️⃣Back to the subsidy thing

We’ve read that some manufacturers purposely design printers to basically shut down if you try to use 3rd party cartridges

It sucks, but from their view, they’re protecting their investment in "ink futures," which subsidizes their dirt-cheap hardware

4️⃣Knockoff toner cartridges, on the other hand, are okay!

Toner is just an electrostatically charged powder (part polymer, part carbon), & the cartridge itself is just a simple plastic container. There are no fancy printheads or circuitry.

Manufacturers don’t fight as hard to protect toner cartridges because there’s not a lot of intellectual property in these things.

However, they tend to charge a higher markup on the printers themselves to make up for the cheaper toner costs.

5️⃣If an ink cartridge is missing, you shouldn’t expect your printer to print, & it may not even scan

Some models may do either or both, many will not

Yeah, it feels like a shakedown when they employ this stand-&-deliver style of ink mgmt, but it’s not uncommon in the industry

6️⃣If your home network is more complex than just a modem + router + PC, there’s a reasonable chance you’ll run into connectivity problems

There’s not a good reason for this, but the state of networking in the printer industry is abysmal.

A printer that works well in one network might need five hours of troubleshooting in another.

Unfortunately, this means we can’t say for certain that any given printer will definitely work well on your home network.

7️⃣Lastly, at some point you’ll need to manually download new drivers for your printer when updating your operating system.

Yeah, this should happen automatically, but it usually doesn’t.

Some companies are better than others at issuing new drivers in a timely manner.

In our experience, Brother is very diligent and Canon is the most likely to leave behind printers that are more than a couple of years old.

Basically, printers are a dismal product category.

But doesn’t it feel better to know why?

But with a few advances, printer makers *have* inspired some guarded hope for the future 👇

1️⃣They’ve developed cost-saving ink-subscription services that take the pain out of keeping printers topped up (& keep a steady stream of $ flowing into manufacturers’ pockets)

They’ve also introduced more models w/ large ink reservoirs that don’t need to be refilled as often

2️⃣Wireless connections can still be flaky, but they’re getting better.

HP & Canon have finally adopted 5 GHz Wi-Fi, & HP is advertising “self-healing” wireless connections, meaning the printers detect connection issues & try to auto-resolve them or provide guided troubleshooting

And mobile printing apps are improving all the time, reflecting smartphones’ increasing dominance over PCs.

3️⃣Despite ongoing quality concerns, all-in-one printers remain popular bc they’re a one-stop shop for home document production needs

A midrange inkjet AIO makes a lot of sense for anyone who prints/copies daily, scans docs from time to time, & maybe even needs to fax on occasion

🥇🥈🥉WITH ALL THAT IN MIND:

We realize you still need to use printers now & then, & thus we still spend dozens of hours researching & testing in order to make a few recommendations for printers that rise above the (admittedly low) bar:

💸If you just need something to put words on paper, then simpler is better. You want a cheap laser printer.

It costs <2¢ per page to operate & take care of any black-and-white printing you need. Because it’s a laser printer, it uses toner instead of ink, which has two benefits:

• The toner cartridge will never dry out no matter how infrequently you print

&

• You can safely use cheaper, 3rd-party toner if you want to save $.

However, bc it prints in black-and-white only, you’ll still have to make a trip to the copy center for color prints.

But for most people, that’s still preferable to being unable to print your black-and-white tax returns because your cyan cartridge dried up.

Here are the laser printers we recommend:

wrctr.co/3deFskN

💪If you need more out of a printer, look into getting an all-in-one inkjet printer.

They're best suited for home offices that sometimes use color printing, scanning, copying, or faxing, but don’t require any particular one of these tasks on a daily basis (CPAs need not apply).

Like the cheap laser printer, an all-in-one inkjet printer is also affordable up front & cheap to operate (expect 2¢ to 4¢ per page for black-and-white, 7¢ to 10¢ per page for color).

However, unlike a laser printer, you have to use the ink regularly or lose it, though these printers automatically perform periodic purges to keep their nozzles clean and ready to print.

Here are the all-in-one printers we recommend: wrctr.co/379kY8V

Those two printer types should cover most home users, but here's our guide to home printers for some more nuanced needs: wrctr.co/2LOwIXa

If you don't like any of those, just be sure to read user reviews of any printer you consider.

User reviews considered in the aggregate alert you to trends in long-term reliability, & individual reviews can reveal little details that pro reviews sometimes overlook.

If all else fails, there’s always the local copy center.