Talk to me about printers and scanners...

[Davidhoy]

About to move aboard and go cruising for an indefinite period of time. I want to have the capability to scan and print documents, and am looking either a combo unit, or separate printer and scanner. Any suggestions on something compact and rugged enough to handle being on a boat?

Some desired features:
* Compact size.
* USB or WiFi interface to PC and Mac.
* Readily available printer ink, worldwide.
* DC power input would be a big plus.
* Duplex printing, nice but not essential.
* Duplex scanning, nice but not essential.
* Document feed for scanner, nice not essential
* Speed is not that important

How do you store your printer and supplies to protect them from sea air and other potential harm?

Thanks,
David

[sailormed]

Readily available printer ink, worldwide......
Buy a CISS system on ebay and bring your own bottles. Should last you several years.

[stainless guy]

you dont need a scanner, you can use a tablet or smartphone and this free app called "genius scan" which can save documents in .pdf form. Its all you need unless you are doing a crazy amount of scanning

If you do alot of printing try and find somthing with the eco tanks as they are way cheaper on ink that smaller portable or cheaper inkjets with a bonus that most feature printing counts in the 4-6k pages instead of a couple hundred.

[Argyle38]

I just picked up one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is pretty well reviewed and it's definitely small enough to be tucked out of the way when not in use. Also picked up a car charger for it. 12v is a common enough feature since they are marketed as travel printers. You can also get a battery for it, but didn't get that. Ink is definitely and issue but this is a fairly big volume product, so ink cartrages should be available for a good while.

A scanner would be nice but you really don't need one with modern high resolution camera phones. Just take a pic of your document then save it as a .pdf. If you get the lighting half way decent a picture of the document should be just as good as a scan. A flat bed scanner is logically going to take up a lot of room.

As far as protecting things, I generally use (and re-use as much as possible) those heavy duty zip-loc bags. They sell them in all kinds of different sizes, up to 5 gallon I think, which is pretty big. They do a great job of protecting things from salt air and the odd leak.

[Cpt Mark]

I bought the newest HP 3652 because of it's size. Copies, scans, prints. What I don't like is that the ink cartridges seem to go bad really fast. Original ones dried up or whatever long before they were done and the replacements still have lots of ink but the print quality is horrible. A lot of missing or blurred info. 1st HP printer I've ever had that is bad.

[Checkswrecks]

Inkjet printers go bad too fast and need new ink like drug addicts. They are expendable. If you don't use them enough the cartridges plug up and the manufacturers caught on to the lost sales by people who refill their own cartridges, so newer printers have a chip in the cartridge to know which are not OEM. The only upside is how inexpensive small printers are.

I too gave up on using the printer to scan and was fed up with expendable printers constantly needing cartridges. I use my phone to scan (set it to gray scale for paperwork) and bought a Brother 2360 black and white laser printer. The cartridges last forever and the cost is less per page than inkjet when the inkjet is working right. Watch for the Brother on sale and you'll find it in the $80 range.

https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/artic...which_better_/

https://www.staples.com/Brother-HL-L...xoCSh8QAvD_BwE

[Valmika]

Originally Posted by Cpt Mark

I bought the newest HP 3652 because of it's size. Copies, scans, prints. What I don't like is that the ink cartridges seem to go bad really fast. Original ones dried up or whatever long before they were done and the replacements still have lots of ink but the print quality is horrible. A lot of missing or blurred info. 1st HP printer I've ever had that is bad.

This would be my concern. Does anybody have real world experience with an inkjet that doesn't dry up when not used for a while? Is it possible to keep it alive by printing one page a day, week, month, etc?

[Cheechako]

I went through a few Canon tiny printers and they were terrible. Expensive ink, always not working, new printer head half the cost of the printer... etc.
Size is an issue and I dont know who makes small printers now, but I have been using "all in one" Brother printers for maybe 8 years now. $69 new.
Scans great, copies great, prints great, no breakdowns, no ink issues, no clogging, no printer head issues. Ink is the cheap BC61 type... less than $1 each.

They are not that big, but maybe too big. (15 x 15 x 6.5)
HP etc sell you a printer and get rich off the ink. Maybe laser is better on a boat.

[anacapaisland42]

Trouble is that lasers are big gas guzzlers when they start up and also some require pure sine wave input
Bill

Originally Posted by Checkswrecks

Inkjet printers go bad too fast and need new ink like drug addicts. They are expendable. If you don't use them enough the cartridges plug up and the manufacturers caught on to the lost sales by people who refill their own cartridges, so newer printers have a chip in the cartridge to know which are not OEM. The only upside is how inexpensive small printers are.

I too gave up on using the printer to scan and was fed up with expendable printers constantly needing cartridges. I use my phone to scan (set it to gray scale for paperwork) and bought a Brother 2360 black and white laser printer. The cartridges last forever and the cost is less per page than inkjet when the inkjet is working right. Watch for the Brother on sale and you'll find it in the $80 range.

https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/artic...which_better_/

https://www.staples.com/Brother-HL-L...xoCSh8QAvD_BwE

[roland stockham]

You definatly need to look at paper storage. Printers hate even slightly damp paper. Very few standard lockers are dry enough. The way to ensure cartilages don't dry out is to do a couple of prints a weeks. Even if this is wasted it saves more by avoiding dead cartridges. Generally office type printers with bigger cartredges work out cheaper on ink. Anything that does photos is much more expensive but it depends what you want to print and how much space you have.

[ebs001]

Found a compact HP printer at Walmart for $40 Canadian which uses regular HP ink cartridges. Walmart also has two Canon models which are wireless which can be handy.

[Adelie]

Laser printer. It’s a little more expensive but inkjet smears in high humidity.

[Jammer]

I too am following this with interest.


Some years ago we used thermal transfer printers at work with good results. They are portable and more reliable than ink jet. I took a look and the only ones on the market today seem to be label printers that print on a 4" wide roll.


One alternative is the Brother PocketJet series of printers. They are direct thermal, so they need special paper. But the advantage is that's all they need, no ink, no toner. Small device, less prone to jamming than sheet feed devices, designed for vehicle mounting, has its own battery or runs on 12v.


They are monochrome but would be good enough for the sort of ephemeral uses like printing out part of a chart, or a shopping list, or a map. And probably good enough for printing boarding passes or customs forms.

[Mithril Bham]

Went through the process for years and finally gave up. Use phone or tablet to scan. If you really need to print then get file to local shop for cheap printing or just read it on screen. These days I print out a few hard copies a year. Go digital. Saves a lot of hassle and a tree or two. Make good backup of files.

[ohgary]

I would not recommend and inkjet, Go with a laser printer, Consumables dont go bad if not used. The only issue with laser printers on a boat is you need to be carefull how your store the printer. It must be vertical or the toner must be removed and stored in a seal bag before stowing the printer.

As for a scanner, YOu can use a phone/tablet or get one of the small handheld scanners.
Unless your going to be scanning lots of different papers on a regular basis a combo scanner /printer is going to increase the size of the printer.