Printer/Scanner - Which One?

[robgrant1]

An addendum: As we all know printers are like razors; They take the approach of death by a thousand cuts. I buy my cartridges from LD Products (https://www.ldproducts.com); just ignore the messages from your printer that they're not compatible.

[CaptTom]

One point worth considering is ability to scan. Keeps the paper clutter to a minimum aboard, and once something's digitized, it's easy to back it up, keep it on a phone or tablet, and generally have it available.

All my manuals are now digital, either scanned or downloaded, and they're all on my phone, so no matter where I am on board, I have everything I need.

[kelbylinn]

Originally Posted by tmoandj

What about the power supply? Are you running these off of inverters or do most of them actually run on a more suitable voltage like the computers themselves?

Through Inverters and if at anchor we have the generator running as needed. No problems showing regarding voltage.

[billgewater]

Have you considered a toner cartridge black only laser printer. My experience with colour printers has been mainly bad, with very expensive cartridges and ink clogging. I now have a Brother laser printer and for colour (mainly photos) I take a memory stick to the local supermarket with colour printing facilities. Their colour printing is top photographic quality and also much cheaper than using your own ink to produce poor quality colour prints.
Brother laser printers are available in print only or with the usual top lid style copying plate facility and yes, they are generally a bit larger than some of the ink jet printers. A typical black toner cartridge will allow for up to 1200 A4 copies and although more expensive than ink cartridges are financially and physically a much better option.
Keep your important colour stuff on an SD card or other memory device or "cloud" them.
The laser printers are also generally much faster. Important if you are sending out invites or writing your break through best seller novel.
I also have a dedicated scanner which runs off the powered USB port on the laptop, so it is usable at sea or at mooring The laser printer requires 240 VAC.
The scanner, being flat, stows well, but not the printer. It works well for us.

[sailormed]

For toner, search on ebay for your model printer and the word CIS or CISS for continuous ink supply sytem. For $60 you get enough ink to print for 2 years. The installation is easy, but put on some gloves or your fingers are permanently tinted black blue yellow and red :-)


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[belizesailor]

OP: Do you print a lot?

If not, why bother with a printer?

I just take my USB stick into the nearest internet/print shop to print the occassional document, but only if I absolutely must have physical paper for some bureaucrat. Such shops are these days available in some surprisingly remote spots...almost anywhere there are people.

For scanning just a page or two, there is a great app named Genius Scan. I run it on my phone (Android). It auto corrects skew etc (due to a hand held phone) and produces surprisingly good scans.

Printing is the work of the Devil...go all digital when possible.

[J Clark H356]

I have an HP 8600, just died after two years. Will replace this spring with another 8600 series HP. It's kind of large, but I do a lot of work from the boat. It scans and prints wirelessly and works with Apple products. I run through these printers about every two years. This one went to Florida and back to Kentucky Lake and I purchased it in the fall of 2013.

I run a generator while away from the dock so always have good AC power. I scan a lot of documents and it is a good scanner. I have the same model at home so the printer divers are the same. Home one, also two years old has a very weak LED display, so this spring will replace them both at the same time with identical models.




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[Glen Ballou]

We have had a cannon on the boat for 4 years, always works, recommend it.