Advice on purchasing a printer

[WiniGar]

Hi, I'm new to the forum so I hope my question follows the guidelines of this forum.
I have no knowledge about printers but I've been interested in buying one for a while and I need advice on models that would suit me. I'm basically looking for the following printer: I need a small and compact monochrome printer for home use. I don't need the printer to come with a build in scanner or additional devices. The printer doesn't have to print fast (I think it's referred to as pages per minute but I'm not sure). The printer is expected to only print black and white text and nothing else. I do not intend on printing a lot of pages every month (I will only use it occasionally). I do insist however on the printer having a wireless connection like WiFi or Bluetooth. And I do want a printer that can be refilled without spending too much money. I don't mind spending a hefty some of money on a refill if it's going to last me for a long time, but from a cursory reading I did it seems the business model today of most printer companies is to sell the printer cheap and make money of selling the refills. While I don't intend on using the printer that much, there might come a day where I'll want to print papers for my studies or some other unexpected thing. My price range is up to 350 USD but I'd prefer something cheaper than 300 USD. I mostly care about the printer being compact, wireless and cheap (per page) to refill.
I hope my question makes sense. I hope someone can help me.
Have a great day everybody!

 

[cfg83]

Hi WiniGar -

I am new to the forum but I can tell you my experience with this printer at $200 :

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/mfcj995dw

Their business model is to sell you a decent printer with higher up front costs but lower running costs. This was the deciding factor for me. After about a year I have not bought new ink for it. In fact, the lower running costs have led me to print *more* pages then I normally would.

The claim to this point is that it won't cost much to replace the ink. It looks like $64 for all four colors with an estimated 1500 page yield :

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/lc30333pks

Regarding black and white only, the cartridges are separate, so you could end up replacing the black ink only over time. I think that being strictly black and white implies a laser printer, but that would also drive up the run costs.

This printer does come with a scanner that doubles for copying.

Now onto the bad news. We got ours at Best Buy. From what I can tell, the model we bought is out of stock, so I suspect that finding it will be difficult.

If this sounds like a good fit for you, then do more research on this printer and see if it fits your needs.

Good luck,

cfg83