Terminally bewildered

Joined
Jan 17, 2021
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I have been looking at printer reviews and they invariably bellow about stuff I am not interested in and don't want - printer reviews are designed for people that want to print and not for people that don't want to print - much!

The best printer I have owned I took out of a rubbish skip. It was an ancient HP; noisy and slow inkjet but incredibly reliable. It could stand idle in the corner of the workshop for months and then blow the dust off it and it would immediately spring into life and print perfectly straight away and the cartridges were easy to refill.
The second best printer was another freeby. This was a Sharp mono laser, a great little printer except no later driver was available than Windows 95.

My last printer was dropped on the floor during a move - HP Deskjet CX 971. A good printer but didn't like standing idle and needed fiddling with before it would get going and then it wouldn't tolerate being interrupted - that would really put it in a bad mood that lasted at least a day.

I am looking for recommendations for a new printer - I want basic non-temperamental both side printing with easy fill cartridges that don't need resetting. The printer will stand idle for long periods and needs to start on the button and be able to work with only the black ink or all the ink installed. A scanner could be useful but I neither want or need wireless or any other non-essential complications. Does any manufacturer still make a basic printer?
 
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