Are any of the $40 printers any good?

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Peabody

About once every three weeks I need to print something. Mostly just
text, but sometimes a .pdf or .html file. But never any pictures.

Every Sunday in the paper there are fliers from CompUSA, BestBuy and
the various office supplies vendors, and it seems that in each of
these there's one cheap printer offered for about $40-50 after
rebates. Here are the ones from this week and last week:

HP DeskJet 3820 $50
HP DeskJet 3520V $40
Lexmark Z605 $50
Canon i250 $50
Epson C62 $50

Would any of these be good enough for my light-duty needs? As I
said, I won't be doing photos, and it doesn't have to be fast. The
only thing I would absolutely have to have is that the ink won't dry
up when the printer isn't used for extended periods - there will be
many such periods. And I guess I would like to be able to refill
black separately.

I've also begun to see multi-function machines for about $100. Are
any of these any good?
 
Peabody said:
About once every three weeks I need to print something. Mostly just
text, but sometimes a .pdf or .html file. But never any pictures.

HP DeskJet 3820 $50
HP DeskJet 3520V $40
Lexmark Z605 $50
Canon i250 $50
Epson C62 $50

Would any of these be good enough for my light-duty needs?

Yes...any of them would work fine.
As I
said, I won't be doing photos, and it doesn't have to be fast. The
only thing I would absolutely have to have is that the ink won't dry
up when the printer isn't used for extended periods - there will be
many such periods. And I guess I would like to be able to refill
black separately.

Since it will be sitting idle for most of the time, the easiest to clean
is a model that embeds the printhead into the cartridge, like the HP
units. And if the printhead can not be cleaned, you can always get
another cartridge with a new printhead.
I've also begun to see multi-function machines for about $100. Are
any of these any good?

Not as good as individual units, but if your demands are not high, then
give them a look.
 
The Epson C62 is not considered a low end unit. The price is low because it
is discontinued. There is a C42 and I would advise not buying it. The very
low end units are not a value.
 
Seriously, if you only need to print text, why not get a daisy wheel?
They're even cheaper to buy than low end inkjets, and if you get the right
cartrage for them they can be filled with indian ink (No injectors needed,
they're designed that way). The ink won't dry up for at least 5 years. Also,
the print out is incredibly crisp, which you can only get with lasers or
analoges.
 
Actually what you probably want to do is look for a cheap laser. You'll
ultimately spend more in spent cartridges running cleaning cycles than
you'll use to for inking paper.

I presume that color is not mandatory.

I've never cared much for ANY of the multi units. But I do own a Brother
laser multi that works pretty decently. The heart is a 600 DPI laser that
does a nice job as a printer. The scanner / fax are fair. Does nice
copies. The bundled software kind of sucks. But I didn't buy it for
software.

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