Hi all,

My trusty HP DeskJet 5850 appears to have died, firing the carriage fast all over the place and making a noise in general, can't seem to fix. It's been a trusty workhorse for 8.5 years!

I've read a load of reviewed recently of HP and Canon printers, and nothing seems to be built to last like the older models, I need a decent reliable network aware (the 5850 is connected via Ethernet) inkjet which is PC and Mac compat, prints good colour and excellent black for office and some photos. It's not going to get hammered as time goes on, we print a lot less nowadays. Oh, and I'd like it to last 5-10 years! I've also got a small colour laser in the office which is on the way out, so that is also going, and unlikely to be replaced.

Had shortlisted the Canon Pixma iP4950 and the HP Officejet Pro 8000, both get good reviews in the press, but lots of bad user reviews from Amazon and other sites.

Any recommendations from owners?

I've no experience of the exact models you've mentioned, but personally for the office I would choose HP, and at home Canon, due to costs etc. Might be different now of course...

In recent years any Canon and HP printers I've seen have been dodgy in every way you can imagine, though I've personally had luck with Epson. Make of that what you will!

Inkjet will only dry out and need lots of cleaning, especially if you only intend to use it occasionally. Colour laser would be a much better investment in my book.

Possibly, but bear in mind the consumables in colour lasers are so ludicrously expensive that them running out is effectively good enough to write off the printer. I've got a (pretty old, admittedly) HP colour laserjet and the consumable replacement is about £350. Which is more than I paid for it when I bought it, let alone how much colour lasers cost now. The consumables tend to last 5000 or 10000 pages, so it would be worth working out how long it's going to take you to go through that many pages.

Also, they simply don't print photos as well as inkjets do. They're not bad, but the photos I print from my Canon inkjet are better than the same on the HP.

I think it depends what you're printing. if you're mostly printing documents, I'd go with a laser. If you're mostly printing photos I think an inkjet would still be a better option.

I hear what you're saying about colour laser consumables but the situation isn't really significantly different for inkjets these days. If you count up the number of inkjet carts you need to match the longevity of the equivalent colour laser parts you'll have well exceeded the cost of the inkjet and quite probably with only one or two complete sets of new inks. Particularly at the lower end of the inkjet market the printer is essentially free if you consider the cost of the cartridges that come with it.

I've got a Konica MInolta Magicolor 2450 that I bought a good 6 - 7 years ago and I'm still going through the cartridges that came with it when new (I don't print that much so an inject would have just dried out repeatedly and cost me a bomb in ink).
Granted it can't match a decent inkjet print for photos but the output is certainly passable and doesn't require special paper to achieve either.
If I was replacing my printer I'd go for another colour laser but I'd try to steer clear of the bottom end of the market as they are built down to the price and it really shows, even on premium brands like HP.

Interesting tip for those with an artistic bent. You need an inkjet for this to work. Print out your picture and let it dry. Then get a paint brush and some water and paint the water over the picture. If you do this carefully, you can end up with a watercolour like effect.

I've left a Canon Pixma inkjet unused for 12 and 18 months before. It's worked first time for photos without cleaning and the results have been as good as new.

I posted yesterday, but the post disappeared...

My boss bought the Brother A3 multi function device. He is very impressed with it, and ink is cheap. He is normally totally intolerant of even small problems with a device. So him being enthusiastic is a very good recommendation.

I print so rarely, the ink used to have dried up each time I tired.
I bought my first laser in 1999 and have never looked back.

With my HPs, I used to print a couple of pages every 6 months or so and I never had problems with dried ink.

I've never had a problem with dried ink either, I've got a HP DJ 5850, and currently we print only a handful of pages a month on it (because I'm using pro labs for photography now), it's only because it's now died that I need to replace. I've always had Deskjets, apart from one dalliance with an Epson years ago which made so much fuss to "charge the cartridges" and suffered from blocked nozzles I've never wanted another.

I'd be happy to stick to HP, as this is the only failure I've had, but some of the customer reviews are pretty scathing (of recent models), so am considering the Canons, but many people say they are programmed to run out of ink long before empty, and some (apparently) take ages to turn on. However it would be nice to print quality photos occasionally, but 75% is always going to be documents from Mac or PC.

I've also got a Konica MInolta Magicolor 2350 which I brought specifically for a project, and is bared used, it still has it's original set of cartridges, although the black is nearly empty (if fact it'll probably end up on eBay soon as it's just taking up space) As it's a small office, I don't like the smell of ozone from it when printing (I assume that's what the odd smell is), so if I did ever replace, it be with an Oki LED type.

The problems you mention with the HPs and Canons I can personally vouch for - I had a Canon that I actually drove a crowbar through. Most diseased electronic device I've ever had the misfortune to buy.

Reading a lot of similar reports! What printer are you using now?

A cheap and nasty Epson 3-in-1 that's pretty slow in every sense, but that doesn't matter since it's used about twice a year and the ink carts are separates and dirt cheap. Printer cost something like £25 delivered so I knew what I was getting! The quality's pretty good too for something that cheap.