10 posts shown.
darkowl72 said:Look for a reliable seller, someone who actually handles returns and has high feedback ratings—anything over 95% should be the goal.
If they can't give you a straight answer about what kind of warranty comes with stuff from Amazon, then they aren't serious... IMHO...
I'm not so sure about that. Not everything there is even worth it; for a lot of gear, the price difference is so tiny it’s hardly worth the risk. Plus, they're a bit further away than our local shops here in New York. 😬 And honestly, I haven't noticed any of our local stores going out of business just because Amazon exists. .zubo:
darkowl72 said:@Samuel Peterson41/">@@Samuel Peterson41:
I used to lean toward Epson over Canon, but I can't quite put my finger on why. Something about how they're built or maybe the print heads... there’s definitely a reason. Honestly, I didn't know much either, so I just grabbed a Canon MG5550. It's been awesome for me—even rigged up a CISS on it—but then someone brought up those specific points about Canon later on...
Amazon, yeah, people order stuff all the time and get it without issues. I haven't heard any horror stories. When they ship to the States, they still have to honor the warranty (supposedly), but you can easily look that up. Just keep in mind that anything you grab from Amazon (or basically any foreign retailer) isn't going to come localized for the US...
darkowl72 said:The scanners built into those all-in-one units are perfectly fine for personal stuff. You know, printing, uploading to the web, making digital albums... that kind of thing. The only real issue is how cheaply they're built. I mean, think about the materials used when you're getting both a color printer and a scanner for maybe $60 😬 Sure, if you're doing moderate scanning—like a few scans a day or maybe a couple dozen at most—they'll hold up. But once they break, they break hard. It’s usually the lamp or the feeder mechanism, and by then, a repair costs more than just buying a whole new unit.
Standalone scanners, unlike those multi-function printers, are generally built much tougher. They can handle a higher volume and won't die quite as easily. Personally, I'd stick with a brand that actually has some history and R&D behind them... something where the build quality is high enough that you don't deal with trivial junk like cheap plastic warping from the heat during heavy use, which ends up jamming the feeder or whatever else...
If you decide to go the standalone route and want to see what's actually worth buying, check out the links in this post.
But honestly, for home use and low-volume scanning, I think it's smarter to just grab an all-in-one. Just don't try to scan a mountain of stuff all at once; do it bit by bit. Either way, look for something with a solid warranty. That way, if it dies, you might at least still have a working printer, hopefully 😬 Because with these things, if the printer side fails—like a print head or a roller goes—the scanner often becomes a paperweight too, even if it was working fine before. If it's the other way around, it probably doesn't matter as much, but I haven't really run into that...
And if you're planning on printing a lot, CISS (continuous ink supply system) is the way to go. Check which printers have affordable CISS options available first, then pick your machine based on that.