Very confusing mixed reviews on wireless printers

8 Feb 13
I've been searching the web for days trying to find a decent wireless printer to use with my I Mac and I Pad.

Time and again I see reviews that list various printers as wonderful and then when you check a bit further perhaps on another site, that exact same printer is listed as the printer from ****.

Some reviewers claim that H.P. is designed to work with the Mac but other printers are not. However a lot of folks claim that H.P. has gone downhill and eats ink faster than the national debt. They also claim that H.P. customer service is dismal at best.

I went to the local Office Max store and was shown a H.P. color Officejet 6600 that would do everything I wanted. I then went to the local MacMedia store and was shown a H.P. 3510 (that he just happened to have in stock ??) and he said that this was just what I needed.

That being said I decided to check each of these printers on line to see what customers had to say about them.
Wow! The customer reviews @ Amazon were terrible for each of these printers. Eats ink, hard to get to work wirelessly, bad customer service, etc..
So much for the local recommendations.

Yesterday I read reviews that said the Brother printers were causing electrical circuit breakers to trip because of the high current draw when used. That's scary..

So here I am. If a Mac forum can't answer these questions, then I guess no one can.

I am looking for a Wireless printer mostly for text. Maybe 100 pages per month max. I would like it to be able to print in a draft mode to save ink. I do not print photos and really don't need color renditions of web pages. Multifunction would be a plus. Fax/Copy/Scan but that's not at the top of my needs list.

I am willing to consider a laser printer using toner as opposed to an ink jet that uses costly cartridges.

My budget is in the $200.00 range but if the printer is really good, I may go a bit higher and save in the long run on not buying those darn costly ink cartridges..

I suppose that if I found a really good printer that required a wire from my I Mac to the printer, I could live with it. However as you know, that's not possible with an I Pad, so how do I get around that? I did not want to have to send myself e. mails to be able to print from the I Pad.

I'm really open to suggestions and I have not found anything on the forum that specifically addresses my questions exactly this way. I know that posts exist about which printer to buy but many are out of date.

So thank you in advance for any thought you may have.

Keats1

I have a HP 6700 with Wireless that works just fine with my iPhone and Mac's. I access it on my home network wirelessly since my Airport Extreme's ports are all taken up by other things. I think we paid something like $140 for it this past Fall 2012.

Thanks

Thank you for the reply. I just checked this printer ( HP6700 ) on Amazon and it had some 5 star reviews. 27 in fact out of 74 total. However it had 28 1 star reviews.
I'm guessing that you got a good one. I'm glad to hear that.
Some of the reviews were glowing. No problems at all and worked great.

I do appreciate the suggestion and I'll keep an open mind.

Thanks again,

Keats1

I just set up an HP Photosmart 7520 ($200) for my parents and it was a breeze. within moments of turning it on, it was connected to their wireless and I was able to show them how to print from any device including iPhones, iPad, WinXP, Win7.

besides, I have seen enough favorable reviews of that printer that were not people who just could not get it working because they are not able to read the simple directions. Most bad reviews come from people who either tried to kludge their way through the setup and messed up, or they didnt research what they needed in the first place and bought the wrong thing.

Most bad reviews come from people who either tried to kludge their way through the setup and messed up, or they didnt research what they needed in the first place and bought the wrong thing.

Click to expand...

Worth repeating. Good advice from member Deckyon.

FWIW
I tend to go with Brother Laser Printers. Have had good service from all of them.

RavingMac said:

FWIW
I tend to go with Brother Laser Printers. Have had good service from all of them.

Click to expand...

Have you had any problems with your electrical circuits? I read a few reviews that said the Brother caused a 15 amp circuit to trip because it draws about 12 amps when it starts to print. Some said that it caused their lights to dim briefly. Either way, that's not good.

I met with a Canon Rep tonight at the electronics store and she recommended the Canon MF4770n or the wireless MF4770DW laser printer. I've got to check them out to see how they rate.

Thanks for the imput.

Keats1

I have a Canon MG 5220 and it works great on my IMac with ML.

Reviews are great. I research them assiduously when I purchase items, but I would be careful in putting too much stock in outlying negative reviews.
I have my upstairs workstation plugged into a single 15 amp circuit through an UPS surge protector. The setup includes:

24 in Viewsonic Monitor
Mac Mini
2 TB Time Capsule
Brother Laser Printer
Epson Flatbed Scanner
Fujitsu Page Scanner (S1500M)
D-Link DNS323 NAS
WD 1TB HD
Seagate 500GB FireWire HD
WD 250 GB HD

I have zero start up issues and circuit overload problems.

Keats1 said:

Have you had any problems with your electrical circuits? I read a few reviews that said the Brother caused a 15 amp circuit to trip because it draws about 12 amps when it starts to print. Some said that it caused their lights to dim briefly. Either way, that's not good.

I met with a Canon Rep tonight at the electronics store and she recommended the Canon MF4770n or the wireless MF4770DW laser printer. I've got to check them out to see how they rate.

Thanks for the imput.

Keats1

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Mate, in all honesty I just can't see that being the case. That printer would be consuming the equivalent of about 1 and a half bars on an electric fire!

It depends what voltage your supply is but if that's drawing 12 amps of current and you're on 120V for example in North America and watts = amps x volts then your printer would have a power consumption of 1440 watts which is incredible for a jobbing domestic printer and would break all the carbon footprint and energy rating regs known to man for such a device.

There are some ratings here (in UK figures granted) so you can get an idea of where you should be.

Best Laser Printers for electricity usage

I just repeated the concerns of the people @ Amazon about the electrical draw. I do not have one of these printers and have not experienced this problem myself.
I do know that a typical residential electrical plan uses 15 amp breakers for most rooms. Kitchens, laundry, workshop etc. most likely have a 20 amp breaker maybe a bit higher. However most home offices are really just a bedroom converted to an office and will have the typical 15 amp service.
I do not have any knowledge of electrical service in Europe. I'm certain it's different than U.S. electrical service.
I do appreciate all of the imput from everyone. I believe it's better to ask around first and to learn as much as possible before making a purchase than to complain after the purchase is made and someone will ask, "Why didn't you ask me first?" . So thanks again to everyone.
Keats1