Printer recommendations

[Holly_Hobby]

I bought a HP 4500 all in one about a year and a half ago. I seldom use it, I've printed less than 100 pages. I tried to make copies on it yesterday, which always worked fine, but I kept getting blank pages. The color copies work, with the exception of anything that's black on the page.

So I spent most of yesterday on the HP support forum and followed instructions - test page, aligning the cartridges, installing new cartridges ($40), factory reset, new paper ($5), cleaning cartridges, cleaning contacts, etc. etc. etc. It still won't copy. The support articles says to take it in for service. I called my normal computer guy and he said it would be around $70 to look at it, with the part he thinks is defective. So I'm just going to buy a new one. I don't need a fax.

Can anyone recommend a printer that also copies for around $150 that will last for longer than a year and a half? TIA

[canoeist52]

1. I usually buy Epson printers for the waterproof ink.

I wonder if it's lack of use that dries up the ink dispersing mechanism. When the kids lived with us we used ours daily and the printers seemed to last longer.

Printers are considered disposable now and don't last more than a few years now so we buy the ones we can afford.

[Holly_Hobby]

2. Thanks for the tip,

waterproof ink would be awesome. I've found that the HP ink fades over time.