Ah BT Tom, a man after my own heart. I had a large A3 Canon photo printer with eight inks I think it was. It had a replacement set of refillable cartridges and I had a set of ink bottles (125ml) and eight hypodermics to fill them with. It was a real swine to get set up for printing what with head cleaning, calibrating and setting ICC profiles for different qualities of photo paper. Happy days until the print head expired and a £400+ printer met its end.

Thanks for the suggestion, a laser printer has its attractions. having looked at this the price of the HP 150nw has shot up to £150+ and it comes with just a starter pack of toner, generic toner supplies are around £100 a set and OEM £160 or so. Combined with which it doesn't have a conventional on board scanner, so sadly and taking cost into account doesn't quite make the grade, but thanks anyway.

Bought a Canon MG5750 when they first came onto the market to replace a long living and excellent Canon printer. Unfortunately the printhead on the MG5750 failed soon after purchase but Currys/PC World simply replaced the printer there and then. That one has been fine but don't want to upset it.

If I replaced it today I would be very tempted by a Canon G650 Ink tank printer. Not cheap initially but the running costs look low when you consider a set of 5 XL cartridges for the MG5750 cost about £70.

But one thing I have found is never buy cheap cartridges. Bought a pair for a HP printer some years ago and it died soon after. The first Canon I had needed a cartridge and the only one I could get locally was a cheap one and yet again the printer died soon after. May be just bad luck but 2 cheap cartridges killing 2 printers seems like a coincidence to me.

Yes, the MG5750 is/was a fine machine. Mine too died with the printhead. When you get the death message popping up on the screen there is no way back. I tried a Youtube video that said how to fix the problem. The guy carried it out into the garden and set it down. The next shot was a large sledgehammer pounding it to pieces. I did manage to clean the printhead out and get it going for a while but it was never the same. it di me well for some years though. I will check out the G650, thanks for the tip.

Indeed - the person who designs a printhead system that doesn't clog up/dry out and can be easily and cheaply repaired (preferably by the owner) will make themselves a large fortune.

I remember back in the day (late 90s) when I was a CAD operative working for THE most stingy boss - we were forced to use both sides of the (manual sheet feed - no rolls) plotter paper for check prints (some were so old they looked and felt like papyrus and got caught in the machine [a complete waste of our time to fix]) and had to empty (rather than just bin and replace) the used toner cartridges into black plastic sacks. Great for the lungs.

Back then a callout for the repair guy cost £150 minimum.

OK, decision made. This morning I bought an Epson XP4155. A multifunction A4 partner with four separate ink cartridges. The printer has both USB and wifi connection and cost £65. Replacement generic cartridges from my preferred supplier are £22.99 a set, and OEMs a surprisingly reasonable £35.69. Nice, hall footprint but not suitable for heavy use.

The tank type machines that would have suited are around the £200 mark, but in view of the propensity for printheads to clog and the potential for abuse this one might receive I decided that I could buy two of there Epson for the price of one tank model.

I had considered a range of machines that I found online but the problem is that stock is very variable and whilst some were suitable, they were not available, eg Canon TS705, and sometimes with no indication of availability. So I toured a few outlets and ended up being this at Tescos.

I am a little sceptical of the ability of Epson printheads to remain unclogged but time will tell and there are possible fixes on Youtube if things go wrong.

I hope it works out well for you - TBH the main reason I shelled out so much for mine was because of the ADF/double-sided photocopier usage, which, at the time, was very important as I was scanning a LOT of old paperwork to pdf as part of a big Spring clean and tidyup.

I probably would've gone for something around your price range had I not needed that specific function and relied on something similar to my old HP unit, just with seperate ink cartridges for each colour. It's a shame that due to the coof-borne logistical and computer chip issues that stock availability and prices are not as they were a couple of years ago.

Let us know how you get on - trying to discern truth from fiction in product and company reviews these days is getting harder and harder, so knowing (to enough of a degree to trust them) the reviewer can make a big difference to know that it's impartial.

Good to know, thank you. I perhaps should have added "... in the hands of my grandchildren" . I too have used generic carts for some years now with no problems at all.

"I am a little sceptical of the ability of Epson printheads to remain unclogged but time will tell and there are possible fixes on Youtube if things go wrong"

Never had an Epson that didn`t clog up, after having 3 workforce aio I gave them up as a bad machine, though some complained if you don`t switch them off they will clog,

but never had that with Canon, at the moment I run an TS9551c which is one of the best I have had, its always on but the ink prices are a lot more than I used to pay at around £60+ a set, but for photos its best to stick to Canon as the cheapos fade very quick, where as the original inks last for years on photo paper

D'Oh!

The pinch rollers problem is a very common fault with heavily-used printers - I remember nigh on 20 years ago at work having to clean those on our HP B&W laser printer quite a bit.

Would you believe it my Canon IP8750 started jamming the paper. It seemed to pull the paper in on one side more than the other and resulting in a jam. Printing off some photos I had to feed the paper in sheet by sheet holding it firmly to get it as square as possible before it disappeared into the innards.

Google and Youtube provided various solutions along the lines of cleaning the rollers. Unfortunately access is very limited and there are very few screws etc enabling disassembly. After hours of frustration trying various fixes I decided I needed to somehow get the plastic outers off to access the rollers. I was turning the printer this way and that and on its side as well trying to pry off one of the covers when I noticed a short pin with a spherical white top lodged in the rear paper input. Just like the ones on my pinboard that is on the wall above this particular printer.

One of the fixes was a suggestion to turn it upside down and give it a shake as paperclips etc can often be dropped inside. That was one fix i didn't try, but it now works perfectly.

I had one for about 2 years and couldn`t fault it, but as its usage dropped, House full of Photos and posters (family into football- Not me though can`t stand it) lol, but did loads of prints for others with it- but as requests died off, didn`t need it so gave it away, still going strong last I see it

But wouldn`t go back to Epson at least Canon are easy to sort problems out with imo...