Electronic machines are more like relationships. You don't keep in touch with it, you can't make it survive. To make your electronic devices work, you need to use it more and more.
The same goes for your printer, though. You'll have the ink dried out soon if it stays unused. But then again, if you have the best printers for infrequent use, that can change the game.
These printers, unlike the regular ones, don't face much of a problem when it comes to functionality, even if you don't use them pretty often. Plus, the ink stays good as new for a long time.
Want to get your hands on the perfect printers? We're reviewing the top 10.
Top 10 Best Printers for Infrequent Use
We don't want you to be disappointed in the slightest while printing. That's why we tried to gain exact knowledge of each product before tagging them in this review.
How they print, connect, how the ink system works, or whatever they lack, we've pulled out all the stops regarding their quality and performance just to ensure you get everything you need. So, just jump straight to the reviews and take your pick right away.
1. Canon PIXMA TR4520 Wireless All in One Photo Printer
What can be the best printers for infrequent use? You can get your hands on the Canon Pixma TR4520. Amazing printing quality, versatile functionality, you name it, this beast right here has got everything to be in your priority list.
There's no point in using fingers to monitor over the printer's overall condition when you have such a beautiful voice. This printer allows voice-activated printing. All you need to do is use an Amazon Alexa App.
Thus, you'll be notified about the printer's overall condition, such as printing lists, ink levels, templates at ease.
Apart from that, it has built-in Wi-Fi to give you wireless control for printing. Just connect your smartphones or computer with your printer and print some documents while you're taking a chill-pill.
Plus, it comes with a front paper tray with 100-sheets plain paper holding capacity from 4 x 6 to 8.5 x 14-inches. Otherwise, you can either place 5×7-inches 10 sheets or 4×6-inches 20 sheets photo paper in the tray.
Moreover, it'll cut costs on paper by doing two-sided printing at once with its duplex-printing feature. Not only that, whether you're printing graphics, photos, or documents, it's going to print with a maximum resolution of 4800×1200-dpi. Thus, every photo will present accurate colors and details.
Besides, the printing speed is quite impressive as black prints at 8.8 IPM and color prints at 4.4 IPM. Also, it takes 27 seconds to copy a color page.
However, you'll be provided with a wide range of copy functions, including reduction/enlargement (25-400%), two-sided copy, borderless copy, and many more.
Canon PIXMA TR4520 is capable of scanning with its automatic document feeder at 1200-dpi. The flatbed scanner, on the other hand, scans at 600-dpi.
And with its fax speeding up to 33.6 Kb/s, it takes 60 seconds to fax color pages and 3 seconds for black pages.
2. HP OfficeJet 3830 All-in-One Wireless Printer
What's spinning inside of your head? Oh! Which can be the best type of printer for infrequent use? Check out the HP OfficeJet 3830 printer to keep your mind stress-free and concentrate on important works.
Coming with a very useful 35-sheet ADF, it has a paper input tray of 60-sheet to handle normal media type. And since you are going to use this on an irregular basis, its decent paper handling capacity will get the job done.
On top of that, its capable of printing 8.5 monochrome photos per minute and 6 colored photos per minute. But if you want to boost the quantity, switch to draft mode. This mode allows you to print 20 ppm in grayscale as well as 16ppm in color.
Speed won't be a matter to dictate the quality of the prints. This printer prints color photos with a maximum resolution of 4800×1200-dpi and prints black ones at 1200×1200-dpi. So, while colors will represent life, vividness; blacks will look more explicit and sharper.
The ISO speed you're getting to get black and color copies are 7 CPM and 3.5 CPM, respectively. And thanks to the optical resolution of 600×300-dpi, the copies won't look blur or hazy.
With the flatbed, you can scan documents measuring up to 8.5×11.7"-inches. The scanning quality is good enough for its optical resolution worth 1200-dpi. Well, you can scan versatile documents, including PDF, JPG, BMP, TIF, GIF, PNG via this scanner.
Plus, you can either use the LCD 2.2 touch mono screen or Wi-Fi to operate this printer pretty easily. However, if you're a smartphone-addict, it allows AirPrint and Google Cloud for printing remotely.
3. Canon Pixma iX6820 Wireless Business Printer
Every day is a mixture of memories, though all of them aren't captured or stored in our brains. So, let's bring some precious moments onto pages that will trigger your mood with joy. Just get the Canon Pixma iX6820 printer.
To give you dazzling and colorful photos, it comes with Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE). Thus, it produces the smallest ink droplets of 1 pl to create 9600×2400-dpi high-resolution full-color prints.
Besides, this printer houses a five-color ink setup that consists of a black-pigment to produce strong and crispy text. Use the genuine Canon Inks and photo papers to activate the ChromaLife100+ system so that photos can live for centuries!
But it doesn't take much time while producing such a colorful masterpiece. Rather it works with the speed of 14.5 IPM for black and 10.4 IPM for color.
Canon Pixma iX6820 has added functionality of printing borderless photos up to 13×19"-inches to give you more flexible printing. Also, you can print full-color photographs of 4×6"-inches in only 36 seconds.
Just because you're going to use this infrequently doesn't mean that your hands should be tied with few media types. Rather this printer supports 4 x 6", 5 x 7", 8 x 10", 8.5 x 11", 8.5 x 14", 11 x 17", 13 x 19", and US #10 Envelopes: 4.1 x 9.5"-inches of paper. Whoa...now that's insanely huge!
Now to back you up with such versatile media supports, you'll be able to print 150 sheets in one go. The best part? It's totally automated. You don't have to put one sheet after another. Look, no hands!
By the way, while it supports Wi-Fi connectivity to work wirelessly, you can use AirPrint and Google Cloud Print via your smartphones to print remotely.
And of course, it sports USB port in case you love to put in wires.
5. HP OfficeJet Pro 8025 All-in-One Wireless Printer
Typically, a printer for infrequent use is made to deal with light works. But what if big projects pop-up all of a sudden? No worries, when you have the HP OfficeJet Pro 8020 to get over with such workloads.
Whether it's presentation, annual reports, or something else, this printer will handle everything. It comes with an input tray and an output tray with a paper handling capacity of 225-sheet and 60-sheet, respectively.
Besides, its auto 2-sided printing reduces the time of operation so that your time is saved at least for a while. Also, the printing resolution can reach up to 4800×1200-dpi if you use HP Advance Photo Paper. Thus, even the tiniest detail will be displayed with vivid colors.
Live the moments you left behind with excellent quality photos. This beast prints stunning borderless photo on documents up to 8.5×11"-inches. Also, non-borderless documents can be printed on media, measuring up to 8.5×14"-inches.
However, if you set it at draft print, the mono speed is going to be 29ppm, and the color speed will be 25ppm. Whereas, the speed increases on high-quality ISO print, 20 ppm and 10 ppm for black and color, respectively.
An intuitive 2.7-inch touchscreen control panel is available to help you do the printing, copying, scanning, and fax jobs effortlessly.
Not to mention, the 35-page ADF can scan documents with an optical resolution of 1200-dpi. As a result, you'll be able to share a high-quality scan document through your Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
OfficeJet Pro 8025 has integrated self-healing Wi-Fi so that you get a flawless wireless connection. You can print from the cloud by using the Wi-Fi or cellular.
Moreover, you can try out the Mopria Print Service, Apple AirPrint, as well as Wi-Fi direct to carry out the printing from mobile devices with ease.
6. Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer, HL-L2350DW
If you need to deal mostly with 'Black and White' and are searching for the best printer for infrequent home use, a monochrome printer is good enough. The Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer is the ultimate machine for work-efficient people like you.
Being a mono printer, it uses laser technology to produce outstandingly detailed black-and-white photos with a maximum 2400×600-dpi resolution. So, whether you're creating a report, chart, or other documents, blacks shall cut the eyes of the viewers.
Along with that, the HL-L2350DW from Brother has the speed of producing 32 ppm, and the first print out takes around 8.5 seconds. Now, such speed is going to really help you to beef up!
With the 250-sheet input tray, it can take in 8.5×14-inches paper. As well as, the manual feed is ready to handle more specialized media, starting from 3×5-inches to 8.5×14-inches.
Besides, it allows you to use various types of papers such as thin and thick envelopes - providing vast working flexibility.
Not to mention, this printer comes with smart technology to detect low toner levels. Then, it automatically initiates an Amazon order to save you from sudden empty ink surprise! Thus, you get the Brother Genuine replacement toner delivered at your door without any hassle. And the service is free!
For its built-in Wi-Fi connectivity function, you'll be able to print directly from your mobile devices to carry out the printing operation. And if you prefer a wired connection, it has a USB 2.0 port to support you.
7. Canon 2986C002 PIXMA TS6220 Wireless All In One Photo Printer
8. Canon TS5120 Wireless All-In-One Printer
9. Epson EcoTank ET-2720 Supertank Printer
10. Lexmark C3224dw Color Laser Printer
We're going to end our printers for infrequent use review with the Lexmark C3224dw Laser Printer. Its overall performance is going to provide you with every possible thing you can ask for.
This is a compact-sized color laser printer with not so big footprint. So, it's going to perfectly sit anywhere on the desk without much of disturbance, as it's going to be used irregularly.
In addition, it's a laser printer that comes with a tray that has a paper holding capacity of 250 pages, and there's a single-sheet feeder. The duplex mode of Lexmark C3224dw is going to save a good amount of paper in the long run, thereby saving your money.
Boasting 1-GHz dual-core processor and memory of 256MB, this printer has a printing speed of 24 pages per minute (ppm) and two-sided printing at 13ppm.
Plus, you can print high resolution black with a color quality of 4800, 600×600dpi. As well as, a color print with 4800 color quality, 600×600dpi. Thus, the blacks shall look rich even at the 6 fonts size, and the colors shall be more vivid and detailed.
Apart from that, it includes Lexmark's full-spectrum security architecture to protect your information from intruders. So, no one can penetrate this firewall to reach your document.
That being said, it offers Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB connectivity for your convenience. However, the Lexmark mobile print app, Air Print, Google Cloud Print, and Mopria allows you to use the smartphone to access this printer.
Things to Consider Before Buying
A round of applause for giving your time to glace over our products. We're sure that you're well aware of your needs and where you intend to use it.
But still, it can be a troublesome issue to figure out the best type of printer for infrequent use, only knowing about the products. Some important features must be included in each of the printers, along with other extra functions.
Printer's Type
Mostly you'll find two types of printer - inkjet and laser printer. Now, though each of them does the printing work pretty efficiently, they do have some differences.
These come with expensive price tags. They use toner cartridges to produce top-shelf quality images as well as other print outs. The best part is its ink doesn't dry up whether you frequently use it or not.
On the contrary, these are a lot cheaper and use dye-based ink cartridges. Though they too can produce top-quality photos, inks dry up if not used on a regular basis. So, you are going to end up buying new cartridges whenever you need to use an inkjet printer. Now that's going to cost a lot of money in the long run.
However, in recent times the price of laser printers is coming down at a reasonable level. So, for an infrequent user, a laser printer shall bear fruit!
B&W or Color
Since you've decided to buy the best printers for infrequent use, you definitely know what type of documents you are going to print. You'll have two options to choose from - monochrome and color printers.
Monochrome printers are black-and-white printers. The specialty of this printer is it can produce impressively sharp and distinct black-and-white printouts.
On the contrary, the name "color printer" itself declares its capacity. This type of printer can print colored photos with well-saturated colors and a more vivid look. But, such printouts are going to pull some extra money out of your pocket.
Versatility
Except for a handful of printers, most models provide versatility such as print, scan, copy, and fax. Basically, what you intend to do with the printer decides how many functions you are going to need.
For instance, if you're doing an office job, it's obvious that you've to do some copying, scanning, and rare time fax. In that case, you better opt for an All-in-One printer. This type of printer doesn't take much of space rather provides added benefits.
However, if it's just for home use, like printing some occasional photos or gift cards, then a typical printer is enough. But in the end, it ain't going to hurt to have some extra benefits, right?
Dealing with Paper
Though it's going to be a printer for infrequent use, it must have good paper holding capacity. Especially if it's going to be used in an office, the paper tray has to be loaded with sheets all the time. That being said, filling a paper tray is the most important yet annoying task you can ever do.
In addition, what type of paper you are going to use for printing vastly decides which printer you should buy. If your work is to deal with A4 paper, then a regular printer shall do the work. However, for a big size paper, a larger printer is needed, which translates to extra investment.
Image Quality
We all love to see images that just clear the dust of time from our old memories. They make us laugh, happy, or sometimes sad but yet such images are worth keeping along with whole life.
Well, this kind of image demands good printing resolution. Really, without a good resolution, when you look at the picture, it becomes very difficult to detect the minute details!
However, we included printers that can reach a maximum resolution at 9600×2400-dpi in our printers for infrequent use reviews. At such resolution, colors look impressively vibrant, well-saturated, and crisp. Some printers allow printing in different resolutions. Thus, you will be able to get the image you want.
Connectivity
As days are getting technologically advanced, wires are quite a hassle and irritating way to access a printer. Rather people prefer to connect and operate the printer remotely via smartphone devices, laptops, tablets, Bluetooth, and so on.
Such connectivity options truly make the printing operation quite easier and faster. So, before buying a printer, don't forget to check how many connecting options the printer can provide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which ink is waterproof and doesn't fade easily?Pigment inks are waterproof as well as can resist UV light pretty efficiently. Plus, it can last up to 200 years. Dye-based inks, on the other hand, are neither waterproof nor can last more than 25 years at max.
How much electricity does a printer use?Commercial printers, when on standby, draw 30 to 50 watts, but during printing, they suck 300 to 500 watts. However, ink-jet printers draw 30 to 50 watts during printing. And standby mode takes only 3 to 5 watts of power.
What does DPI mean in resolution?DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. Therefore, it's the number of ink dots a printer can deposit per square inch of paper. So, 600 DPI means that your printer is going to print 600 minuscule dots of ink to fill every single square inch of the print.
Wrapping Up!
Though we're heading towards the time when paper won't be used so much, still we'll need a printer to print few documents. We want you to get the best results and performance whenever you print.
Also, we hope that our honest efforts in pursuit of getting you the best printers for infrequent use are going to help you make the right decision on the final purchase.
So, select the printer carefully since it's going to sit idle most of the time.
