They are the bane of my existence.
No matter if it cost $100, $1000, $10000, or $100000 dollars, they screw up.....frequently.
I seem to have a different experience. I've had pretty good luck with them throughout the years, from big corporate models, to small SOHO printers.
Sure, none have had a perfect track record, but frequent screw ups? Nope. I do avoid the super cheap (almost disposable) printing devices. Those are asking for trouble.
My current AiO device is a HP Photosmart 7525 Inkjet that is coming up on 11 years old. It has 11,512 total pages printed and still looks great. And surprising to me, this last weekend I actually had to use its fax feature to fax my new insurance number to a medical lab - and it worked perfectly too. That said, since the copy function works properly, I guess I should not have been surprised the fax function worked fine too.
I learned long ago to use "reserved" or static IP addresses for networked printers. Reserved is easier but some routers prefer static. Anyway, using a "fixed" IP address for networked printing devices (and NAS drives) prevents IP address assignment "shifting" after long power outages. This ensures none of the computing devices on the network grab the printer's IP address should they come back on line before the printer. That, in turn, ensures all the computing devices remain properly configured to print to the printer instead of me having to "add a new device" when power is restored.
The second thing I learned long ago is to never, as in NEVER EVER install the printer maker's software suite that come with most of these devices. Typically, and hopefully, Windows will recognize and already have the necessary drivers to print to the device. But if not, most, if not all printer makers maintain the drivers (without all the bloated software) on the device's webpage. Use that instead. This is something to investigate BEFORE purchase when researching new devices.
The third thing is to ensure any device you are buying has a built in web-server or similar feature that allows you to access the device's internal menu system with your browser. In this way, you can fax, scan, check ink levels, check printer status, and more with your browser WITHOUT using the makers bloated software.
Something else to look for in your researching.
I have two recurring problems with this HP 7525 that have developed over the last couple years. (1) Yellow ink cartridges occasionally fail to be recognized by the cartridge carriage assembly. Simply reseating the cartridge and pressing OK gets it going again. And (2) the rubber rollers for the copier's automatic document feeder have hardened and become smooth over time. This results in the feeder failing to grab the next sheet in a multipage document I am copying. Since I cannot remember the last time I had to copy a multipage document, no big deal for me. But should that need occur, it really is not hard to simply copy a page one at a time from the flatbed. Fortunately, the printer feature is able to grab new sheets into the printer, flip the sheet to print on side 2, then spit the printout without a problem.
So I like my HP AiO. I do NOT like HP, the company however. I do NOT like their bloated spyware... err... software so I don't use it. I do NOT like their aggressive (at time, illegal) policy for using genuine inks. I understand it, but I don't like it. And for sure, HP is not alone there.
One new trend I do not like is it appears most new devices from all the makers are white. I don't like white printers, white computer cases, white monitors, etc. All the electronic devices in my office are black. A white printer would look out of place. While white devices do look nice - for the first couple years, after that they tend to yellow and look dingy. That said, I am more into practicality than aesthetics so if white is the best option when I am ready to buy again, so be it.
