This is one classic piece of tech I will never buy again.

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Is this technological tool really necessary or just an expensive hassle?

Main points

• I have purchased several printers over the past few years.
• They were nothing but a hassle, often breaking in and needing expensive paint.
• I have vowed never to buy one again and will be fine without one.

I don’t mind some technology taking out credit cards. In fact, I’m willing to spend a little money to buy the expensive computer and software I need to increase my productivity.

Since I use a mobile phone all the time, I don’t want to pay for a nice phone, and occasionally buy a high-quality TV to watch a movie when I have a little time to enjoy the experience.

But there is one piece of technology in many homes (and offices) that I will no longer buy.

I will never buy a printer again.

A printer is one piece of technology that will never have a place in my home. And there are a few key reasons for this.

First, I’m not sure if I’m just having bad luck or not, but printers seem to be very prone to doing it right. Over the past few years, I’ve purchased several printers — all of which have developed problems that took time to fix, if they were repairable.

A few months after our purchase, one of my printers stopped printing any black ink. A phone call to customer service was of no help, and they said we could send a replacement under warranty, but that ended up being a huge hassle of disconnection and shipping.

Other printers have had their share of problems, from not knowing when our computers were plugged in to WiFi to falling victim to paper jams. Every time I want to print anything I end up with a half hour battle if I can get the device working.

In addition to this problem, and wasting time and money trying to fix problems or set up new printers, ink is astronomically expensive for all the printers I’ve found. To make matters worse, many of the newer printers have chips that tell them they’ve run out of ink after a certain number of pages have been printed. This is a colossal waste of money and a racketeering charge against printing companies.

I decided to opt out of the whole system, and never own a printer again.

How to pass a printer at home

Going without a printer is easier than I thought. For one thing, just about everything can be printed as a PDF and stored digitally or downloaded to a phone instead of printing. We use my phone to print coupons, for example, and boarding passes.

On the rare occasion that I need to print something, it’s cheaper and easier to just go to a copy store or library and ask them to print it for me. This has saved me money, and surprisingly, it can take me longer to get into one of these stores when I’m out than it takes to make a printer.

If you’re like me and have had bad experiences with printers — or if buying expensive ink leaves a bad taste in your mouth — you might want to decide to get out of printers too. It worked well for me, so give it a try and see if it works for you.