I'd love to get a laserjet printer (no need for color) to make it easier to print off documents quickly. Am I mistaken in thinking this? The world of inkjet printers has left a bad taste in my mouth and I'm not looking to print photos.
Allow me to reveal my limited knowledge on the subject and some questions I have so you can help guide me:
-I know that you need a toner cartridge and that they are usually really expensive. Supermediastore.com is the only good place I know of to buy them in bulk for cheap. The store also mentions toner refills but I don't know what this entails nor do I know a good place to buy them (maybe on their site, but I couldn't find it).
-I've read on their site that refills are usually good for 2-3 fills before a new cartridge is needed. Why is this? I heard something about fixing/replacing the "drum", what does that entail?
-What other issues or concerns can you tell me about laserjets? What are good brands and good stores to start shopping for them?
Thanks for any and all help!
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Usage wise I would say I have gone through around 2 reams of paper... so 1000 pages or some thing.
Ink-jets are nice because you can get some small ones that work really well for notebooks (Canon BJ series) ... and because you can't walk out of a store carrying a 25$ disposable laser printer.
The Dell 1110 / Samsung ML-1610 (same printer but the dell is underclocked --I shit you not-- and so prints out about 10% slower) is a good place to start if you're looking for decent B&W's for the cost. Toner cartridges are also interchangeable.
And thanks Moe, it sounds like I wouldn't be capable of doing much to the drum (by myself at least) except replacing it, which is just the kind of answer I was after. Very appreciated, and thanks in advance for any other contributions.
Toner is expensive too but it lasts a hell of a lot longer. The problem is that for most home-use laser printers, the same problem occurs -- the toner costs as much as buying the printer over again. Still, the toner will last a lot longer.
I've seen the cost per page of a color laser be CHEAPER than running a small black only laser. I forget what model it was, but it was a small "personal" black laser printer from HP that cost about 4c a page when most cost around 1c or less per page. Decent color laser machines cost around 3c a page though if you are a willing to spend a bit more for a larger or better machine, you can bring that down to 2c a page.
So check the price of the toners (and any other supplies it may need, drums, maintenance kits, etc and factor those in as well) for how many pages they expect to print (usually at 5% coverage) to really see how much it's going to cost you.
Anyone have any experience with the XEROX Phaser line? It uses a solid ink wax thing instead of ink or toner and is supposedly cheaper to operate, but I haven't really researched them at all.
I really only have exp with HP laser printer though. Someone here at works uses a Lexmark laser and I have had nothing but trouble with it.
I sell printers for a living but I think everythings been covered already in this thread.
Fun fact: based on what a standard ink cartridge sells for, at the equivalent weight printer ink is more expensive than gold. And no, I'm not kidding. Wish I was.
- dont know how to use draft mode
- bought an epson
- only use their printer every 10 months so their ink dries out
- bought a brother
- bought a $30 printer at wal-mart and expect to get a good deal out of it
- bought a lexmark
- have a 12 year old DeskJet that uses 15 and 78 which are like $70 for a combo pack
As for the ¤/page, I was looking them up and I could barely believe my eyes; sites keep quoting pages/block equivalent to a toner cart then selling a "refill pack" of three blocks for only slightly more than the price of a single toner refill...
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edit: what the heck? Feb 2009? Why was this on the front page... eh.
If you're not doing high volume stick with B&W laser. Brother and HP make pretty competent models. I am not enamored with Lexmark currently, would avoid them.
The list price for high-capacity toner is around $100/cartridge but you can get them for much cheaper from NewEgg.
These printers also have removable drums which last about 10k pages for the 2170 and 25k pages for the 5370. Those cost $70 to replace.
Even after factoring in the drum cost, the per-page cost is much cheaper than an inkjet.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I've used Xerox Phasers in a production environment and I've found that the printers themselves aren't as reliable as a good color laser printer. They break down frequently.
This isn't a big deal if you buy it under contract. Xerox's usual business model is to give you the printer for free in exchange for a monthly maintenance & supply contract. But if you're a home user and you don't want to pay a monthly fee to Xerox or one of their partners? Pass.
The output was spectacular, though.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.