home printer - ink jet or laser

[Guest Ken8143]

I need to replace my home printer - currently have an old Brother HL-1440 and it makes such dirty copies. Suppose I will need to replace the drum to clean it up and that is rather expensive - probably more than the printer is worth.

 

So. I wonder if anyone has good advice about a home printer. Inkjet? Seems that the cost per page is way too much. Laser? We don't need color. Prefer wireless capable. Has to be budget sensitive.

 

Wonder what you recommend?

[dingy]

I need to replace my home printer - currently have an old Brother HL-1440 and it makes such dirty copies. Suppose I will need to replace the drum to clean it up and that is rather expensive - probably more than the printer is worth.

 

So. I wonder if anyone has good advice about a home printer. Inkjet? Seems that the cost per page is way too much. Laser? We don't need color. Prefer wireless capable. Has to be budget sensitive.

 

Wonder what you recommend?

I have an HP8000DN that I got from a lease company for $600 about 7 years ago

 

These printers have a monthly duty cycle of 130,000 pages.

 

This one had around 300,000 page count on it. Thats about 2 1/2 months normal service.

 

Will do up to 11 x 17"

 

Dual sided capable.

 

Monochrome

 

3 trays.

 

Toners are around $50 but last forever. 15,000 pages @ 5% coverage.

 

Mine has network card & parallel.

 

This thing is built like a 1st gen, fast, dependable, and like a maytag, no repairs.

Search Ebay on 8000DN

 

Gary

Edited February 1, 2010 by dingy
revised toner price

[tsigwing]

I need to replace my home printer - currently have an old Brother HL-1440 and it makes such dirty copies. Suppose I will need to replace the drum to clean it up and that is rather expensive - probably more than the printer is worth.

 

So. I wonder if anyone has good advice about a home printer. Inkjet? Seems that the cost per page is way too much. Laser? We don't need color. Prefer wireless capable. Has to be budget sensitive.

 

Wonder what you recommend?

 

2 or 3 years ago I bought the cheapest HP laserjet I could find. I REALLY love that printer. Comes on nearly instantly and prints a ton of pages. Changed the toner out once. Liked it so much I bought my daughter a color laser HP. It is just a nice.

[KB2RWW]

I need to replace my home printer - currently have an old Brother HL-1440 and it makes such dirty copies. Suppose I will need to replace the drum to clean it up and that is rather expensive - probably more than the printer is worth.

 

So. I wonder if anyone has good advice about a home printer. Ink-jet? Seems that the cost per page is way too much. Laser? We don't need color. Prefer wireless capable. Has to be budget sensitive.

 

Wonder what you recommend?

 

Well if it wear me and I liked the the printer I would replace the drum. doing a google search I found drums under $50.

If I was looking for a new printer I would have to think of the type of printing I would do and how often I will be printing and on what the printing will be on.

I started with a ink-jet by lexmark but I would only use the printer a couple of times a month, the next month I went to use it the head was clogged on it do-to little use and they weren't cheep.

I went and got a HP Laser-Jet 4 Plus for printing and at that time I was into proof printing electronic boards that I had designed but I soon found that I needed to print in color.

I then got a OKI 5200n led printer that will let me print color on plastic overhead transparencies and applied film to make stickers. it is vary good at printing pictures on glossy paper. the printer lets you set the temperature of the fussier drum to the type of media your printing on.

 

lazier/led printers are vary good at printing and since they use toner it will never dry out or clog the nozzles like ink-jet printers BUT if you are into printing iron-on transfers or CD/DVD's then ink-jet is for you do to the toner type printers cant handle the media.

 

most all laser/led printers are network and USB and most ink-jet's are just USB.

 

You just need to think about how often you will print and what you want to print will dictate what kind of printer you want. Fl-eBay is a vary good source for parts and used printers.

To get an idea of what they go for you can try http://www.pricewatch.com/

 

All printers and there supplies are not cheep but if you only use it once in a while then a toner printer is the cheep-est way to go in the long run. that's my .

 

they also make a special cleaning paper for the drums on toner printers and copiers, It really works.

[atlm]

You just need to think about how often you will print and what you want to print.

 

Yes, that.

 

Home-duty color laser printers can be had for $100 during sales. There are black and white lasers that regularly go for $50 on sale. Their per-page printing costs are super low compared to inkjet printers. They can be used as infrequently as you like without any clogging issues. The only shortcoming of these low cost lasers is their inability to produce quality prints of pictures. They'll print decent pictures, just not the same quality as some of the better inkjets.

 

If you print a lot, you'll save money in the long run on an office-duty laser printer, as their toner cartridges will typically last around 10,000 pages or more, as opposed to the ~2000 pages from the home models. Although that depends, also. I've printed about 800 pages on my newest home color laser, mostly just text (not pictures) and the original cartridges still show about 3/4 full.

 

If you're looking to print pictures (to frame and share), I'd recommend an inkjet for that purpose, as a color laser capable of printing pictures at the same quality is pricey. And then get a laser for everything else.

 

Printer manufacturers figured out that most buyers of home printers look mostly at the price of the unit, not at the price of toner/ink. So, most manufacturers price their home printers at close to break-even prices, and then make all of their profits through the toner/ink. A lot of aftermarket companies figured that out and started selling toner/ink at prices significantly lower than the factory brands, while still making a healthy profit. Then the manufacturers started putting chips into their toner/ink to try to prevent the other companies from taking their large profits. Then the other manufacturers came up with chips of their own. And it goes on. The moral of that story is to carefully look at the per-page prices of replacement toner/ink for any unit you buy. Most inkjet cartridges I've purchased cost between $20-$30 and last about 200 pages. Most toner cartridges I've purchased cost between $40 and $80 and last between 2500 and 10,000 pages, which is much more cost effective.

[Condor]

I run an HP Photosmart C4450 all-in-one... no fax because I never use it... Does a dynamite job scaning, coping, and printing. Since I don't print on a daily basis one black cartridge will last a year and the color will last about two. Bought it at Sam's for $60 bucks. Cartridges are a little pricy, but I don't care because I don't buy them very often, and only one at a time. It seems every time I buy a bunch of ink the printer craps out and I go printer shopping, and have all these NOS cartridges laying around. I'm really pleased with the print and scan quality of the HP. Years ago I bought a used HP500 laser..$4000 new.. for $500 bucks that had no options at all. It printed in B&W only and one font, but it did it very well. Lasted about 4 years til the feed mechanism wore out. Afterwords I started buying anything I could find that was cheap. I figure at the price of these printers nowadays it's almost easier to buy one a year and when the ink runs out throw it away and buy a newer one since the replacement ink cost more than the printer. But I ramble....

[Eck]

We have an HP Office Jet J5750 All-In-One..printer, scanner, copier, fax..and so many other buttons and options that I don't need to know about....

 

This is the best one we have ever had... Works great and has for two years now with out any problems

[dynodon]

We have an HP 2200 printer. Laser, fast and really reliable till they get fairly old, then the laser spinner thing (yea, technical term) can freeze up, but the one we have was repaired for $40. You can find them all over the place on E-bay for $60 to $150. Cartridges aren't very expensive and last a long time.

 

You can get injet printers that are dirt cheap brand new, but check the price of replacement ink cartridges. they can run you to the poor house if you print a lot.

 

I got a D2660 while on the road when another printer quit on me. Super cheap, but now that I have it at home it works great but the standard ink refills are very expensive. I found some refilled extended size ones that save some, but may dump the cheap printer for something more expensive that isn't as costly to keep going! If you don't do a lot of prints, then the cheap one should work fine though.

[SilvrT]

I have an HP1020 ... compact, inexpensive, and does a good job...but the cartridges are a tad pricey.

 

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/18972-18972-3328059-14638-3328066-439423.html

[elag]

I had both inkjet and laser printers. Problem is I don't print a lot. Inkjet cartridges dry up if not used an a month or two. They also have a low yield. They will print a couple of hundred pages at best of text. Price for ink anywhere from about $30 to over $100 depending on model and brand.

 

Laser printers. First advantage is they don't dry up (toner is powder). So even if you print a page and don't use the printer for a year, it will still work when you need it. If you print mostly text. Laser printers will print anywhere from 3000 to 5000 pages. Price for toner is $30 to just over $100 for black toner cartridges. Color laser toner will cost a bit more but the difference in yield over inkjet more then pays for it's self.

 

The only disadvantage I can even think of with laser is the first page takes longer to print. The printer has to warm up for about 15 to 20 seconds. After that it will print faster then any inkjet printer.

 

In my opinion a laser printer is well worth the extra couple of dollars.

[SilvrT]

The only disadvantage I can even think of with laser is the first page takes longer to print. The printer has to warm up for about 15 to 20 seconds. After that it will print faster then any inkjet printer..

 

the one I have is less than 10 seconds. I think most of the newer one are pretty quick. Heck, I can even remember 15 years ago a higher quality Office HP would get the first page out in about 10 seconds or less.

[Hummingbird]

Check out http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/BuyEpson/ccProductCategory.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=-13262

 

 

The Artisan 800 is an awesome machine and you can get ink dirt cheap, about $3 per cartridge - it takes 5 individual.

 

I've been buying from them for years, they're so inexpensive I buy just to upgrade sometimes. Many times I've bought and had delivered for less than the cost of OEM cartridges. One other thing, these refurb units have the same warranty as NEW. I have yet to have ANY problem with any of the 10 or 12 I've bought. At present I have 4 RX620 in service and they won't quit or I'd be buying a couple Artisans.

 

pm me and I'll get you linked to ink cartridges