Ink or Laser Printer?

[Sigarms]

We have an old HP ink printer that may be on it's last leg (about 7 years old or so).

Top it off, the number 15 black ink is up to $55 for a twin pack, and the number 23 color cartridge is up to $35 for a single.

My wife works out of the house, and I have an office downstairs, so we use the printer on a regular basis for both work and other endevors.

I'll end up printing technical documents, sometimes 100 pages or so, usually in black and white, and some "sales stuff" for presentation and handouts. My wife is a programmer for a company out of the state we reside in, so she ends up printing a bunch of documents as well. We also use the color a lot for pictures of animals for the humane society, so all in all, we probably go through in a months time a twin pack of black, and a single pack of color. This has been adding up a lot to a lot of dollars the previous year ink wise, and I'm going to start to look for another printer.

Ink or laser?

Stopping in at an office supply store, talked with a sales guy who mentioned that ink was still a good way to go. This sales guy actually seemed well informed. however, have a co worker that has a laser printer and he loves it.

I'm a little perplexed.

Can anyone give me the "in's and out's" of printers and which direction I want to lean to?

Price is not a huge factor, however, if I don't need to spend $700 or so on a printer, why spend that much? However, I don't want to spend $200 and get something that becomes "outdated" to quick and I get put back into this "ink crunch" or find out that I could of had other options available for a little more money.

1. Color printing a must

2. Would like something "quick" to print off documents

3. Would love for the printer to print on both sides of the paper so I don't have to "re feed" the printer like I currently have to.

4. Would like something that uses cheap ink on a regular basis (if that even exists).

5. Doesn't need to be a fax machine

6. Very little "high quality" paper for home color pictures is used.

Thanks!

 

[kennyd]

I gave up on ink years ago...just to expensive in the long run-but I don't need color either.

The newer color laser's are attractive but still costly. One thing to be careful of is all the new printers (ink or laser) come with "starter" cartridges that are usually only 1/4 to 1/2 capacity of a new one, so whatever you decide you will be buying replacements soon!

IF I needed color occasionally, I think I would but a ink-but just use it when I needed a color document. 99% of the time all you need is B/W and the laser is very economical for that.

 

[RoyJackson]

I picked up a Brother Color Laser Printer from Tiger Direct a year ago.It cost right around $400 on sale (went to $489 after the sales). Here's a link to it.

Great printer, but don't expect photo quality prints. However, it has all the other features you're looking for, including duplex (both sides of the paper) printing and wireless connectivity (which I don't use, but it's a nice feature). It can also print directly from a thumb (USB) drive.

The cartridges (this one holds 4 or 5) are about $65, but last a long time (2500 pages or so).

Doubt I'd ever buy another inkjet printer. This is the second Brother laser printer I've had. First one was B&W. It still works great, but I wanted a color printer.

 

[aczlan]

I would recommend a printer similar to the Canon MP830 my parents have a older MP830 and say that the ink is about the cost of laser... instead of having the nozzle on the ink cartrige it is in the printer and you just get a ink tank (Like this, ~20 for a set of color tanks) the ink tanks last longer than the cartridges did as they hold more ink...
<edit(add)>
IIRC this printer does print both sides of the page, however it only scans one side. it does do photo quality prints and works well with photo paper, for normal use we leave it in "Black and white Fast Draft" mode, it does a decent job and uses less ink (and in B&W mode it only uses black ink).
</edit>
Just my $0.02


Aaron Z

 

[NuBota]

Would almost think you need both. If you think ink is expensive, price some toner. For laser, Brother makes good durable monochrome and the toner is relatively cheap. Have used he MFC series (have one, used one for Little League - very heavy use for years, and MIL has one). Good quality, and toner comes in plastic tube, so it's only like $30, unlike the expensive cartidges in other brands.

For color and pictures - still think ink is the way to go unless you go very high end color laser.

As far as double sided - I assume you want one that "automatically" prints both sides (not one that will print the one side and then you re-feed the entire stack for it to complete the other side). Again, somewhat high end there - office type printers.

Just some thoughts....

-Eric

 

[MikePA]

For your needs, I'd get a b/w laser with the duplex option and a color inkjet. No matter the vendor, supplies will be costly, i.e., cheap ink doesn't exist. I've always had good luck with HP products.

 

[Sigarms]

For your needs, I'd get a b/w laser with the duplex option and a color inkjet. No matter the vendor, supplies will be costly, i.e., cheap ink doesn't exist. I've always had good luck with HP products.

I'm given to the fact that cheap ink does not exist, however, it seems that once a model of printer that uses a speciffic ink goes "by the wayside", that particular ink goes up in cost due to supply and demand.

I'm figuring we go through no more than 1000 prints a month, about 30% of that for color prints.

Heck, the office box stores wants .80 for one print of 8"x11" in color, no matter how much color you use in that print. Do a couple hundred color prints at the office box store, and that adds up quicker than the current high priced ink cartridges I buy.

I do notice a difference in cost in the ink however. Seems my #15 (black) and #23 (color) is one of the most expensive cartridges out there.

I appreciate the comments guy, but I'm sort of scratching my head a little more.

I'll need decent color photo prints. Fact is, we've noticed that once we got a decent camera to take pics of animals, more people we're interested in them due to the quality of photo. Same token, when we print a photo up, like the quality to be just as good for the same reason.

 

[MikePA]

Our church office has a large HP b/w laser (4600dn) for large print jobs and an HP color laser (2600dn) for brochures. That's another way to go instead of the inkjet.

We do someting similar at work. Numerous, fast HP or Lexmark b/w lasers and fewer, color lasers.

 

[RoyJackson]

You also need to look into sourcing this type of printing to a professional...for professional quality results. You might try Kinko's or Print-O-Stat, for example.
If this work is for a business, this kind of thing is a deductable business expense.

 

[ragkar]

Years ago I was searching for a really good laser printer and after reading all the reviews I bought the best one in my price range, a NEC. What I didn't know was that it wasn't going to become a commercial success and now toner refils are uneconomical.
I should have gone with the HP laser jet III which, though of lower quality, survived.
If you buy a laser printer, make sure that it's a popular brand and check the availability of toner from several vendors. then buy a couple large capacity refills for spares. They tell you that toner lasts only three years, but mine is ten years old (I bought three refills with the printer).
When my NEC printer runs out of toner, I'll have to junk it.

 

[Sigarms]

You also need to look into sourcing this type of printing to a professional...for professional quality results. You might try Kinko's or Print-O-Stat, for example.
If this work is for a business, this kind of thing is a deductable business expense.

I get a pretty generous expense account which plays into what I can write off on my taxes (have a good CPA firm do my taxes). Bottom line, what I write off really isn't worth it.

That said, I can't nickle and dime my company for things I should be able to take care of myself (comes with the territory so to speak).

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

we've got a lexmark c510 color laser at work - it cost less than $400. Toner looks pricey up front, but when you're spending $85 per color for 2500 or so pages instead of $30 for a 3 color ink cartridge that's good for about 150 pages, it doesn't take long to pay for the printer. (they also sell a hi-yield black toner, 6000 pages for about $117)

as a shopping resource, check out CDW - IT Products and Services for Business and look at their prices and descriptions. if you think they're prices are too high, print out the sheet and use it for comparison shopping locally, or google the model number you like and see if there's better pricing out there.

 

[tallyho8]

Yes, cheap ink does still exist. I get ink cartridges for my Epson ink jet printer for about $2 each on ebay. I have been using this ink for many years and found it to be the same as Epson brand ink only cheaper. About $22 a cartridge cheaper! I heard that there was a lawsuit awhile back to keep others from selling ink cartridges that will work in Epsons but they are still selling the cheap ink.

I had an old Epson 400 for years and it never failed me but I finally wanted something better and faster and got the Epson Stylus Color 880 several years ago. It is fast, does great color prints and I usually print about 500 pages a month. I believe it only cost about $100.

They no longer sell this model, but if you want cheap ink, first get the model numbers of the current models, then go to ebay and see what the ink sells for. You can find widely varying prices. Cartridges from $1 to $50.

 

[LMTC]

I have an ancient HP laserjet 4 and a 4L for most of my B&W printing. Paid for themselves many times over. Used HP officejets for years for fax and color printing. Last one went last summer and my son who was a manager at Best Buy urged me to buy a Canon MP 530. It scans and copies far better than my last officejet (but is 3 years newer in all fairness), color printing is OK, but I liked the color on my HP better. Cartridges are separate....4 color cartridges app. $13 each, maybe 125-150 average pages of color print, 100 if lots of charts or pics. So nearly $.50/page. Machine works well, and I'd probably look at another Canon when it goes, but I'd look at HP again too. I like the inkjet for low initial cost, and I do very little color printing. IF I did mostly color printing I would look at a color laser, just because inkjet print runs so easily if it gets damp at all. That is exactly why (more than the cost savings) I use my lasers for our B&W printing....no runs, no smears if the pages or labels or whatever get wet.

 

[CurlyDave]

My wife is a consultant, and prints 2-3000 pages per month, much of it in color.

We have had color laser printers for at least 10 years.

1. You will never get photo quality from a color laser printer, you can & will from a good ink-jet.

2. You will not get a "quick" print from a color laser. Warm-up time is on the order of a minute, but this has gotten better lately.

3. We don't bother to look at anything but HP printers any longer. This are the most bulletproof printers around. When you have a report you are being paid $5k to write due Monday and your non-HP printer goes belly up Saturday afternoon, you will realize the value of buying quality.

To her, the waterproof nature of color laser is worth a lot.

Wireless is nice, but the big deal is networkable. If you want to access the printer from more than one computer, the only way to go is ethernet, either wired or wireless.

In addition to toner, you will need a new drum, fuser, and transfer unit periodically. This combination can set you back $1k. A complete set of 4 toner cartridges will be on the order of $600.

If you ever print transparencies, you need special color laser ones ($$$$$). The high temperature of the fuser units melts the ordinary ones inside the printer -- getting them out is a fun project.

No matter what kind of computer you have, you are going to have to re-install the printer every so often. If you decide to go other than HP, bring a laptop to a computer store and challenge the salesperson to access his demo printer from your laptop over ethernet/wireless. If he can't do it, or if it takes more than a few minutes, don't get that brand of printer. If he doesn't have a demo printer on ethernet, go somewhere else.

Be sure you can live with the printer speed. All of them will be rated for a certain number of pages per minute. The more you spend, the higher the number. Real world performance is about 1/2 of that promised.

All medium and high end printers have memory. Be sure it is standard memory, and max it out with generic memory modules. Performance will vastly improve.

The lowest cost per page in HP printers is no longer color laser. The last I looked, they were touting the ink-jet L7600 series as lower cost. We have a L7680 and it is very nice. It is an all-in-one, so it can also be a scanner, fax, and copier. We also have a HP 4550n, which is getting a bit long in the tooth. We are going to upgrade in about a year.

At about $400 with wireless, ethernet, duplexing, and a lot more the L7680 may be just right for you.

 

[LoneCowboy]

If you print a lot (and you do), lasers are FAR cheaper per page than an inkjet.
they also look better and they don't smear.

Sure, initially a color laser is about $600/$700 bucks
But, if you look around there are ones with full toner cartridges. That's 2000 pages (or more) with the initial set of toners.
Then toner cartridges run about $100 per, and of course the black runs out first.
way way way way cheaper than an inkjet in the long run.

Just like buying a utility with a 1200 hour service interval is cheaper in the long run than buying a compact with a 300 hour interval. If you can use it. Same analogy.

Once you go laser, you won't go back.

 

[dmccarty]

See if whatever printer you think you might buy has support for a Continuous Inking System(CIS). Some printers allow you to hook up a CIS at which point the price for ink drops quite a bit. You don't have to buy cartridges anymore.

To combat CIS some of the printer companies went with a chip in the cartridge. I don't know if the CIS people figured out how to get around the chips. I was looking at this years ago for higher end photo printers. Not sure what has happened since then. But its worth a quick google.

I sniffing around this issue again and to just get a print Walmart and Snapfish have the cheapest price for photos. I just paid around $3 for an 8x10 from WallyWorld one hour service. They ain't perfect but the price was right.

There is another online professional photo place that I might use but they cost quite a bit more than WallyWorld. If you need photo's it might just be cheaper to have someone else do it. The paper for the printer I'm looking at was working out to be around 70 cents for a 4x6. Wallyworld prints it for about 20 cents in one hour. If I print I would have to pay for the printer, the ink and the paper. I'm guessing $1 for a 4x6. Now this print will be on better paper and it will last hundreds of years. Walmart not so much.

Depends on what you want from the photos.

I used to use a small mom and pop photo store but we moved. Maybe a small local place can help with the photo printing. That might simplify the printer needs.

Later,
Dan

 

[Harry c]

Google: ink jet refill kit They're cheap, easy and work. After a little practice you can refill a cartridge in 2-5 minutes for around a couple of bucks. Color or B&W. Complete instructions are online. Only thing is, my printer always tells me I'm almost out of ink. No way to reset it. For around $40 for a cartridge, I've figured out how to ignore it!

 

[rcrcomputing]

Many good comments.
I'll just add, for portability (differant operating systems), stay with HP.
For reliability and parts availability, stay with HP.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an HP guy. I've just learned my lesson to many times.

 

[Modn]

I bought a Xerox Phaser 8560 after having problems with multiple HP products. I read a lot about them and decided to try one. I think it might be one of the best printers I have owned. The color pages come out like it was a black and white page. The color replacement looks like a melted crayon (solid ink) and is as easy as dropping it it (literally), That's it, no drums to replace or anything. I have only had it for 3 months now, but I have yet to load more color into it. I print about 20-30 pages per day. I decided to put this one (my 1st) in my office to shake it down and it looks like it will be put into the main office as soon as one of the other HP's let go or I have to replace the drum. Just my 2 cents but if you are looking, don't overlook these.