So at a local computing shop I came across an Epson laser printer (not sure what model, but it is defintely low-end) on sale for a “mere” $238 (local currency). This is cheap, compared to what is usually being charged for laser printers around here.
But the toner costs $100++, so I am quite hesistant.
My printing needs are:
lecture notes, tutorials, program listing and such (school does provide printing)
Role-playing games PDFs which I gotten from RPGNow and DriveThru RPGs
The occasional reports
The occasional company’s reports which my sister sometimes brings home
double-sided printing, multiple-pages-per-sheet printing required at times
(more for my sis, when she brings work home to print for an urgent meeting)
Defintely I don’t need a laser printer, but when I have the occasional large document to print, I wish I do have one handy. So, a toner probably will last me for 3,000 pages, so from your experience, how long that last for a home user?
With what I’d describe as medium-use, toner lasts me about a year. I recently persuaded my parents they’d be better-off with a cheap laser, and they’ve gone from more than one ink cartridge each month, to two or three lots of toner over a year. Yes, it’s worth it.
Also, when you have a big document, the speed of a laser printer makes a huge difference. The only problem can be double-sided printing - with an inkjet, it’s normally simple to feed the stack of paper back in. Lasers can dislike this, and mine insists on being fed one sheet at a time, or it chews them up. However, if I had a large double-sided document to print, I’d save the hassle and take it to Staples.
You don’t say if it’s color or b&w. With B&W it is highly cost effective to go with a laser printer if you are currently running thru refills even once or twice a year.
With color (which I will assume) you need to “do the math”. Figure how many refills of each you’ll do over the next x years, etc. But the laser printer should win out if you print on a regular basis.
If the quality of laser printer output is important, then use that to break a (near) tie.
Note that consumer-grade inkjet-type printers are incredibily unreliable and short-lived.
As to the two-sided issue: it really depends on the model and such. In fact, in my experience, inkjets screwup two sided printing and laserjets don’t.
(An even better way to go laser: I bought an HP4 for $3 at a garage sale. Its toner cartridge hasn’t run out yet but they’re only $25 on eBay.)
I have a cheap Panasonic laser printer which came with duplex (double sided) printing as standard. I think current models do also. Printing in duplex is a tad slower than single sided but a real bonus with long documents. I also regularly print 2-pages-to-a-page so a 100 page document only uses 25 sheets - good for me and the planet .
IMHO laser output is far superior for text than any inkjet I have seen. It can also use cheaper paper with no loss print of quality and the toner lasts for ages. I reckon it works out far cheaper per page.
Ususally the toner is cheaper in cost per page then ink, and the laser printer can go w/o use for far longer as the ink will clog in the ink jet print heads. It is less maintance, and generally less messy. Much faster, and usually more quite. As long as you don’t need color I recomend one. If you do need color, even occationally, I would recommend a ink jet.
The price you cite seems high for a low end laser, and I have gotten one (still in use) on sale for under $100 - my local curency (lexmart 210?)
Check the printer area of Staples–they should have a bottom of the line Konika for $89 after rebate. The Epson is at least 4 years old, and the toner is NOT going to get cheeper.
I had a Lexmark E210–great kickaround printer, but when the printer I got for $40 started to need $99 tonar cartridges, it (and it’s backup that I got new for $25) got used up to the end and tossed.
If you print a significant amount of text, you can’t beat laser. You do not have to spend a lot of money these days either. I have two Samsung printers. These are now about $100. I have refilled the cartridges several times. It is easy. The toner is available all over the Web. For example. This toner is for Brother Intellifax, but you get the idea.
When I need double sided printing, I just print one side, put the paper back in the printer, and run the other side with no problems.
My cost per page, even amortising the cost of the printer, is just a couple of cents.
I have run in excess of 10,000 pages in my Samsungs, and have never had a paper jam. Impressive.
You don’t say where you are, but toner should be on the order of 1p (UK) or 2c (US) per page for a laser printer printing a black and white page assuming typical coverage (5% IIRC). I have no experience of Epson laser printers, but Lexmark and HP are good.
You need to be careful when printing duplex with laser printers. Firstly the paper gets curved so you need to un-curve it; secondly paper has a significant water content, and much of that gets evaporated by the fusing process; thirdly, you need to be sure that the paper you’re using has two printable sides. I’ve seen no end of problems caused by cheap paper jamming because people tried to print on the wrong side or tried to duplex it.
I’d strongly suggest finding a HP Laserjet 4 of some description which has had the fuser unit recently (in page count) replaced and a duplexer unit. This is modestly easy to check simply by looking at it: you need to check that the rollers aren’t worn and that not too much toner has been picked up by the cleaner roller. Don’t do this when it’s hot! And now a word of warning about labels
Labels are a laser printer’s worst nightmare. Always get laser quality labels and ensure that the path is straight through - in the front and out the back (or vice versa). A curved path will see a label wrapped around the fuser or developer. And never, ever use a label or sheet of labels twice.
The main advantage I have seen with lasers over inkjets is that 1) laser toner is cheaper to use than inkjet ink and 2) laser toner is cheaper not to use than inkjet ink. Printing a full-color page with a laser printer might cost $.20 or so per page; for an inkjet the cost can approach $1. The second factor is that even if you don’t use a inkjet printer, the cartridges will clog up and go bad in ~6-8 months. So if you used it or not, it’s going to become unusable. With laser toner, it is not uncommon for one toner cartridge used only occasionally to last 3-4 years or more.
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Most websites that do business-oriented hardware tech reviews will not even bother reviewing retail-grade inkjet printers, because the cost per page is usually several times what a laser printer would cost.
~
I’ve put hundreds of sheets of labels through the slalom courses of several laser printers, and never had a problem. Although you’re right that you should only ever use labels explicitly identified as suitable (the heat can cause trouble with other ones), and to never put them through twice. And FWIW, I’ve seen an inkjet printer messed up pretty nastily from a reused sheet of labels.
We’ve got a “cheap” laser printer sitting in the garage. We can’t afford to replace the catridge, and can’t forsee a future where we’ve got a hundred bucks to plop down on something less than essential.
So, while it can be great, if a hundred bucks represents more than you can easily spend at one time, it could be a problem.
We used to have inkjet printers, and they went through cartridges like there was no tomorrow (either because of use or clogging up when they weren’t used for a while). We switched to a laser printer and have had much less problems, both with printing and with cartridges.
But even sven is right, the laser printer cartidges are definitely more expensive (though for us, they last much longer than inkjets). So that’s definitely something to take into consideration.
I don’t know what you guys are talking about with labels – I put label sheets through both my laser printer and my inkjet printer multiple times (after only using a few labels on the sheet), and I haven’t had any trouble. I’ll write back when I screw up my printers…
Anyway, I bought a B&W laser printer about four years ago, and it was the best purchase I’ve made in a long time. I trolled eBay for a while looking for toner, and I got three boxes of toner for $25 each (they normally go for $125 each). I’m on my second box of toner in four years (with only moderate use, although at times it has been heavy).
Where I am from it is about 1.6 local currency to 1 USD, and it defintely sounds like the lexmark may be a cheaper brand. Guess I need to go on a good old shopping trip again.
The curving of paper is defintely annoying, especially after you print a lot of pages. When I was doing officework last time, and printing long documents, all the pages will come out curved. Is there anyway to avoid it?
Also, I might hook up the laser printer for sharing so that my sis can use it via wireless or LAN. From my experiences with the HP LaserJet 4, if more than one person try to print at the same time, you get garbage. I’m not sure if it is the network/OS’ work (the network was running on Windows 95!) or the printer’s fault.
The $100++ per toner is an issue. Guess if I am going the laser route I better keep my old inkjet handy too.
There is also the downside of the Secret Service tracking your documents. Although as long as you are not counterfeiting or plotting to overthrow the government, it shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
Seriously consider this Color Laser deal. I just bought 2 for work.
Easy to set up, great Color. Magazine Color Quality.
Okidata C5150N 1200 x 600 dpi 20ppm 32MB Laser (Refurb) from TigerDirect
$229.99+ Shipping, we paid $34 for UPS Ground.
Its in your price range and a great bargain. It is USB and Network so you could use it on a home network very easily.
Took me 10 minutes to setup and another 20 to setup 12 PC’s to print to it.
I recommend it highly.
Blows away my Konica Minolta Magicolor 2300 DL I have here at home.
Good Luck.
Definitely go for a laser the cost of ownership is much lower in the long run.
I also never had a problem w/ labels in a laser, actually 4 models (one fairly heavy label use, and the other almost exclusivly labels and a very high # (about 700-800/qtr). Had really no label specfic trouble, though there would be 1 to 2 hic-ups when printing the 700-800 page run, but that could have happened w/ standard paper too - so I can’t blame the labels.
Reused Label sheets are very rough on any printers that U-rolls the paper.
Many lasers provide a direct path. Pull down bypass trays front and back. These are great for Label sheets.
I have seen re-used label sheets gum up both laser and inkjet. The extra heat from the Laser does not appear to make a large difference.