I'm making the switch . . .

. . . to a laserjet printer that is. I've grown tired of ink drying out and getting low ink messages after printing few pages with my inkjet printer. I found a good deal on a black and white laserjet on Amazon that I just ordered and was happy to find out that I can find replacement toner cartridges for around $20 on ebay. I'll still keep my inkjet for color prints.

What are your experiences from partially or completely switching over to laserjet printers at home?
http://http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Printer-HL2270DW-Wireless-Monochrome/dp/B00450DVDY/ref=tpi_image_16?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=1276342982&pf_rd_s=center-10&pf_rd_r=04Q0A1CQT3ASF229VJY4&pf_rd_i=172635

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Comments

ptilsen

I've been using an HP LaserJet P2015 for about three years now. I have yet to replace the toner. I also have an ancient Color LaserJet that I bought second-hand from a school in 2006. I can tell you from past work experience and owning them that they're incredibly sturdy as long as you keep them somewhat clean.

I can also tell you from having professionally supported inkjet printers from two years, that laser print technology is absolutely the way to go for pretty much any market segment, from consumer to enterprise. You will ultimately save money 9/10 times by going with laser, between ink costs, support, and hardware replacement.

The problem is that the cost of acquisition on laser printers is so high that most people look at that $50 Lexmark and can't consider spending hundreds of dollars for a laser printer, even though they will almost certainly lose the cost difference several times over in ink and replacing the damn thing when it inevitably breaks.

You made the right choice.

TLeTourneau

I've been all laser for years. Currently using a Konica Minotla Magicolor 5650EN. I love it, it handles everything I throw at it.

Psoasman

I've had an HP inkjet for 10 years now. I just take my cartridges down to Costco, where they clean, fill, and test for $9.99. Beats paying $50 for a black/color combo. I can buy a printer for that.

sheckler

I don't think I've printed anything outside of work since like 2008. Hoping to continue that streak for another 50 years or so.

alxx

I wish. still to much paper - less since I started using my ipad for datasheets.

samsung scx4828FN network multifunction laser -scan and print over the network
mono laser with auto document feeder and duplex printing

works nicely on linux , windows and mac for scanning and printing

ptilsen

[QUOTE=Psoasman;594072I just take my cartridges down to Costco, where they clean, fill, and test for $9.99. Beats paying $50 for a black/color combo. I can buy a printer for that.[/QUOTE]

Buying new toner is almost always more cost-effective than refilling ink or dye. For example, an $8 HP 61 cartridge will print 190 pages. A $60 HP Q7553X will print 7,000 pages. That's less than eight times the price for almost 37 times the yield.

Now a color laser printer can get a bit pricey, but the quality and reliability is worth it. And if you actually print a lot, it's worth it.

On the other hand, sheckler makes a good point. My need to print things outside of work, color or not, has so been infrequent the last few years that I would say as long as the cartridges work, a single, crappy inkjet printer and cartridge would probably last me years.

NinjaBoy

I've had a Samsung CLP-300 for a couple of years now, before that I use to have a HP Laserjet 5L and a HP inkjet that went thru ink like there's no tomorrow.

The only downside is the photo print quality of the CLP-300, however I use the HP Photosmart A636 if I need to print out photos.

Apart from photo's I wouldn't go back to using inkjets for standard printing (a bit like making the move from petrol to diesel cars

erpadmin

sheckler wrote: »

I don't think I've printed anything outside of work since like 2008. Hoping to continue that streak for another 50 years or so.

I went without printing stuff at home for about four to five years myself. However, it became terribly inconvenient when I needed to print something while I was on vacation and/or fax something out. I can't live without an AIO printer now.

Heck now, in addition to my latest printer being wireless...I can stuff directly to my gmail account.

I wouldn't mind going to laser (and color laser at that), except I need fax and scanning more than printing. An AIO works fine for my purposes and keeps my office less cluttered.

jmritenour

erpadmin wrote: »

I wouldn't mind going to laser (and color laser at that), except I need fax and scanning more than printing. An AIO works fine for my purposes and keeps my office less cluttered.

That's where I am. We scan/copy a LOT more than we print and we have a wireless HP AIO, that we actually paid nothing for - my wife got it as one of her prizes for being named teacher of the year a couple years ago. It's wireless too, which is great when we actually do need to print something.

Personally, I'd like a color laser AIO, but there's no way I'll find anything in a price range I'll find acceptable, considering what we have now was free and fulfills all of our needs. I also have an old HP Laserjet 1012 upstairs that I'll connect via USB when I need to print a large volume of non-color stuff, but that's pretty rare.

stlsmoore

HP 4000 Laser Jet here on my simple home network. I bought it used for $12 about 5 years ago and I have yet to replace the toner that it came with

MentholMoose

I've used both laser and ink jet printers. The consumer-grade ink jet printers I've had didn't last very long (2-3 years) and were just a hassle to use. Print quality was really inconsistent... sometimes it would be great but other times terrible (usually if I was in a hurry to get to a class or job interview). I don't print that much so when an ink cartridge dies prematurely (and it happened to me often) the cost per page ends up being huge.

For the last six years I've only had a laser printer, a Lexmark C534dn, and I have a few complaints:

It came with "starter" toners (still, they were good for a couple thousand pages)
One of the toner cartridges (a Lexmark cartridge, not a cheap "compatible" toner) died prematurely.
Long warm-up time. It's a business-class printer so Lexmark must assume if you buy this printer you will be printing a lot.
One of the consumables is the "waste toner box"... it's annoying since not only does the printer waste toner, but I have to pay for (essentially) a toner trash can
It draws about 30 watts in idle/sleep mode, so $2-3 per month unless I power it off when it's not in use.

One thing I won't complain about is the cost. The retail price for consumables is kind of high, but I save a lot by buying them on eBay (I only buy original Lexmark consumables). I even bought the printer itself on eBay (new in box for about 80% off retail price). Overall the cost is reasonable, and despite a few annoyances I will be not be buying an ink jet printer anytime soon.

tpatt100

I want to get a laserjet printer for day to day junk like online coupons, shopping lists, PDF files for studying (will not need this once I get an iPad again) and save the AIO inkjet for photos, scanning etc.

veritas_libertas

I did this a few years back. It has been well worth it. I'm only on my second toner cartridge, and I'm sure I've saved a lot of money.

exampasser

Well I got it today, the only thing that I have found annoying is that it tends to trip a nearby UPS that my PC's are on.

jibbajabba

I used to work for Xerox for a while "back in the days" - supporting ink and laser printer. A lot of people obviously buy cheap ink, rather than the Xerox branded ones (for obvious reason) - a problem with that is the cheap ink has different ingredients, some of which actually damage print heads.

We had a few times where the technical department, which handled RMAs, refused warranty due to the use of cheap replacement ink - there USED TO BE some stuff in the T&C, but no idea if that is still the case (been 10+ years after all).

exampasser

After some more experimentation I have found out that simply bringing it out of sleep mode triggers the relay in my UPS, so it must be an issue with some kind of electrical noise that's coming from the printer, I've had this issue with my CB, now I just need to find some type of filter that I can plug it in to.

TLeTourneau

exampasser wrote: »

After some more experimentation I have found out that simply bringing it out of sleep mode triggers the relay in my UPS, so it must be an issue with some kind of electrical noise that's coming from the printer, I've had this issue with my CB, now I just need to find some type of filter that I can plug it in to.

A laser printer on a UPS? What size UPS? Most smaller UPS's can't handle a laser printer, to much draw.

exampasser

TLeTourneau wrote: »

A laser printer on a UPS? What size UPS? Most smaller UPS's can't handle a laser printer, to much draw.

The laser printer is not on a UPS, the UPS is on a separate outlet that serves a PC.

I talked with APC tech support and was able to fix the relay triggering issue by lowering the sensitivity of the UPS. This is not the best solution, but it works.

In conclusion, I was right on part of it being electrical noise from the printer when I looked into the issue further, but from downloading APC's Powerchute software (I normally don't use it) it actually was doing it's job and switching over to battery power (normally it sounds an alarm when there is an issue, so I initially thought it was malfunctioning). You learn something new everyday.

exampasser

jibbajabba wrote: »

I used to work for Xerox for a while "back in the days" - supporting ink and laser printer. A lot of people obviously buy cheap ink, rather than the Xerox branded ones (for obvious reason) - a problem with that is the cheap ink has different ingredients, some of which actually damage print heads.

We had a few times where the technical department, which handled RMAs, refused warranty due to the use of cheap replacement ink - there USED TO BE some stuff in the T&C, but no idea if that is still the case (been 10+ years after all).

Did you encounter many issues with 3rd party drums being used? I'm asking as I found 3rd party replacement drums from my printer that's about 1/3 of the price of an OEM one (not that I should have to replace the drum anytime soon).