laser jet printer vs. ink jet cartridge

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dslrjunky

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Jun 2, 2006
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ok I have question for you guys..

I'm a visiting nurse, I submit nurses notes every 2 weeks, this past couple of months i've been loaded and constantly visit between 10-13 patients everyday this equates to 10-13 paper works daily. I use my own form a PDF form that I created so I don't have to write my assesments. This is pretty basic B/W form nothing fancy. I have all-in-one printer HP PSC 1510 inks cost me around $12 after staples coupon on recycle cartridge.

Now my question is I recently noticed that I've been buying inks after 60-70 printouts and started to look at laser printers costs are about sub $200 and toners are about the same price but was rated at 25K prints 5% (fill) what does that mean? and is that a good way to go seeing I'm submitting between 200+ printouts every month (not factoring the errors and casual personal printing) also can i do something more on my current printer to squeeze out more printouts from it? (i dont buy colored ink anymore).

Finally can you suggest what printer that can meet my needs also I like fast printout too

I have my eyes on these:

HP AIO 7680

or

Brother MFC-7840W Laser Flatbed All-in-One

I could get one of them for 170+ taxes
 
If you do a lot of printing - especially black and white - then a laser printer is the way to go. In the long run consumables should cost less and need replacing less often. You'll also have better print quality and the toner on the page doesn't smear or run even if you get the paper wet.
 
I just picked up a laser printer to solve this kind of problem.

The last inkjet i had got a clogged print head, and no amount of cleaning could unclog it so the printer was trashed.

The next printer I got was cheap, but pissed me off when I would spent $25 a pop getting ink cartridges that run out in short order.

I picked up a laser printer that to fix this. Toner costs ~40 but I should be able to go much, much longer before having to replace anything. I've heard that lasers can be a bit more power hungry though.
 
toner and drum is expensive... but I think in the long run inkjet would still come up top when true costs is factored in...

anyway I bought the AIO Brother... so far so good..
 
I haven't used any of the All in One Brother units but I have used a few Brother laser printers and I think they are good.

I recommend B&W laser for most anyone unless you really need to print colour for some reason. It's great if you print regularly or if you print occasionally... Printing frequently, you save money in the long run and paper handling is usually better on laser printers than inkjet printers (most have envelope feed/alternate paper feed and a paper tray instead of a stack of paper stuck in the back.

For folks that print only occasionally, laser rocks as well because it's always ready to go, no ink drying up.

I'm sure you will be happier with this solution than the old inkjet.
 
Good lasers are going to be cheaper overall if your a heavy printer. But costs upfront will be more, generally people would rather pay $10/month for ink rather then $200 for a 20month supply. You get the idea though. At my work we retired a laser abotu 2 years ago with 1.5mil pages printed, the replacement is already at 302k.
 
I paid about $90 for a 6,000 page yield cart. for my LaserJet 1320 (auto duplexing = win), whereas a few years back I was going through ink cartridges just about every time I wanted to print something on that damned lexmark inkjet I had because the ink would dry up if I went more than a week without printing something.
The only reason I'll ever give this up is to upgrade to an AIO networked/duplexing laser printer.
 
davef139 said:
Good lasers are going to be cheaper overall if your a heavy printer. But costs upfront will be more, generally people would rather pay $10/month for ink rather then $200 for a 20month supply. You get the idea though. At my work we retired a laser abotu 2 years ago with 1.5mil pages printed, the replacement is already at 302k.
Click to expand...

Lasers are the shit for quick black and white printing. I'm using a bit more than what most have, but just yesterday I ran 6000 sheets off of two lasers, and I was done in a little over an hour. No problems whatsoever. Ink is just much more problematic.

Oh and one of the lasers is over 1.5mil pages, doubt it will be retired anytime soon as it's running fine lol.
 
I got a laserjet 2300 DTN for $150 with a used and a new toner cartridge. I reckon its gonna last me at least 5-10 years. Toner for it is around $100 for a 6k cartrige and thats direct from HP. My dad has an epson actionlaser 1500 from 1995 that still works.

if you buy a high quality laser printer they will last you years. especially HP / xerox / epson. BTW most dell laser are rebranded xerox printers. At least my companies 1600n is. We got it used and have put 4-5 toner cartridges and 4 boxes of paper thru it and its still running stong.

I dont know if those $50-100 brother lasers you see in frys ads are any good. If you can I'd look into a new or used HP laserjet with built in jet direct.

and novadude your right autoduplexing is the shit. I've printed entire books out of my printer and between the used cartridge that was at 7% when I got it (and was the first one ever used in the printer) and the new one Im at like 60% now on my toner. I use my photosmart c5180 i got for $75 for scanning and color prints.(traded an officejet AIO i was given along with it. the officejet had brand new ink when I traded it becaused I ordered the ink to test it) Man does it suck ink but the price was right and at least its got seperate tanks.
 
I defaulted the print quality to fast draft on my HP PSC 2170.

an ink cartridge lasts me hundreds of pages.
when the print quality is on everyday, it probably cuts the cartridge life in half (just taking a good guess).

my dad, on the other hand, has some cheapy lexmark. He was going through cartridges after maybe 50 pages. Although I don't think the print quality was set to a lower standard, which may have been part of the issue.
 
well so far my printing problems has been resolved and I will never lookback...B/W FTW!!! I print on mo. avg or 4-600, you can only imagine how much ink i use to spend.... but now it is shit as fast and cheap to maintain too...
 
If you dont need color I would go laser anytime. At home we're still on the starter cartridge the printer came with and just recently got a deal at newegg $53 shipped for a new toner cartridge.
 
Laser is vastly superior to inkjets. I don't care what anyone says, as a long time printer technician I can tell you all inkjets, or ink printers or any kind, regardless of maker and despite the ones that do seem to last awhile (which seem to be increasingly rare at that) are junk. Their junk by design.

Past that, I don't want to get too technical about it but if it isn't HP its crap. (As far as laser printers, and certainly anything that goes on a network is concerned.)
 
I would go for the laser printer. Also, re-manufactured toners are cheap and they seem to work ok. (at least they have for me).

I have an old LJ1100 (picked up two of these for $3 each at a consignment shop) and a PSC-2170 (picked up at another consignment shop for $9)
 
Tiberius said:
I would go for the laser printer. Also, re-manufactured toners are cheap and they seem to work ok. (at least they have for me).
Click to expand...

We buy remanufactured toner cartridges for our printer at work (dell 1600n which is a rebranded xerox). We average a new cartridge ever 2-3 months. This is a high usage printer too. we print everything on it. Its 95% receipts and 5% stuff we print (such as word docs etc.). The cartridges on average last 6k-7k pages. Laser is really the way to go for high volume printing. The 1600n is also a copy machine and fax (2 things we also use it for quite alot). We have another HP printer that isnt designed for such high volume work and functions as a backup in case the dell fails.

Just have a laser for all your B&W printing and a decent ink jet for color.
 
Speaking of printer (laser) do you guys have any recommendations for a cheap one? My POS inkjet has gotten on my last nerve... ready to throw it out the window tonight!!
 
OmegaAvenger said:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...ory=LaserJet&catLevel=1&storeName=storefronts
Click to expand...

^This.

If it doesn't say HP on it, its crap! Well not really. Xerox units are fine for their color printing capabilities which are in fact superior to HPs quality wise. However mechanically, they kind of suck. Anything is better than Brother or Samsung which despite having PCL compatibility advertised, isn't 100% accurate. I'd say they are more like 90% PCL compatible. Some applications just don't work right with them.
 
i have been having great luck with the dell lasers, sell alot of the 2135cn and the 3135cn they have a new one out smaller multifunction 1000page cartridges (50 bucks a cartridge), and also just have some BW USB models.

i like em
 
I have the HP 1006 and love it!! toner locally is $$$ (65.00) but buy the printer from NE (~95.00) and sometimes they have the toner for 35.00FS.
 
Dan_D said:
Laser is vastly superior to inkjets. I don't care what anyone says, as a long time printer technician I can tell you all inkjets, or ink printers or any kind, regardless of maker and despite the ones that do seem to last awhile (which seem to be increasingly rare at that) are junk. Their junk by design.

Past that, I don't want to get too technical about it but if it isn't HP its crap. (As far as laser printers, and certainly anything that goes on a network is concerned.)
Click to expand...

What's wrong with non-HP printers?
 
I purchased a panasonic AIO laser printer from Costco for $60 recently last year. the 500page temp toner in it lasted me till about 3 weeks ago. then I purchased a 3x refill for 31$ shipped on amazon. afraid of the drum price. but 6k pages for 30 bucks ain't bad.

Plus anyone else read that printer ink is 9000$ a gallon? there's a reason they want money.
 
I'd go with HP Lasers. My Color Laserjet is 10 years old this August and still going strong, although I don't use it that much since it takes 15 minutes to warm up.

I use my HP 1006 for GP printing since it is very fast, instant on and was cheap. Free shipping and the rebate dropped the price down to $4.99 shipped.
 
AVT said:
What's wrong with non-HP printers?
Click to expand...

The non-HP printers usually have terrible network support. They often have problems with negotiation and general speed sucks. They tend to be slower network wise and when they are high end enough to have an interface on the printer, it is usually terrible. Their onboard diagnostic firmware is usually primitive by comparison as well. Beyond that the other printers don't do PCL and Postscript languages 100% perfectly. I've seen several applications in several businesses experience nothing but problems printing on non-HP printers. Xerox/Tektronix units are pretty good, but aren't as reliable as HP's are mechanically speaking. However, they do tend to print higher quality, though not always as fast.

Beyond that non-HP printers are usually badly designed. They aren't designed to be as servicable and parts aren't modular the way they are on HP units. Things like photosensitive drums and fusers are more difficult to replace as they aren't done in a modular assemly. That and mechanically speaking, the non-HP stuff won't last as long typically speaking. It dies off far faster. Now HP's quality has slipped in the last few years, but it is still the best game in town. Now, I am not suggesting that a $129.99 HP Laserjet is the equal of a $500 Brother printer. With that said don't expect your $399.99 Brother printer to match a $700 HP Laserjet printer either. I know the Brother and other manufacturers advertise more features for what is often around half the price, but don't be fooled. These printers suck. In my experience you get what you pay for and when buying comparable classes of printers, you'd do well to spend the extra money on the HP. I know they are about 30%+ more than the non-HP alternatives often times, but when you consider the fact that your Brother or Samsung may not last half the time the HP will, well, you do the math. Plus you will save yourself endless frustration and as I said before, older applications and custom applications that rely heavily on PCL language types will not work worth a shit on anything but HP printers. They emmulate PCL/Postscript badly. Trust me on this. For home use its fine, but for business? No way. Also when it comes to warranty support, HP is second to none when compared to other manufacturers. This is just one more reason I can't stand anything else. Dell supports their rebadged Lexmark shit better than Lexmark supports their own, but still, the printers are junk. You'll be needing that Dell support often.

I've worked for probably dozens of clients (including ones I work with now) that have been enticed by Brother/Samsung/Motorola/Lexmark/Dell/Canon, etc. They've been lured by the extra features and lower price tag and then they eventually learn why it is that HP is priced so much higher when their cost savings bites them in the ass.

Also, just as HP is to some of this other crap, Laser is to Ink printers. Don't think for a second your even fairly expensive Inkjunk printer can match a laser printer at anything. It can't. It won't last as long and it won't be as fast. Don't let the PPM numbers on the box fool you. They rate ink and lasers differently on that.
 
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