Is a color laser printer worth it?

[Reasonable Doubt]

A Brother color laser printer is on sale for $170.

Is it worth it to get.


I don't print much so I usually waste ink by it drying out on inkjet printers. Does laser printers do that?

 

[taq8ojh]

You have to ask yourself the main question: do you NEED to print in colour? As in, do you need it for work stuff or something? If not, forget it. Colour toners are expensive as hell, and you need at least three of them.
If you think about printing photos, forget it. Printer capable of doing that (without the result looking like sh...) does not cost $170

 

[corkyg]

Don't forget to price the cost of toner carts, and how many are needed.

 

[Reasonable Doubt]

You have to ask yourself the main question: do you NEED to print in colour? As in, do you need it for work stuff or something? If not, forget it. Colour toners are expensive as hell, and you need at least three of them.
If you think about printing photos, forget it. Printer capable of doing that (without the result looking like sh...) does not cost $170

I need to print in color but I don't print photos.

But more to the point. Does toner dry out after months of not being used?

 

[taq8ojh]

Don't forget to price the cost of toner carts, and how many are needed.

Exactly my point.

I need to print in color but I don't print photos.
But more to the point. Does toner dry out after months of not being used?

I don't think so. It's just powder, so it shouldn't.

 

[Scheeringa]

Toner is just fine plastic powder, so it wont dry out. And, Toner lasts a whole lot longer than ink. The real question is how much do you print? My wife is a teacher and uses the printer every day, and we still went with a inkjet (Although I didn't see any $170 options when we were shopping)

 

[paul878]

The toner cartridges that comes with the printer are starter cartridges, so the real price of the printer is Printer + a full set of New Cartridges. Usually they cost more than the printer..

 

[Reasonable Doubt]

Toner is just fine plastic powder, so it wont dry out. And, Toner lasts a whole lot longer than ink. The real question is how much do you print? My wife is a teacher and uses the printer every day, and we still went with a inkjet (Although I didn't see any $170 options when we were shopping)

That's the problem. I don't print very much at all. Sometimes months will go by without me printing. Then when I finally come around to trying to print something the ink is dry.

 

[shortylickens]

I got a printer dirt cheap from Staples, it was on their bargain bin. Had full toner cartridges.

Unless you can get some kind of a deal, its still too expensive for the average person.

 

[infoiltrator]

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL3170...+laser+printer

Not Brother toner
http://www.amazon.com/HI-VISION-HI-Y...ef=pd_sim_op_1

I use the cheapest Canon Inkjet printer, ink replacement costs almost $50 for a two pack of XL cartridges, which I use up once or twice a year.
"Just" a color cartridge would be under $30 for XL (amazon on line).

My first thought is printing one item a month should keep your inkjet functional for reasonable cost.

Second, I used an old black and white H1440L or some such with a very large 18,000-20,000 page toner cartridge till it died. Did have to replace the drum though. Never any hesitation printing.
Newer cartridges are rated 3,000-6,000 pages (Brother 4,500 last look) with drum replacement every 3 or 4 toner changes??
Anyway while OEM toner can be very expensive at the time aftermarket was good and reasonable.
Used the laser till it died after a move, still miss its cheap copies, but do not do the volume printing anymore.

sample
http://www.4inkjets.com/Brother-HL-3170CDW-printer-ink-cartridges-toner

 

[mikeymikec]

Don't forget to price the cost of toner carts, and how many are needed.

And check the quoted page yields of the cartridges. I've noticed a bit of a scam going on that capitalises on the commonly-held belief that laser printers provide better value for money than inkjets, so some manufacturers are building low-end laser printers that take cartridges which are really poor value for money.

And on the other hand, investing more in the right inkjet printer can be quite a money saver if you don't leave it for months unused.

NB: I'm not suggesting that inkjets are better than lasers or vice versa.

 

[tophatfield]

Get a Brother J430 from Officemax and after market ink

 

[PliotronX]

I'd get it to mess with. Anything's better than ink. Toner is always ready when you need it, it doesn't flush printheads with expensive ink only to be plugged a month later. I wish inkjets were never invented.

 

[Compman55]

Color laser is the ONLY way to go in todays home market. 1200x1200 lasers will print photos. 600x600 will look grainy. Lasers will not go bad sitting, the toner will last 2500 pages minumum on any brand with basic printing. Less with photos.

Inkjets are all marketing with the expensive inks. It is not some special forumula that costs a lot. You would be lucky to get 500 pages from one.

 

[mikeymikec]

The previous inkjet I owned for 10 years until eventually I gave it away to an elderly customer and got a new one with a few more features I needed. Most of my customers get >6 years out of a not-bottom-line Epson inkjet, so I beg to differ.

A reason why inkjet ink isn't the cost of buying a few felt tip pens is because in order to produce tiny enough droplets for photo quality it needs to be refined quite a bit. If it isn't refined enough it will probably block the print heads. It might well be over-priced (without knowing the costs of production it is difficult to tell), but you're exaggerating to the point of complete inaccuracy.

Also, check the page yields on the cheapest laser printers. I've seen some toner cartridges that officially quote less than a thousand sheets (while costing as much as a toner cartridge that is quoted to last >3000 pages), providing worse value for money than the cheapest, official and lowest capacity inkjet cartridges.

The bottom line of my advice is, go with recommendations based on what your projected usage of the printer is and examine the specs and page yield statistics of the consumables of the printer. There are long-lasting value-for-money printers out there, inkjet or laser, but the manufacturers aren't in the business of making it easy for you to pay them the least amount of money.

The other thing I wonder is whether climate is a factor in how well inkjets last. I've found that inkjet printers that are in direct sunlight at least some of the time are more likely to have problems, so I wonder whether countries that experience generally higher temperatures might have more inkjet problems. It is generally quite mild here.

For large amounts of regular printing (say >150 sheets / month) I would be more inclined to go for a laser because a lot of them are specifically designed for offices whose page yields are quoted in fractions of rainforests Laser printers are also designed to be left on and regularly used so a lot of them take quite a while to warm up after being switched on, way longer than a typical inkjet, as well as using quite a bit more power when printing (a printer I just looked up is quoted to use 300-900W while printing).

People also make silly mistakes with inkjets, such as "inkjet cartridges cost too much, I'm going to get a few of these really cheap ones... hey, my printer stopped working... inkjet printers suck!", or leaving them for months unused, or buying the cheapest printer they can find with the lowest capacity cartridges then complain about the cost of cartridges, or complain that their printer died within three years.

 

[alkemyst]

Color laser is the ONLY way to go in todays home market. 1200x1200 lasers will print photos. 600x600 will look grainy. Lasers will not go bad sitting, the toner will last 2500 pages minumum on any brand with basic printing. Less with photos.

Inkjets are all marketing with the expensive inks. It is not some special forumula that costs a lot. You would be lucky to get 500 pages from one.

If you are going to do framing and display of artwork, inkjets offer a much more vivid and accurate photo.

Laser is the cost-effective choice.

I use a Epson Photo Stylus 1400 Color.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I have a Brother 3040CN. It doesn't have the greatest photo quality, but it'd be fine for most home use. (I get photos I like printed at Costco anyway.) I mostly use it for invoices and stuff where the color logos look a little more professional. I'm quite pleased with the quality for my purposes.

Printing google maps directions in color when I'm going somewhere I know I won't have cell service is also handy. (Camping ftw!)

Toners cost about $60 for a set of 4 on Amazon, if I buy the remanufactured ones. Which are usually original Brother cartridges, with a hole cut in them, stuffed full of toner, and covered in duct tape. Because Brother doesn't screw around with microchips in their cartridges. Retail, they're just shy of $300 for 4. The printer originally retailed for less than that, iirc.

I got the printer for free from somebody who didn't want to deal with toner prices anymore, and was wary of non-OEM cartridges because they make the printer explode or something. iDunno. Free printer.

 

[PliotronX]

IDK if I've just had bad luck with inkjets but even expensive models I have had negative experiences with. Epsons are flush-happy, HP's are jam-happy, Lexmark is a chip nazi, Kodaks won't scan if they are out of ink... they all never seem to work right when you need 'em, they require specially coated paper otherwise text looks nasty (lasers can print razor sharp on yellow legal paper for cryin out loud). When I need photos printed there is a local printshop that hooks me up with discounts because the people who work there are cool. I just don't see how inkjets are so popular.

 

[Doomer]

First page out speed has kept me from buying a color laser. I don't have the patience to wait 45 seconds for my page to exit the printer.

 

[PliotronX]

First page out speed has kept me from buying a color laser. I don't have the patience to wait 45 seconds for my page to exit the printer.

I've not encountered one that takes that long anymore. Often times if an inkjet hasn't been used in a while it automatically flushes the heads which takes far longer than any laser startup.

 

[infoiltrator]

At present myself and several friends use Canon InkJet printers. Mine was $20 something at Walmart, usually around $30, WIFI about $60.
My brother feels Brother InkJet printers offer the best cartridges.

For simplicity the laser color printer would be best.
FWIW I do not use the Canon that often and it is fine.
Do you have the discipline to print once a month or so to keep inkjet working?

 

[UaVaj]

recently got tired of inkjets. been with inkjets since the beginning of time with the cannon bjc100.



ink cost = laser win. page per page inkjet is way expensive compare to laser. just that with inkjet you get hit with $30 at a time. and with laser you get hit with $250 at a time.

causal printing = laser win. toner is powder and does not mess up laser print head. going almost 6 months between printing and no difference in quality. cannot say the same for ink. ink will clog up print head like it was design to do so. inkjet requires regular printing. go beyond 30 day without printing and you be in for a surprise.

quality = laser win. given the same dpi. laser is simply sharper.

paper = laser win. to get equal quality from inkjet. requires more expensive heavier paper.



given all this goodness of laser. why don't we all own laser printers? good question. the initial investment of laser is 5x-10x more expensive compare to inkjet. most of us only want to pay 1x and think about today, tomorrow, and next week. not 5x-10x and think about the next 3-5 years.

finally made the move to color laser last year because of the another dead inkjet print head and because the price of laser printer has become reasonable. best printing decision ever.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

To answer the original question, I have had the same toner cartridge in my laser printer at home for almost 10 years. I print about once per month and it always just works...

Amazing purchase, considering I also had the "ink dried up" issue often when trying to print with an old inkjet, prior to that.

 

[AE-Ruffy]

I purchased a Xerox 2300DL Color laser for $15 at a thrift store.

Toner cost me $16 per color. The drum has 90% life on it. It's heavy, It's huge, but the damn thing has printed thousands of pages and Ive only replaced two colors(Black and yellow) once. I dont need to think about ink drying out, heads gunking up. If anything I vacuum it up with a toner filter/vacuum once a year and I'm done.

Best printer purchase I've ever done. Highly recommend going the color laser route if you pick an older/workhorse of a printer, and find cheaper toner online.

 

[Puffnstuff]

You know when you consider how many pages you get from each cartridge vs ink in my case they are actually cheaper and I have 4 of them in my printer.