Cost of toner cartridges?

Check the availability and cost of toner cartridges for the printer before buying. I have seen several recent offers for which cartridges are very difficult to find, and when you do find them they are expensive. Another inkjet to laser issue to evaluate is whether there are separate color and black cartridges. Yes replacing black inkjet cartridges can be moderately expensive, but having to replace an expensive black and color laser cartridge just because the black runs out can be more frustrating and expensive.

Laser is cheaper, long-term

One thing to consider with laser printers is that you'll be replacing the cartridge a lot less often.  In fact, I've only just replaced the cartridge that came with my laser printer, 2 years ago, with a 'full' cartridge which will do 2600 pages.  Given that the cartridge with the printer was only 700 pages, I expect this next one to last for at least another 5 years.

If you look at inkjets, you'll notice that the pricing of the printer itself is relatively inexpensive compared to the replacement cartridges - it's the same with razor blades.  Given that inkjets do go through ink a lot quicker, the replacement cartridges are where the printer companies make their money.  This isn't the case for laser printers, hence the inital expense.

Photo quality

Consumer and small office Laser Printers do not do nearly as good a job on photos as even a cheap inkjet printer. If you want to print photos, that is something to consider.

Eats Ink

My Canon inkjet Pro9000 consumes ink every time it is turned on and a page printed. It goes through a nozzle clearing routine. This is not the same as a user initiated nozzle cleaning. The manual states this is normal procedure and specifically states that frequent turn on, print, turn off will consume a lot of ink. The manual isn't lying. It can wipe cartridges in a heartbeat even though not many pages are printed. When possible I stage my print work in a folder to try and print everything at once. PIA. The printer's saving grace is it produces simply stunning prints.

Cheap Chinese Ink Cartridges

I get around the issue buy getting cheap Chinese ink cartridges. I used to be able to get them without the chip for around $2 and then I would pry the chip from the old one and put it in the new one, but they are no longer selling them like that for my printer so I think I pay around $8 for them now with the chip. Since the printer only cost around $120 and the ink for it costs $90, if the printer dies from using cheap ink, I don't really care!

I had to buy a new printer a few years ago for the the simple reason that the ink cartridges were getting hard to find, the printer still worked perfectly, just couldn't find the cartridges anymore! It looks like this latest one might be headed this way too. 

I have been looking with interest at the cheap lasers, but I worry about the same issue, how long will they sell the toner cartridges for? The Brother make seems to be the cheapest on toner, at least so they claim.

All inkjet printers use ink for cleaning, some are worse than others. I had an Epson a number of years ago that would always get clogged, I would have to run several cleaning cycles, then when it was ready to print, it would be out of ink! Ended up throwing that one away. Problem is you never know, the reviews you read never test them for long enough to really tell what the true cost is, and then when you go to buy that model that rated the best it has been discontinued in favour of some new model.

I have heard people say that their laser toner lasts a long time, but I wonder if that is true of these new cheaper models that are out now?

Printers

Inkjet printers, at least since they became mainstream, are nothing more than a vessel to sell you ink cartridges. They use ink to clean the print head every time you turn on.  If you do not use your inkjet often enough, the print head will clog and you will need to clean, sometimes more than once, in order to print again.  Leave it sit long enough and you will need to replace the ink cartridges because they have dried up in the printer.

Color laser printers have become more affordable.  Bought a Brother color laser a few years ago.  I too only recently replaced the toner cartridges that come with it.  I was amazed at how long they lasted.  Toner cartridges are expensive.  I did find my cartridges quite a bit cheaper on Amazon than at Staples.  I don't see myself ever buying another Inkjet.

I don't print photos at home if what I want is an actual print.  I upload my images to my not-so-local camera shop's website.  I choose my prints and they produce them very quickly.  My spouse is in the city week days, so she often picks my order up for me.  I don't think I could buy photo paper and do as good a job for the money, at home, without a much better printer than I will ever buy.

I am happy.

...

If you're buying a printer, I HIGHLY suggest you find the Year Book form consumer Reports.  They have a section in there for printers that is a fair ten pages long, listing every printer and just about every option on every printer on the market and places them on a fair side by side comparison.  And they include the cost per copy, which is important!

Once you select your model, find it through Amazon or other e-tailer and get it at the best price you can.  This way you get exactly the printer you want and not the printer the store is trying to sell you [which may be a good one, btu then again, it may cut you short].

Consumer Reports

I think they have lost a lot of credibility over the past few years.  I wouldn't base any decision on their report alone.

Typically I buy stuff from companies that have good history of making the product.  I took a chance on the Brother because they have been making business machines for as long as I can remember.  I figured it was worth the chance and I have been pretty happy.

Samsung...well known for phones and cheap electronics in the past...not sure I would buy their printer but I do have an S5 since I had to replace my old phone recently.

Buying anything these days is a crap shoot.  Best of luck to you in your search.

...

They were spot on when it came to price, features and cost per page, which I do believe are the single most important points when it comes to buying anything.  And these three items are pretty objective - you can't say a printer without LAN has LAN, the MSRP is pretty well defined, and the cost per print is basically calucluated by the number of prints per cartidge.  They were spot on when it came to the cost of printing on my Canon.  But I got it becasue it was an All-in-one, and because it had Wired Wireless capabilities, which basically means it's on a patch cable that connects it directly to the router.  I'm aware of models that have WIFI capability themselves, but I wanted my routing to go through my router.

All the other numbers are averages and obivously should be taken with a grain of salt...

Refill service question

No not the old ink refill kits you could buy. I never had any luck with refilling color cartridges, only black. What I'm talking about is that I took a color inkjet cartridge to a Walgreens  a year or so back and had it refilled for a lot less than buying a new one. Unfortunately, it didn't work so well.  Wondering if anyone has had any luck with the so called refill services  and if that even still exist.  Or did it go the way of the DIY refill kits?

Michael

Soooo tired of buying ink ....

I had the same problem with a Canon Pro 9500.  So I bought a very inexpensive HP Photosmart B110a for general use for about NZ$79.  I buy the XL cartridges as part of the Photo Value pack - 1 of each colour XL cartridge plus a 25 sheet pack of photo paper..

I model extensively in card so use the printer a lot for printing brick papers and card kits & get good life from these cartridges.  Much better than the standard cartridges.

I have tried printing card kits on colour laser printers, but as Bill alludes to earlier, inkjets do a far better job & I do not like the shiny finish that most lasers produce.

Steve

When I had my Canon inkjet I

When I had my Canon inkjet I refilled my cartridges with a DIY kit and it worked great.

I'm now in the market for a color printer and I think I've decided to leave inkjet behind and go laser. The problem is that it's impossible to buy a printer without a scanner and fax. I don't want a fax, and I don't need a scanner. I just want a printer!

I recently bought a Samsung

I recently bought a Samsung CLX-3300 Laser Printer as I wanted to print decals, I have an Epson inkjet printer with a continuous inking system that I use for photos, anyway getting back to the Samsung laser, after trying to print some decals I found that it could not print them, the reason being, the paper is fed in and has to go around the rollers which it can't do because the decal paper is too heavy (thick) and the printer cannot handle it. If you look on the web you will see that a lot of folks are having the same problem with heavier paper, even envelopes. Samsung has been useless in the help dept as you can see if you do a Google search of the web. So now I bought a Brother MFC-9330CDW Laser printer, this has a straight through paper path and works really great, I gave the Samsung away to my nephew who just wanted a laser printer.

I used to print my decals on my Epson inkjet but after the ink dries you have to give it a few coats of clear coat so when you place them in the water to use them so the ink doesn't run and wash off, with doing it on the laser I don't have to spray them.

HP did offer an inkjet

that offered laser-comparable speed and capacity. I haven't seen one lately.

I would not buy Samsung, Lexmark or Epson lasers. They are too cheaply built and have too limited memory. I once ran up a Samsung and sent it a multi-page test print and the thing crashed on the third page with a memory overrun. Fat lot of good it did having a duplex unit, given that even though there were large colour pictures in the document, such inability is not acceptable in today's world.

Brother - look closer and see if the thing has separate photoconductor units. Some Brother colour engines use a single large array holding all four drums, which even if you only use one up will need to be replaced in its entirety; we do not rebuild these units.  On that note, beware of single-photoconductor engines in general; I do not trust them, particularly revolver engines or OPC-belt (instead of drum) engines.  Still, at least you're not faced with the hours of labour related to the tests that need to be performed when you replace the print head on one of their inkjets.

Sharp have some light desktop printers, though those are not well-known and we rarely have them even though I actually work in a Sharp shop. We mostly sell Brother, and now OKI, for that.

OKI, I'm still in two minds about. I liked their older printers I saw during my last job, but I think someone's been at their newer products, to the point where it feels more fragile. I'll keep you posted as to whether I like the print quality.

I have not tried a Konica Minolta desktop in quite some time. I wasn't unhappy with it last time I did, but that was years ago and I do not know if it has improved. or the opposite. Also can't be sure of the thing's range of media types; it might not do all the thicknesses of paper you want. Then again that is another question you have to ask when buying a new printer of any brand.

I usually use copiers for mine. It's the same principle, but has much greater capacity, speed, and HDD space, with lower cost per page. (based on a 5% coverage [/disclaimer]). However you will need to eliminate pieces of furniture and they cost as much as cars.

The last time I tried high-quality photos on an inkjet I needed special paper, and it took almost ten minutes. Otherwise the difference would have been negligible. No kit I have ever used has really been published at a higher resolution than a laser can handle anyway.

Setting print quality

Depending on what needs to be printed, I have my printer settings set at "draft mode" or what some printers call "economy printing".  This uses 1/3rd the ink as in normal printing.  Unless I need to have whatever i'm printing super dark or bold, this really stretches your ink a long way.  I hardly ever print anything in color.

P.S.  HP inkjets seem to be the least expensive for ink in my area.

For me

I used to buy HP everything, they were the best.  However, I was very disappointed with the last HP printer I purchased and as a result will never buy another one.  I purchased the printer and less than 18 months later, I got a new Windows 7 laptop.  Guess what?  No driver available to work with Win7.  And the tech support response?  "We don't support the older models."  It was 18 months old!!!!  Clearly, they just want to sell you a printer every 18 months.

After that debacle, I went and purchased an Epson All-In-One inkjet.  Over two years and still works beautifully and I don't go through nearly as much ink as I did with the HP.  

Soooo tired of buying ink ....

So why not buy a "continuous ink" system to skip the ink refills altogether?

I've seen them advertised on Ebay, have heard other people say good things about them, but I have not personally used one myself, although I have been mulling over a CNC project in which it would come in handy. They are available for a wide variety of printer models.

Here is a link to an Ebay search with the terms "Continuous Ink"

John