Dell ink too expensive - new printer?

daisyloo

wow - thanks for the warning - will check prices of toner before I buy!

elfen

Lil - think the Pixma one is the printer I'm getting - how easy to get are the cartridges, and how expensive are they?

daisyloo

Have reserved this - any comments on it?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6704537/Trail/searchtext%3EMONO+LASER.htm

DatabaseError

daisyloo wrote: »

Have reserved this - any comments on it?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6704537/Trail/searchtext%3EMONO+LASER.htm

looks ok, small toner cart though
There’s only one consumable in the ML-1640, a drum and toner cartridge rated at 1,500 pages. Running costs depend entirely on the price you can find this for and the cheapest we could turn up was just under £38. This gives a cost per page of 2.35p, which is about average for an entry-level mono laser, and even for those costing up to £100, so you’re not paying a premium to compensate for the low asking price of the machine itself.

Lil306

elfen wrote: »

Lil - think the Pixma one is the printer I'm getting - how easy to get are the cartridges, and how expensive are they?

Genuine OEM cartridges are easy as hell to find. It's Canon colours 40+41 for the MP180. Places like Argos, PC world, Asda, etc all sell them. They usually cost me around £35, I could get them way cheaper but I preferred the proper inks as TBH I don't use my printer that much except for letters, eGAY and pictures.

It has a nice software package that comes with it (OCR and some other junk) and I've had no problems with it since owning it (also looks V.nice imo)

daisyloo wrote: »

Have reserved this - any comments on it?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6704537/Trail/searchtext%3EMONO+LASER.htm

I spotted that one, if you have the time do a quick hunt around. Samsungs are very cheap and cheerful, they do the job as they're designed for SOHO users. One niggle I know of is they can get iffy with warnings etc that's usually when the sensor gets dirty. Not an issue just something to note.

HP laserjets are more common, I don't know of their entry level equipment but their standard tank in the models I used to support (4250) was 10,000 pages and high yield was something like 30,000 pages. A low level entry printer for the HP I'd expect would be around 3000 pages, that Samsung is good it's cheap. The toner is about average as it's a small items but you'd need to work out how many pages you'd print out.

Additionally by comparison, my Canon Inks say that they last approx 300 pages per tank. So for a standard toner of 1500 pages for the Samsung it would cost me £100 in inks for the Canon. Understandably it varies on the prices of ink etc and what you use but that's still a 50% saving on the cost of your ink.

DatabaseError wrote: »

looks ok, small toner cart though
There’s only one consumable in the ML-1640, a drum and toner cartridge rated at 1,500 pages. Running costs depend entirely on the price you can find this for and the cheapest we could turn up was just under £38. This gives a cost per page of 2.35p, which is about average for an entry-level mono laser, and even for those costing up to £100, so you’re not paying a premium to compensate for the low asking price of the machine itself.

As above, depends on how often they print, it's still quite cheap £100 gets your a printer and approx 2,200 pages straight away, the equivalent of that a lot more for the Dell.

daisyloo

I think I print between 1000 and 1500 pages a semester. There are 7 semesters left of my course.

With my Dell it has cost me about £120 for one semester. The samsung would be about £38 a semester plus the initial cost.

Any better ideas?

Lil306

Laser toner would definately be the right way for you without a doubt, I know of no Deskjets that outperform lasers in value for money

I'd probably suggest looking at the variety of lasers / toners available and what their capacity is.

Ideally if you can find a laserjet that does around 3000 or more prints for £50 or less you should be OK. Either way you will make a saving over your Dell without a doubt. Plus you can always keep the Samsung for future life, so it's a decent investment (think I'll have to consider getting a laser myself)

The Samsung is a good model if it fits the 1500-toner cartridge as you can get them for £40. Samsung has a printer (ML-2240) which says it prints in Econo Mode which gives up to 40% more print outs (works out ~2000 pages for £40) with Econo mode by spending another £40 on top of the initial printer price

Economical Solutions
Toner Save Mode allows you to save up to 30% on toner while still producing high quality prints. It also means less frequent toner changes. Printing options let you save paper by printing 2-up, 4-up, even up to 16-up on one page. High-capacity 1500-page yield toner cartridge can meet even large business printing needs.

Just some food for thought

andy2004

personally got a Epson SX200 printer, £45 from comets its an all-in-one inkjet printer. cartridges I bought where from ink-power via ebay, 14 cartridges for £10.99 inc postage and packing, each cartridge has 12ml of ink in which is about twice as much as a proper epson cartridge.
You can also get 12 cartridges from other sellers for around £6.99 but i've only ever bought from ink-power. works out about 79p per cartridge
http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/551422/EPSON-SX215?cm_sp=FeatureEnd-_--_-position £49.99 and take off 5% about £47.50
like the sx200, but has a 1.8LCD screen, where mine doesnt.
Get 5% off if you use 5PRINT at the checkout, from comets.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/14-INK-CARTRIDGE-FOR-S21-SX110-SX115-SX215-SX410-SX415_W0QQitemZ150403476975QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_Printing_PrinterInkCatridges_JN?hash=item2304beedef
cartridges for the printer.
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/INK-POWER__W0QQ_armrsZ1

You can save even more ink by using a program called INK-SAVER
www.inksaver.com

Lil306

andy2004 wrote: »

personally got a Epson SX200 printer, £45 from comets its an all-in-one inkjet printer. cartridges I bought where from ink-power via ebay, 14 cartridges for £10.99 inc postage and packing, each cartridge has 12ml of ink in which is about twice as much as a proper epson cartridge.
You can also get 12 cartridges from other sellers for around £6.99 but i've only ever bought from ink-power. works out about 79p per cartridge
http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/551422/EPSON-SX215?cm_sp=FeatureEnd-_--_-position
like the sx200, but has a 1.8LCD screen, where mine doesnt.
Get 5% off if you use 5PRINT at the checkout, from comets.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/14-INK-CARTRIDGE-FOR-S21-SX110-SX115-SX215-SX410-SX415_W0QQitemZ150403476975QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_Printing_PrinterInkCatridges_JN?hash=item2304beedef
cartridges for the printer.
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/INK-POWER__W0QQ_armrsZ1

You can save even more ink by using a program called INK-SAVER
www.inksaver.com

I would still go down the route of laserjet but I'm going to keep that seller in my favourites for my own printers

Millionaire

daisyloo wrote: »

I think I print between 1000 and 1500 pages a semester. There are 7 semesters left of my course.

With my Dell it has cost me about £120 for one semester. The samsung would be about £38 a semester plus the initial cost.

Any better ideas?

You don't even need a printer, Why not just use the Uni Library Printers or other workshop printers?

That's what I used to do.:D