Great Laser Printer Hunt

TEssery

First I must declare an interest - I work for a laser printer manufacturer, Kyocera. We use a totally different technology to all other laser printer manufacturers, whereby the drum and developer are permanent components so all that has to be replaced regularly is the toner, which significantly reduces running costs. Our technology is 13 years old and I've been here for 12 years, so I've made a long-term study of the comparative costs of running laser printers and the strategies of our competitors.

The reason that laser printers have become so cheap is that most manufacturers loss-lead with the printer to obtain new customers for their more profitable cartridges. An example of how one manufacturer, HP, uses revenue and profit from supplies (cartridges) to prop up less profitable divisions can be found at the end of this post. However, this strategy falls down if the customer then buys "look-alike" cartridges, so many manufacturers are introducing "killer chips" which mean that compatible cartridges just won't work, or will invalidate your warranty if you haven't used original manufacturer supplies. You need to be aware of this before you buy. Plus, the quality of "look-alike" cartridges is highly variable - some are very good, but others contain much less toner or ink than the original brand or have other quality issues. It's therefore wise to choose a supplier based on personal recommendation and not necessarily to go for the cheapest "look-alike" around.

My top tips for economical printing are:

Before you buy, work out how much you are likely to print and calculate the total cost including both buying and running the device over its lifetime. You can discount things like electricity and paper as they won't vary significantly, but include the cost of the printer itself, all consumables (some models require separate drum replacements at relatively short intervals which won't necessarily by widely publicised) and any extended warranty contract you may want.

Be very wary about buying an extended warranty contract or support pack if you intend to buy "look-alike" cartridges, as it will almost certainly be invalid.

If you expect to print more than 50 or so pages per month, it is almost always more economical to buy a laser printer rather than an inkjet. Inkjets, especially those with more than four coloured inks, are great for printing your digital photos and the odd letter, but cost several times as much to run as lasers and are generally much slower.

If you are buying for a business (even a small one) bear in mind that print volumes are generally increasing, so be careful to buy a printer which has spare capacity in terms of its maximum monthly print volume and which offers the potential to expand in future with network connection, extra paper cassettes etc.

For business use, consider printers which can print double-sided automatically, it can save you a fortune in paper and postage costs.

Apologies for the long post, but as I say this is what I do for a living! Here's the link to the HP article:

http://www.businessweekasia.com/technology/content/apr2005/tc20050428_7221_tc024.htm

lewcock

got a samsung ML 1520 from Comet @ £50.00 but after 1000 pages had to buy a new gizmo which copst £49.99 from Viking So a cheap printer does not cut the cost per page. Advertising standards should insist on suppliers quoting cost per printed page.

jpwjpw

I got a Samsung ML1510 for £29.99 a while ago from comet. Have printed over 5000 pages on it at top quality and used £7.99 toner refill bottles (3000 pages each) with no problems at all, these toners are soo easy to refill!
(http://www.consumablecafe.co.uk/acatalog/SAMSUNG_BOTTLED_TONER.html)
Best IT purchase I ever made!

Flimber

jpwjpw wrote:

I got a Samsung ML1510 for £29.99 a while ago from comet.

...

How come that ?

norman

anybody know the cheapest B/W photocopier?

norman

Rintoul & Skinner told me the word is :-- RECEIVE


NB I did NOT put in that "motto"

norman

you are STILL at it ya b............................

I have spent the last 53 years on the East coast, but if you need me to,

I CAN travel to the West to give you a Glasgow kiss.

Bin_Basher

:eek:

I have just been reading the posts on the cheap ink jet cartridge refills, be warned when I looked at the link the site was offering what look like to be unbranded cartrides similar to ones that I have used recently. They clogged my cannon printer completely and rendered it useless. I have found the best cheap cartrides to be print rite. Sold by a company in Worthing called Tone Zone. Hope this helps all money savers avoid the same problem I have had!!!!!!!

MONSIEUR_3

A great way to save money on cartridges is to visit the following link, I saved a packet.
https://www.tonertopup.co.uk

buzzer

£60. At least this machine looks smart and is honest enough to tell you what life you will get out of the consumables.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=7437214569&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=85942