Ink Jet v Laser Printers (for the home)

[Stella]

Been reading good things about the Brother brand, thnx.

What about printing various types of paper with lasers (i.e. craft paper, heavier card stock, etc.)?
I'm reading that ink jets are better suited to print on a variety of papers over lasers.

[The Mad King Pepe']

About to go buy this: Brother HL-2280DW. I'll recycle my toner to save money.

I also have an Epson Photo quality ink jet that's silly expensive to print and the jets get clogged from little use. If I need to print photo, I rather walk 20 mins to CVS uphill in the snow (both ways!) than deal with the inkjet, but that's just me.

[the_Journeyman]

I like laser, I work in a computer lab and A LOT of paper goes through my printer.  I have an over 10-year old HP LaserJet 4100 that works great and has had ZERO maintenance aside from toner cartridges.  I think my cartridges are around $120.  They last quite a while, like over an entire box of paper.

JM

[hbliam]

I've tried Lexmark, Brother, Hp. etc. Our current HP Laserjet P1006 laser printer was cheap (like $100) and toner is less then $50 and lasts for a long time. I've replaced the toner about once a year (printer is 2.5 years old) and I've been in school the whole time. I think the model is discontinued likely because the like printer is now wireless. Never a problem.

[Howie]

We use a Canon PIXMA iP8500 for photos, bubble jet with 8 different color inks.  The closest current model is probably the PIXMA Pro Mark II

http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/printers_multifunction/professional_photo_inkjet_printers/pixma_pro9000_mark_ii

[Heath]

Been reading good things about the Brother brand, thnx.

I have had great luck with Brother laser printers.  I had a basic b/w laser HL-2070N that has only given me a few problems most of which I caused.  There have been 5 paper jams in 5000 sheets all from bent paper I put in. When the starter cartridge ran out I bought one of those refill kits.  That was a big mistake the printing quality went down hill.  So then I bought a new toner through monoprice. $15!!  Staples wants $65.  She was back and running like a champ.

Now I have a color laser all in one.  Brother MFC-9010CN is the one I have.  I ordered online at Staples, free delivery to store, online coupon, then turned in an old printer and got it almost half off the regular price.  So far it has been great.  I do not photo print with it and haven't tried so I can't comment on that.  The software isn't bloated like HP software is.  I keep all that turned off though until I need it.  I have it networked to my router so all our computers can print over my wifi router.  This model doesn't have wifi or Fax but other ones do.  When I need toner I will get it from monoprice. Staples wants $72 a toner and monoprice just $30.

[AdmiralKit]

I have an HP laser printer that is literally 20 years old (I actually get the old "PC LOAD LETTER" error message).  Hands down, go with a laser printer.  Yeah, toner cartridges are 2-4x as much as an inkjet cartridge, but you will end up getting 20x as many pages out of a laser printer toner cartridge.  I had it when I was in college and had a roommate who would routinely print off 1k pages in technical documentation per week (he wasn't one for conservation), and I ended up having to change the cartridge in November... that was 6 years ago, and I haven't had to change the cartridge yet.

The one function I would recommend that I haven't seen anyone here talk about yet is to have a network print server integrated into the printer... whether via WiFi or wired, it's a great feature to have to enable multiple computers to share a single printer.

[Stella]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!

Decision not made yet (too busy w/travel this week) and will revisit next week and hopefully be making a decision then.

[ungeheuer]

Output vs cost.  Quality vs quantity.

If your intended use is to print high quality colour images, no home office use laser printer will do.  Gotta go ink jet for best colour image quality for a home office device.

If what you're after is a general use office printer, printing monochrome and colour documents then a laser printer is likely to be more durable and certainly less costly to operate.  You're right, generally laser cartridges are expensive but when costed on a per page basis, they work out much less costly than "cheaper" ink jet cartridges.

There are other considerations:  Some ink jet printers have combo cartridges which require you replace all the colours even if you only ran out of... magenta.....  << avoid those.  Laser printers have costs other than just their toner cartridges.  Some have drum units with integrated developer units, other have these as separate items.  Fuser units require periodic replacement, some laser printers have transfer belts also requiring periodic replacement.   Thing to do is find out the cost of all the consumable items and the expected yield of those items to arrive at your cost per page.  Output costs vary significantly and manufacturers are crafty at hiding 'em.

On network connectivity, its very handy to have a printer with integral NIC so that you're not forced to set it up as a "shared" printer on one PC.  It just resides on your home N/W as a resource available to any PC user regardless.  N/W scanning offers wider options my favourite being scanning to SMB (local folder).

So, you see..... the answer to which you should get is this:

It depends  .

[herm]

+1 on the network/ wireless accessibility. my old printer did not come with this feature, but my new router makes it happen anyway. also, i noticed that the new version of my HP printer is wireless enabled.

[Stella]

So, you see..... the answer to which you should get is this:

It depends 

       

Thanks Ung....

[Stella]

I am STILL debating printers.   

While there are a few I would really like, price is a big issue.

So, being the cheap risk taker that I am, I found one locally on Craigslist that I'm going to check out.

It's a big brother. 
But a cheap brother.
Kinda like my big brother sibling.   
(who, for the record, i do love)   


The inanimate brother is...... crap.  Just double checked and it's NOT color capable.   
It's everything else but that.   Arrrggghh.

Nevermind....     

[duccarlos]

if you want to be truly cost effective...go dot matrix!!!

+1

[Dirty Duc]

As others have mentioned, inkjets dry up specifically right before you need them. 

I got a free laser printer (old, brother something) that always works.  We don't need no stinking color!

[Stella]

My second hp inkjet has been a pita for quite a while. Fed up with them.


Did more research last night & finally sprung for a new Brother color laser all-in-one from office max. 

Will set it up tonight and use the old for target practice/stress relief.