low-end laser printers these days?

Adcadet

Adcadet

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What are you guys recommending these days for entry-level, single-user laser printers? Samsung seems to have the cheapest but I know nothing of their printers. It would be connected to a single computer for a small business and really wouldn't get used that much. Speed would also be unimportant. Thoughts?
 
I prefer LJ5's over LJ4's: Because a 5 is faster than a 4, the paper does not stay in contact with the heating element as much and thereby less curl which was the bane of LJ4's. Both are very solid printers well worth getting used.
 
Thanks for the tip Mark. And I'm not joking about them being the printers to get; I'm still getting about one refurb a month to install for new clients or end users.
 
I like the Samsungs mentioned, and the HP's.
What's wrong with the 4000 series???
 
IMHO, the 4000, 4050, and 4100 series are the next best thing to the LJ4 and LJ5; as far as pure bullet-proof-ness is concerned. If features, speed, size, and noise are concerned; look elsewhere.
 
I should say that while cheap, the chip that came with the Samsung cartridge fill didn't fit just right, and, every once in awhile I get a notice that the toner is substandard or something. Pulling the cartridge, shaking it once or twice, and putting it back in seems to solve this. Still, it does keep me from selling it to a friend or something...
 
Tannin said:
Only two things: H and P.

http://redhill.net.au/w/w-hp.html
Click to expand...

LOL, Tannin, nice anecdotal evidence there, hardly compelling. Did not read the reviews of the HP lasers mentioned above in that link, seemed like they were complaining about customer service and reliability of a specific HP inkjet printer. Kind of like Canon's waffling on the 1DMkIII wouldn't you say? So by that failed logic, since the 1DMkiii fiasco, no one should ever buy any Canon products, correct? :D

Meh, take a look at his picture I just took of that page you linked to, WTF does an old calculator have to do with anything? I paid less than $100 (probably 30-$50) for this TI calculator for a business/accounting class I took in the mid '80's (note the instruction manual has copyright dated at 1984)... oh look, it still works, I punched in some numbers hit a function key, and the simple LCD display works, whoo hoo!:jumpin:

I haven't even used it much for over 2 decades, and it has the original battery in it!!! (not sure if it's an Eveready Energizer Bunny watch battery, but maybe they should make a TV commercial about this, lol?).
 
I still have my HP 15c that I purchased used back in 1985. Long Live RPN! Batteries are better than 15 years old but it still works.

As to lasers, a friend has, IIRC, the HP 2600 Color LJ. We haven't really talked about it but he seems to like it well enough.
 
I bought a Samsung 1510 (at least I think that's the model) a couple years ago and it's worked fine for some time now. I don't print a ton of stuff but it's gotten enough work that I've had to replace the original toner cartridge with no complaints.
 
I have a used LJ5 that I no longer use if you want to buy it. My parents have been bugging me about getting it out of their house for years. Shipping it wouldn't be cheap though.
 
When I went with someone on a Saturday afternoon tour of various Office superstores to assist in purchasing a cheapo laser printer, I ended up liking some of the Brothers (brand) cheapo laser printers better than many of the other cheapo laser printers. They seemed to be built fairly well and were quite fast for US$225. At least the cheapo Brother laser printers I saw had a cooling fan, whereas the other brands of cheapo laser printers apparently had no cooling fan whatsoever.
 
By the way, the new Universal HP software actually works with 2003 Server! That amazed me, no end...
 
I don't know if it's true today but in the past Brother and some of the other smaller players had nice inexpensive printers but the consumables were quite expensive. I think the toner & fuser were packaged together or something. Cheap to buy, expensive to operate.
 
If any of my friends asked me today to build a PC and recommend a printer, I'd recommend a cheap laser printer. Samsung, HP and Brother have some in our market.

Reason being that the laser printers sport P4,xxx price tags and are reasonably cheap. Whereas if they bought a cheaper inkjet, they'd be throwing it out in a year's time because of clogged nozzles, unless they printed 5 pages at least 3X a week.

The laser printer can sit there for a week and spew out good copies. Whereas an inkjet idle for a week will ask you to clean its nozzles before it can print well. And that's a waste of good money.
 
I must say that I agree with the general sentiment, but mine seems to be an exception.

Brother MFC-440CN

I print 1 page of driving directions every other week or so, and they always just work. The cartridges don't gum up and ink level reporting works well. I don't know how long they last, as it's too much trouble to notice.
 
I moved away from Canon & Epson because of ink clog issues. I've never had such an issue with HP ink jets. They can go weeks at a time between print jobs but are always ready.
 
A client has an HP MFC (not sure the model, but it is new and has a flatbed scanner) that clogs in 2 days if it isn't used. I ended up writing a script that prints a picture every day at midnight. Crazy.
 
Ours are MFCs as well, although I used to have straight-up DJ9xx series printers that were just fine. I have an OJ5510 and my wife uses an OJ16xx (something).

Of course the ink is way too expensive but we don't print that much so it works out fine. If print volume ramps up I was thinking about the low end color LJ like the 2600 or whatever fits that slot at the time.
 
Time for a refresh on everyone's thoughts on the topic ~3 years later.

I'm thinking of getting a cheap B&W networked (wired) duplex'ing laser printer for home since the whole USB print server idea seems sketchy and about half as expensive as a low end laser printer. At my last job we got a Brother multi-function networked laser when I started and it worked for 3+ years without a hitch (and was still working fine when I was laid off). The same can't be said of either of the HP laser printers (one color and one B&W) which were the same age as the Brother (or younger).
 
I've been directing my customers to Brother laser printers for the last few years. The MFC-2xyz guys are very solid hardware.
 
The Samsung printers I have work great until service is needed, trek they are a write-off. The HPs are more expensive and no better until out comes timer for a service. I suppose it depends on whether you mind throwing out whole printers or not.
 
So, which one of these would you buy?

The HL-2270DW can be bought for under $100 shipped, but has a starter toner cartridge (700 pg yield) and a drum that's good for 12k pages. The HL-5370DW is ~$180 shipped and has a full size toner cartridge (3k pg yield) and a drum that's good for 25k pages. They both seems to have cheap non-OEM / compatible toner cartridges available for them.
 
I'd probably go with the more expensive Brother printer, just because I know there's no limit to the things HP is capable of fucking up.
 
I ended up going with a Brother multifunction and have been happy with it. We use it to scan, fax, and print a few times per week, and usually just a few pages.
 
Let's see.
Samsung 2150 worked great, for 5 years. Replaced one cartridge with refilled, and new chip, and got through that. At the end, messages wrong cartridge, etc. Had to pull the cartridge, replace, and reseat. Trashed it. Not worth repairing.

Xerox 130 is still going strong, 11 years old. Big, awkward, but cartridges aren't absurdly expensive, and, it just works.

HP 4000N is going on 11-12 years old, bought a new cartridge about 6 months ago, and, the HP software has been telling me it's out of ink, and I should replace the cartridge for about 12 months. Have a new cartridge sitting there, but, no need yet. It's over 75K pages.

Panasonic printer for Challenged Client. It's gone on 3-4 years, 60 bucks from Costco. First cartridge replacement was around 50 bucks, needs another, around 3-5K per cartridge. A long way from 17k for a 70 cartridge for HP 4000N.

C.C. has run through the second refill, and wonders what to do. Printer has a bit of a line in the middle of each printed page, a line caused by not printing. Don't know what it is, but, it's kind of noticeable.

I can't find a cheap Laser printer, anywhere near 60 bucks, that even comes close, that doesn't include a 'starter cartridge' then requiring another cartridge that is twice the cost of the printer.

On a side note: My cat just managed to hit the keyboard, highlight and blank half this page in less then a second. Had to use restore to replace the deleted stuff.

How did she do that????
 
Either way, one drum and cartridge will probably last a sizable fraction of a decade for most people's personal printing needs.
 
Santilli said:
Anyone checked on Price per page? Brothers cartridges still seem expensive. for the Brother
HL-5370DW Duplex Wireless Laser Printer

100 dollars for 8k pages
62 dollars for 3000
and
120 dollars for a drum, for 25K pages?

IIRC my HP 4000N 10k cartridge was just under 100 dollars.
Click to expand...
Isn't that were non-OEM compatible cartridges come into play? They're ~$30 for the TN650 compatible (8k) on ebay. And, I don't really see how a home user will consume the drum with a life of 25k pages with typical usage pattern so the cost of those seems less important (though they're only ~$35 on ebay for a compatible non-OEM one).
 
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