Best laser printer under $500?

[AngryAmish]

Small office printer. Black and white.

[MicaelS]

1. Too broad a question

(1) How many people are going to us it? Do you need network capability?

(2) Do you need Duplex Printing capability (both sides)?

(3) What's your expected page count per month?

(4) Are you going to use it for your business so you can deduct expenses?

(5) Do you need to print only, or do you need an All-in-One unit aka Multi-Function Copier? Copies, faxes, scans

My advice go to Newegg and start researching. Do NOT forget to check the cost of consumables- toner and then drum / fuser units.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=630&name=Printer-Laser-Printers

[AngryAmish]

3. Small office, 3 people using it

duplex not needed

page count? I dunno. 500-750?

Business printer

do not need all in one. Have An hp all in one, want to get away from high toner cost.

[MicaelS]

4. Samsung or Lexmark

Go to Newegg and start researching. Do NOT forget to check the cost of consumables- toner and then drum / fuser units.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=630&name=Printer-Laser-Printers

Been using a Samsung ML series for few years, still working. Best advice I can give ----

(1) Samsung or Lexmark.

(2) Stay away from Brother, they use toner too fast.

(3) Buy a sub $200 printer, then if the drum unit goes out, toss it and buy a new printer.

(4) Buy good quality paper, don't attempt to reuse paper that has already been laser printed on, it can ruin the printer.

(5) Shop around for toner, you can save money. Toner can be a real ripoff.

[Curmudgeoness]

13. Don't reuse paper? Oh my!

I always use the back of my printed for drafts and worksheets. My printer is over 10 years old and still purrs. I never knew not to do this, but I suppose that I shouldn't worry too much by this time. This is my office printer and is used a lot, it is an HP 1200 Series (and that is the best I can do from memory). I have no idea if it is cheap or not, but I don't think there are many printers over $500 these days. It is the toner that kills you!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

15. Yes, that's a very important point...critical, in fact.

The main issue for me is the consumables...how often do I need to replace the toner cartridges, imaging unit, transfer belt, etc.?

The "guts" of a laser printer can often cost more than the printer itself. You might buy a printer that produces BEAUTIFUL pages, but 6 months down the road, you're paying 150% of the purchase price to replace the "guts."

This is even worse with inkjet printers. They DRINK INK. I have some things I printed on top-quality paper that are still stunning 5 years later. But my Epson (and HP) both drank ink, and at one point, just ruptured something internally that caused me to send them to the scrap heap.

This thread offers an HONEST and VALID question with NO easy answers.

A buyer has to read the reviews, read the user feedback, go to a local store, demand a print demo, price the consumables...or get ripped off. Period.

[Patiod]

2. Kick to see replies

I bought a nice little Canon Pixma, which is great for photos and color copies, but ridiculously expensive for business B&W printing.

Now I'm looking for the best laser printer under $200, and only two people will be using it, mostly for printing reports and scripts (SO is an actor). Wireless would be sweet. So I hope you get some replies, Amish.

[LeftyMom]

18. Try ebay for the ink replacements.

I have a Canon Pixma that's been running like a top for nearly a decade, and I finally started buying the ink on ebay. I have some scandalous quantity of aftermarket cartridges that I bought for $20 shipped, and the print quality isn't any different that I've noticed. I wish I'd started doing that earlier, I'd have saved enough to buy a new printer several times over.

[HopeHoops]

5. I've got an HP 1020 and an HP P1006 and both are excellent printers well under $500.

The 1020 is the one I prefer, but pretty much any of the HP B&W laser printers will perform well and be reliable. OfficeMax has the HP P1102w wireless for $150 right now. Before you make a decision, consider getting a multi-function like the HP M1217nfw ($250). If your price range is "under $500", you've got a lot of choices including color if you want it. Check the models out online before you go into a store.

[applegrove]

6. Check out the price of the cartridges instead. That is where all of your

money will go.

[freshwest]

10. Got that right. Sometimes the cartridges cost more than the copier!

[applegrove]

11. I think the companies subsidize the cost of printers so that you'll then be stuck buying

all their cartridges that huge markup. That is where all the money is.

[freshwest]

12. Yup!

[csziggy]

17. Freebie marketing, also known as the razor and blades business model

The general belief is that it was Gillette that started this idea, but it was really the competitors once the Gillette patent ran out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebie_marketing

[applegrove]

20. I love learning something new. Thanks.

[csziggy]

21. I'm old enough to remember companies giving away razor blades

And to have to use those horrid "safety razors with the replaceable blades. That is why I don't shave my legs, even though I now use an electric shaver for the bits I do shave. (I am female in case you are wondering.)

[Patiod]

22. I knew this when I bought my printer, but still

didn't factor in quite HOW crazy the prices on ink would be.

My elderly dad was shocked that a nice color printer was only $100, and I told him "oh, it's a razor and razor-blades thing - they're not selling printers, they're selling ink."

May take the folks who mentioned ebay ink up on their solution, because this is getting seriously out of hand.

[csziggy]

23. Be careful buying off brand inks

For some printers, it is OK, but for photo printers some of the cheap, third party inks can ruin the printer. I also don't worry so much about B&W laser printers since toner is basically old technology.

The more advanced photo ink jet printers have very small size nozzles that spray the ink. Cheap inks may not be engineered properly to go through those nozzles. It also depends on the type of ink - dye based is easier to formulate than pigment based. I'm not sure if anyone other than Epson, with their Claria inks, is making pigment based inks, but those are even harder to formulate.

Another consideration is whether or not your printer incorporates the print head into the ink cartridges. This is a subject that I have not stayed up to date on but it used to be that most HP ink jet printers had the printer heads built into the ink cartridges. It made the cartridges cost more but there were fewer problems with clogging.

Epsons are notorious for clogging and part of the problem are the tiny ink jets and the extreme engineering that they have put into the inks. Since the printer heads are not replaced, the chances of clogs is increased, especially if the printer is not used on a regular basis. I have not owned a Canon printer since my Bubble Jet 210 but the reason I gave up on it was the printer head needed to be replaced at a cost higher than a new HP printer.

[quakerboy]

7. We are of devided opinion

I prefer canon for inkjet, purely on quality.

I liked the Samsung units we had in the office.

My office manager insisted that the Brother units were far and away less expensive to operate(toner costs).

I would not recommend Lexmark. I never saw a single one that didn't break down.

[SoCalDem]

8. I recommend the el cheapo Brother

I have two of them..one I bought for $99..works great Bought at Tiger Direct online

http://www.google.com/search?q=brother+laser+printer&hl=en&newwindow=1&biw=682&bih=394&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=HHIwTpKaN67RiAKY4s2OBg&sqi=2&ved=0CJABEK0E

[GoneOffShore]

9. I'm going to second that - we bought a duplex, wireless

Brother laser printer for $150 from Staples and got it for $125 - had a $25 off card - This is our second Brother printer - first one lasted for at least 8 years.

Their service department is great. Even when the old printer was out of warranty they walked me through a couple of network problems. We've still got one of their fax machines which we're giving away.

[whistler162]

14. Well Staples has a nice price on a office printer

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1113145/

http://www.staples.com/Brother-HL-2270DW-Mono-Laser-Printer/product_887222

Just bought this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828112184 easy setup for multiple PC use.

[astral]

16. I got a little Okidata secondhand no less

and it works like a charm. Not real big either. I am not sure what it is new but I think it's 200 tops.

[csziggy]

19. I've got two lasers - a HP P1006 that cost $90 on sale and Brother that was free

I used the HP extensively during the 2008 campaign to print routes and maps for our teams. After three months and a case of paper, the cartridge that came with it ran out of toner. The replacement cartridge recently ran out, but I have been printing reams of genealogy data as well as two (small) genealogy books. I've even used it to print designs on cloth for embroidery (after ironing the cloth onto freezer paper). For a cheap printer, this little thing has been a workhorse and it is still going strong.

The second one is a Brother HL-5240 laser that going to be thrown out at my husband's job. Periodically, they upgrade their printers - the lasers at the point they expect to have to replace the drum. It has worked well for us for two years now. We did have to buy a cartridge for it when he first brought it home, but that was the only expense to get it running.

I'm currently using the Brother instead of the HP laser, mostly because it powers down between print jobs while the HP does not. I've also used the Brother for printing designs to fabric (our needlework group has been experimenting with various printers for this purpose).

The Brother is much larger and heavier than the HP. It is designed for heavy duty use. The HP is a light weight home printer and probably will not print as many total pages in its lifetime.

One thing to look at for how much use the printer is intended to handle is the "Max. Duty Cycle" which will be expressed in XXX number of pages monthly. For instance, the Brother HL-5340, the equivalent of ours has a Max. Duty Cycle: Up to 30,000 pages monthly. The HP P1102, Max. Duty Cycle: Up to 5,000 pages monthly - quite a difference in expected reliability. But that Brother printer costs twice what that HP does.

The cartridges are the other part - the HP P1006 cartridges cost just under $70 for max. yield: 1,500 pages or 5 cents a page; The Brother HL-5240 cartridges just under $80 for max. yield: 3,500 pages or under 2.5 cents per page. And you can buy a high capacity cartridge for the Brother which drops the cost per page to 1.5 cents per page. (Those prices and estimated pages came from Office Depot. I rounded up all the prices for the cartridges.)

Also factor in the replacement drum cost. I am not sure the total number of pages per drum, but the cost of the drum is significant. Hubby brought home a second Brother laser which I would have loved to have used since it had duplexing capability (automatically print on both sides of a page). But the drum had gone bad on it - a replacement cost $150 locally. I could buy a refurbished version of that printer for $150. And hubby was not even sure that the printer worked before they took the drum out. Either way, I cannot justify the cost for a feature that would be convenient but I don't really need. Drums also have an estimated number of pages listed so you can figure out the expected cost.