Anyone familiar with Brother 5140?

[masteraleph]

Looking at getting a B&W laser printer, and this one seems to be tops in consumables (6700 page toner cartridge for $60 at newegg). Was wondering if anyone had any experience with it.

 

[wseyller]

Keep in mind as that printer does not use in all-in-one toner cartridge. It has a separate toner/developing cartridge and it also requires the opc drum unit. The drum unit which is roughly $100 to $120 is rated to last through 3 toner cartriges, so in actuallity you are spending more than $60 and more like $80 or $90 per 6,700 @ 5% page coverage. I recommend a small HP laser printer which typically have the best cost per page.

 

[masteraleph]

Right, but on the HP 1012, the cartridge seems to be rated for 2000 pages and still be selling for ~$50 at cheapest. That definitely still ends up being more expensive per page, even with a drum (after 20,000 pages).

Quite frankly, I don't really want the extended paper tray that the HP1012 has (inkjet style tray, or at least what their inkjets used to have). That more than anything else is driving me away from HP.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I would suggest getting an older HP in the 4000 or up series, (eg 4000, 4050, 4100, ect..) They tend to have the best cost per page and a sick duty cycle rating. So they last a very very long time, I've still got an orginal HP Laserjet 4N that works just find and has excellent costs per page (altho it's getting slightly worse as it's getting harding to find toner for it as it's so old) for a black and white laser HP is really by far the way to go espicaly if you want to keep it a long time.

Edit: for example the High capasity toner cart. for the 4000/4050 can print 10k pages before needing replacment can be had for as low as 32.95 delivered via pricegrabber

 

[wseyller]

Yeah the HP1012 isn't a super great cost per page although the oem carts seem to be getting closer to 3000 pages according to my Astm tests, but it is to be expected. You've done some good research and what you have chose is not bad by all means and you should be happy with it. What Arcanedeath suggested is a good idea if you found an older laserjet like the 4000/4050 series with would be real good. Even a slower running HP 4 or 5 are pretty solid printers, but then again you would have no warranty.

Arcanedeath: I'm surprised that you have trouble finding those toner carts especially if you found a reliable remanufacturer. Actually something that might you might find interesting. The oem 92298A cartridge for a Laserjet 4 is rated for 6,800 pages of course. I've ran an oem benchmark for this cartridge and got only 5,923 or similiar numerous times using 5% test targets under stm protocol. Average reflection density is 1.53. I rebuilt a cartridge with a mag roller that I produce, a fuji text drum and toner from one company and also another similiar test with only changing to another toner. The fuji text drum is a very cool drum, but the result was 12,639 pages with a 1.43 average reflection density which is not much a difference lower in density. That is a hell of a cost per page savings.