Decent Printer to Buy? Also, best way to throw current HP out window?

[Hugo Drax]

I am still using my HP 4000N printer I purchased in 1998. It works like a champ. 16 years and working working great, never had an issue.

 

[eclipsesharp]

My Samsung mono laser printer has been with me for the past 7 years and still going strong..

 

[Red Squirrel]

Consumer bubble/ink jets in general suck. I think big commercial ones do use that tech, but it's a much better implementation.

For consumer, go with laser. I've been running off the same toner since I bought it. These things last forever. Bubblejet dries out so whether you use it or you don't, you get maybe a couple months, if you're lucky.

 

[Thump553]

Get a laser printer. I have an HP Laserjet that's served me well for 10 years now. Honestly, so rarely comes up that I would ever have to print anything in colour. Photos I'd just take to get done at the local shop. While the toner cartridges are expensive, they last a very long time. Don't know why anybody still uses ink jet.

I totally agree. Inkjets always clogged on me, ending up costing a lot more for worse quality prints.

I go with a Brother (monochrome) laser printers. They have a very good reputation and use cheap generic toner and drum cartridges. (I've heard they are switching to chipped cartridges, make sure whichever model you get takes generics). I have a Brother MFC laser I use in an office environment that I bought in 2005-it has well over 300,000 prints on it (the estimated usable life) and is still going strong-the only repair expense was a $12 cover hinge. Toner replacements cost roughly $20 and a drum $30.

As for the old one, turn it in at Staples. If you're lucky it will even earn you $50 off the new one.

 

[twinrider1]

Is it (Brother HL-2040) able to complex things like print on an envelope? How about some good looking wedding invitations?

Yes on the envelopes. It has a manual feed slot for envelopes and stock that is too thick to bend around the rollers.
Good looking? I guess. It's a laser printer. The print is solid and black, but it's not going to give nice thick print that you can feel like you'd get with a professionally printed job using ink.
In any case, I think it's a previous generation model. You'd have to look at their current offerings. I'd buy another Brother without hesitation.

 

[dawp]

as far as disposal, build a trebuchet snd film it.

 

[Meghan54]

Newegg's going to have the Brother HL2230 laser printer as one of their shell shockers today, starting at 1PM PST (4PM EST.) Reg. $114. Don't know what it'll be on "sale", but worth looking into.

http://www.newegg.com/special/shells...ellShocker-EB3

 

[ultimatebob]

Marked for later (still need to decide which window to throw my ink gobbling HP out of).

Does it float? Toss it over a big waterfall.

 

[lxskllr]

I'll never own another inkjet. I haven't had one yet that didn't clog. I don't use a printer often, so when I go to use it, I inevitably get a striped output, or the colors look like they were setup by someone colorblind.

 

[unokitty]

A few years ago, I threw away three ink jet printers. They all worked fine, when they worked. But I was tired of picking up ink cartridges every time I went to Frys.

I bought a pair of economical Brother Laser printers along with third party replacement toners.

They have worked fine ever since.

A bonus is that they have been recognized by both Windows 7 and Linux without much fooling around. (That's in contrast to the multimegabyte HP printer drivers I used to use.)

Though, if anyone has any suggestions concerning color lasers, I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences.

Uno

 

[mikeymikec]

Not paying for the printer - constantly paying $30+ for the cartridges.

Different cartridges have different amounts of ink in. A low capacity cartridge stores less so more materials are being used to store the ink. Volume economies in the supply of any consumable are common yet not universally applying. Saying "what you're paying $30 for cartridges?" is meaningless without some consumption/capacity figures to back it up with.

@ unokitty

HP are one of the worst manufacturers for producing bloated software/drivers. One can offset this a bit by looking on their site for 'basic' drivers which are usually between 10-20% of the size of the 'full' driver, but I simply avoid HP because it seems to be their general bad habit.

---

I'm surprised that a hardware reviewer hasn't done a thorough "mother of all printer reviews" job where they actually check the consumable yields themselves rather than relying on manufacturers' statistics. Throw in some power consumption stats for load and idle as well as a "how long will it take for you to start saving money on this printer" type statistics, and I think that people might be quite surprised at the conclusions. Techreport is doing what I consider to be a thorough SSD durability study.

I think a lot of people go through the following process:

1 - Buy the cheapest, nastiest inkjet they can find
2 - Discover that the printer manufacturer's cartridges cost money too
3 - In light of '2', buy the cheapest, nastiest cartridges they can find for the printer
4 - In a possible combination of not using the printer much and cheap ink that blocks the heads, they now have a dead/semi-functional printer in a year or two
5 - After advice from a friend, they buy a laser printer for 4-10x the price and say "inkjet printers are rubbish".

As usual, most people don't research or seek decent advice before making a purchasing decision. Inkjet printers require more care and attention, and there are some very dodgy value printers out there. There are dodgy value laser printers out there as well (in comparison to decent inkjets and/or other laser printers). Spending more does not necessarily mean better value; using a manufacturer's own stats, I found that a £200 inkjet and a colour laser for about the same price both represented better value even when the total pages printed reached 50k pages. The printers involved in those statistics were sold for between £175 and £875. Of course, the question for any printer is "will it reach that sort of milestone". The £875 one most probably would, and probably would start delivering better value if I pushed the yields up to 100k or beyond, but what I'm trying to say here is basically "horses for courses".

Most people (IMO) also forget that while they don't use their printer very often, when they want to use it, they want it to work NOW. I advise people to print something at least once a month to keep an inkjet ticking over properly, so decent ink doesn't start drying up and clogging heads. I'm definitely in the low-printing-capacity category, but my last inkjet worked fine for 8 years then I gave it away because I needed more features.

 

[Nintendesert]

So do you laserlovers only print in black?

 

[Thump553]

So do you laserlovers only print in black?

99.9% of the time. If I need color I'll take that job to something like Kinkos, Staples, etc., CVS for photos when I absolutely need a paper copy for the old folks.

 

[Mixolydian]

I am still using my HP 4000N printer I purchased in 1998. It works like a champ. 16 years and working working great, never had an issue.

The 4000/4050/4100 series were some of the best printers ever produced by anyone, IMO.

HP are one of the worst manufacturers for producing bloated software/drivers.

This is why I only buy PostScript printers. The only "driver" needed is a simple text file that describes the printer's capabilities. And it's compatible with virtually every operating system produced in the last 25 years.

So do you laserlovers only print in black?

I have a color laser AIO.

 

[Nintendesert]

Man, not sure I want to pay the prices for a laser color printer. Anything under 300 bucks?

 

[Mixolydian]

Here's another thing to consider:

Consumables for laser printers, in my experience, seem to be going the way of inkjets - expensive and low-yield. Printer manufacturers, I believe, have caught on to people switching to laser to reduce costs, and are trying to put an end to that.

I spent almost as much money on toner this year as I did for the printer itself. And I don't print fancy graphics or images.

 

[Maleficus]

Brother Laserjet x2 here, no problems.

 

[vailr]

Canon inkjet printers are best (if you require color), as far as least costly ink and overall reliability. Brother or Samsung laser printers are the best option if needing only black and white.
Freecycle.org can be a good option for getting rid of your old HP printer.

 

[yottabit]

I use a Brother MFC-7460DN mono laser all-in-one and an Epson Workforce 1100 at home. But I got both of those for like $100 each on big sale.

I'd highly recommend a Brother mono laser of some sort, one that takes the TN-420/450 style cartridges. You can get the high yield cartridges for like $~40 on amazon, or if you are comfortable doing refurbs you can get those for like ~$10.

 

[brianmanahan]

i love my epson wf-3540. double-sided printing ftw

 

[ZaneNBK]

I'd recommend the Epson WP-4530 as well. Here's another post I made about it in the peripherals forum: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35538580&postcount=27

Cost per page is ~$0.014 black and ~$0.058 color.

 

[tamm]

I don't buy ink or toner, I just wait for a crazy firesale on printers and go and stock up lol. I severely dislike inkjet printers caz of costly ink,
Chip based cartridges.

1) Keep a color inkjet on reserve
2) purchase a couple lasers when they drop Down to $29. Buy a couple of if u can. Toner doesn't evaporate
3) even color lasers go down in price so buy that as well.
4) most modern laser printers have a specific setting for envelopes

FYI if the above reasons are not gelling with u, buy a brother laser printer. Durable, easy refills and cheap toner ($5-10 toner from newegg aftermarket)

 

[Mark R]

I like my brother HL-2150N laser.

Cheap to buy.
Networked, so easy to set up for multiple PCs/macs.

Cheap toner cartridges. Separate drum unit (also cheap).
Toner lasts ages anyway. I'm still on my starter unit over a year after I got mine. But I've got a generic toner cartridge waiting for use (it was something like $20 for 2000 pages).

Works great for printing envelopes and sticky labels.

 

[Exterous]

Second the recommendation for the Brother laser printers. Get something like the HL-5470DW with a 30 off 100 coupon and you'll be good to go. Sometimes OfficeMax offers them as a refurb also, which makes it even better deal. I've gotten a good 3000 pages with the included toner carts in the Brother printers as well.

Thirded. Or is it fourthed or fifthed at this point? I am on a personal mission to replace the HP printers at work whenever i can with brothers and everyone likes them better. HPs are so shitty now. They breakdown like crazy, the softwear is bloated/horrible and their warranty support is terrible. Nothing like the tanks they build years ago. Plus they change their toners with every version.

One of the best things about brother is they stick with their toner series. The TN 450 has been out for at least 5 years and is still used by their current line

So do you laserlovers only print in black?

They make color ones too a bit pricy to start but you'll make up the savings in toner that never dries out.

 

[Anonemous]

Brother 2240, 2270DW, 2280DW for cheapest toners TN-450 (10-15$/3000 pages).

Canon Pixma MX870, 892, 922 for cheap inks (1$/ink)