Going to buy a small laser printer, need suggestions

[KrillBee]

I am going to buy I small laser printer, and I want something that is quite cheap. Network capability would be nice but isnt required.

I don't know where to buy a printer besides the store (office max, office depot, etc) are there any other good places to get good deals?

Also, which brands of printers tend to have cheaper toner than others? If I went with a Brother printer would that be a good buy? I see one in the office depot adds this week for 70 bucks after rebate.

 

[esquared]

Cheap printers are how they hook you. They get your money on the ink/toner. The cheap lasers are usually the Brother or the Samsung. You won't get a network printer for 70.00. Retail toner cartridges run about 60.00-80.00 for the Brother or Samsung. What's good about both these brands is you can refill the cartridges yourself for about 6.00-8.00 each. I have a Samsung ML-1210 I bought 5 years ago. I bought one cartridge to go with my starter cartridge, it was 70 or 80, I don't remember. I've been filling the tanks up with toner I buy from eBay. Two toner fill ups go for around 11-12 for the two. The Brother toner refills are a little bit more, but not much. My Samsung has the foil drum built into the cartridge so you can refill less number of times. The Brother has a separate drum from the toner cartridge, so you can refill more times.

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: esquared
Cheap printers are how they hook you. They get your money on the ink/toner. The cheap lasers are usually the Brother or the Samsung. You won't get a network printer for 70.00. Retail toner cartridges run about 60.00-80.00 for the Brother or Samsung. What's good about both these brands is you can refill the cartridges yourself for about 6.00-8.00 each. I have a Samsung ML-1210 I bought 5 years ago. I bought one cartridge to go with my starter cartridge, it was 70 or 80, I don't remember. I've been filling the tanks up with toner I buy from eBay. Two toner fill ups go for around 11-12 for the two. The Brother toner refills are a little bit more, but not much. My Samsung has the foil drum built into the cartridge so you can refill less number of times. The Brother has a separate drum from the toner cartridge, so you can refill more times.

so toner for the HP costs less usually? how much less?

 

[esquared]

I am not familiar with HP, you would have to look up the retail prices for it and see the yields in # of pages /cartridge and figure out a cents/page cost. You can buy refilled cartridges for HP and the rest, which would drive the print costs down oever retail cartridges, but nothing is as cheap as filling them up yourself. HP does make one cheap printer. The 1020 linked here at Newegg

 

[Modelworks]

I'm using a hp laserjet 6p , made in 1997.
Bought it for 20.00 along with several others at a local school auction.
Page count on it is 29K.
Still works fine.
Toner is about 70.00 for hp branded, 5000 page count per refill.

You can find lots of good/refurbished printers on ebay.
Highly recommend any of the laserjet series.
Even ones with page counts in the 10k range have a lot of life left in them.
These things were built like tanks then unlike the new ones that sell for under 100.00 and are built as cheap as possible.

 

[MadAmos]

I have been very happy with my Brother HL2040 I picked it up for 69.00 at Office Max on sale.
the paper tray holds 250 or so sheets and the print quality is perfect for my needs. The oe toner cartridges are around 40.00 At Amazon. The drum is more than a new printer so I is basically a through away unit :frown: Brother estimates 12-15k from the drum.

Amos

 

[bamacre]

I have been extemely happy with my HP LaserJet 1022. I literally have had zero problems with it in the year that I have owned it. However, all I use it for really is printing out FedEx shipping labels.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: esquared
Cheap printers are how they hook you. T

so why is it when i buy a thousand $$ printer the toner cartridge is still $60-$80? the prices are in the same range for most of the smaller laser printers, so if you buy an expensive printer you won't get a break on the toner.

that said i have a samsung ml-2250 that i think i bought 2 christmas ago. i have ~9200pages through it and it is on the 2nd cartridge and haven't had an issue whatsoever.

i had used hps for a long time but figured i would save some $$ on the unit and happy i have.

i wold definately buy another one

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I'm using a hp laserjet 6p , made in 1997.
Bought it for 20.00 along with several others at a local school auction.
Page count on it is 29K.
Still works fine.
Toner is about 70.00 for hp branded, 5000 page count per refill.

You can find lots of good/refurbished printers on ebay.
Highly recommend any of the laserjet series.
Even ones with page counts in the 10k range have a lot of life left in them.
These things were built like tanks then unlike the new ones that sell for under 100.00 and are built as cheap as possible.

avoid the hp1100
has multiple paper feed problems.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I'm using a hp laserjet 6p , made in 1997.
Bought it for 20.00 along with several others at a local school auction.
Page count on it is 29K.
Still works fine.
Toner is about 70.00 for hp branded, 5000 page count per refill.

You can find lots of good/refurbished printers on ebay.
Highly recommend any of the laserjet series.
Even ones with page counts in the 10k range have a lot of life left in them.
These things were built like tanks then unlike the new ones that sell for under 100.00 and are built as cheap as possible.

avoid the hp1100
has multiple paper feed problems.

exaclty, i had 2 of them and even the little "fix" that hp mailed out didn't last that long, maybe a couple thousand sheets or so...

 

[0roo0roo]

yea theres a repair kit i remember seeing on the net. but i dunno if its just that stupid cardboard inserted fix or a real fix. probably involve a bit of dissembly

 

[Scarpozzi]

I bought my wife a Dell 1520. They have a networked one for a little more.

You can also buy these from the refurb shop on Dell Outlet. They're manufactured by Lexmark and rebadged. You can get 3000 and 6000 page toner cartridges and they are available from aftermarket vendors to reduce the cost. It shoots out 30 pages/min and is super quiet. She's in school and I can't wait for her to get done with school so I can use her printer.

 

[computerechousa]

HP.

 

[0roo0roo]

oh what are some good sites for refills/and carts?

 

[esquared]

I've used this ebay seller, refillertonerqueen, for my Samsung refills. http://myworld.ebay.com/refilltonerqueen

I use this seller, prosaverinc for my Brother refills
http://myworld.ebay.com/prosaverinc

 

[0roo0roo]

kewl thanks

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea theres a repair kit i remember seeing on the net. but i dunno if its just that stupid cardboard inserted fix or a real fix. probably involve a bit of dissembly

For a decade, it seemed like HP couldn't design a printer with a reliable paper feed. I gave up buying HP printers because of this.

I've purchased the repair kits for various HP laser printers and have successfully fixed their numerous paper feed problems. The kits are REAL, with the necessary parts and a video and instructions on how to do the disassembly/reassembly.

And, yeah, the cardboard things were a joke.

 

[SparkyJJO]

HP fixed the paper feed issues awhile ago. The old Laserjet 5L and 6L (and some of the others that had similar loading mechanisms) were a pain, but they have since ditched that and have had no problems for years.

I use a laserjet 1012. No problems yet, and I'm still on the original toner cartridge from 2 years ago. I have printed at least 750 pages so far though which I suppose isn't a whole lot. Still has saved me money, with inkjet I would have gone through a few ink cartridges by now.

It doesn't have network capability but you can get a small print server to go from RJ45 to USB for cheap from newegg.

 

[Roguestar]

We use the 1012, 1018 and 1022 in work. Good, reliable printers with reasonable paper output and toner costs.

 

[KrillBee]

are there any downsides to using those toner refill kits?

it would seem that if one were to do that then the toner cost would be very cheap regardless of which printer you went with.

 

[esquared]

Originally posted by: KrillBee
are there any downsides to using those toner refill kits?

it would seem that if one were to do that then the toner cost would be very cheap regardless of which printer you went with.

The only downside is not being careful while taking the cartridge apart, because it can get a little messy. If you get some toner on the cartridge after putting it back together, take some canned air and blow it off outside.

 

[JackBurton]

The HP 2015n is a great little printer. Highly recommend it.

 

[iluvdeal]

I have a Brother 1440, I"m happy with it. I don't print a whole lot though so I'm still on the original toner it came with.

If I had to buy another one, I would look for one which supports duplex printing.

 

[Pirotech]

I have the HP LaserJet 1020, I very like it. If yu realy need smth cheap and good then chose 1018-1020 models.

 

[gorka]

Brother HL2070-N.

Great low cost laser. Cheaper toners that HP.

Can be had for ~US$100 when on sale. Look at Provantage and Egg.