New teacher needs budget solution for printing b&w text?

[episodic]

I know that they say that lasers are the best for b&w text cost wise, the laser printers I can afford (low end brother and samsung) all seem to charge around 70$ for a toner that lasts 3000 pages. That equals .023 cents per page.

It is hard to find comparisons of cost per page printing.

Somethings I am already doing is using 'light' ink saving mode and I have got the fine-print program that allows me to print 4 sheets (double sided - 2 pages to a side) on a sheet of paper with reasonably good results.

Would a cheaper ink jet like the canon I-350's (which have REALLY cheap ink cartridges) actually get me just as far without the same up front expenditure (70$ for a toner, 100+ for a cheap laser printer I can afford)?

I looking for lots of input into this one.

Thanks!!!!

 

[foofoo]

hi,
fwiw i think that the best solution is a laserwriter. i use a hp laserjet 6mp that i bought used for $50. the toner cartriges are about what you quote but even though it's an older laser printer. it's built incredibly tough and has been bullet proof. if you are doing a lot of printing. this is the way to go. most of the inkjets, especially the cheap ones just dont hold up with lots of printing (in my experience) and break or degrade seriously after a few thousand pages or less.
the print "head" of a lserwriter doesnt need to move back and forth across the page, maybe that's why they last longer.
in any case, i'd reccomend a good quality laserwriter that's a few years old.
try fleabay.
good luck

 

[NleahciM]

Find an old dot matrix printer. Those things print fast as hell and are quite inexpensive to operate.

 

[episodic]

There were hardly any 6mp's for sale (and those that were were way over 50$). I did see ALOT of 4L's at around the 50$ mark. Are 4L's ok?

Also don't you have to worry about more than just the toner? Don't you have to replace drums or something like that? Please educate me as all I've ever had is ink jet.

 

[episodic]

I actually had a dot-matrix not to long ago - no thanks for the noise there. It was not that fast either. New dot matrix'es are outrageous. I miss my old Commodore MP1200 hahah

 

[episodic]

I've got a 4L on buy it now: Here is the description: Ebay seller has great feedback - tell me whether this would be good or not and I'll complete the buy it now click process. . .

-----------------

Hewlett Packard
Laserjet 4L Printer
4ppm, 300dpi Laser Printer
Model C2003A


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


>>Condition: great tested working & cosmetic condition. Machine prints a good test/configuration page.

INCLUDES:

Printer (1 Mb RAM)
Power cord
Partially Full Toner cartridge.
I'll take the toner out of the printer to ship so it doesn't get all over your nice, new machine!
This is the HP Laserjet 4L Laser Printer. An extremely small and quiet machine.

It will do 4 pages per minute, and is pretty fast on the first page out .The printer has One Megabyte RAM installed which is plenty unless you use a lot of fonts. This machine has Resolution Enhancement technology (Ret), and memory Enhancement technology (Met) built in and runs Enhanced PCL5, The pullout paper tray holds 100 sheets.

This is a real nice machine to get for your kid at home, or going off to school or for home use when you need a quality printer for that occassional late night job. It will run directly off your Windows machine via the parallel port (cable not supplied) as well as most laptops. Windows should already have the driver installed.

Interestingly, the 4L has no power switch. You just plug it in, and it's absolutely quiet until you do a print job. Also, it only takes up about 1 square foot of desktop real estate, so it'll fit anywhere. Unfortunately, the printer loses its page count when its unplugged, so the actual page count is not available. However, I don't imagine its got more than 5000 pages printed -given where it came from and its very nice condition.

The 4L printer uses the 92274A toner cartridge which is inexpensive and easy to find anywhere. Prints 2-4000 pages per toner cart-depending on coverage and is WAY cheaper to run than any inkjet and less troublesome since the toner won't dry out and there aren't any nozzles to get clogged.

 

[beverage]

if you're going with a "newer" solution.

Brother 1440:

low yeild cart. 3000 pages - $60 = $0.02 per page
high yeild cart. 6000 pgs - $85 = $0.014 per page

hp 1210:

2000 pages - $70 = $0.035 per page

samsung 1740:

3000 pages - $79 = $0.026 per page

the cannon i350:

sure it has probably the cheapest ink carts around...but you'll use them up in no time at all

black cart - 150 pages -$7.50 = $0.05 per page.

all of these numbers of course reflect %5 coverage in "draft" mode...but it sounds like that's what you'll probably be doing anyway.


OH yeah.. and your HP 4L if you end up with it

3350 pages -$90 = $0.026 per page

 

[episodic]

I see the Canon Reman cartridges for like 2$ all the time. Any comments on this?

 

[foofoo]

hi,
the 4l is older than the 6mp.
the laserjet 6p is a great printer, the only difference is whether it has postscript built in. the 6mp is postscript + pcl and the 6p is pcl only. this doesnt matter for the vast majority of users.
the 6p is about $50 on ebay
here's a few auctions...
http://search.ebay.com/laserjet-6p_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQfromZR8

looks like there are some cheap toner cartridges too.
ask around, but this solution workes very well for me and i'd reccomend it highly.
good luck

Originally posted by: episodic
I've got a 4L on buy it now: Here is the description: Ebay seller has great feedback - tell me whether this would be good or not and I'll complete the buy it now click process. . .

-----------------

Hewlett Packard
Laserjet 4L Printer
4ppm, 300dpi Laser Printer
Model C2003A


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


>>Condition: great tested working & cosmetic condition. Machine prints a good test/configuration page.

INCLUDES:

Printer (1 Mb RAM)
Power cord
Partially Full Toner cartridge.
I'll take the toner out of the printer to ship so it doesn't get all over your nice, new machine!
This is the HP Laserjet 4L Laser Printer. An extremely small and quiet machine.

It will do 4 pages per minute, and is pretty fast on the first page out .The printer has One Megabyte RAM installed which is plenty unless you use a lot of fonts. This machine has Resolution Enhancement technology (Ret), and memory Enhancement technology (Met) built in and runs Enhanced PCL5, The pullout paper tray holds 100 sheets.

This is a real nice machine to get for your kid at home, or going off to school or for home use when you need a quality printer for that occassional late night job. It will run directly off your Windows machine via the parallel port (cable not supplied) as well as most laptops. Windows should already have the driver installed.

Interestingly, the 4L has no power switch. You just plug it in, and it's absolutely quiet until you do a print job. Also, it only takes up about 1 square foot of desktop real estate, so it'll fit anywhere. Unfortunately, the printer loses its page count when its unplugged, so the actual page count is not available. However, I don't imagine its got more than 5000 pages printed -given where it came from and its very nice condition.

The 4L printer uses the 92274A toner cartridge which is inexpensive and easy to find anywhere. Prints 2-4000 pages per toner cart-depending on coverage and is WAY cheaper to run than any inkjet and less troublesome since the toner won't dry out and there aren't any nozzles to get clogged.

 

[beverage]

IMHO the i350 is cheap, feels cheap, built cheap, and won't last long enough to be of value. If you plan on doing any type of large volume printing...say 50 + pages per day, i'd seriously look at the lasers.

 

[3chordcharlie]

I love my brother HL-1230 (600dpi, non-usb member of the same series as the 1440). It's fast, has great quality, and tends to out-live it's estimated toner-life by a fair bit.