printer suggestions

[cavingjan]

Looks like I need to buy some new printers for the office here. We just had three printers develope a repeated paper jam problem in the last week or two. Its been so long since I looked for a new printer I'm not sure what is good from the realm of hp anymore. They are all HP Laserjets. An old Laser II, PCL5, and a Laserjet 5. I really like the old Laserjet 5 and 6's but I can't seem to find any. Any suggestions? These printers see about 100-150 pages a month. They are just draft copies of reports so it doesn't have to be superb quality.
I just don't think it will be cost effective to use inkjets here. But correct me if I'm wrong on that.

 

[knutp]

100-150 pages pr month isn't that many, so perhaps one inkjet would be better. But well it is for office use, and laser printers does last longer.

One great cheaper laser printer are the brother hl1240. Or you could go with a higher series. There are little problems with those printers, and you can still use your old laserjet drivers.

 

[Gustavus]

Laserjet Series II printers almost never die. Your paper jams with it may well be due to the paper feed roller that picks the paper off of the stack in the tray having gotten glazed from age and use. Try reaching in the slot where the papertray fits and vigorously wiping it with a handkerchief well dampened with rubbing alcohol. You will need to rotate the roller between wipings so you get all of the surface. I have rejuvenated several of these printers in this way. It won't cost you anything to try and it may get you a new lease on life with the printer. If the jam is occuring further along in the paper feed sequence of course this won't help.

 

[dullard]

It seems quite odd that more than one printer developed the same paper jam problem at about the same time. My first suggestion is to try different paper! Some paper is guaranteed not to jam as often.

Suppose you need a new printer. I will use some rough numbers here, a new inket $200, a new laser $400, $.10/page ink and paper costs, $0.025/page laser toner and paper costs. Thus at 7.5 cents per page savings, if you print 2666 pages the laser will be cheaper. With your 100-150 pages per month, the laser printer will be cheaper after 2 years. This does not include intangebles such as better quality, faster printing, no smearing, etc.

The HP LaserJet 1200 is $360 at Sam's Club. Prints 16 pages per minute (14 pages if you use the slower USB connection, yes parallel ports can currently transfer more data!). It has 8 MB RAM which is good for a shared printer (often cheaper lasers have 2 MB). Of course HP makes better/more expensive lasers (the next model starts at $700 I think, but you don't seem to need them).

 

[cavingjan]

We haven't changed paper. What has probably happened is nobody told me until this week. I know the one in my office was never quite right again after moving it from one file cabinet to another. Didn't drop it and knock it hard. It was jamming right where the paper goes in and now the computer tells me its not hooked up anymore. But will try the alcohol thing.