computer printer - which to buy?

[Narjiz 159]

16 hours ago, LeonG said:

 

I paid 20€ for a no name drum + toner for my Brother laser in 2019.  Í can't remember what I paid for the printer itself in 2009 but i think around 120.

 

If you don't print a lot, I'd recommend laser.  I always had problems in the past with ink drying up on me.

 

Thanks for the tip. 

[scook17 248]

I have the canon MX870 because it's a scaner with sheet feeder and printer combined. It's even so old it supports Fax, but I have never had any reason to try using that 'feature'. Plugs into the ethernet with a cable which means scanning is at least 2x faster than with Wifi. I am forever buying cartridges for it, which I buy in bulk from Canon on the regular offers Amazon seem to run. Had previously a similar canon model which also lasted for many years before eventually going wrong one day.

 

Out of curiousity, I looked up the 'support'. Last driver was 2015 for Windows 10 and first was 32 bit Vista. MacOS 10.5 to 10.10. Guess it's pretty old now....

[slammer 882]

All the cheap printers use a UPE or a universal print engine, one size fits all, most are a Mitsubishi design built by Foxconn so you just need to skin it with your branded covers and huck it to customers. That way you can get a 40 Euro unbranded laser printer chassis and use any toner you want.

If you can´t find a newer driver, try feeding your printer via a PCL6 driver, it´s a driver from 1996 and will work with most new and even the so-called obsolete printers by the way, you may not get all the functions but it should print.

Laser printer design hasn´t changed in decades, in fact I can show you a laser printer from 1995, I´ll take parts out of it and install them in a 2021 printer. What is interesting is that the laser is from the early sixties, they transfer toner to paper using a Xerox method from 1932 which is based on electrostatic printing from 1904. And the spinning mirror is a galvanometer from 1820.

And why am I telling you this..? It´s Friday evening and I´m bored.

 

PS. Just did a check, you can pick up a A4 laserprinter for 20 bucks on Alibaba.

[Rushrush 286]

I'm a heavy printer (up to a 1000 pages a month) and the hardest number to come by is the cost per page for printing. To me that would be the most important number but as mentioned it's hard to find. Google "cheap printers" and all you get is the price.  Currently I'm using instant ink, running about 3-4 cents a pag vs about 7-8 cents (half if you can find a generic cartridge). HP is really pushing subscription services now, and comparted to buying cartridges it's much cheaper and less hassle. Generic ones are really hard to come by, HP makes it difficult to find ones that work. 

[kiplette 8,677]

We have an HP Lazerjet 1010 which we bought via kleinanzeigen. We think around 2c a sheet, not really sure.

 

Currently we can only use it with the one Mac we have.

 

Kid#4 might try slammer's suggestion above with one of the other laptops. It worked with Windows Vista  back in the day 

 

It only does BW, don't think it does anything fancy, but really we're just glad it prints.

 

We have a Canon for stuff that needs to be nice, or colour or whatever, but that's more expensive.

[Gambatte 900]

On 8/4/2022, 12:44:02, Rushrush said:

I'm a heavy printer (up to a 1000 pages a month) 

Why do you print so much?

[Krieg 14,935]

Brother laser

[robinson100 12,792]

I don´t print a lot, but I use a Samsung ML-1610 laser printer that is over 20 years old.

It uses no-name toner cartridges without any problems (ca. €28)

I have also replaced the rubber band thingy on the paper feeder a couple of years ago - only cost €5 on Amazon, and the time it takes to watch a Youtube video to find out how to do it

At the time, a friend asked me why I didn´t just buy a new printer? My reply was that it is better for the environment to keep this one going, and it is also better for my purse!

 

 

 

[Rushrush 286]

On 05/08/2022, 13:33:26, Gambatte said:

Why do you print so much?

 

I teach a lot of company group classes and printing is such a hassle. I can do it there, in colour but you need to get someone to sign in and/or if I ask someone to print they enviably forget. It costs me around 25 a month, 5 for paper and 20 for instant ink. The contract pays really well so I don't mind.  

 

Edit closer to 500 sheets a month

[Tap 8,460]

I teach a lot of company group classes too and, when I'm actually in the company (most lessons are online today), I bring 1 printed sheet with me and photocopy what I need in the company.  I've been doing this for 25 years and not one company has ever said I couldn't, in fact, they're more than willing to let me photocopy whatever I need.

[slammer 882]

On 4.8.2022, 12:44:02, Rushrush said:

I'm a heavy printer (up to a 1000 pages a month) and the hardest number to come by is the cost per page for printing. To me that would be the most important number but as mentioned it's hard to find. Google "cheap printers" and all you get is the price.  Currently I'm using instant ink, running about 3-4 cents a pag vs about 7-8 cents (half if you can find a generic cartridge). HP is really pushing subscription services now, and comparted to buying cartridges it's much cheaper and less hassle. Generic ones are really hard to come by, HP makes it difficult to find ones that work. 

A thousand a month is not a lot considering that laser printers are rated at around 30 to 50 thousand clicks a month.

Something like a Lexmark 415, refurbished and around 100 Euros, they are rock solid, simple and will last you for ages.

[skinnypuppy 87]

My 2 cents: I've been using a Samsung SCX-3200 b/w laser printer/scanner for more than 10 years, with recycled toner cartridges. Still going strong, cartridges are cheap.

[Magmax 372]

My cousin has a Epson printer for years-

[BayrischDude 2,071]

In 2016, I bought a Ricoh SP 220SNW on Amazon for 125€.  The biggest reason was it handles transparent film, which I need for work.  Although it's not a colour printer, it does a fantastic job and is an absolute work horse!  One cartridge will last me about a year or about 1250 - 1400 pages.  A laser cartridge costs about 20-25€.  For my work, I'd say a solid investment.

[Mark Seuss 0]

"Brother" laser printers.

They are made to be refilled and don't need a new bloody chip per refill.

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-berlin/brother-drucker/k0l3331

 

https://www.urefilltoner.co.uk/test-lab-printer-reviews.html

 

[Krieg 14,935]

20 minutes ago, Mark Seuss said:

"Brother" laser printers.

They are made to be refilled and don't need a new bloody chip per refill.

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-berlin/brother-drucker/k0l3331

 

https://www.urefilltoner.co.uk/test-lab-printer-reviews.html

 

 

While I agree that Brother Laser printers are probably the best option to print B&W, in the mean time they have been infected with the chip problem since long time ago.     But they are not that strict, most unofficial toner replacement you can find at Amazon work (the popular ones obviously all work).   Maybe keep the chip from the one that came with the printer just in case you need to do a chip swap if one does not work.   And never upgrade the printer firmware.  The (unofficial) toner for ours costs around 25 EUR and it lasts around 1000 pages.   After decades of printer hate, our Brother printer is the only one that has not given us any problems.

[keith2011 2,579]

If you are in the market for a new printer I would recommend looking at a "tank" printer, these are inkjet technology but instead of having a cartridge the print heads are supplied with ink from large tanks which are refilled using a bottle, all the major manufactures now offer these. I recently bought an Epson ET 3850 cost around €375 (mid range but cheaper ones are available) so a high initial cost compared to traditional inkjet printers but a tank of of black ink is good for over 7k pages, and one tank of each colour good for 5k pages (2 bottles of black ink and 1 of each colour are supplied with the printer. Refill bottles from Epson cost around €10,- and no name approx. half that so running costs are incredibly low compared to cartridge inkjet printers. The new Epson was a replacement for a Canon Pixma MG 6450 which had become a little flaky as it's usage has increased in recent times and was costing a fortune for replacement ink cartridges. I have been quite a Canon fan and though they also offer tank printers they did not have one without a rear paper feed tray which would not have worked where the printer is placed. So far I am very pleased with the new Epson.

[Krieg 14,935]

Nah, Inkjet printers are only good if you have to print pictures.   If you do not print often they get clogged up.  But if you are happy, good for you.

[Eric7 542]

Another vote for Brother - we have the DCP-L3550CDW (Multifunktionsgerät) and it's been flawless so far. No problem as yet with 3rd party toner.

[keith2011 2,579]

23 minutes ago, Krieg said:

Nah, Inkjet printers are only good if you have to print pictures.   If you do not print often they get clogged up.  But if you are happy, good for you.

 

Why would you go to the expense of a laser printer if you were not printing often? I still have one Canon inkjet printer that only rarely get used, it has never clogged up, maybe because I only use original Canon replacement cartridges.