inkjet vs color laser

thurlow · Jan 10, 2013

Everything I read says that laser printers are the way to go, but I'm on my second one and am about ready to scrap it. First was a Samsung 310 series; it worked great, but used a LOT of toner; cartridges were expensive, so I refilled them with bottled toner a couple of times; finally got tired of fooling with it and threw it away. Bought a Minolta 1600W; have printed probably fewer than 500 pages and it's out of toner; cartridges cost considerably more than a new printer, so I'm looking at 'maybe' refilling the ones in it. I buy generic cartridges for my Epson inkjet printers and except for the occasional clogged nozzle, don't have much trouble with them. This is just a home office, but I always print 100-plus pages per week (and sometimes, many more), plus the occasional photo. I'm about ready to forget the color laser printers and stick with the inkjet; am I missing something?

Chuck Heck · Jan 10, 2013

After some research, here is what I did. I bought a Brother 2170 black & white laser printer, about $100, on sale. We use $13 toner cartridges from Amazon, and we can usually get well over 1000 pages out of them. Most printing is for our local antique tractor club. Works like a charm. We use the old ink-jet color printer for pictures, etc.

Mike (WA) · Jan 10, 2013

I think Chuck's on the right track- you're probably money ahead to have both a black and white and a color printer, and only use the color one for color printing only. The color printers use way too much ink for routine black and white printing. I have a black and white HP laser at work, and it gets thousands of pages on a cartridge.

Chuck Heck · Jan 10, 2013

After some research, here is what I did. I bought a Brother 2170 black & white laser printer, about $100, on sale. We use $13 toner cartridges from Amazon, and we can usually get well over 1000 pages out of them. Most printing is for our local antique tractor club. Works like a charm. We use the old ink-jet color printer for pictures, etc.

Nebraska Cowman · Jan 10, 2013

that's what I do too. B&W laser and ink jet for color. I almost never print in color.

Nancy Howell · Jan 10, 2013

I think the suggestions of one printer for b&w and another for color are right on.

We have one printer, a color ink jet. If the black cartridge runs out, printer won"t print in color. If the color cartridge runs out,it won"t print B&W.

I strongly believe the cartridges have expiration dates imbedded in them. We rarely use the color cartridge, but got a message that it was bad, couldn"t have been out because we rarely use color, but printer wouldn"t print anything until we replaced the color cartridge. Rip off.

ss55 · Jan 10, 2013

The first toner cartridge supplied with a new Brother printer has less than half the capacity of the replacement cartrige. Other brands may do the same.

An inkjet printer for color and a B&W laser printer is a good setup for a home or small office.

thurlow · Jan 10, 2013

Thanks for the feedback; have looked on Amazon and there are numerous b&w laser printers for 100 bucks or less and the toner cartridges are cheap; probably just gonna buy one of them. I can buy a set of 4 bottled toners to refill the cartridges on my current machine for around 40 bucks; might give that a try one time, in addition to buying the b&w. Most of my printing is church-related....weekly Sunday bulletins, etc, but I buy the ink, paper, etc. At least one side has some 'color' almost every week. Thanks............

RodinNS · Jan 10, 2013

I have an HP 4 in 1 color laser. Works fine for me. Toner cartridges are probably 90 bucks each times 4... but they print ~1500 pages. I've used cheaper cartridges... but they don't seem to produce the same print quality as the original. Mabey a dirty print head or some such thing... I don't know.
Also have to take the cartridges out and give them a good shake sometimes. That usually gets some more life out of them.
Regardless, it's still far cheaper than an inkjet printer. I've had those things with cartridges that cost 50 bucks and don't print much more than 100 pages...

Rod

evilboweivel · Jan 10, 2013

check out a Dell laser
had one at the last job
black toner and 3 or 4 seperate color toners
only replace which one was out
had a Dell color laser at home smaller machine same way with the toner it left with the 2cd wife
color ink jets always dries up for me and cost way too much for ink
currently have a B/W dell 1710 laser and rarely use it so the toner last a long time before it show low and then I shake it and get some more months use out of it

Gambles · Jan 10, 2013

Another vote for the laser printer, at least for printing B&W. The printer manufacturers actually lose money on the printer itself, but make money when you buy the replacement inkjet cartridges. Years ago, I remember either Norway or Finland trying to outlaw the selling of loss-leader inkjet printers, but I never heard the outcome of that.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 10, 2013

Both printers are fine. Quite frankly I am suprised that many people use printers much anymore. With everything online, I just don't have much of a need for a printer.

Mike (WA) · Jan 10, 2013

Might want to try to organize the document to get all the color stuff on one or two pages- so you can use B & W printer on the other pages.

rusty6 · Jan 10, 2013

I gave up on printers. The ink cartridges are terribly expensive and dry up if I don't use them for a few months. If I really need a picture printed I will take the drive to the drugstore where they have a good printer that makes a far better photo print than any home ink jet printer I have ever owned.

OH - 961 · Jan 10, 2013

Nancy,
Is that an HP printer?
Mine does that whether the cartridge is empty or not. Says "cartridge has expired" or some such. I can usually get past the dire warnings and get it to keep working, though.

What really ticks me off is that if one of the 3 color cartridges gets empty, the printer locks up and won't even print black and white!

I would like to know what brands other than HP pull this nonsense or do all brands pull this trick?

Myron

Chip812 · Jan 10, 2013

The real way to buy a printer is to price the ink cartridges first. Be sure you get it down to a per/page price... Then go buy the printer that matches.

Nancy Howell · Jan 10, 2013

Yes.

I think someone sued HP over it, but don"t know for sure and if they did, don"t know the outcome.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 10, 2013

Are you by any chance the mike who put the picture of the Allis Chalmers mfwd 220 in the photos? I am trying to find this tractor. Please call 509-982-2644 and ask for matt

pat sublett · Jan 10, 2013

You are not missing anything, I been the same route. I currently have a cannon ink jet that I really like. I have it hooked up Wifi and can print off any computer in the house. Like all the ink is expensive.

toolz · Jan 10, 2013

I"ve found with my very small business that slightly used office style laser printers are the way to go. I recently picked one up at a salvage store brand new for $75. It was built about 8 years ago and sold for $1200. Prints 35 pages a minute and the toner is good for 18,000 pages. I"ll never wear it out. I have two others with low page count that I bought on Ebay for $50 each (shipped) and they are duplexers (print both sides) and save a lot of paper. These are b&w, and we have a couple of color ink printers used only for pics. I buy my toner on Ebay also, average about $25-30 each and do at least 9000 pages, depending on the printer.

Mike (WA) · Jan 11, 2013

Nope, not me.

SweetFeet · Jan 11, 2013

I like the quality of photos printed with my inkjet the best. (Edit: Though like Nancy Howell, I find it highly irritating that the darn thing won't print if one cartridge is out.)

You have to make sure you have the right photo paper too. At work I tried to print some photos for my boss with my laser jet, but the photo paper was for an inkjet...BAD idea. It sort of melted some areas.

But I do like the laserjet for printing documents and reports. And the toner cartridges seem to last a long time because they are so huge compared to tiny little inkjet cartridges.

tools · Jan 11, 2013

If your ink is timing out, or expiring, try changing the date in
your computer- just set your computer to a year ago, and the
printer will work again. I used to do this on an ink printer that I
didn't use much.

inkjet vs color laser

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