Laser printers

[gmgmgm]

We changed from inkjet to laser some time back. Now it's network-connected and prints on both sides, in colour. Very handy being able to print direct from my phone if needed.

My research led to me to believe HP was the front-runner for reasonably high home volumes (let's say >500 pages a month), and Brother for under that. We bought a HL-L8260CDW model. There is a version with scanner/ADF on top, but it doubles the volume of the printer, and it's so easy to scan individual pages with an app on a phone. If I wanted to scan 10 pages regularly, I would have bought the ADF version. Photos are good enough for showing children, but certainly not for framing!
Brother HL-L8260CDW A4 Colour Laser Printer and similar ADF version: Brother DCP-L8410CDW A4 Colour Multifunction Laser Printer
and a good review: Brother HL-L8260CDW

 

[D_W]

I have a brother similar to the 3170 mentioned earlier. The brother branded ink and toner that comes with the machine isn't a full drum or at least the machine is set so that it doesn't think it is.

A full set of color ink and toner is more than the printer cost me, but there are generic versions that are about a 6th of brother's price, and in all of the toner that I've gone through (a dozen so far, maybe), I've only had one defective.

B&W printing cost for ink and toner with generic stuff is about 3/4th of a cent per page. color varies, but the generic color toner packs are only about $50. I wouldn't go back to inkjet for anything other than some kind of specialty printer, but mind the cost of the ink and toner for whatever you get and assume that printers made now where the desk top laser printers are designed to sell toner more than make an everlasting printer may not leave behind 10-15 year printers.

(if the printers themselves are crap, you can usually sort reviews by date and figure it out - amazon and others here now sort by "top reviews" whatever that means and you won't get close to getting their star number by averaging reviews - if something says 4.3 stars, an arithmetic average is usually much lower).

 

[porker]

I recently replaced my cheap inkjet printer with an Eco tank Epson inkjet and am very pleased with it. I was fed up with cartridges that didn't last 5 minutes and cost a fortune. Now with the tanks I expect it to last probably 18 months with heavy use from myself and 5 teenagers. The manufacturers have clearly decided on these models to charge a realistic price for the printer with cheap ink rather than the other way round which was the model i had bought into previously.
I looked into lasers as well but for my needs this seemed to be best for me

 

[D_W]

The manufacturers have clearly decided on these models to charge a realistic price for the printer with cheap ink rather than the other way round which was the model i had bought into previously.

at least someone is finally doing this. My first laser printer was an HP 12A, which we only ditched after a dozen years because the mrs. demanded wireless printing and color. The small laser printer market is a lot like the deskjet market - cost of ink targeted to those users is now 4 or 5 cents a page if bought name brand - just stupid.

The other end here, I had a canon inkjet color before that, $80. It didn't last a year and left me with about $125 of unused ink cartridges. Suddenly, it didn't seem as cheap.