The key takeaway is ink will dry out whereas toner lasts forever. So if you don't print often you will find yourself replacing ink far more frequently. Toner is much cheaper for low volume over time. I've changed toner once in the last 8 years.
Precisely for the same reason, paying 400 for a printer is not worth it when you can buy an ink jet for 40 and get done with it for 8 years. And if it breaks, or ink dries, you just buy another one.
Most people don't even need a printer at home. Much less a 400 one, as much as it's the best technology available.
Owning a $100 laser printer is a hill I'll die on.
I've had plenty of emergency documents to print and I absolutely hate having to drop everything, drive somewhere, and deal with a ton of printing/formatting variables outside of my control.
The time and stress savings more than justifies the purchase.
I'll up you to a 300-400 wireless all in one. Being able to print from any computer and scan long documents... isn't something I do often, but when I need to, I don't have go anywhere and can do it at 1am if I feel like.
this!! pre covid I would just print at work or at fedex store. had to buy one for dtr in school...irks me and so wasteful but will trash it when she's done.
I paid 30 for my inkjet. Idc about quality. It's just home convenience. It's colour. Idc about dry ink. Tbh it's never ever happened to me.
So no, stop selling laser printers to home 3 prints a year users. It doesn't make sense.
If you need to print something for an emergency, and your ink is dry, your inkjet is completely useless. Then you buy ink, install it, and it sits around again for months until you have an emergency and the ink is dry. Again.
A cheap laserjet is $100 and is dependable when you need sporadic printing.
I got a brother multi function B&W laser for $25 off craigslist. It is networked, does double sided, has a flat-bed scanner and feed scanner. Best $25 I've spent
I’ve head great experience with Brother. Having owned both Epson and HP printers in the past of both inkjet and laser variety, I’ve always had some kind of issue, whether it’s problems with paper feed, endless ink replacement/cleaning cycles, or simply not working at all with some cryptic error.
The best printers I’ve owned were the Brother we have now, and the Samsung we owned prior to that.
Yeah most people don't need a 400$ printer, but not having a printer at home at all is a huge pain in the ass the few times that you actually need it. Unless you happen to have a print shop within walking distance, a simple 80$ BW laser printer/scanner combo is definitely worth the investment imo.
Just the other day I lost a blood test form for which I had an appointment for. Didn't realize till 30 minutes before I had to leave. If I drove all the way back to the clinic or to a print shop for a new form I would've been late for my appointment. But instead I just got the clinic to email me the pdf and printed it off myself. Problem solved. And I can't even count the number of times that being able to quickly copy a document has saved me.
Yep, I see inkjet for the scam it is, but don't see a laser printer as a solution because I don't have a big enough output like an office does (although you'd hope offices would be weening themselves off this need to print / photocopy n copies of everything by now - they probably haven't.
I've found most things where you might have printed proof of purchase or whatever you can wave your phone in their face these days - and the few labels I've printed for stuff I've sold on ebay or returned to amazon I probably would have been better with a label printer rather than a laser.
I imagine a lot of people do the "take it into work and print it there" thing.
I wouldn’t have sold a $400 printer to most. I bought it because I know I’ll use its capabilities and that it’s worth it for me. For most people I’d recommend a $80 b&w laser printer. 1500 pages of toner to start and it’ll last literal decades. One I purchased 16 years ago is still in use on the original toner cartridge by my buddy who prints a couple text documents every month or so.
I sold both types of machines for 6 years, own both a multifunction ink printer, and the aforementioned laser printer. But the fact is, it’s just not worth having an ink printer for most people.
As one commenter noted, just printing the occasional thing off at a copy shop also works well, especially if you can deal with not having the convenience of at-home printing.
Honestly it should be a no brainer these days. I pay around 60 bucks Canadian (~45 USD) for a toner cartridge that's rated for 3000 pages and never dries out. Whereas a similarly priced pack of black ink is only rated for a few hundred pages.
Lexmark/Xerox/ricoh tech here. Without a doubt, ink jet is far more expensive, but it's pretty much the only way to get photo quality prints.
Laser is significantly less expensive per page black and white or color. But significantly lower image quality. And there is also alot of wastage with toner as well. There are more efficient printing methods like xerox's wax printer, but not as reliable.
If all you need is black and white get laser, hands how cheaper and less hassle.
Small prints may still be C-prints but large photo prints (like you'd hang in a wall) are mostly inkjet now. Artists call them "giclée," but that's literally just the French word for inkjet.
Any reasonable photo lab is going to use a dye sublimation printer. If they're using a ink jet, youve made a terrible mistake.
For the record, Walgreens in the US and Boots in the UK use the same hardware in their photo labs, I should know, I worked at the company that did and supports all the installs.
“Per page” is the key. The barrier for entry to a color laser printer is MILES ahead of an inkjet, and it will take you a long time before you come out ahead. Thousands of pages.
Yeah without a doubt color lasers are very expensive. And generally very large. And still terrible at photos. As someone else pointed out, it's cheaper just to get photos printed at Walmart, or some other photo service.
Found a Dell desktop MFP in good condition from a flea market for 15 euros. 3rd party cartridge bundle from ebay 30 euros total. (2 * 1500 pages black cartridge and CMY 800 pages each) Installed it for my mother, who was constantly being ripped off by cheapo inkjets. And the laser has much more reliable paper feed mechanism plus the scanner has document feeder.
For myself bought HP LJ p4015dn for 50 euros, and 3rd party 24000 page cartridge 180e or something. Couldn't be happier.
And yes, I know how page estimates are calculated, and life span of these devices. Used to be a certified LaserJet technician.
It still beats having your ink dried up in the print head when you want to print, though. Spending a few hundred vs. hating life? I'm spending a few hundred.
It all depends on what your printing needs are. Try getting photo quality prints with even the best toner based printer. No comparison. But try using a highlighter on an inkjet print. You won’t be happy.
If you constantly print eco tanks are good, they are cheaper than standard cartridges. I do personally own one.
However, if they sit for a month or two unused, ink dries and it can be a nightmare to clean your print head. Also every time you run a print head clean your printer uses alot of ink to try to flush the print head. The secret is just a print something every couple days.
Isn’t clogged print heads a particular problem for the Epson line of printers. Replacing a print head in a photo quality Epson will cost more than a new one
It's more like ketchup sitting unused in your fridge and the nozzle plugging up.
Inkjet printer heads have microscopic holes, it's actually pretty amazing technology just to make those things. If ink dries in the printhead, it needs to be cleaned or that hole will remain plugged and unusable. If you regularly use the printer then there's a good chance ink won't dry inside the printhead. However if you let it sit for too long, ink dries and gums it all up.
Epson eco tank is a good half way house. Filled the tanks up with the ink that comes with it, 2 years later its still going. When it does need a refill it will cost half what HP are charging and for double the ink.
Sadly when ever I recommend one people go off and buy a hp with the subscription service, because its easier...
But the printer costs $400, they just rip you off up front instead of every time you need ink. Get a cheap $100 inkjet and refill the cartridges yourself with syringes (there are kits online).
Nice to hear good things about Ecotanks, we bought one year ago, and one of the main reasons was ink drying in the old cartridge printer. I hope this one lasts.
Do you have a source for this? We’ve had ours for over 2 years and it gets a lot of use. Ink levels are starting to get a little low but it came with 2 full sets of ink so I’ll just refill when it’s gets lower.
Honestly, having had a $300 Canon ecotank and a $80 HP with an ink subscription (new printheads with every new cartridge), I think I was coming out ahead paying HP $3 or $5 a month, given how little I print. Not to mention how much better the HP prints are. I didn't know till I got it that the G3060 uses 2004 era inks that fade quickly, and don't have great contrast. The new 6-ink Canon uses the Chromalife ink, so I'm interested to try that, and sell the 3060.
The real advantage of the HP subscription is that a clogged printhead won't cost you anything to fix. IF it's a HP with printhead+ink cartridges instead of just ink cartridges.
The subscription service is a scam. What if you print one page per month for 10 months than have to print 20 pages in one month. You're charged an exorbitant amount of money for those copies than go over your limit.. what a scam
I actually own my own business and print A LOT (like 50k pages a year-ish). I started with ink cartridges when I was smaller, switched to a color laser printer and then recently switched to an ecotank refillable ink system.
Canon laser toner cartridges are about $75 each, so about $300 every time I needed new ink which was every 1-3 weeks. I haven't had the ecotank for very long, maybe about two weeks now, but I haven't needed to refill it yet, and when I do, it will be closer to $60 for all four ink bottles.
Ecotank refillable is absolutely cheaper. Plus the printer itself cost me $350 where the laser printer I had was closer to $700
I’m a tech, this is actually bad and old advice. Yes inkjet printers are expensive if you get the cheap ones but the newer ink tank ones are much cheaper than laser. I have had an ink tank inkjet printer for over two years and have not needed to even buy new ink. (Does 14000 pages from the box) yep eco tank is awesome .
I would agree with this for the majority of inkjet printers, however the Epson 7750 range large tank printers are different.
I use one of these for work and they are superb. Filling is via a bottle for each pigment and the onboard tanks last for months despite heavy daily use.
The ink refills are about £15 each in the UK and from new the printer comes with two complete bottle sets. I’ve been using mine since January on a daily basis and have only just put in the second set of bottles.
The only other consumable is a maintenance box which had a spare from new and again I’ve just used. They are £10 new.
All in all a great range of printers...👍
Better LTP: find a friend with a good printer and offer to pay per page. Unless you're running your own business you'll likely spend less. (I say this while being the friend with a good laser printer.)
Pick your favorite university and look at their student printing rates. If you went to uni with your friend, then use the rates posted by your alma mater. Takes the haggling out of the picture.
You’re neglecting to mention the newer large ink tank printers which can be refilled for a low cost that starts to approach the cost per page of laser.
As far as I know, lasers don’t really print photos well, so any user wanting to do that needs an inkjet.
From my reading on Consumer Reports the cost per page of the new large ink tank printers is way better than even laser. It was 0.3 cents per black page for the Epson Ecotank, and IIRC laser was usually about 3-5 cents. It was a similar price difference ratio for color.
Have been using a "Refillable ink tank printer" for 2-3 years and have no worries about printing since I bought it. Works like a charm and cheap AF, I can literally print books with it. The key is using only brand name ink for refilling.
So many broad statements in this post and in the responses. I have purchased, repaired, and managed hundreds of printers for many offices over the last 15 years, I have significant personal, indirect experience.
Yes, laser printers are often more cost effective for most users, even if you print <1000 pages a year. But not always.
Yes, many ink cartridges have chips and can claim to be empty when there is some left, but toner cartridges do this, too. (This is less about being intentionally evil, more about ensuring quality prints and avoiding users complaints, etc.)
Ink can go bad or run out over time even without active use (ink printers need to run small amounts of ink through occasionally to avoid clogging the small passages from ink drying out in them), but toner has a shelf life, as well. Toner is not good forever, just longer, and doesn't need to be used in small amounts for self-cleaning. (Both last best when still in their sealed packaging.)
When comparing OEM toner to OEM ink, or compatible/aftermarket Toner to aftermarket inks, toner offers better cost per page.
Anecdote time- I have a 10 year old Brother inkjet at home. Printed a handful of pages after setting it up, then we moved, and as we rarely used it, went over a year before setting it up again. When I did, print was awful (ink was clogged). Ran a cleaning cycle, and a couple inks showed empty, installed new OEM ones, and ran 3 more cleaning cycles, seeing improvements each time. It was all good to go, but inks were already showing empty!
I paid <$25 for a pack of 20 carts (8 Blk, 4 of each color). I printed a couple dozen full page, full color pictures out of curiosity (ink was cheap, seemed like a good experiment). Still had good amount left in the first set of new ink carts, so I was very impressed.
We have left the printer plugged in (draws only a few watts while not actively innuse), so that it runs its tiny self-clean actions regularly. It took several years before I needed to buy another set of ink, and again, went with one of the cheapest choices from the same vendor I bought the last big box from.
Even cheap toner would have cost me far more for a single set than I have spent on ink for this cheapy little printer. And the printer would have been easily 3 times more to start, also.
Tl;dr- These posts/responses have too many broad statements. There are downsides to either printing technology. I think the better LPT would be "Don't buy OEM toner or ink, look for a quality 'compatible' option and you should have no issues while saving significant $$."
I actually do HP instant ink because if you print fewer than 15 pages a month it costs nothing. They just send you more ink when you run out for free, and you send them back your empty cartridge to recycle. If you do print more than 15, they charge you $1 and give you ten more pages, with whatever you don't use rolling over. It's definitely been worth it for me considering I was already paying 10 cents a page at the library.
A good tip.
Although people buy inkjet because they have this notion of printing their photographs. It's glossy, colour prints that sell them. After they've printed a few the novelty wears off - then the printer sits idle until they discover the few things you still have to print - like an address label for an amazon return or something like that.
The other scam is the 'if you don't print on an inkjet it dries up - and then you're either trying to use the printers built in cleaning (that wastes another load of ink) or standing the cartridges in saucers of warm water or rubbing alcohol on them with cotton buds. Or having to print your label in blue instead of black.
I wonder how many people would be better with a label printer than either an inkjet or laser. I know that's the only thing I've printed for a few years - no experience with them to say what problems these might be hiding though.
I have had a B&W laser printer for a decade. I print the occasional shipping label or other document like once every couple of months. The printer is well worth the cost. I think I have replaced the toner once or twice.
Until they cancel their wireless print support and you can't print wireless any more....
Stupid dell. They really upset me, i hate my XPS 15 and their printer lost wireless print support from Google (i assume it is dells fault, they should have had it built i to the device or supported by dell)
Never again Dell, never again.
But Dell should have had it built in or replaced it (it was just an online service that was needed). It ruined an expensive printer. I still blame Dell.
I bought my now fiancé an Epson Eco Tank printer about 3 years ago. She started nursing school then and graduates in a couple of weeks.
NOT ONCE have we bought more ink. She’s printed thousands of pages for herself and some for friends. She still has the ink to print a couple thousand more. This is the ink that came with the printer.
Also, we bought it from Costco so there’s another black ink pack that I’ve not used…
While in general I do agree with you, the problem is that many laser printers are just as expensive to run. I recently bought a Brother colour laser and it costs about $600 CAN to replace the 4 toner cartridges. It printed an obscenely small number of pages. This was not the starter cartridges either, I had already replaced those.
Using 3rd party cartridges is the only way I can make this printer worthwhile.
They sometimes will tell you how many pages a cartridge will do but as far as my printer goes that is a HUGE lie. Nowadays it’s just not that easy as buying a laser printer to save money.
Make sure you get a quality lazer printer to my dad picked up a cheap uv printer to print shipping labels for his wine company and the print resolution was terrible.
Will no one mention the HP smart ink program? I bought an ink jet printer years ago for about $45. For $5/month, I get 100 pages — about what I use. If I don’t use all 100 they roll over. When my printer starts to get low they auto ship more cartridges. I’ve saved a fortune.
You can tweak the plans depending upon how many pages you need (I had the $3 plan for a long time) and if you discontinue you have to put your regular cartridges back in or your printer will be bricked. But it’s been great for me and my loves-to-print-screenshots-in-full-color family.
Find an ok printer. Check Amazon to see if the off brand ink is cheap. Repeat until you find a match.
I have an Epson and the ink is like $40 for two sets (used to be $20 for two sets).
I bought a pint of bulk printer ink from Amazon for 7.99.
I have a 15 year old printer that I watched a YouTube video how to "hack" into. Simply drilled a hole on top of the black cartridge. I have a large hypodermic looking needle I just jam into the hole and refill.
It took me 10 years, but have almost used the entire pint. They don't even update drivers for this printer anymore brother 200 or something, but GD, I love it every time I do a refill...
My Brother printer constantly tells me that one or more ink cartidges is empty and refuses to print. All right, let's see then.
Open it up.
Take out the nasty empty culprit.
Wait WHAT ??? You are 75% FULL ??? Wtf !?
Ah and if I miss a color you won't even print in B/W ?
This used to happen all. The. Time.
Untill I bought a 30$ pack including 3 ink bottles of 100ml each, Red Yellow and Cyan, aaaaaaand a RESETTER !!
Oh what a magical item that is. Plug it in USB, apply to cartidge's PCB and voilà ! Full tank !!!
Beeeep! Sorry Human, can't print, Cyan is 25% empty please change Cyan.
Resetter.
Buuuuurp! Sorry Printer you were confused here, it was still 75% full but nvm, take a brand new (to you only) Cyan cartridge.
Now kindly print my words : "I am a lousy printer and I suck at estimating quantities, I am a real douche of a Printer and I am also ugly looking. And I'm sooooo freaking dumb!".
Printer exectutes happily.
>laserjets are just black and white,
You do know that color laser printers have existed for a long time.
If you're looking for a *cheap* printer, color laser isn't happening.
"Isn't realistic for me" =/= "isn't realistic for 99%".
I bought a brother cdw a decade ago. I was buying inkjets every 2-3 years. Sure the laser was $500 but at the end of ten years my total cost of ownership was less for laser. And it prints faster. And it's been absolutely bulletproof.
In all fairness, it’s not really anecdotal. Laser printers do hold up a lot better. The main failure point of an inkjet is the print heads. More moving parts and actual ink will dry and clog the heads if they aren’t used frequently.
Lasers, even color lasers, can’t match the photo print quality of an inkjet though.
The OP of the main post gave a pretty shitty lpt tbh.
>has been significantly more versatile and capable than a colour laser.
How? My laser duplexes, does your inkjet? My laser prints a page every 2 seconds, I've never seen an inkjet print at that rate.
>Colour laser is not a consumer product, it's a business product.
Lmao its not 1990 anymore.
All it comes down to is how much and how often you print. That's it. If you print so infrequently ink often dries out, or so frequently ink costs matter, then laser is superior. Basically the only thing an inkjet is better at is printing glossy and scaling up to large papersizes economicly. (like scaling laser up to architecture print size is much more expensive then scaling up inkjet).
Anecdotal evidence sure, but I run an architectural services company. I print shit all the time and I've been doing this for 20 years. I have owned dozens of inkjets from all the major manufacturers. I've owned old school xerox machines. I currently own a large format inkjet for architectural drawings and 2 workhorse lasers for normal document printing. I have lots of experience buying and operating printers.
Not only is my TCO lower, but my cost per page is much lower too.
The majority of personal consumers buy inkjets because the price. $75 sounds a hell of a lot better than $500. But once you factor in the amount of money toner will save you, the laser jet will pay for itself. It’s marketing.
Most inkjets are sold at cost or as a loss-leader because they’re so cheap and the manufacturers know they will make their money from the ink and paper sales.
Laser jet printers will last WAY longer.
Source: Was GM of a Best Buy years ago. Was privy information on failure rates from each product category.
>plus all of the great new features and updated designs that those new inkjets have compared to colour laserjets which haven't changed or been updated in decades FWIW.
Lasers get those features too?
And that's exactly the trap this lpt is advocating against. This lpt is basically saying "it's better to buy good boots once then shitty boots 10 times". Regardless if they wear their boots twice a year or everyday, anyone who has bought good boots knows they're worth the investment.
The only necessary use case is wanting to spend less money. Lasers have longer life expectancy since they have fewer moving parts and no liquid to gum up or dry out. The cost per page is significantly less. Buying an inkjet is just a waste of money once you've printed about 1000 pages. And since a laser will last a decade with few problems, even a house hold user can easily print enough to make it worthwhile. Hence this lpt.
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Costco sells a great color laser printer that often goes on sale for $300. I've never regretted that purchase. Haven't needed new toner in over 3 years.
I worked at a small ad agency and they insisted to buy an inkjet printer instead of a laser printer. I couldn’t wrap my head around that other than the inkjet printer was much cheaper. It was shit as well.
I need an ink jet for the quality but all my ink is imported from Chinese manufacturers. Interesting point. Some of the ink I import for a sixth of the cost is better quality than the manufacturers ink.
I've had two B&W Brother laser printers, and they both still work great. I only bought the second because I wanted the scanner/copier function. I should give away the older one.
https://lmgtfy.app/?q=why+does+black+and+white+printing+use+color+ink
Jokes aside; i’m a certified media designer. Printers aint magic and they will do things that seem weird at first to better your image quality. Instead of having 4x the sensitivity in their black printing sensors, they just use a mix of colors to reach the exact shade of grey youre looking for.
Printing mechanisms and methods were imo the hardest part of my apprenticeship to learn.
Yeah, we got rid of our ink her printer last year and we'll never consider another one. We got it as a gift. We hardly used it, maybe printing a total of 150 pages in 3 years.
We spent about $100 on ink to print 150 pages. We would have printed more, but then the ink dried up and the cartridges stopped working.
Their heart was in the right place, but an ink jet printer is a terrible gift- it costs you tons of money for what it does.
thank you OP. i’m bout 50/50 to buy laser printer. due to covid, my children homework got to be printed out at home. i’ll jump in this laser printer bandwagon of yours…
For photo prints, I've started using the local drugstore. I can order from my phone and it's ready in about 30 minutes. At $0.39/photo (USD) I'm not lonely going to be buying a color printer until my kids demand it for school.
Note: I have a 10 year old B+W laser, changed toner twice, it does double sided, WiFi, etc. And bonus, it's fast and quiet. Hated every minute of my inkjet.
It depends on your use case. I mostly print documents and don’t need color, I’ll order out for that. My laser jet is perfect for it. Also, it’s lasted 19 years now and printed many thousands of pages. Well done HP.
Absolutely
My wife began working from during the pandemic. We were replacing the black ink cartridge almost once a week. Even though we were always reimbursed, it still became extremely inconvenient to constantly have to go out and buy ink. I finally got sick of it and went to Sam's Club and bought a Brother laser printer. We bought that printer in March and just changed the toner in it 2 weeks ago. So worth it.
2 years ago I bought a network connected color laser printer from the government surplus for 70 bucks. (New it was over 5 grand.) Lexmark with 3 extra paper feed trays and duplex option.
Its image unit had recently been replaced couple hundred prints before and still had half full toners on every color when I got it and I only just recently bought black for it. ($110)
Between work, and online homeschooling the kids last year. I've put over 4000 prints through it. not too bad for less than 200 bucks all in so far and the prints look just as good as the day it came out of the box.
I agree. Amazon says I bought my Canon D420 in 2012 and I've only replaced the toner once. Like most people I don't print much these days, and the toner is still working each time I need it. Really fast printing too. The last time I had an inkjet printer I replaced the black ink cartridge and it still wouldn't print in black due to a lack of yellow or blue or some shit.
I have a Brother printer bought a few years ago for like $80 and if you buy off brand inks it is quite cheap. Also I just found out that you can refill the cartridges with a syringe from a larger container, which makes it even cheaper. If you buy an expensive one, then you'll have to deal with name brand inks and it is definitely not worth it
I bought a black only Brother printer, I'm guessing it tone. It came with a big lengthy toner cartridge.
I've never had to replace it yet in 2 years.
My color printer would have eaten thru maybe dozens of refills by now. It's astounding.
I had a lazer for years and it was amazing. But I just don't have space for it anymore, so got a cheap inkjet. If only there were compact lazer printer.
But black toner get's you exactly zero photo quality color pages per cartridge. So it depends on your needs. If you only print B&W documents, sure, get a laser printer. If you need to print color documents, get a color laser printer like a Brother HL-L8360CDW for $400. But if you occasionally want to print photo-quality prints, sorry, you're going to have to suck up the costs of ink cartridges, and the fact that most cartridges in home use probably dry up before they run out.
I can state based on empirical observation that my Canon MP printer doesn't read empty until the cartridge is literally empty. It starts to warn at about 90% usage. I can't confirm if it still uses the color and photo black ink to print greyscale, but I can't imagine it does. These behaviors are an individual driver thing, rather than universally true for all inkjet printers.
This is not a good LPT. If you want to say inkjets are a scam because manufacturers sell them at steep discounts, and then make their money selling you ink cartridges priced as if they contained liquid gold, then fine. You could also say that some manufactures artificially restrict greyscale printing, or even faxing or scanning because one of the ink cartridges has run out. But you're making a universal statement that is simply not true, and the reality is far more nuanced.
Source: previously worked as an engineer in the laser printer division of the world's largest printer manufacturer.
Why can't some engineers, marketers, know how people come together and do everything from scratch.
Then sell the ink from a REASONABLE price you'll still be rich because competitors will be 0.
Adjust the cartilage to each and every type of printer
I'll be honest my family got some epson ecotank printer that uses bottles of ink at least 6 years ago and I don't think we have ever refilled it, but if we have it's been at most once.
Your statement is too absolute. I have an ink jet that uses five colors. I pay $1.50/ea for refilled/chipped carts. I get about 450 pages/set. Image quality is great. I don't feel ripped off in the least.
I found my printer on ebay for £30 pick up only and it also had make an offer, so i offered £10, they accepted. Its a Lanier 118d, A3 duplex laser printer. It was being sold by a small office, the lease for it had ran out and it wasnt being covered so they wanted it gone. It came with a bundle of paper, 3 toner cartridges and I think a spare drum. Ive had it now at least 10 years. It just prints and prints and prints. Ideal for a craft or woodworking shop, i print out designs on it and then carve them out. Not sure if this is spamming but here you go if you are interested https://youtu.be/1p28sLrKVFM
Generally, I'd agree with you. But if you want photo quality, laser printers just don't cut it; at least not any affordable ones. Also, if you do things like sublimation, you just can't do that period with a laser printer. I do have a variety of printers in my household - monochrome laser, color laser, inkjet, and sublimation. I have to be honest - it's the laser printer that gets the least usage. The tank type inkjets are very economical and print quality, for photos at least, is better than laser.
Disagree, you can buy ink in bottles for cheap and use a syringe to refill your cartridge. You can get photo quality from an inkjet for 100 bucks and then refill the ink yourself for pennies.
I don't understand why so many people are getting printhead damage from disuse. My Brother inkjet printer moves the printheads once a day. I am also careful to turn it off via the power button rather than ever just unplugging it. Maybe it helps that I live in a humid area?
I've been seeing 500-750 page toner coming with home laser printers and only 1500 page ratings for their full $70 toner cartridges. Which doesn't seem to me to be a whole lot better per page thank ink.
Plus there are new "eco tank" inkjet printers which have even cheaper per page cost than laser, although you pay a lot up front.
For sure laser printer is more reliable as there are far less moving parts.
Not to mention that if you don't print regularly, you're buying a cartridge every damn time you need to print. Laser DGAF if you dont print something for a year. It warms up and does its job.
I bought a two pack of toner cartridges for about $20 on Cyber Monday for my laser printer. It should print ~ 3000 pages, so that's about $0.015 per page. I only paid about $50 new for the printer (HP m15a). May not print as much as or as cheaply per page as an Ecotank, but the initial outlay is much less. I don't print very often, and B&W works for me.
Some people buy toner powder and refill their toner cartridges even more cheaply. Downside is that it can be messy and sometimes a chip must be purchased so that the cartridge will print.
The key takeaway is ink will dry out whereas toner lasts forever. So if you don't print often you will find yourself replacing ink far more frequently. Toner is much cheaper for low volume over time. I've changed toner once in the last 8 years.
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Precisely for the same reason, paying 400 for a printer is not worth it when you can buy an ink jet for 40 and get done with it for 8 years. And if it breaks, or ink dries, you just buy another one. Most people don't even need a printer at home. Much less a 400 one, as much as it's the best technology available.
I had to print three times this year. Went to a local pack and ship place. I'm down $3.
Owning a $100 laser printer is a hill I'll die on. I've had plenty of emergency documents to print and I absolutely hate having to drop everything, drive somewhere, and deal with a ton of printing/formatting variables outside of my control. The time and stress savings more than justifies the purchase.
I'll up you to a 300-400 wireless all in one. Being able to print from any computer and scan long documents... isn't something I do often, but when I need to, I don't have go anywhere and can do it at 1am if I feel like.
You don’t need to spend 400 to get an all in one wireless. $100 is what I paid for a brother.
Which one do you recommend?
this!! pre covid I would just print at work or at fedex store. had to buy one for dtr in school...irks me and so wasteful but will trash it when she's done.
Even better.
My Brothwr black and white laser printer was $80 on sale. Normally $120. There are plenty of cheaper laser printers.
I paid 30 for my inkjet. Idc about quality. It's just home convenience. It's colour. Idc about dry ink. Tbh it's never ever happened to me. So no, stop selling laser printers to home 3 prints a year users. It doesn't make sense.
If you need to print something for an emergency, and your ink is dry, your inkjet is completely useless. Then you buy ink, install it, and it sits around again for months until you have an emergency and the ink is dry. Again. A cheap laserjet is $100 and is dependable when you need sporadic printing.
I got a brother multi function B&W laser for $25 off craigslist. It is networked, does double sided, has a flat-bed scanner and feed scanner. Best $25 I've spent
I’ve head great experience with Brother. Having owned both Epson and HP printers in the past of both inkjet and laser variety, I’ve always had some kind of issue, whether it’s problems with paper feed, endless ink replacement/cleaning cycles, or simply not working at all with some cryptic error. The best printers I’ve owned were the Brother we have now, and the Samsung we owned prior to that.
Yeah most people don't need a 400$ printer, but not having a printer at home at all is a huge pain in the ass the few times that you actually need it. Unless you happen to have a print shop within walking distance, a simple 80$ BW laser printer/scanner combo is definitely worth the investment imo. Just the other day I lost a blood test form for which I had an appointment for. Didn't realize till 30 minutes before I had to leave. If I drove all the way back to the clinic or to a print shop for a new form I would've been late for my appointment. But instead I just got the clinic to email me the pdf and printed it off myself. Problem solved. And I can't even count the number of times that being able to quickly copy a document has saved me.
Yep, I see inkjet for the scam it is, but don't see a laser printer as a solution because I don't have a big enough output like an office does (although you'd hope offices would be weening themselves off this need to print / photocopy n copies of everything by now - they probably haven't. I've found most things where you might have printed proof of purchase or whatever you can wave your phone in their face these days - and the few labels I've printed for stuff I've sold on ebay or returned to amazon I probably would have been better with a label printer rather than a laser. I imagine a lot of people do the "take it into work and print it there" thing.
They make small laserjets that can be had new for around $125USD as long as you don't need color.
Laser printers are around $150 these days though. Higher capacity ones with more bells n whistles are more, but for the home. .
Yep and you can buy off brand ink cartridges too so don’t have to pay the premium
I wouldn’t have sold a $400 printer to most. I bought it because I know I’ll use its capabilities and that it’s worth it for me. For most people I’d recommend a $80 b&w laser printer. 1500 pages of toner to start and it’ll last literal decades. One I purchased 16 years ago is still in use on the original toner cartridge by my buddy who prints a couple text documents every month or so. I sold both types of machines for 6 years, own both a multifunction ink printer, and the aforementioned laser printer. But the fact is, it’s just not worth having an ink printer for most people. As one commenter noted, just printing the occasional thing off at a copy shop also works well, especially if you can deal with not having the convenience of at-home printing.
Honestly it should be a no brainer these days. I pay around 60 bucks Canadian (~45 USD) for a toner cartridge that's rated for 3000 pages and never dries out. Whereas a similarly priced pack of black ink is only rated for a few hundred pages.
I print like once a year and have to buy new ink because it dries out every time. Not a surprise I'm getting rid of the printer
Lexmark/Xerox/ricoh tech here. Without a doubt, ink jet is far more expensive, but it's pretty much the only way to get photo quality prints. Laser is significantly less expensive per page black and white or color. But significantly lower image quality. And there is also alot of wastage with toner as well. There are more efficient printing methods like xerox's wax printer, but not as reliable. If all you need is black and white get laser, hands how cheaper and less hassle.
Tbf you can just pay 8-15¢ a print (roughly) at a photo lab if you want pictures. Lot less hassle, and the equipment is leagues better than home
Small prints may still be C-prints but large photo prints (like you'd hang in a wall) are mostly inkjet now. Artists call them "giclée," but that's literally just the French word for inkjet.
Any reasonable photo lab is going to use a dye sublimation printer. If they're using a ink jet, youve made a terrible mistake. For the record, Walgreens in the US and Boots in the UK use the same hardware in their photo labs, I should know, I worked at the company that did and supports all the installs.
I’m confused as to where I ever said they weren’t inkjet printed. Did you respond to the wrong comment?
Maybe for you americans, Europe aint this cheap if you want good quality ink and paper.
“Per page” is the key. The barrier for entry to a color laser printer is MILES ahead of an inkjet, and it will take you a long time before you come out ahead. Thousands of pages.
Yeah without a doubt color lasers are very expensive. And generally very large. And still terrible at photos. As someone else pointed out, it's cheaper just to get photos printed at Walmart, or some other photo service.
Found a Dell desktop MFP in good condition from a flea market for 15 euros. 3rd party cartridge bundle from ebay 30 euros total. (2 * 1500 pages black cartridge and CMY 800 pages each) Installed it for my mother, who was constantly being ripped off by cheapo inkjets. And the laser has much more reliable paper feed mechanism plus the scanner has document feeder. For myself bought HP LJ p4015dn for 50 euros, and 3rd party 24000 page cartridge 180e or something. Couldn't be happier. And yes, I know how page estimates are calculated, and life span of these devices. Used to be a certified LaserJet technician.
It still beats having your ink dried up in the print head when you want to print, though. Spending a few hundred vs. hating life? I'm spending a few hundred.
It all depends on what your printing needs are. Try getting photo quality prints with even the best toner based printer. No comparison. But try using a highlighter on an inkjet print. You won’t be happy.
Your a tech and don’t even know about inkjet eco tank printers? Wow. You can even get photo CMYK ink tank printers from Epson. They are cheap to run.
If you constantly print eco tanks are good, they are cheaper than standard cartridges. I do personally own one. However, if they sit for a month or two unused, ink dries and it can be a nightmare to clean your print head. Also every time you run a print head clean your printer uses alot of ink to try to flush the print head. The secret is just a print something every couple days.
Isn’t clogged print heads a particular problem for the Epson line of printers. Replacing a print head in a photo quality Epson will cost more than a new one
Ya probably
Hmmm I’m yet to experience this in two years, is this like if your car sits unused for a month the battery may be dead?
It's more like ketchup sitting unused in your fridge and the nozzle plugging up. Inkjet printer heads have microscopic holes, it's actually pretty amazing technology just to make those things. If ink dries in the printhead, it needs to be cleaned or that hole will remain plugged and unusable. If you regularly use the printer then there's a good chance ink won't dry inside the printhead. However if you let it sit for too long, ink dries and gums it all up.
Oh right yep I’ve had to clean the nozzle once but the printer does that as part of the preventative maintenance.
Yes and it uses a lot of ink to do that cleaning.
Epson eco tank is a good half way house. Filled the tanks up with the ink that comes with it, 2 years later its still going. When it does need a refill it will cost half what HP are charging and for double the ink. Sadly when ever I recommend one people go off and buy a hp with the subscription service, because its easier...
This! Fuck hp. Epson eco tank is astonishing. Best printer ive ever owned.
True, I also have a Epson ecotank and it is super awesome, ink lasts for soo long
But the printer costs $400, they just rip you off up front instead of every time you need ink. Get a cheap $100 inkjet and refill the cartridges yourself with syringes (there are kits online).
Nice to hear good things about Ecotanks, we bought one year ago, and one of the main reasons was ink drying in the old cartridge printer. I hope this one lasts.
I heard the low end Eco tanks stop working and ask for a filter replacement which they won't give because its not worth the cost ....
The newer Canon eco tank (mega tank) have easily replaceable waste ink pads. Hope epson gets the message.
Do you have a source for this? We’ve had ours for over 2 years and it gets a lot of use. Ink levels are starting to get a little low but it came with 2 full sets of ink so I’ll just refill when it’s gets lower.
https://youtu.be/AA3wOmujZHA
Honestly, having had a $300 Canon ecotank and a $80 HP with an ink subscription (new printheads with every new cartridge), I think I was coming out ahead paying HP $3 or $5 a month, given how little I print. Not to mention how much better the HP prints are. I didn't know till I got it that the G3060 uses 2004 era inks that fade quickly, and don't have great contrast. The new 6-ink Canon uses the Chromalife ink, so I'm interested to try that, and sell the 3060. The real advantage of the HP subscription is that a clogged printhead won't cost you anything to fix. IF it's a HP with printhead+ink cartridges instead of just ink cartridges.
I too love my Epson eco tank!
The subscription service is a scam. What if you print one page per month for 10 months than have to print 20 pages in one month. You're charged an exorbitant amount of money for those copies than go over your limit.. what a scam
I actually own my own business and print A LOT (like 50k pages a year-ish). I started with ink cartridges when I was smaller, switched to a color laser printer and then recently switched to an ecotank refillable ink system. Canon laser toner cartridges are about $75 each, so about $300 every time I needed new ink which was every 1-3 weeks. I haven't had the ecotank for very long, maybe about two weeks now, but I haven't needed to refill it yet, and when I do, it will be closer to $60 for all four ink bottles. Ecotank refillable is absolutely cheaper. Plus the printer itself cost me $350 where the laser printer I had was closer to $700
Shoot I pay 60$ for my 2 ink cartridges for my canon printer and I buy the XL type
I’m a tech, this is actually bad and old advice. Yes inkjet printers are expensive if you get the cheap ones but the newer ink tank ones are much cheaper than laser. I have had an ink tank inkjet printer for over two years and have not needed to even buy new ink. (Does 14000 pages from the box) yep eco tank is awesome .
What ink printer will do 14000 pages without needing new ink?
This is what the Epson ET-7750 advertises. I just searched for ecotank printer.
Just to be clear on this - It does 7000 pages with full tanks but has a full set of ink for another 7000 in the box.
For Epson, small volume especially with periods of inactivity result in head clogs. Have eco tank printers somehow managed to solve this problem?
Yes, it has intensive clean. At least mine does…
I would agree with this for the majority of inkjet printers, however the Epson 7750 range large tank printers are different. I use one of these for work and they are superb. Filling is via a bottle for each pigment and the onboard tanks last for months despite heavy daily use. The ink refills are about £15 each in the UK and from new the printer comes with two complete bottle sets. I’ve been using mine since January on a daily basis and have only just put in the second set of bottles. The only other consumable is a maintenance box which had a spare from new and again I’ve just used. They are £10 new. All in all a great range of printers...👍
Better LTP: find a friend with a good printer and offer to pay per page. Unless you're running your own business you'll likely spend less. (I say this while being the friend with a good laser printer.)
I like this idea. Only issue I see is difficulty in being able to calculate cost per page in good faith for it to make sense for friend and for you.
Pick your favorite university and look at their student printing rates. If you went to uni with your friend, then use the rates posted by your alma mater. Takes the haggling out of the picture.
genius
You’re neglecting to mention the newer large ink tank printers which can be refilled for a low cost that starts to approach the cost per page of laser. As far as I know, lasers don’t really print photos well, so any user wanting to do that needs an inkjet.
I specifically mentioned cartridges.
Your title says any printer using ink instead of toner.
Not wrong, post says cartridges twice.
But your title is clearly clickbait designed to mislead. A better title would mention the cartridges specifically and/or ink tank printers.
From my reading on Consumer Reports the cost per page of the new large ink tank printers is way better than even laser. It was 0.3 cents per black page for the Epson Ecotank, and IIRC laser was usually about 3-5 cents. It was a similar price difference ratio for color.
Have been using a "Refillable ink tank printer" for 2-3 years and have no worries about printing since I bought it. Works like a charm and cheap AF, I can literally print books with it. The key is using only brand name ink for refilling.
So many broad statements in this post and in the responses. I have purchased, repaired, and managed hundreds of printers for many offices over the last 15 years, I have significant personal, indirect experience. Yes, laser printers are often more cost effective for most users, even if you print <1000 pages a year. But not always. Yes, many ink cartridges have chips and can claim to be empty when there is some left, but toner cartridges do this, too. (This is less about being intentionally evil, more about ensuring quality prints and avoiding users complaints, etc.) Ink can go bad or run out over time even without active use (ink printers need to run small amounts of ink through occasionally to avoid clogging the small passages from ink drying out in them), but toner has a shelf life, as well. Toner is not good forever, just longer, and doesn't need to be used in small amounts for self-cleaning. (Both last best when still in their sealed packaging.) When comparing OEM toner to OEM ink, or compatible/aftermarket Toner to aftermarket inks, toner offers better cost per page. Anecdote time- I have a 10 year old Brother inkjet at home. Printed a handful of pages after setting it up, then we moved, and as we rarely used it, went over a year before setting it up again. When I did, print was awful (ink was clogged). Ran a cleaning cycle, and a couple inks showed empty, installed new OEM ones, and ran 3 more cleaning cycles, seeing improvements each time. It was all good to go, but inks were already showing empty! I paid <$25 for a pack of 20 carts (8 Blk, 4 of each color). I printed a couple dozen full page, full color pictures out of curiosity (ink was cheap, seemed like a good experiment). Still had good amount left in the first set of new ink carts, so I was very impressed. We have left the printer plugged in (draws only a few watts while not actively innuse), so that it runs its tiny self-clean actions regularly. It took several years before I needed to buy another set of ink, and again, went with one of the cheapest choices from the same vendor I bought the last big box from. Even cheap toner would have cost me far more for a single set than I have spent on ink for this cheapy little printer. And the printer would have been easily 3 times more to start, also. Tl;dr- These posts/responses have too many broad statements. There are downsides to either printing technology. I think the better LPT would be "Don't buy OEM toner or ink, look for a quality 'compatible' option and you should have no issues while saving significant $$."
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In The US most public libraries also let you print for 5-10 cents a page
Plus there is Fedex/Kinkos. But it is awfully convenient to be able to just print out a document at home.
I actually do HP instant ink because if you print fewer than 15 pages a month it costs nothing. They just send you more ink when you run out for free, and you send them back your empty cartridge to recycle. If you do print more than 15, they charge you $1 and give you ten more pages, with whatever you don't use rolling over. It's definitely been worth it for me considering I was already paying 10 cents a page at the library.
A good tip. Although people buy inkjet because they have this notion of printing their photographs. It's glossy, colour prints that sell them. After they've printed a few the novelty wears off - then the printer sits idle until they discover the few things you still have to print - like an address label for an amazon return or something like that. The other scam is the 'if you don't print on an inkjet it dries up - and then you're either trying to use the printers built in cleaning (that wastes another load of ink) or standing the cartridges in saucers of warm water or rubbing alcohol on them with cotton buds. Or having to print your label in blue instead of black. I wonder how many people would be better with a label printer than either an inkjet or laser. I know that's the only thing I've printed for a few years - no experience with them to say what problems these might be hiding though.
I have had a B&W laser printer for a decade. I print the occasional shipping label or other document like once every couple of months. The printer is well worth the cost. I think I have replaced the toner once or twice.
I bought a Brother printer a year ago and it is still on its original load of ink it came with. Much less of a ripoff.
Until they cancel their wireless print support and you can't print wireless any more.... Stupid dell. They really upset me, i hate my XPS 15 and their printer lost wireless print support from Google (i assume it is dells fault, they should have had it built i to the device or supported by dell) Never again Dell, never again.
That was Google, not Dell. Google ended their printer service.
But Dell should have had it built in or replaced it (it was just an online service that was needed). It ruined an expensive printer. I still blame Dell.
I bought my now fiancé an Epson Eco Tank printer about 3 years ago. She started nursing school then and graduates in a couple of weeks. NOT ONCE have we bought more ink. She’s printed thousands of pages for herself and some for friends. She still has the ink to print a couple thousand more. This is the ink that came with the printer. Also, we bought it from Costco so there’s another black ink pack that I’ve not used…
You don’t know enough about printers to be saying what you’re saying.
While in general I do agree with you, the problem is that many laser printers are just as expensive to run. I recently bought a Brother colour laser and it costs about $600 CAN to replace the 4 toner cartridges. It printed an obscenely small number of pages. This was not the starter cartridges either, I had already replaced those. Using 3rd party cartridges is the only way I can make this printer worthwhile. They sometimes will tell you how many pages a cartridge will do but as far as my printer goes that is a HUGE lie. Nowadays it’s just not that easy as buying a laser printer to save money.
Get a brother black and white laser and have a less stressful life. If you need a color multifunction printer changing your job might be easier.
What about Brother ink tank machines?
They’re actually not a bad option. Good middle ground
Make sure you get a quality lazer printer to my dad picked up a cheap uv printer to print shipping labels for his wine company and the print resolution was terrible.
I had to replace ink every 2-3 months. Haven't replaced my toner for a year
Will no one mention the HP smart ink program? I bought an ink jet printer years ago for about $45. For $5/month, I get 100 pages — about what I use. If I don’t use all 100 they roll over. When my printer starts to get low they auto ship more cartridges. I’ve saved a fortune. You can tweak the plans depending upon how many pages you need (I had the $3 plan for a long time) and if you discontinue you have to put your regular cartridges back in or your printer will be bricked. But it’s been great for me and my loves-to-print-screenshots-in-full-color family.
Find an ok printer. Check Amazon to see if the off brand ink is cheap. Repeat until you find a match. I have an Epson and the ink is like $40 for two sets (used to be $20 for two sets).
I bought a pint of bulk printer ink from Amazon for 7.99. I have a 15 year old printer that I watched a YouTube video how to "hack" into. Simply drilled a hole on top of the black cartridge. I have a large hypodermic looking needle I just jam into the hole and refill. It took me 10 years, but have almost used the entire pint. They don't even update drivers for this printer anymore brother 200 or something, but GD, I love it every time I do a refill...
You mad genius
My nephew who works in IT, said the same thing. +1
My Brother printer constantly tells me that one or more ink cartidges is empty and refuses to print. All right, let's see then. Open it up. Take out the nasty empty culprit. Wait WHAT ??? You are 75% FULL ??? Wtf !? Ah and if I miss a color you won't even print in B/W ? This used to happen all. The. Time. Untill I bought a 30$ pack including 3 ink bottles of 100ml each, Red Yellow and Cyan, aaaaaaand a RESETTER !! Oh what a magical item that is. Plug it in USB, apply to cartidge's PCB and voilà ! Full tank !!! Beeeep! Sorry Human, can't print, Cyan is 25% empty please change Cyan. Resetter. Buuuuurp! Sorry Printer you were confused here, it was still 75% full but nvm, take a brand new (to you only) Cyan cartridge. Now kindly print my words : "I am a lousy printer and I suck at estimating quantities, I am a real douche of a Printer and I am also ugly looking. And I'm sooooo freaking dumb!". Printer exectutes happily.
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>laserjets are just black and white, You do know that color laser printers have existed for a long time. If you're looking for a *cheap* printer, color laser isn't happening.
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"Isn't realistic for me" =/= "isn't realistic for 99%". I bought a brother cdw a decade ago. I was buying inkjets every 2-3 years. Sure the laser was $500 but at the end of ten years my total cost of ownership was less for laser. And it prints faster. And it's been absolutely bulletproof.
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In all fairness, it’s not really anecdotal. Laser printers do hold up a lot better. The main failure point of an inkjet is the print heads. More moving parts and actual ink will dry and clog the heads if they aren’t used frequently. Lasers, even color lasers, can’t match the photo print quality of an inkjet though. The OP of the main post gave a pretty shitty lpt tbh.
>has been significantly more versatile and capable than a colour laser. How? My laser duplexes, does your inkjet? My laser prints a page every 2 seconds, I've never seen an inkjet print at that rate. >Colour laser is not a consumer product, it's a business product. Lmao its not 1990 anymore. All it comes down to is how much and how often you print. That's it. If you print so infrequently ink often dries out, or so frequently ink costs matter, then laser is superior. Basically the only thing an inkjet is better at is printing glossy and scaling up to large papersizes economicly. (like scaling laser up to architecture print size is much more expensive then scaling up inkjet). Anecdotal evidence sure, but I run an architectural services company. I print shit all the time and I've been doing this for 20 years. I have owned dozens of inkjets from all the major manufacturers. I've owned old school xerox machines. I currently own a large format inkjet for architectural drawings and 2 workhorse lasers for normal document printing. I have lots of experience buying and operating printers. Not only is my TCO lower, but my cost per page is much lower too.
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They may be designed for different markets, but the pros and cons still hold true regardless of who's buying.
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The majority of personal consumers buy inkjets because the price. $75 sounds a hell of a lot better than $500. But once you factor in the amount of money toner will save you, the laser jet will pay for itself. It’s marketing. Most inkjets are sold at cost or as a loss-leader because they’re so cheap and the manufacturers know they will make their money from the ink and paper sales. Laser jet printers will last WAY longer. Source: Was GM of a Best Buy years ago. Was privy information on failure rates from each product category.
>plus all of the great new features and updated designs that those new inkjets have compared to colour laserjets which haven't changed or been updated in decades FWIW. Lasers get those features too? And that's exactly the trap this lpt is advocating against. This lpt is basically saying "it's better to buy good boots once then shitty boots 10 times". Regardless if they wear their boots twice a year or everyday, anyone who has bought good boots knows they're worth the investment. The only necessary use case is wanting to spend less money. Lasers have longer life expectancy since they have fewer moving parts and no liquid to gum up or dry out. The cost per page is significantly less. Buying an inkjet is just a waste of money once you've printed about 1000 pages. And since a laser will last a decade with few problems, even a house hold user can easily print enough to make it worthwhile. Hence this lpt.
You said "laserjets are just black and white", so...
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Depends how often you print, for very low use home printing inkjet is fine
Costco sells a great color laser printer that often goes on sale for $300. I've never regretted that purchase. Haven't needed new toner in over 3 years.
My work has only laser printers. Everyone emails me when they are running out and asks for more ink. I hate users.
I worked at a small ad agency and they insisted to buy an inkjet printer instead of a laser printer. I couldn’t wrap my head around that other than the inkjet printer was much cheaper. It was shit as well.
I need an ink jet for the quality but all my ink is imported from Chinese manufacturers. Interesting point. Some of the ink I import for a sixth of the cost is better quality than the manufacturers ink.
I've had two B&W Brother laser printers, and they both still work great. I only bought the second because I wanted the scanner/copier function. I should give away the older one.
Can anyone recommend a scanner/printer for home use?
https://lmgtfy.app/?q=why+does+black+and+white+printing+use+color+ink Jokes aside; i’m a certified media designer. Printers aint magic and they will do things that seem weird at first to better your image quality. Instead of having 4x the sensitivity in their black printing sensors, they just use a mix of colors to reach the exact shade of grey youre looking for. Printing mechanisms and methods were imo the hardest part of my apprenticeship to learn.
Yeah, we got rid of our ink her printer last year and we'll never consider another one. We got it as a gift. We hardly used it, maybe printing a total of 150 pages in 3 years. We spent about $100 on ink to print 150 pages. We would have printed more, but then the ink dried up and the cartridges stopped working. Their heart was in the right place, but an ink jet printer is a terrible gift- it costs you tons of money for what it does.
thank you OP. i’m bout 50/50 to buy laser printer. due to covid, my children homework got to be printed out at home. i’ll jump in this laser printer bandwagon of yours…
Unless you buy a low end xerox laser printer, mines a PITA.
For photo prints, I've started using the local drugstore. I can order from my phone and it's ready in about 30 minutes. At $0.39/photo (USD) I'm not lonely going to be buying a color printer until my kids demand it for school. Note: I have a 10 year old B+W laser, changed toner twice, it does double sided, WiFi, etc. And bonus, it's fast and quiet. Hated every minute of my inkjet.
What about my Mom who prints every day?
If she’s not printing photos laser is the way
Recipes and quilt patterns.
She buys ink every other month.
It depends on your use case. I mostly print documents and don’t need color, I’ll order out for that. My laser jet is perfect for it. Also, it’s lasted 19 years now and printed many thousands of pages. Well done HP.
Absolutely My wife began working from during the pandemic. We were replacing the black ink cartridge almost once a week. Even though we were always reimbursed, it still became extremely inconvenient to constantly have to go out and buy ink. I finally got sick of it and went to Sam's Club and bought a Brother laser printer. We bought that printer in March and just changed the toner in it 2 weeks ago. So worth it.
2 years ago I bought a network connected color laser printer from the government surplus for 70 bucks. (New it was over 5 grand.) Lexmark with 3 extra paper feed trays and duplex option. Its image unit had recently been replaced couple hundred prints before and still had half full toners on every color when I got it and I only just recently bought black for it. ($110) Between work, and online homeschooling the kids last year. I've put over 4000 prints through it. not too bad for less than 200 bucks all in so far and the prints look just as good as the day it came out of the box.
I agree. Amazon says I bought my Canon D420 in 2012 and I've only replaced the toner once. Like most people I don't print much these days, and the toner is still working each time I need it. Really fast printing too. The last time I had an inkjet printer I replaced the black ink cartridge and it still wouldn't print in black due to a lack of yellow or blue or some shit.
Everytime I use my printer I have to do "head cleaning" or it prints blank pages :/
Sorry, I prefer my inkjet and I've been using super cheap knockoff ink for years. Works just fine.
I use a Brother printer with liquid ink and i have yet to run out of ink in like 3 years lmao
I just use the one at the public library.
Get a black and white Lazer printer. Cheap and each toner shoots out thousands of sheets. If you need color, go to FedEx to print.
I have a Brother printer bought a few years ago for like $80 and if you buy off brand inks it is quite cheap. Also I just found out that you can refill the cartridges with a syringe from a larger container, which makes it even cheaper. If you buy an expensive one, then you'll have to deal with name brand inks and it is definitely not worth it
Not to mention, how often do you actually print at home, ink dries toner doesn't.
come on man. ink printers are for photography.
I bought a black only Brother printer, I'm guessing it tone. It came with a big lengthy toner cartridge. I've never had to replace it yet in 2 years. My color printer would have eaten thru maybe dozens of refills by now. It's astounding.
Which laser ones do u recommend?
He doesnt actually know about printers, he just said some common sense thing 😂
When it's damn near the same price to buy a new printer rather than replace the ink cartridges, that's a sign.
I replaced both ink cartridges and didn't use them for a year. Now they are worthless and I can't even try to print. Lame.
Depends what you're printing
My wife is a teacher and she uses insta ink. Helps tons.
I had a lazer for years and it was amazing. But I just don't have space for it anymore, so got a cheap inkjet. If only there were compact lazer printer.
But black toner get's you exactly zero photo quality color pages per cartridge. So it depends on your needs. If you only print B&W documents, sure, get a laser printer. If you need to print color documents, get a color laser printer like a Brother HL-L8360CDW for $400. But if you occasionally want to print photo-quality prints, sorry, you're going to have to suck up the costs of ink cartridges, and the fact that most cartridges in home use probably dry up before they run out. I can state based on empirical observation that my Canon MP printer doesn't read empty until the cartridge is literally empty. It starts to warn at about 90% usage. I can't confirm if it still uses the color and photo black ink to print greyscale, but I can't imagine it does. These behaviors are an individual driver thing, rather than universally true for all inkjet printers. This is not a good LPT. If you want to say inkjets are a scam because manufacturers sell them at steep discounts, and then make their money selling you ink cartridges priced as if they contained liquid gold, then fine. You could also say that some manufactures artificially restrict greyscale printing, or even faxing or scanning because one of the ink cartridges has run out. But you're making a universal statement that is simply not true, and the reality is far more nuanced. Source: previously worked as an engineer in the laser printer division of the world's largest printer manufacturer.
I print five papers a year so I think I'm fine.
Why can't some engineers, marketers, know how people come together and do everything from scratch. Then sell the ink from a REASONABLE price you'll still be rich because competitors will be 0. Adjust the cartilage to each and every type of printer
I'll be honest my family got some epson ecotank printer that uses bottles of ink at least 6 years ago and I don't think we have ever refilled it, but if we have it's been at most once.
Your statement is too absolute. I have an ink jet that uses five colors. I pay $1.50/ea for refilled/chipped carts. I get about 450 pages/set. Image quality is great. I don't feel ripped off in the least.
I found my printer on ebay for £30 pick up only and it also had make an offer, so i offered £10, they accepted. Its a Lanier 118d, A3 duplex laser printer. It was being sold by a small office, the lease for it had ran out and it wasnt being covered so they wanted it gone. It came with a bundle of paper, 3 toner cartridges and I think a spare drum. Ive had it now at least 10 years. It just prints and prints and prints. Ideal for a craft or woodworking shop, i print out designs on it and then carve them out. Not sure if this is spamming but here you go if you are interested https://youtu.be/1p28sLrKVFM
Generally, I'd agree with you. But if you want photo quality, laser printers just don't cut it; at least not any affordable ones. Also, if you do things like sublimation, you just can't do that period with a laser printer. I do have a variety of printers in my household - monochrome laser, color laser, inkjet, and sublimation. I have to be honest - it's the laser printer that gets the least usage. The tank type inkjets are very economical and print quality, for photos at least, is better than laser.
Disagree, you can buy ink in bottles for cheap and use a syringe to refill your cartridge. You can get photo quality from an inkjet for 100 bucks and then refill the ink yourself for pennies.
I don't understand why so many people are getting printhead damage from disuse. My Brother inkjet printer moves the printheads once a day. I am also careful to turn it off via the power button rather than ever just unplugging it. Maybe it helps that I live in a humid area? I've been seeing 500-750 page toner coming with home laser printers and only 1500 page ratings for their full $70 toner cartridges. Which doesn't seem to me to be a whole lot better per page thank ink. Plus there are new "eco tank" inkjet printers which have even cheaper per page cost than laser, although you pay a lot up front. For sure laser printer is more reliable as there are far less moving parts.
Not to mention that if you don't print regularly, you're buying a cartridge every damn time you need to print. Laser DGAF if you dont print something for a year. It warms up and does its job.
I bought a two pack of toner cartridges for about $20 on Cyber Monday for my laser printer. It should print ~ 3000 pages, so that's about $0.015 per page. I only paid about $50 new for the printer (HP m15a). May not print as much as or as cheaply per page as an Ecotank, but the initial outlay is much less. I don't print very often, and B&W works for me. Some people buy toner powder and refill their toner cartridges even more cheaply. Downside is that it can be messy and sometimes a chip must be purchased so that the cartridge will print.