Printer help

Well, our HP printer just died. Won't feed paper. Lasted a whole 6 months of small office work. Argghh. Any suggestions on a decent printer that will last a bit longer? We don't seem to get much more than this on any that we have bought. Please, no 1000.00 units.

The last time this came up, the board consensus was that an old HP 4000 series was pretty much the P71 of printers: either indestructible in normal use or readily repairable if something actually does happen. My local CL seems to have them for $50 to $150.

Having said that, I have no personal experience – but that model name is filed in my to-do list for the next time I need a printer.

+1 on a used HP4000, 4050, 4100 etc. I picked up a 4050dtn (with ethernet network card) two drawers and a duplexer for $100 local off ebay. You can also find them on CL for around the same $$. Basically bulletproof and the toner cartridges are fairly reasonable. I usually find mine on Ebay.

My JetDirect card just crapped out and I got a used replacement for $6.75. Works great!

Modern HP inkjets are E36 M3. Some whole model lines have serious design flaws that cause them to break early. If you're looking for something used, the old HP Deskjet 800-series are indestructible (especially the 840c, I know a lot of those that are still in service).

I swore off all HP's years ago. We use an Epson that seems to be okay.

Oh, a nice modern printer I've seen is the Brother MFC-J615W. Does printing, scanning & copying, faxing, can work directly with flash cards and USB sticks, has wifi and ethernet, and the manufacturer offers Linux drivers. My mom has one in her office and it hasn't given any trouble so far, nearly 3 years.

I bought an HP printer for $64, with a two-pack of ink that cost $65. The printers will be free pretty soon IMO.

Fun fact: those ink cartridges probably cost about $5 each to manufacture, or $3 each if they're they're separate from the print head. If you print a lot on an inkjet, a refill kit will save you lots of money, refill each cartridge at least once. Cartridges for many of the newer printers have devices built in to brick themselves around the time they should be empty though.

I use HP laserjets in my offices almost exclusively

We use HP4200's here and they are a tough box. I dunno how many hundreds of reams we've put through them. I use a HP 1100 at home. Don't know if that's tough enough for you.

With printers, my main concern is: Am I going to be able to buy toner/consumables for it in 10 years? With a HP, I know I am. With other brands, I've been stung, like having a fantastic printer that you can't use because a $15 part is NLA.

I've worked on HP LJ5si with 9,000,000+ pages. yes, 9 Million.

Did I mention said machine was in a foundry environment as well?

HP's workgroup level laserjets, including the Laserjet 4, 5, 4000, etc. all are really well made and durable. Their desktop stuff is often crap. I'd say their laser printers tend to be much better made than their inkjets.

At my last job, there were a number of Laserjet 4 and 5 printers that were in service for well over a decade.

Generally, I'd take a laser printer over an inkjet any day of the week and twice on Tuesday.

We have a mix of cheap HP (LaserJet 1000) and Samsung (ML-2510 and ML-2525) laser printers here at work. We run an eBay store and do lots of printing. I would recommend one of the cheap Samsung's (~$70). The Samsung toner cartridges are easily refillable, with eBay being our usual source for cheap toner (in the $10 range). New aftermarket toner cartridges are cheap as well.

I would highly recommend that no one buy an inkjet printer when laser can be had for not much more and offer huge savings in consumables and aggravation. Color lasers are now available for under $200 and are worth it for the lack of dried up ink and clogged nozzles.

I should let you guys know that we have VERY low pricing on reman HP(and other) cartridges. We drop ship too.

I'm running two HP 6500 Officejets. The older one with simple push buttons works like a charm. The newer one with the touch screen is spastic. It needs to be shut all the way down at least once a week or it just locks up.

These replaced a Brother printer and an antique HP fax machine. The Brothers I didn't have a lot of luck with. 8-9 months and they were dead.

By the way...those FEED Rollers are about $2 each if this is a laser. PM me for a great supplier.

I run strictly HP printers. When I had the business I was running a 4050n for invoicing, same printer we installed in schools for the spoiled couldn't care less brats. The only complaint I had was the cost of the OE toner ($150 locally). At home I ran a 4L until my wireless adapter for it died. That printer is now at my mother-in-laws house still in use.

petegossett wrote: I should let you guys know that we have VERY low pricing on reman HP(and other) cartridges. We drop ship too.

I typically buy refilled cartridges at cartridge world, but would love to keep my business within GRM. PM me your info.

Joey

Have you been happy with the Cartridge World stuff?

jrw1621 wrote: Have you been happy with the Cartridge World stuff?

Very happy. And the one time I received a cartridge that didn't work they took and handed me another, no receipt or anything. I'm very pleased, I would just like to do business with a GRMer if possible.

Joey

I'll drop a shameless self-plug here again:

I'm an independent now, and have even lower cartridge prices than when I posted that back in February.

Oh, and I'm also an Amsoil and Superlube dealer too. 8)