Short and sweet this time, what printer do I want?
Needs:
Laser, I'm done with ink
Wi-Fi
Copier function.
Wants:
Color laser?
Under $150ish?
Warranty or solid reliability.
Point me where to go, please.
Short and sweet this time, what printer do I want?
Needs:
Laser, I'm done with ink
Wi-Fi
Copier function.
Wants:
Color laser?
Under $150ish?
Warranty or solid reliability.
Point me where to go, please.
In reply to RevRico :
I’ve been out of the game a few years, but if anything non-HP exists in that price range it’s probably Brother.
In general:
FWIW I bought a nice small business-class Konica Minolta laser MFP for about $250 around 8-years ago. Even though I’ve only printed a couple thousand pages on it, they didn’t develop any Win-10 64-bit drivers for it, so it’s only use is a color copier now.
I’ve been very happy with our cheap Brother. I can’t suggest a specific model since ours is probably 8 years old at this point. But they generally just work and they support it still with drivers and supplies. So thumbs up to brother.
I bought this one:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BI0ONC6/
$277. It's really nice. And, a toner cartridge lasts 8 THOUSAND pages and costs about a bill.
I have a cheap Brother black-only laser printer that cost right around a 100 clams. It has exceeded my expectations.
Ya know, aside from bloatware I never really had a problem with hp printers. Their computers on the other hand...
But thanks for verifying brother was what I was after. Looking like $180 all in for a scanner copier printer and toner cartridge. I can handle that.
Had the worst experience with a $500 HP printer. After dealing with their customer service and receiving multiple replacements that also didn't work, I threw it in the dumpster while still under warranty.
it's time to replace our current one, so timely topic.
If you have need for larger scale printing, I've bought several "workgroup" grade multifunction machines as lease returns (used, a few years old) for not much more than a run of the mill printer would cost. Our last one was just under $500 and it was maybe 2-3 years old when we bought it. It was originally a $10k+ machine! We've used it for 5 years now and it's still going strong. We've printed way more on it than the original user did, and all we've fed it has been toner, the fuser, and some replacement rollers. Standard wear parts for a printer that's in use five days a week.
I do recommend sticking to black and white unless you're going to use the color a lot. Color complicates the printer and will require more upkeep and more consumables, there's no way around that.
In reply to RevRico :
What model did you choose?
In reply to Floating Doc :
It's a brother all in one for $100. The $75 toner cartridge "usually purchased together" is a bit pricey, but I haven't shopped them around yet, I will once little tyke gets sleepy again.
We have bee using a Brother MFC for like 10 years at home. It has only ever had toner put in it, though it does not get a ton of use. It is an older one that does not have WiFi but I plugged it into my router and will print "wirelessly".
RevRico said:Ya know, aside from bloatware I never really had a problem with hp printers. Their computers on the other hand...
But thanks for verifying brother was what I was after. Looking like $180 all in for a scanner copier printer and toner cartridge. I can handle that.
One of the main problems is HP considers most of their sub-$500 units to be completely disposable other than cartridges. As in, even being an HP-certified dealer & tech, parts we’re just not available. At all.
Brother is just the opposite, they offer damn near every part for all of their units, and parts pricing is pretty much in line with complete units - cheap.
We have a Bro, doesnt get a ton of use, but for $120 to my door it was pretty easy decision.
Replaces my old IBM Infoprint that also was fine for $Free99 but it needed a new cartridge and that was $75.
For anyone who only needs black and does not need wireless...
OLD, HP Laser Jet 1022n
I had one of these at home which really belonged to my wife's school. When it needed to go back to the school, I bought another used one off ebay. $25 unit and $25 shipping. It is a work horse. These are from back when HP made some good (great) stuff. Toner is like $10 and lasts a loong time. Works fine with my Win10 Lenovo laptop.
Current sample: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Laser-Jet-1022-Printer-36672-Page-Count/372474125300?hash=item56b9301bf4:g:CZQAAOSwTwBbyJax:rk:14:pf:0
For me, this laser printer sits next to a new-ish HP All-in-one. The All-in-one is a good scanner, fax and okay copier but if I can get away with just black, I use the Laser Jet. The all-in-one just goes through ink so damn fast and so damn expensive. For the price of just another round of ink containers I can have a whole used Laser with Toner. It has saved me a ton.
RevRico said:In reply to Floating Doc :
It's a brother all in one for $100. The $75 toner cartridge "usually purchased together" is a bit pricey, but I haven't shopped them around yet, I will once little tyke gets sleepy again.
So this particular printer comes with a "starter" toner cartridge, if reviews are to be believed, is good for 500-750 pages. That's a few years for my use.
If it wasn't for my Wi-Fi want, my buddy still has a few of the printers from the hotel we worked at, still working great on the toner they came home with. The hotel was sold 10 or 11 years ago, but the printers still rock.
My big problem is the ink ages out with ink jets. I used to just buy a new printer when I needed ink because cheaper,, but I've loved this hp color smart all in one so it stuck around. It needs it's 4th set of cartridges this year, so time for it to go. I was getting away with one or two sets per year until recently. I've also realized when I need something printed in color, I need other special crap too, so it's cheaper and easier to just go to CVS or Office Max for that.
I'll echo what everyone else said. The cheapo Borthers are fantastic for their price. I had a bit of trouble with mine reconnecting to the wifi and having it remain mapped until I set it to a static IP address on the router. Easy fix.
I actually replaced the toner cartridge on mine with a full sized generic Linkyo for 15 bucks. No issues what so ever.
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