Printer Recommendation!

[pojo]

I have a HP2600N colour laser bought some years ago. So far I am satisfied with HP’s quality though the cost of printing colour is quite high. Each colour cartridge cost about say $120. Assuming the 4 cartridges (1 Black) cost $450. The specs could be the cartridge are good for say 2,500 pages at 5%. Then to print a normal A$ page with 5% colour will cost $450/2500 = 18 cents per page. That’s excluding the cost of the printer itself. If you amortise the cost of the printer over 3 years, for the average user, the cost per page could easily double to 36 cents per page.


The 36 cents per page is for 5% coverage. If you print flashcards, the % coverage could easily go up to 30% or more. The cost per page could then jump to maybe $1.00 per page. You will have to do some cost benefit analysis to compare the cost of outsourcing versus printing it yourself.

If on the other hand your volume is high, you may want to consider buying one of those high volume colour laser printers where you can get a special deal on the cost per page. Its a bit like those high volume photocopying machines which goes by per page. You may then get a cost of less than 30 cents per page for those machines but you have to attain a minimum volume. I think Fuji Xerox supplies some of these machines.

[UncleLim]

Here is a link to a video about extending the toner life for Brother printers...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPCGZZIdXyM

[BeContented]

[Mod's note: threads merged]


Currently own an Lexmark S550 printer that uses ink cartridge.

Bought it so that my 2 primary kids can print their schoolwork for submission....however it's not used frequently (~20 pages per month).
The ink cartridges dries up pretty fast and I have even tried putting the cartridges into zip-lock bags when not in use. Still the average cost per page ranges between $0.80 - $1.20.

Think it's quite costly and would like to change to another printer.
Any good advice? Care to share what printer are you using and any recommendation?

Thanks.

[pojo]

Go for a laser printer instead of ink jet.

I am using Canon laser printer. Seems OK.
The toner cartridge costs something like $100 for 2,000 pages.
Works out to be about 5 cents per page.

[cimman]

go for Brother Laserjet printer. The laser toner is $90 for 2600 pages.

Anyway, the Laser printers are still way cheaper than inkjet printers, if all you need is monochrome.

The inkjet printers are killers. Just starting it up, they go through a self cleaning cycle where they use some ink to clean out the nozzles. This is without printing anything useful on paper. Just money down the drain, or in this case, ink down the drain.

If there are smudges, just clean the drum with alcohol swabs. This is way cheaper than squeezing ink through nozzles in the inkjet case.

[BeContented]

Thanks both for your advice and recommendation.

Yah, considering laser printer now…but the price of color is 3x monochrome…gosh.

These days, kids have to insert pics, colors etc into their work and they tend to rush till late night and there’s nowhere to print if I dun own a color printer. But seriously, find it quite expensive and wonder how long can these printers last.

Was at Harvey Norman browsing and the sales person recommend me FujiXerox and claim HP and Canon expensive for home users…

[Pen88n]

This is taught by another forummer and I find it extremely useful: buy ink to top up the ink cartridge for inkjet printer. A set of ink from SingInk (at Rochor and Sim Lim) cost $38 ($28 for 3 color about 60ml each, and $10 for 100ml of black). Bring down your empty cartridge and they will teach you how to top up the ink. Each filling for black is about 8-10ml (or less) and color is about 5-7ml. Can last quite a while. Much cheaper than buying new cartridge and you can print color for all you want.


Note: must bring cartridge along so they can teach you how to top up on the spot. There are different consistency of ink used for different type of printer, so you need to know specifically your printer type to avoid damaging the print head with wrong ink used (usually if you bring cartridge, they can tell). If your printer is still under warranty, take note that using such method might render the warranty invalid as it is considered as not using the authorised product. After top up, the printer may no longer be able to detect and alert ink running low (due to cartridge reused) so you will need to monitor the ink level yourself by seeing the print quality.

[allcc6]

Pen88n:

This is taught by another forummer and I find it extremely useful: buy ink to top up the ink cartridge for inkjet printer. A set of ink from SingInk (at Rochor and Sim Lim) cost $38 ($28 for 3 color about 60ml each, and $10 for 100ml of black). Bring down your empty cartridge and they will teach you how to top up the ink. Each filling for black is about 8-10ml (or less) and color is about 5-7ml. Can last quite a while. Much cheaper than buying new cartridge and you can print color for all you want.


Note: must bring cartridge along so they can teach you how to top up on the spot. There are different consistency of ink used for different type of printer, so you need to know specifically your printer type to avoid damaging the print head with wrong ink used (usually if you bring cartridge, they can tell). If your printer is still under warranty, take note that using such method might render the warranty invalid as it is considered as not using the authorised product. After top up, the printer may no longer be able to detect and alert ink running low (due to cartridge reused) so you will need to monitor the ink level yourself by seeing the print quality.

For my prev Brother printer, I also bought SingInk's empty cartridges (coz person said original Bro ones cannot be refilled) & ink refills. I fully agree on the cost savings vs orig ones. My printer can still detect & alert me on low ink level.

I've been SingInk's loyal customer for the past 3 yrs, but i juz discovered that Singink charges much higher than similar shops (on 4th flr) in Sim Lim Sq.

[Cherylaw]

I hv used canon inkjet too, but the price for catridges are very ex… For those only need black n white can consider Fujitsu as mentioned by BeContented, heavy duty and economic too…

[Cherylaw]

Sorry, should be FujiXerox as mentioned by BeContented…