Advice - Color Laser Printer

[Scott Greczkowski]

I need some help, I am in the market for a new printer. The All In One Lexmark I was using died and so I am shopping again for another printer.

It seems as though Inkjets only last about a year or so for me.

I am now looking twards a color laser printer, but I am not sure what out there is good and what is not.

We don't print much, usually my son prints a few times a month 10 - 20 pages, and when I have wanted to do good color I have gone to Kinkos and did color printouts and copies there.

However I would like to have the ability to print about 100 pages ever 3 months or so in full color.

I am looking for a printer where supplies dont cost more then the printer and are easy to replace, and the colors are seperate so if I need black I only replace black.

I am looking to spend from $300 - $600.

I would love it to be networked or have wireless in it, since most of the computers in my house are wireless, this way I could hide the printer away but still anyone in the house could print to it.

Any advice?

 

[mogera]

Personally, I've always found Color lasers to be cost prohibitive. This HP inkjet is similar to the model I have and is both sturdy AND networkable. Hope this helps.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printers/inkjets/1/storefronts/C8973A%23B1H

 

[dfergie]

I had a HP Printer, Scanner, copier that's software drove me batty... always trying to update etc...

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am trying to stick away from Inkjets, as everytime I try to print, the ink has dried up, or the heads need to be cleaned.

 

[WildeComputers]

Personally, I stink when it comes to printers. I know I should know more about them, but it tends to be more ignorance that anything...that being said, recently I was in the market for a color laser printer too. Being pretty much a lifelong Lexmark printer guy, a friend convinced me to buy a HP inkjet. I absolutely love it. However, about a year ago Radio Shack closed a store in Rochester and I stocked up on ink cartridges (paid less than 10 bucks for color). Needless to say, I only have a couple left as they tend to "go bad" quicker than I print.

In the future, I will be buying a color laser. I would direct you towards an HP color laser as they seem to be very affordable these days, and personally my HP printer on its worse day, far exceeded any other brand of printer I have owned in the past on their best day. So I will be buying an HP color laser in the future. Just can't recommend a model, sorry.

 

[ahope577]

Scott have a Samsung CLP 300 in the office for low volume color works fantastic. Nice thing is all color drums are separate and decently priced & black drum is much larger than the color. I changed our office over entirely to Samsung printers & have not regretted it for one moment.

For networked look at the CLP300 N here

 

[navychop]

You probably want an HP CM1015, a USB only unit. For ethernet, fax and more speed, look at the 2820. My experience has been with HP b&w lasers, not color. I always look at HP first, having found their reliability and performance to be tops. I've had other brands that emulated the HP commands, but never really printed the document correctly. And the HP recovers from paper jams very nicely.

That being said, I've bought the office 2 Samsung 4720s. We're happy, but they seem to have been discontinued rather quickly. But it's a brand I would consider.

Good luck. Don't try to buy cheap, it'll cost you.

 

[concord]

I prefer HP products. I bought a 4500N for the office when they first came out, it's been 6+ years and it's still going strong. With the number of times used, it required replacing drum, then the transfer kit.

Looked up on HP. Check out the 2600N, has both USB and ethernet connections:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/en/WF06a/18972-18972-3328060-15077-3328070-446153.html

Or with postscript & PCL:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/en/WF25a/18972-18972-3328060-15077-236268-1140727.html


User reviews for 2600n:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16828104363

 

[TheForce]

When you have a small media business, it is necessary to have several depending on the job. I have an inkjet here in the office that also does photocopy and low res scanning. It is an older HP- officejet 1150C Today, I mostly use it for quick scans for video resolution., It's on my network so all can print to it.

For color photo real, I have an epson R 320 that I hook up USB when I need an 8x10 glossy photo.

But the real workhorse here is my color laser. Several years ago I bought a MInolta 2300DL and it was excellent until it broke. Calls around said it was too expensicve to fix, So I went to Staples and bought it's replacement last year, a Samsung CLX3160. The color printing is slightly better than the Minolta but the B&W gray scale is a bit less quality. That may improve with driver updates, I've been told. IRT is also a great photocopier and Fax but I haven't connected it for FAX yet. It does my envelopes automatically from the tray as well as sheet paper. The MInolta never did evelopes except one at a time. It also has a sheet feeder for the photocopier and the scanner. That works great. It has ethernet connectionn USB & P port, I recall buying it during a sale for under $400 instant rebate.

If you know anything about color lasers, you know it is not photograph quality but is very nice for web page printouts.

Of course, my other printer is a dedicated DVD printer. IT is a Microboards PF2.

Scott- Thanks for bringing this section back!

 

[kenny911]

I have one of those all in one HP that I bought in 2003. This thing is not the fastest but still works. Problem with laser is the toner cost.

 

[Claude Greiner]

If your looking for a good Black and white laser Jet, HP makes some really nice stuff. I got several old HP LaserJet 4100 printers at the office and they are a true work horse

As far as color printing, I got one from OKE Data, its susposed to I think 32 PPM black and 28 PPM color. Works great, absolutly no problems. Unlike most color laser printers, the warm up time is not bad.

I would stay away from Minolta, I had a Magicolor and it was a piece of crap. When it worked, it worked good, it was a pain in the butt to change carterages and then the paper was always jamming.

 

[TheForce]

Claude- Agreed on your comments about the Magicolor. Before it broke permenently beyond repair it would need to be restarted by jiggling the paper tray every time. Once printing it wouldn't jam but pause for a few minutes and the paper tray needed to be jiggled again to get it going. I quickly forgot those days now with the Samsung. You had to remind me.

 

[mike123abc]

I use a Dell laser printer. B&W is fast, but color is a bit slow (4-5ppm).

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&sku=222-2102&redirect=1

Is $299. Have to almost view it as disposable. I like the ethernet connection. They have other color printers that cost more, but they cost a lot less per page to print. For $150 more you save 5 cents per color page printed. So, depends on your volume.

Only time I have had feed issues is when printing on card stock, after printing one side it was a bit curled and would have trouble feeding to print the other side, I could only put about 15 in the paper tray at a time.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I picked up a LaserJet 2600N on Saturday for it for only $210 when all was said and done as I had $100 Best Buy gift card I got for my birthday and a few Best Buy Bucks.

I like it so far. And I have it networks so all the PC's in the house can print to it as well.

 

[rad]

How times have change. I remember buying a HP LJ3P for like $1200 and spending around $100 for a toner cart. Boy, I don't miss the good old days.

 

[TheForce]

How times have change. I remember buying a HP LJ3P for like $1200 and spending around $100 for a toner cart. Boy, I don't miss the good old days.

My laserjet3 was bought used for $600 in 1988- 89. In 1999 it broke and I replaced the power supply. It was replaced with the Magicolor2300 when it broke a second time and they wanted $200 to fix it. I purchased a retrofit network card and a high res kit for it from a 3rd party to get 1200dpi for B&W grayscale photo work. ( special card in the printer with dedicated cable to a print graphics card in the computer) I also had 3rd party color toner cartridges, red, blue, brown and green. The laserjet 3, what a workhorse!

 

[DWS44]

I prefer HP products. I bought a 4500N for the office when they first came out, it's been 6+ years and it's still going strong.

Good lord, man...time to upgrade that slow beast!!!

I prefer HP as well. We had a 4500N when they first came out and it was great at the time, but slllooooowwwwwww. We finally gave up on the poor speed and moved to a 4650 a couple years ago and it is night and day faster in all respects, not to mention much nicer color PQ. Well worth the upgrade, and I'm sure newer models would be even better! As of now the 4500N is a (large) paperweight in the server room.

Also on the subject, I would advise against any Toshiba Business Solutions Color Lasers. IT in the home office decided to pick up a couple of the 280CP models last year for our 11x17 CAD printing needs, and I havent been that impressed with it. It is fast, but had several service issues, PQ isnt up to HP standards, and it has a bad habit of eating brand new toner carts in record time showing them empty waaay before they should be.

 

[Ramy]

We have a 4650 here in the office and it is fast.

 

[loves2watch]

Inexpensive laser printers are very costly to operate and fail quickly. Your best bet would be to buy a commercial/office inkjet printer. The ink and heads last longer, output is faster and since they are made for an office environment, they last longer with less maintenance and less cost per sheet of printing. One that sticks out is the HP Officejet Pro K500. At less than $ 200.00 it is an exceptional printer and will last a very long time. BTW this printer has 3 separate color cartridges to save the expense of replacing all of the color cartridge each time only one color is empty.

 

[navychop]

Well, I must disagree sharply. In fact, I am surprised that anyone would state that ink cartridges last longer than toner cartridges (whether on the shelf or in service) and be cheaper than lasers.

I have run offices for many years. It has been my experience that with rare exceptions, ink cartridges "dry out" faster than toner cartridges, certainly do not last as long and the cost per sheet is significantly higher than lasers. We currently use an HP 2250 color ink jet with 4 separate ink cartridges. It is very slow and has not been the most reliable. Registration on the page is no where near as accurate as with our B&W laser printers. Apparently, the better paper handling is reserved for the more expensive lasers. But it has been adequate for our needs. As this one dies, we will buy a middle grade color laser, and do more printing in house. Currently we send out to a printer for our brochures. We have printed a few in house, in a pinch, and very slowly. And this was a very good ink jet amongst those available at the time of purchase- IIRC it was between $900 and $1200 at time of purchase, with memory & networking options.

But perhaps the key is "inexpensive lasers." I agree that the cheap end should be avoided- for both ink jets and lasers.

Anyway, the OP has bought his color printer. This thread continues for the benefit of others considering such a purchase.