cost per page

[Jeff]

It used to be that the cost per page was much less in laser printers than
with inkjets. But looking at the prices of laser printer toner today I
wonder if that is still true. Is it?

Where on the web can one find accurate cost per page figures for printers?

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Michael Hopper]

It used to be that the cost per page was much less in laser printers than
with inkjets. But looking at the prices of laser printer toner today I
wonder if that is still true. Is it?

Where on the web can one find accurate cost per page figures for printers?

Thanks

Jeff

I would expect that the cost of a laser printed page is lower than it was.
There are two reasons for this; the hardware is less expensive than it used
to be and as the toners are now generally smaller than they were 5 years ago
you should get more pages per pound of toner now. The toner cost per pound
has not changed much over the years.

Mike

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

It used to be that the cost per page was much less in laser printers than
with inkjets. But looking at the prices of laser printer toner today I
wonder if that is still true. Is it?

No, not when people have demanded $50 laser printers.

 

[zakezuke]

It used to be that the cost per page was much less in laser printers than

with inkjets. But looking at the prices of laser printer toner today I
wonder if that is still true. Is it?

Well if you find a cartridge for a laser that costs under $80 with an
estimated yeild of 3000 pages... you can be pretty sure that your
average inkjet is going to cost more. For example the brother TN-350
toner cartridge falls into this class $60/2500p. This isn't a great
deal but but undercuts the old HP 45a ink cartrage and the Canon bci-3e
cartridge.

Something like the HL 5140 which takes the tn-570 @ $80ish and the
dr-510 drum @ $150 with yields of 6700p for the toner and 20,000pages
for the drum, we're talking two cents/page assuming you actually
replace the drum after 20,000 pages. Or to make life simple, add
about $50 for each time you replace the toner. Cost savings of the
$200 printer vs the $100 printer in this case is like 25% or so,

On top of that compair to the hp 1020. HP Q2612A $70 street price and
2000p yield makes this on par with the old hp45a ink cartridge and more
spendy per page than a canon bci-3e ink cartridge. Plus the fact that
IIRC it was either this one or the hp1013 I had to return to the store
three times because the sucker wouldn't print more than a few hundrad
sheets at a time without failing, and even at the best of times it
would kick into slow speed if you printed more than a few pages at the
same time.

The real savings isn't in the raw toner per page or other consumables,
but rather the fact that these things are designed thousands of pages a
month.. they say 20,000 for the HL 5140 which I imagine is possbile.
Compaire to inkjets which have a maximium lifespan measured in the 10
thousand range.

But I don't know of a site, only ballpark figures.

 

[Impmon]

It used to be that the cost per page was much less in laser printers than
with inkjets. But looking at the prices of laser printer toner today I
wonder if that is still true. Is it?

It is close but AFAIK laser is cheaper than ink even if you buy only
refurbished carts or refill kit.

Ink cart lasts a few hundred pages for about $30 nowday while laser
cart could last a couple thousands.

Here's an example: (real example based on my own experiences)

HP 940: $30 each for black and color. I've gotten around 100 or so
pages on color before it runs out. That amounts to $0.30 per page
just on color alone. Black lasts longer, closer to 500. $0.06 per
page black only. If you used refill kit, you could get away with as
little as $2 or $3 per cart, which translates to $0.03 per page color
and 6/10th of a penny per page black.

HP Laserjet 6L: I've gone 5 reams of paper on one new toner cart
alone. New cart is around $100, 3rd party for less. Assuming only
official HP cart: about $0.04 per page. I've gotten 3rd party off
eBay for a lot less, about $10 each. This reduces the cost per page
greatly to less than a penny each. At this point the paper becomes
more expensive than toner Factor in refill costs at about $5 per
cart and you'd have to print several pages just to waste one penny
worth of toner!

 

[Jeff]

It is close but AFAIK laser is cheaper than ink even if you buy only
refurbished carts or refill kit.

Ink cart lasts a few hundred pages for about $30 nowday while laser
cart could last a couple thousands.

Here's an example: (real example based on my own experiences)

HP 940: $30 each for black and color. I've gotten around 100 or so
pages on color before it runs out. That amounts to $0.30 per page
just on color alone. Black lasts longer, closer to 500. $0.06 per
page black only. If you used refill kit, you could get away with as
little as $2 or $3 per cart, which translates to $0.03 per page color
and 6/10th of a penny per page black.

HP Laserjet 6L: I've gone 5 reams of paper on one new toner cart
alone. New cart is around $100, 3rd party for less. Assuming only
official HP cart: about $0.04 per page. I've gotten 3rd party off
eBay for a lot less, about $10 each. This reduces the cost per page
greatly to less than a penny each. At this point the paper becomes
more expensive than toner Factor in refill costs at about $5 per
cart and you'd have to print several pages just to waste one penny
worth of toner!

Thank you. I bet your HP 6L has paper feeding and jamming problems. <grin>

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Impmon]

Thank you. I bet your HP 6L has paper feeding and jamming problems. <grin>

Nope If you were lucky to be around when HP were giving free jam
repair kit, you'd be set for a few years or so. I've gone over 2,000
pages last month alone with no jam and a few blank pages that was
caused by paper sticking together.

If you missed the free kit, you could find them on eBay but they
usually go for about $5 to $10 plus shipping. With luck my 6L will
die for reason not related to paper jams.