Laser printer cost per page comparisons?

[John Rowe]

We're looking to buy a laser printer, I would guess we do around
50,000 pages per year. Does anybody know of any cost-per-page
comparisons out there?

Thanks

John

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

We're looking to buy a laser printer, I would guess we do around
50,000 pages per year. Does anybody know of any cost-per-page
comparisons out there?

Thanks

John

BERTL should have some real-world results.

 

[Gordon]

We're looking to buy a laser printer, I would guess we do around
50,000 pages per year. Does anybody know of any cost-per-page
comparisons out there?

A quick look at the toner cartridges there life and make sure there
are not other expendables. Most B&W HPs the toner, developer, and
optical durm are in one unit. The large high speed like the Lexmark
Optra W810, the expendables are Toner, PC Kit (developer & optical
drum), and fuser. Each is very costly but most last many pages. But
cost wise the HP9000 was half the operating cost. Both are good
printers but the HP was more idiot proof. (the printers page cout is
about 40K a week)

Gordon

 

[Warren Block]

We're looking to buy a laser printer, I would guess we do around
50,000 pages per year. Does anybody know of any cost-per-page
comparisons out there?

There are cost-per-page amounts on HP's web site. Other manufacturers
probably have similar pages, and each manufacturer's presumed favorable
slant on their own printers should cancel out.

 

[RWatson767]

All

Re: Laser printer cost per page comparisons?

We're looking to buy a laser printer, I would guess we do around 50,000 pages

per year. Does anybody know of any cost-per-page comparisons out there?<

I do about ½ that many a year. I have a HPIIID in the office and another ready
to go if it needs to be swapped out or repaired. So get three HPIIIs. Put them
in good condition and for about $600.00 you have a setup that will last
forever.
Bob AZ

 

[Wolf Kirchmeir]

On 23 Oct 2003 05:11:53 GMT, RWatson767 wrote:

=>All
=>> Re: Laser printer cost per page comparisons?
=>
=>>We're looking to buy a laser printer, I would guess we do around 50,000 pages
=>per year. Does anybody know of any cost-per-page comparisons out there?<
=>
=>I do about « that many a year. I have a HPIIID in the office and another ready
=>to go if it needs to be swapped out or repaired. So get three HPIIIs.. Put them
=>in good condition and for about $600.00 you have a setup that will last
=>forever.
=>Bob AZ

A nearby business supply store that regularly sends out
flyers provides ratings based on "5% coverage," and since
all the cartridges and toners they sell are rated the same
way, the cost comparison has valid base. Nominal cost range
is about 1 to 6 cents (Can.) a page.

Actual cost is something else. "5% coverage" is rather low,
mixed text and graphics will be considerably higher. 5% of
an 8.5 x11" page is a solid bar a little more than half an
inch wide. A typical letterhead with nice bold typefaces
may be close to 5% coverage before any text is printed! A
half-tone image (photo) covering about 1/4 of the page will
use quite a bit more than "5% coverage."

FWIW, the office supply store I deal with offers a toner +
service contract at 3 cents and up a page, depending on
printer model.

 

[Bill Frankel]

We're looking to buy a laser printer, I would guess we do around
50,000 pages per year. Does anybody know of any cost-per-page
comparisons out there?

Thanks

John

John:

I've read every post to your question and I wanted to step in and help
out a little. I run a print industry consulting firm and trust me we
get this question every day. Some of the posts have it right. Page
coverage is definitely a major factor. But one point I wanted to make
is that 5% page coverage is actually a decent amount for a B&W
printer. If you want to see what 5% looks like go to
http://usa.kyoceramita.com/KMAGlobalpub/jsp/Kyocera/home.jsp# click on
TCO tracker, then get started now, then "How to estimate page
coverages". But as a rule of thumb most B&W will be between 5% and
12%. The other major factor is cost of the printer and consumables.
The printer comes down to buying the right printer and not going too
big. For 5,000 - 6,000 prints a month you would probably want
something like the HP LJ 2200. It has a monthly duty cycle of 20,000
prints. You need to cut that number in half in order to get a
realistic number and you want to aim for 50% - 70% utlilization for
cost effectiveness so you end up with 5,000 to 7,000 prints per month
for this unit or exactly what you need. The second peice is the
consumambles side of things. HP rates each of their cartridges for a
page yeidl based on a 5% coverage model. Now as I said above, that
may or may not be the case so you need to do a high and low cost based
on 5% and 12%. Additionally, you might want to look at remaned toners
btu stick with the big boys. Nukote and GRC are the largest two reman
houses outside of HP themselves. For this example though we'll just
use HP. CDW has this cartridge listed for $98.99 with an estimated
yield of 5,000 pages at 5% coverage which would give you $0.0198 per
impression. At 12% coverage you would need to take the above yield
times .41666 (or 5/12) to get 2,083 prints which would yield a cost
per impression of $0.0475. So your consubale cost only on this
printer would be around $0.02 to $0.05. So you see you need to look
at a lot of factor in order to figure out what your price per print
is. The most important thing I can tell you is:
1. Take a very close look at your consumables cost first. If you
can, only pick models that allow you to buy reman toner.
2. Do take a look at purchase price but only as a secondary to the
consumables.
3. Do not buy too big, right size your equipment.
4. Pay very close attention to the yields on the toners. Some toners
are cheaper but have half the yields.

Well I hope that helps (and not just confuses the subject for you).

Bill Frankel (www.theaschergroup.com)

 

[Marek Williams]

... Some of the posts have it right. Page
coverage is definitely a major factor. But one point I wanted to make
is that 5% page coverage is actually a decent amount for a B&W
printer. If you want to see what 5% looks like go to
http://usa.kyoceramita.com/KMAGlobalpub/jsp/Kyocera/home.jsp# click on
TCO tracker, then get started now, then "How to estimate page
coverages". But as a rule of thumb most B&W will be between 5% and
12%.

I print short-run textbooks in U.S. letter size format (8 1/2 by 11
inches). There are graphics, but the majority is text. I print to
Laserjet 5Si and 8000 printers. HP rates the standard cartridges for
15,000 pages at 5% coverage. I regularly average about 13,750, so I
conclude my pages are perhaps a tad denser than 5%.

Interestingly, my cost per copy is under a quarter of a cent per
impression for toner. Even adding maintenance kits and machine
amortization it is under a third of a cent per impression. I can print
and bind a 500-page textbook for under $4, including the cover (but
not counting my labor).