Laser printer Purchase advice

[Bill 2]

I've had it with the cheap inkjets on the market. I thought I would avoid
junk by springing a little extra for a HP deskjet 3820. Shortly afterwards
it was sold a lot cheaper than I bought it for as a disposible printer. I
can see why. As it turns out almost all these units (and several other HP
inkjets) suffer from an underengineered gear in the service station that
lets loose after a year or so, rendering the printer useless. Mine suffered
the same fate.

So anyways, I want to get away from disposible printers and want a printer
that will last, yet be economical. My print needs aren't overly heavy, I
probably print a few hundred pages a year (pretty much all B&W).

I'm considering a couple options:

1) Locally I can get a used Apple Laserwriter 360 for $10. It needs a new
cartridge, which are $130 CDN (locally remanufactured with 1 year warentee).

2) The remanufacturing firm also sells refurbished printers. One such is
the HP Laserjet 4 for $400. This comes with an $89 cartridge and a 3 month
warrantee. This was/is a popular printer, so there are still parts for it.
The lady I was talking to from the company said that they are extensively
remanufactured and they haven't heard a lot of problems (For what it's
worth). From what I read this is a very durable printer. At my university
they have one, and even with all the abuse it has 374 000 pages on the
counter and seems to work not too bad.

3) A new cheaper laser printer. Is the Samsung ML-1740 any good? Brother
HL-1435 or HL-2040? Lexmark E232? HP 1012? The Brother HL-1435 & HP 1012
have been out for a while now, and I haven't found any major problems on the
web. I'm more likely to go with something that's been on the market for a
while, because if it had any major flaws chances are someone would have
found them by now.

4) Is there a half decent inkjet out with a low per page (refillible?)

Any thoughts?

 

[Al Dykes]

I've had it with the cheap inkjets on the market. I thought I would avoid
junk by springing a little extra for a HP deskjet 3820. Shortly afterwards
it was sold a lot cheaper than I bought it for as a disposible printer. I
can see why. As it turns out almost all these units (and several other HP
inkjets) suffer from an underengineered gear in the service station that
lets loose after a year or so, rendering the printer useless. Mine suffered
the same fate.

So anyways, I want to get away from disposible printers and want a printer
that will last, yet be economical. My print needs aren't overly heavy, I
probably print a few hundred pages a year (pretty much all B&W).

I'm considering a couple options:

1) Locally I can get a used Apple Laserwriter 360 for $10. It needs a new
cartridge, which are $130 CDN (locally remanufactured with 1 year warentee).

2) The remanufacturing firm also sells refurbished printers. One such is
the HP Laserjet 4 for $400. This comes with an $89 cartridge and a 3 month
warrantee. This was/is a popular printer, so there are still parts for it.
The lady I was talking to from the company said that they are extensively
remanufactured and they haven't heard a lot of problems (For what it's
worth). From what I read this is a very durable printer. At my university
they have one, and even with all the abuse it has 374 000 pages on the
counter and seems to work not too bad.

3) A new cheaper laser printer. Is the Samsung ML-1740 any good? Brother
HL-1435 or HL-2040? Lexmark E232? HP 1012? The Brother HL-1435 & HP 1012
have been out for a while now, and I haven't found any major problems on the
web. I'm more likely to go with something that's been on the market for a
while, because if it had any major flaws chances are someone would have
found them by now.

4) Is there a half decent inkjet out with a low per page (refillible?)

Any thoughts?

IMO go for an HP 4 or 5-series printer. They can be fixed
forever. You can probably find a local guy who can give you a
flat-rate annual service agreement and keep it running. He might sell
refilled carts that he garantees as part of the deal.

To get an idea what can go wrong with particular model
look at www.fixyourownprinter.com.

 

[measekite]

I know that the LaserJet 4 is a workhorse. I hear that the Brother has
had good reviews but I do not know which models. The Samsung has had
only average reviews when it come to print quality. I would first
investigate all of the models for the Brother first.

 

[Al Dykes]

I know that the LaserJet 4 is a workhorse. I hear that the Brother has
had good reviews but I do not know which models. The Samsung has had
only average reviews when it come to print quality. I would first
investigate all of the models for the Brother first.

I'd look at the pages/month and lifetime pages for any printer I'd
consider comparable to a big HP printer. If Samsung or Brother don't
publish specs that tells me something.

Look at the cost per year of an on-site maintenace agreement on the
printer. Don't accept maintenance from third parties. (unless you
know about the computer maintenance industry) If they don't offer
maintenace that tells you something.

Look at the cost per page.

I had a bunch of Laserjet III printers that were long in the tooth but
were kept on HP maintenance. At some point we exceeded the rated
lifetime printing life on one of the machines and the next time HP
came in for something they looked at the counters and gave us an
as-new remanufactured machine and took the old one back.

 

[Salvatore]

I know that the LaserJet 4 is a workhorse. I hear that the Brother has
had good reviews but I do not know which models. The Samsung has had
only average reviews when it come to print quality. I would first
investigate all of the models for the Brother first.

I would NOT get a LJ4. The 4+ is superior and the LJ5 is of similar
design. PowerSave feature a real plus for intermittent printing.
A decent 4+ should run in the $200 vicinity.

Another workhorse is the LJ4050. I just bought a pair of used units and
they are great. My cost was $350 per unit. All I needed was a new toner
cartridge and they were running fine. I will probably sell off the
unneeded second unit.

The 4100 is ok if you do not plan to print envelopes. Just visited one
that has a marked fuser from envelope printing. Second fuser so affected.

4+ units just replaced LJ3s at a law firm I visit as well. Nice machine.

 

[Al Dykes]

I would NOT get a LJ4. The 4+ is superior and the LJ5 is of similar
design. PowerSave feature a real plus for intermittent printing.
A decent 4+ should run in the $200 vicinity.

Another workhorse is the LJ4050. I just bought a pair of used units and
they are great. My cost was $350 per unit. All I needed was a new toner
cartridge and they were running fine. I will probably sell off the
unneeded second unit.

The 4100 is ok if you do not plan to print envelopes. Just visited one
that has a marked fuser from envelope printing. Second fuser so affected.

4+ units just replaced LJ3s at a law firm I visit as well. Nice machine.

If you live near a big city look on Ebay for a nice printer. Select
"nearest to you" sort and eventually you'll get to bit on a printer
that's close enough to drive to and pick up. YOu can bring cash and
see it operate before you fork over the bucks.

 

[Bill 2]

I'd look at the pages/month and lifetime pages for any printer I'd
consider comparable to a big HP printer. If Samsung or Brother don't
publish specs that tells me something.

Look at the cost per year of an on-site maintenace agreement on the
printer. Don't accept maintenance from third parties. (unless you
know about the computer maintenance industry) If they don't offer
maintenace that tells you something.

Look at the cost per page.

I had a bunch of Laserjet III printers that were long in the tooth but
were kept on HP maintenance. At some point we exceeded the rated
lifetime printing life on one of the machines and the next time HP
came in for something they looked at the counters and gave us an
as-new remanufactured machine and took the old one back.

Thanks for your replies everyone. The printer is for home use (general
printing, school reports), maybe 2500 pages / year (I just finished off a
case of paper I bought a couple years ago), so I doubt I make enough prints
for a service contract to be worthwhile. I think what I'll end up doing is
resurrecting my old BJC-250. It's 6 years old and still works, it just has
clogged heads in the cartridge. We made a lot of prints with that machine,
and it's predecessor the BJC-210. I also bought someone a BJC-1000 to use in
their office and it hasn't been causing any problems. I know the cost of
running is fairly low because I've refilled the cartridges in it many times
(beyond the recommend 6) without any print quality deterioration. I might
try to find another working one (or similar) so we can have a pair of
identical printers, using the same cartridges and ink

Also thanks for the recommendation to visit fixyourownprinter.com. That's
actually where I found that the problem with my DeskJet isn't unheard of.

 

[Douglas]

The older Lexmark 49 series printers are cheap,well built and dependable.I
bought a R+ with duplex unit for $79 for a small used car dealer.It has
been used 2+ years on its original toner cartridge.He had to replace his
inkjet cartridges every other month.The laser paid for itself in less than 6
months!