Home Office Printer, Laser vs Inkjet
Discussion
Currently have a HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 - does what it needs to do but it's costing a fortune in ink. I've tried buying non-genuine cartridges but frankly they're too inconsistent, sometimes they just don't work. For example, yesterday, my wife needed to print something for work today, printer ran out of Yellow, that's fine, I've got a full set of non-genuine cartridges, put the yellow in... didn't work. Ordered a genuine HP cartridge to be delivered today, arrived, put it into the printer and now the printer complains it wants black. No problem, I've got a non-genuine black... nope, doesn't work either!
At one point I did resort to filling old cartridges myself, but again, some would stop working randomly and I'd have to switch to another.
I'm looking at weighing up just buying genuine ink, or replacing the printer with a laser printer in the hope it'll cost less in ink. We print somewhere between 2000-4000 pages a year.
I've done my research, and everything tells me that while toner costs more upfront, you get more pages out of it. I looked up a toner yesterday, I think it was for a Brother laser printer, it was £40 and the yield was 1,000 pages. To compare it, I looked up the ink for my current printer, and the black cartridge is £40 and it's supposed to yield 2,000 pages. Based on that, I'm not going to save any money switching to a laser printer, in fact, I'll lose money with the extra upfront cost of the printer and less pages from the toner.
Everything I'm reading says that laser printers should be cheaper, but when I've looked into it the costs seem about on-par with each other?
Am I missing something?
At one point I did resort to filling old cartridges myself, but again, some would stop working randomly and I'd have to switch to another.
I'm looking at weighing up just buying genuine ink, or replacing the printer with a laser printer in the hope it'll cost less in ink. We print somewhere between 2000-4000 pages a year.
I've done my research, and everything tells me that while toner costs more upfront, you get more pages out of it. I looked up a toner yesterday, I think it was for a Brother laser printer, it was £40 and the yield was 1,000 pages. To compare it, I looked up the ink for my current printer, and the black cartridge is £40 and it's supposed to yield 2,000 pages. Based on that, I'm not going to save any money switching to a laser printer, in fact, I'll lose money with the extra upfront cost of the printer and less pages from the toner.
Everything I'm reading says that laser printers should be cheaper, but when I've looked into it the costs seem about on-par with each other?
Am I missing something?
Although i don't use a HP, i bought a Xerox 6605DN many years ago and apart from the black, it's still on the original toners. When printing in colour, there is no drop in quality.
I don't print that many pages per year, which is why i chose a laser printer over an inkjet, as the toner does not dry out.
I would hate to think of how much i would have wasted on an ink jet, due to the purchase of new carts, to replace the ones that have dried out.
I don't print that many pages per year, which is why i chose a laser printer over an inkjet, as the toner does not dry out.
I would hate to think of how much i would have wasted on an ink jet, due to the purchase of new carts, to replace the ones that have dried out.
I just bought a CANON - PIXMA G3501 cost £199 but its an "ink tank" has no cartridges the refills are actually just bottles of ink that you squirt into the tanks, looking online I can replace the black with a genuine refill for £12.99 (6000 A4 pages) on the Canon website, and even cheaper if I use non genuine.
I stuck it out for years with an HP L7780 ink jet but it just became a nighmare for cartridges and print heads.
Colleague mentioned he had an HP laser jet so I recently bought an M479. It's just a revelation being able to turn it on and print a page with no hassle.
He did tell me he'd got a 'cheap' source for cartridges and sent me the invoice - turned out he could have bought a new printer for £30 less than he'd paid, and, unlike inkjets, they don't come with demo cartridges! Normally the printers are sold with £80-£120 cashback (direct from HP, or resellers).
Couple of things: It shuts off after a while so you can't remote print without dabbing the button to turn it on. You can't use inkjet photo paper, which is annoying as I just inherited a ton of it!
Colleague mentioned he had an HP laser jet so I recently bought an M479. It's just a revelation being able to turn it on and print a page with no hassle.
He did tell me he'd got a 'cheap' source for cartridges and sent me the invoice - turned out he could have bought a new printer for £30 less than he'd paid, and, unlike inkjets, they don't come with demo cartridges! Normally the printers are sold with £80-£120 cashback (direct from HP, or resellers).
Couple of things: It shuts off after a while so you can't remote print without dabbing the button to turn it on. You can't use inkjet photo paper, which is annoying as I just inherited a ton of it!
Longtime Lurker said:
I just bought a CANON - PIXMA G3501 cost £199 but its an "ink tank" has no cartridges the refills are actually just bottles of ink that you squirt into the tanks, looking online I can replace the black with a genuine refill for £12.99 (6000 A4 pages) on the Canon website, and even cheaper if I use non genuine.
I like that idea. For comparison, our printer is selling for about £100, but a full set of high yield cartridges are over £100. That Canon costs £199 but a full set of ink is about £30-40.TheBinarySheep said:
I like that idea. For comparison, our printer is selling for about £100, but a full set of high yield cartridges are over £100. That Canon costs £199 but a full set of ink is about £30-40.
Even cheaper if you go non genuine https://www.amazon.co.uk/LCL-Compatible-GI-590BK-1...I recently purchased HP printer & have gone the subscription route
Unlimited pages for first 3 month was on offer, then
£1.99 for 50 pages a month
£3.48 for 100
£7.99 for 300
£17.99 for 700, then eg £1 for every 20 over
Unused can be carried over
Etc:-
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-instant-ink-709-c...
Can cancel or alter subscription anytime
They send you extra large cartridges & send replacements when printer tells them it’s getting low
So eg £24 a year is perfect for my light use & no mucking about with dodgy ink etc !
Unlimited pages for first 3 month was on offer, then
£1.99 for 50 pages a month
£3.48 for 100
£7.99 for 300
£17.99 for 700, then eg £1 for every 20 over
Unused can be carried over
Etc:-
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-instant-ink-709-c...
Can cancel or alter subscription anytime
They send you extra large cartridges & send replacements when printer tells them it’s getting low
So eg £24 a year is perfect for my light use & no mucking about with dodgy ink etc !
Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 5th October 13:38
I've had a look on the printer land website, as they cost per page, and there seems very little point going for a laser printer anymore, especially for home office needs. A HP Inkjet is showing as having costs of 2.4p for mono and 8p for colour. Most laser printers seems to match the mono price or better it, but in most cases colour is way more expensive. You've had to be printing a forest for it to be cost effective. To get a laser printer that matches the inkjet for cost per page you're looking at £400.
Edited by TheBinarySheep on Monday 5th October 14:09
gus607 said:
Inkjet printers never worked for me. Too expensive ink cartridges so I bought a Samsung M2020 laser.
Absolutely brilliant & compatible tonor cartridhes are cheap compared to ink. 100% reliable too.
Using your printer as an example, black prints costs 3.2p per page (compatible toner) or 6p per page genuine toner. The HP Inkjet I have is 2.0p per page.Absolutely brilliant & compatible tonor cartridhes are cheap compared to ink. 100% reliable too.
Everything I read online says that laser printers are more cost effective, but the figures I'm looking at don't back that claim up. Hence my confusion.
Edited by TheBinarySheep on Monday 5th October 14:16
Edited by TheBinarySheep on Monday 5th October 14:18
I have 4 Epson Ecotanks printers, which are in heavy use for a small ebay business I have. I've had 2 of them for over 5 years, still going strong however they do require maintenance and "modification", which if you're happy with, you'll struggle to find an inkjet that's as cheap to run and reliable. The printers with refillable tanks all suffer from waste tank problems, where the waste tank will fill and the manufacturer will tell you the printer is at it's end of life. You can buy "Printer pottys" though and reset key, which fixes the issue. You have to take the printer apart, remove waste ink tank and replace with a "potty" at around 20 quid. Printer will then last as long as the print heads will go for, which in my case of churning out lots of prints everyday, is 5+ years and no issues.
Did try a laser, but for my needs, the quality wasn't high enough and the toners didn't seem to last very long, ended up binning the laser. For home office needs, an Ecotank (or similar) is hard to beat, but bare in mind the waste ink tank issue on them all, but its relatively easy to modify.
Did try a laser, but for my needs, the quality wasn't high enough and the toners didn't seem to last very long, ended up binning the laser. For home office needs, an Ecotank (or similar) is hard to beat, but bare in mind the waste ink tank issue on them all, but its relatively easy to modify.
zedx19 said:
I have 4 Epson Ecotanks printers, which are in heavy use for a small ebay business I have. I've had 2 of them for over 5 years, still going strong however they do require maintenance and "modification", which if you're happy with, you'll struggle to find an inkjet that's as cheap to run and reliable. The printers with refillable tanks all suffer from waste tank problems, where the waste tank will fill and the manufacturer will tell you the printer is at it's end of life. You can buy "Printer pottys" though and reset key, which fixes the issue. You have to take the printer apart, remove waste ink tank and replace with a "potty" at around 20 quid. Printer will then last as long as the print heads will go for, which in my case of churning out lots of prints everyday, is 5+ years and no issues.
Did try a laser, but for my needs, the quality wasn't high enough and the toners didn't seem to last very long, ended up binning the laser. For home office needs, an Ecotank (or similar) is hard to beat, but bare in mind the waste ink tank issue on them all, but its relatively easy to modify.
I didn't know about the waste tank issue. Thanks.Did try a laser, but for my needs, the quality wasn't high enough and the toners didn't seem to last very long, ended up binning the laser. For home office needs, an Ecotank (or similar) is hard to beat, but bare in mind the waste ink tank issue on them all, but its relatively easy to modify.
I will second the ecotank/refill tank printers. Canon, Epson and Brother do them. They are around £150-£200 (may be less now) with the features of a cartridge inkjet that costs ~ £80-£120. Original inks are ~ £6-£8 each (~£30 a set), and a full set will get you 5000-10000 sheets.
Great Thread.
Im tired of my home office printer and want to update / upgrade. Its some painful inkjet thing and black seems to run out all the time.
Can someone recommended a good inkjet and a good colour lazer ? Needs to be wifi enabled and not fight me at every given time e.g. when I need an urgent page printed the wifi goes down, or it eats the page, or its favourite trick of telling me there's no black left despite being 3/4 full... :-)
£200 budget.
Im tired of my home office printer and want to update / upgrade. Its some painful inkjet thing and black seems to run out all the time.
Can someone recommended a good inkjet and a good colour lazer ? Needs to be wifi enabled and not fight me at every given time e.g. when I need an urgent page printed the wifi goes down, or it eats the page, or its favourite trick of telling me there's no black left despite being 3/4 full... :-)
£200 budget.
To add to the confusion, you have articles like this telling you that high end inkjet printers can manage only around 300 pages per cartridge while laser printers can do thousands. Which according to the manufacturers this is incorrect, inkjets can also do thousands of pages.
https://www.howtogeek.com/401749/stop-buying-inkje...
https://www.howtogeek.com/401749/stop-buying-inkje...
I just find any inkjet printer I've had in the past (more than a few) eventually ends up clogged or misprinting, and often slow to print multiple pages. Also get fed up of one colour running out more quickly than others
Bought a little black and white Samsung M2026W 3 years ago for £55 from Argos and even if the cost per page is higher, I'd prefer the better print quality and speed that I get from this compared to an inkjet. Wi-Fi, plus the usual connections, and can also print directly from iOS devices, as well as NFC compatibility (that I never use). A colour laser would be nice, but I just don't need one at home.
£20 buys a pair 1000 page toner cartridges from Amazon so I make that 1p per page
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NKVYF96/ref...
Machine has service life of 30,000 pages, it seems
|https://thumbsnap.com/DpziKJM1[/url]
Bought a little black and white Samsung M2026W 3 years ago for £55 from Argos and even if the cost per page is higher, I'd prefer the better print quality and speed that I get from this compared to an inkjet. Wi-Fi, plus the usual connections, and can also print directly from iOS devices, as well as NFC compatibility (that I never use). A colour laser would be nice, but I just don't need one at home.
£20 buys a pair 1000 page toner cartridges from Amazon so I make that 1p per page
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NKVYF96/ref...
Machine has service life of 30,000 pages, it seems
|https://thumbsnap.com/DpziKJM1[/url]Edited by phope on Monday 5th October 15:22
sbk1972 said:
Great Thread.
Im tired of my home office printer and want to update / upgrade. Its some painful inkjet thing and black seems to run out all the time.
Can someone recommended a good inkjet and a good colour lazer ? Needs to be wifi enabled and not fight me at every given time e.g. when I need an urgent page printed the wifi goes down, or it eats the page, or its favourite trick of telling me there's no black left despite being 3/4 full... :-)
£200 budget.
A little dearer, and I didn't give it a huge amount of thought, but this is the one I have - it's £330 but with £80 cashback (which was quick and easy) : https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id...Im tired of my home office printer and want to update / upgrade. Its some painful inkjet thing and black seems to run out all the time.
Can someone recommended a good inkjet and a good colour lazer ? Needs to be wifi enabled and not fight me at every given time e.g. when I need an urgent page printed the wifi goes down, or it eats the page, or its favourite trick of telling me there's no black left despite being 3/4 full... :-)
£200 budget.
Mine is hard wired to my home network, so no idea about the wifi - my understanding is wifi printing is often iffy.
The toner carts are expensive but I print only a few pages per month.
If it's for home, it's a fairly chunky size.
I never had any luck with ink jet printers, print heads drying up, 1 colour always ran randomly or banding suddenly appeared.
I bought a cheap laser jet, Ricoh Sp213w for £35 on offer.
Always works perfectly.
If we want pictures printing we just an online developer which if you shop around is about £4 to £5 for 50 prints.
I bought a cheap laser jet, Ricoh Sp213w for £35 on offer.
Always works perfectly.
If we want pictures printing we just an online developer which if you shop around is about £4 to £5 for 50 prints.
Has anyone had any experience with this printer or the manufacturer?
https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/kyocera-ecos...
It looks decent, has all the features we need including still being able to print in mono when colour runs out.
Reviews on amazon are varied with one or two suggesting that non genuine toners break the printer!
I also see that the toner cartridges don't look anything like the ones I used to see when I worked in an office, is this normal or is it some way to make laser printers affordable.
I had tried to find a similar printer from Brother, but they don't advertise as being able to print in mono when colour runs out, and ones with a document scanner are out of stock almost everywhere. https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/brother-mfc-...
https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/kyocera-ecos...
It looks decent, has all the features we need including still being able to print in mono when colour runs out.
Reviews on amazon are varied with one or two suggesting that non genuine toners break the printer!
I also see that the toner cartridges don't look anything like the ones I used to see when I worked in an office, is this normal or is it some way to make laser printers affordable.
I had tried to find a similar printer from Brother, but they don't advertise as being able to print in mono when colour runs out, and ones with a document scanner are out of stock almost everywhere. https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/brother-mfc-...
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