Best printer for consumables?

[srebbe64]

Mods feel free to move this if appropriate!

Working from home makes me do stuff I normally don’t do. One of which is I need to do my own printing. Question: what’s the best printer to buy? Am thinking more of consumables rather than immediate outlay? Thanks in advance.

[clockworks]

Monochrome laser. Get one that can use an aftermarket toner cartridge and drum assembly, as they tend to be cheaper than buying genuine consumables. Much cheaper to run than an inkjet.

If you sometimes need to print in colour, get a separate inkjet printer. Use the mono laser whenever you can.

I've been using a Brother laser for a few years, no problems at all. I had a Samsung before, which was still working when I gave it away, but wouldn't play nice with my iMac when I upgraded the operating system.

[mmm-five]

A list of your requirements may help.

e.g.

• Colour or B&W
• A3 or A4
• Duplex printing
• Large paper tray capacity
• Photo quality or office quality
• Inkjet or laser (or dot matrix, daisywheel, thermal transfer, etc.)
• 60+ pages per minute
• Sub-£100 / £300 / £500 / £1000
• Duty cycle (10/100/1000/10000 pages per month)
• Multi-function (print, fax, copy, scan) or single-function

BTW, I've got an Epson Expression XP-860 for colour printing - but only use Epson/Lyson inks and Marrutt papers, so not what you'd consider 'cheap' on consumables. If I need larger volume, simpler prints, then I use the Ricoh colour laser printers in the office (costs me nothing).

Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 18th February 19:27

[anonymous-user]

I've got an HP mono laser for donkey work and an inkjet all-in-one for everything else.

[cerberaperv]

Always found the Oki laser printers good value from printer land. Ps don’t have anything to do with them or oki, just used both for years.

[Turn7]

Yep, mono Laser.........had my HP p1005 for donkeys years and I think Ive only ever bought 2 toner carts........

[LunarOne]

I still use an HP Laserjet 4000 with a duplexer unit, extra paper drawer and network card. Was given it 18 years ago and only ever buy paper for it. I only print occasionally so I haven't needed to buy toner for it. Also have a Brother DCP-9010CN which I was given, but it's much more expensive to run and the drums need replacement which could be super costly. So it's a bit faint and blotchy even after resetting the density sensor, but it does the job. But the Laserjet does most of the work. It's HUGE by modern standards, especially with the Duplexer sticking out the back!

[Halmyre]

I'm done with inkjets. Bloody vampires.

If I had a laser I'd want a colour one. No way I'd trust an inkjet to lie idle for any amount of time and then spring to life when I want it to. If I want high quality colour prints I'll get them done professionally.

[C350Akra]

I have an A4 Samsung C430W colour laser, had it for years now. Only on second set of toner cartridges at the moment.