Laser printer for home?


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Old 06-10-19, 12:48 PM
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Laser printer for home?

I need to get a new all-in-one printer (with at least copy, print, scan) for home.
I looked at all the offerings for inkjet printers. And I'm not crazy about any of the models.

I'm thinking about just getting an all-in-one laser printer in black ink only. These are more affordable than I thought. Do any of you use these at home to provide feedback on?

1. I looked at the page printing ink capacity for drum and toner cartridge for a few models. It could take me a few years to use up all the toner in these things with current usage. Can I make a toner cartridge and drum last for years if I don't use it too much?

2. Will most websites provide black print only versions of their pages with the pertinent information?

Thanks,


Dave
 
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Old 06-10-19, 12:57 PM
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I bought a B&W laser printer [canon D530] a number of yrs ago and am well pleased with it. It's like an old black and white TV, even if the show is in color you see it in black and white. It should print anything you want other than color.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 01:24 PM
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How long does your toner cartridge and drum last on your Canon?
 
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Old 06-10-19, 01:41 PM
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I don't print a lot so I'm still on the OE cartridge/drum. When I had a ink jet I did more printing but they always dried up on me - that's why I got a laser printer.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 02:04 PM
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I've never had an all-in-one but I've had a laser printer in my home most of the time since 1998. The one time I had an inkjet instead, I absolutely hated it because the heads were always drying out and I had to put in new cartridges just about every time I needed to print something.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 02:26 PM
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I picked up a HP M277dw a couple of years a go, finally ran out of color ink this year. The thing is pretty rocksolid in all it's function (don't fax much though). I concur with the others, the inkjet cartridges kept drying out or would leave streaks from the print head. Cleaning the head never helped.

I'm very happy with what I have except for the cost of the cartridges and the relative lack of aftermarket supplies.

When I do need to print a lot nothing beats the speed and cleanliness of what I have. YMMV, I certainly haven't tried them all.

RE: Black ink only...anything you print with just black ink will print in a grayscale perfectly fine.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 03:29 PM
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Yeah, I don't want to mess with the inkjet ones anymore for the same reasons you guys mentioned.

Are you saying the color format you are copying or printing from will show up in grayscale?

Any thoughts on compatibility with Linux Mint 18 on my desktop PC? I swore off Windows at home forever! I heard HP was best choice for Linux. But I kinda' like the Brother all-in-one lasers better.And the Brother toner cartridges are cheaper.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 03:37 PM
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Long ago gave up on ink jet printers and now only use laser printers. My home printer goes through a cartridge about every 2-3 years and it's always ready to go when we need it.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 03:39 PM
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Remember the biggest cost of a printer will be the ink or toner.

Printers that use toner are good for low volume because toner doesn't go bad.

Inkjet printers will dry out if not used for several weeks/months, which can ruin them or require cleaning with rubbing alcohol and a syringe/cleaning kit.

I inherited an HP DeskJet 2100 toner printer from a tenant; once I cleaned the rollers, and added a $15 networking card, it works well as a network printer. Also found that toner printers are MUCH better for addressing envelopes (inkjet-printed envelopes smear when they get wet)

I do most of my printing on an inkjet copy/printer/scan/fax machine, and I've learned that the most important things for an inkjet is to get one with a dedicated printhead and 4 separate color tanks.

Cheap printers will use a "cartridge" which has black and color ink and a print head in one unit. Because the print head is part of the disposable cartridge, the printheads have to be cheap to manufacture. Also, when you use up any 1 ink color, you need to buy a new cartridge.

Better models have 2 cartridges, black ink & black print head, and color ink and color print head.

Best of all are the inkjet printers with a dedicated high-quality print heads, and 4 separate tanks of ink (black, red, blue, yellow). Ink is cheap, the machines run great.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 03:51 PM
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I looked at the inkjet ones with ink tanks too. But you have to trade-off features and lower price for having tanks.

Anyone use Linux with their laser printers?

Will all color format show up in laser printers as grayscale? Or will it just blank it out?
 
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Old 06-10-19, 04:07 PM
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I've only had HP printers myself and my experience with Brother printers has all been at work but it was bad enough I won't consider one. That said, all of this was Windows OS so I can't help with the Linux part of the equation.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 05:39 PM
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I run the Brother Multi Function 7860DW. All in one unit. I am exceptionally happy with the performance. I'm no longer an HP printer enthusiast.

The toner cartridges are relatively inexpensive and last a long time.
Here's a blurp on Linux..... Brother MFC-7860DW
 
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Old 06-10-19, 06:49 PM
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Will all color format show up in laser printers as grayscale?
Not saying they are not out there, but every printer I know of will print color pictures in greyscale either manually or automatically. This includes the copy function if you only have black ink.

If you don't want the printer to do the conversion to greyscale, you can do it yourself in the printer dialog box. Not sure if Linux has this option. I've never known a printer to print nothing if the data stream is with color but you only have black ink.

Looks like the brother cartridges are about 80% of the HP, plus it looks like there are some aftermarkets that are cheaper....I'm jealous.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 07:46 PM
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I'm glad I asked you guys first. I read all your responses. This weekend, I was an inch away from buying an inkjet all-in-one.

HP or Brother?..................I don't know yet. Brother toner cartridges seem to be cheaper.

Linux Mint 18 on my desktop might already have something to help with Brother install.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 08:16 PM
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Many black and white laser printers give a "grainy" image when you try to print a picture. This is because those models print clusters of not so tiny black dots of varying sizes instead of a real gray scale. Since you are buying an all-in-one printer you should be able to do a demo printout in less than a minute using it like a photocopier via the built in scanner.
 
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Old 06-10-19, 08:34 PM
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That's a good idea. I just checked The Linux Mint 18 operating system on my PC. It came bundled with about 15 driver packages for Brother printers.
 
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Old 06-11-19, 05:23 AM
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What a conundrum! I don't have any answers, but just adding that I've been juggling this too, and it's frustrating. For a number of years I have worked with various groups through church, community, etc., and would often print a number of agendas or whatnot that required color, so relied on higher end inkjet all-in-ones. I bought good ones, they lasted a long time, and were used a lot, so I never paid much attention to how many cartridges I went through. I'm still involved, but have cut back some, and have a local print shop that I rely on, even does no charge jobs for me sometimes for charitable functions. So sometime before the first of the year it was time to replace my home office printer, and bought what I have always bought, an inkjet, but this time about the least expensive one they had in stock. Whoa, last week it needed a refill, so the wife picked up new cartridges on the way home one evening, and they cost almost as much as the printer did. The cost of the being able to print almost doubled in about 6 months! Man, I'm just not put together this way, I have always bought things to last, take care of them, and am generally pleased, but, based on what I have read elsewhere and in this thread, I think when this printer needs a refill it's going into the recycle and I'll buy a laser.
 
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Old 06-11-19, 07:14 AM
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I know what you mean, Pedro. When I was looking over all-in-one printers this weekend, I also spent a fair amount of time pricing compatible ink tank models and toner/ink cartridges. My HP inkjet just broke. But it lasted over 12 years. It might take me a few weeks to make a decision. No urgent need to buy one right away.
 
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Old 06-11-19, 08:33 AM
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I run the Brother Multi Function 7860DW. All in one unit. I am exceptionally happy with the performance.
I have purchased about 15 of this Brother multi-function printer (for work) and couldn't be happier with it. It's reliable, quick, and priced well. I typically use 3rd party toner for it to save a few dollars. I'd highly recommend it!
 
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Old 06-11-19, 09:19 AM
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That's good to hear about Brother. The Brother driver packages in my desktop Linux might be a little outdated. It doesn't contain the driver for Brother model# DCP-L2550DW. I'm wondering if I should buy a model that matches what I have in my driver packages on my PC.......................or just download the drivers from Brother website for the current model I am interested in.
 
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Old 06-11-19, 09:28 AM
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Either... or. It looks like the drivers are available either way.

Someone mentioned printing pictures. I wouldn't recommend a black laser printer if I wanted to do a lot of picture printing. It will print pictures but they aren't picture perfect. I usually take my pictures on a USB drive to Staples if I need good color pictures.
 
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Old 06-11-19, 09:31 AM
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When I got my first ink jet I printed a few pics but wasn't satisfied with the quality and shocked at how much color ink it used. Now we always take any pics to be printed to Walmart.
 
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Old 06-11-19, 01:43 PM
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I've got several Brother Inkjet multi functions MFC-465cn, which prints to 1,200 DPI.

Great workhorse, replacement ink is usually $14 for a 20 pack of mixed colors tanks, usually 4 of each color and then 8 black ink tanks.
 
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Old 06-11-19, 03:26 PM
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I think laser is the way to go for me. Inkjet cartridges are for the birds.
 
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Old 06-27-19, 08:22 PM
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For me, 90% of my printing is black / grayscale so for years I've used a B&W Laser at home (Pantum, works just fine in windows haven't tried Linux) and gone to a print shop if I really needed color. Recently starting to print more color for my wife's business, so when I saw a Xerox Phaser color laser on hella sale I went ahead and bought it. My sister has been printing color laser for 15 years, and sometimes has cartridges last 5 years or more. All-in-one machines are not always the world's best scanners, and you often have to balance your needs among the features. Since my wife is an artist we have a flatbed scanner for high quality stuff but the convenience of being able to put a 5 page document into a scanner is nice when I don't need the HiRes. Of course, my main statement would be to buy something you can test, and if that Linux Mint is a laptop, make them let you print a page from it before you buy that model, even if you have to use USB in the store for printing.
 
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Old 06-28-19, 06:38 AM
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Originally Posted by bluesbreaker
I think laser is the way to go for me. Inkjet cartridges are for the birds.
Well, it's not just the cartridge, it's the machine they're fitted into.

After re-reading, there is one point not discussed-

SCANNING - What sort of scanning do you need?

I have come to REALLY, REALLY, enjoy the combination of

1) 10 page scanner tray (will take ~15 actually and save as .PDF or JPG or TIFF.

2) scanner will do "unlimted" pages i.e. you drop ANOTHER 10 pages into the scanner as the last page scans, it will scan THOSE ten pages, repeat up to ~200 pages.

3) MS Office Document Imaging "MODI" program still provides OCR for .TIF files, and integrates with MS Office 2005/2010.

I use that array of functions all the time, free accurate OCR compatibility can't be understated.

I use the Multi-Function Scammer with 20+ page real estate agreements, home inspections and court filings to create OCR text searchable documents all the time.

Also is quite useful when you don't feel like "retyping" 3 pages of minutes from a park & rec board or hospital auxiliary, just scan, OCR and drop into MS Word.

Should also mention, more and more photo printers seem to be using InkJet instead of color laser, which often means the InkJet machines will ALSO have the higher resolution color scanner.
 
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Old 09-02-19, 12:04 PM
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I'm delaying this purchase. Other priorities right now. Thanks Hal. Yes, I agree. Scanning is an important feature to have too. I will report back when I make a purchase.
 
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Old 09-02-19, 01:31 PM
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Late to the game but I only buy epson ink printers. I like my misc high quality photos that I need to print..

Not to be cheap but all my kids and now the grand kids I have always ordered the cheapest school pictures. I then take that 1 - 5x7 and make multiple 5x10's wallets and the like. I do it with the grandkids now also. Then send them out to the many family members.

The epsons have the high capacitys and if I by ink once a year thats a lot. My spouse does e baying so ship labels are printed daily.

Plus I like wide format that I can print 13x19 if needed when I get that one good pic and able to hang it in the home somewhere.

Example I know live in SC. I went on line when I moved in and printed various size photos of NJ landscapes and framed them. Such as a few light houses, like cape may light house, ect. I hang these in the bathrooms. Wildwood board walk scene etc..

plus I scan often, and need to fax many docs. Scanner feeders are the best thing since sliced bread for home use.

Ill never buy anything but an epson...

Funny people come out of my bathrooms and alsways ask, Where was that taken. Whats that a photo of....etc..

Dont make fun of my bathroom art!!!!!









 
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Old 09-02-19, 01:54 PM
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If I was in the market to replace my current epson all in one, ( Thats 12 years old) I would probably replace with this.

Plus I do print direct to CD's and DVD's I make.

https://epson.com/For-Home/Printers/...r/p/C11CD95201

I only use OEM epson ink now. I did use after market on some printers years ago with disastrous results.

I dont think I ever cleaned the heads on my current printer. still prints flawlessly.

you can buy standard capacity 99 ---color x5 for about 50 bucks, or high 98--
cap x5 for 90 bucks. The black is only 98 high cap for 20 bucks..

But they have a black and color combo for 86.


https://www.amazon.com/Epson-Black-C...gateway&sr=8-1


https://www.amazon.com/Epson-T098120...5PYMYRXA399YRA
 
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Old 09-02-19, 02:21 PM
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I agree that inkjet cartridges are for the birds. We had two homes and whenever we went to the "other" home the printer would be dried up... have to buy new carts... frustrating.

I recently bought one of these...

https://www.amazon.com/Epson-WorkFor...gateway&sr=8-2

It has the ink tanks so no cartridges. The printer came with ink fill bottles to fill once and have one back up - should last years with our level of printing.

I found the printer at Costco for $275-ish as i recall...
 
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Old 09-02-19, 02:40 PM
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Man, I was just on thier site.. I never knew they had such an animal... I have to look into this... Great great find.. Thank you for this....

No to go search reviews

https://epson.com/ecotank-printers


*** Edit:

Looks like only 3 color... Uggggg
 
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Old 09-02-19, 03:59 PM
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I bought a Brother black and white copy, printer, scanner, fax and love the thing! I want to say I only paid $140 at Wally mart. If you can get by with only black and white you will save a ton on the cost of the machine and on toner.
 
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Old 04-27-20, 08:33 AM
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I ended up buying an HP all-in-one laserjet printer. Works great. No problems.

Nice photos posted by the way.
 
 

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