Laser or Inkjet?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scott
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Scott

Hello:

I have an HP Deskjet 682C that is about ten years old and, I'm afraid,
nearing the end of its service life. The paper feed does not work (rollers
turn but do not pick up the paper from the tray), so I have to manually feed
the paper every time that I print a document. I understand that this is a
common failure mode for these printers, and that it costs about $100 to have
the rollers replaced.

I have never been all that pleased with this printer. Even when it was new,
the printer was very slow - it seems to go through a 'cleaning ritual' of
sorts before and after each print job which adds several seconds to the
print time. I think that the resolution is okay for color prints, but the
text has never been as crisp as I would like and I have ongoing problems
with streaking. The cartridges have a short service life, and dry out if
the printer sits for too long. The cartridges are about $30 each (uses one
black and one color).

Are the new Inkjets any better? HP has a new color model for $149. My gut
instinct tells me that I would be better off spending a few bucks more for a
Laser. I think that I would be happier with the print quality, and that
toner is actually less expensive than Inkjet cartridges over the life of the
machine. I think that a Laser would be easier to maintain, too, because most
all of them are 'closed' designs. My deskjet has a fold down cover over the
cartridges that lets in dirt and dust. I have to periodically clean the
machine to keep the streaking problem in check.

I am actually considering a used Laserjet. I have first hand experience
with a 2100 at work, and I have seen several of these on eBay with low page
counts for less than what it would cost to repair my Deskjet. The 2100 is a
monochrome printer, but I print mostly text at home and reason that I can
keep the 682C around for the rare occasion that I need to print a color
photo.

I know that the 2100 is a discontinued model, so maybe something newer (but
still used - reasoning being that I can buy more printer for the money)
would be better. Color would be a plus, but what I am really looking
forward to is the rich, crisp black text that my 2100 at work does so well.
Are there any particular models that you folks would be happy to recommend?

Thanks in advance,
Scott
 
Scott
I think the 2100 is one of the best laser printers that HP have ever produced,
it has always surprised me that more were not sold.
It has two good trays (tray one holds a plenty of sheets for a multi purpose
tray and tray 2 has stacks of capacity), this model only has one unfortunate
quirk that I am aware of; if you print lots of A5 (or smaller than A4 or
letter) then the fuser hot roller's life is shortened a bit but printing narrow
paper has to be a major part of your printing before it becomes an issue. You
can expect 150,000 pages minimum from a 2100 without having to replace any
expensive parts like the fuser, just be sure that the one you buy has a
genuinely low page count. Of course you could always be unlucky and have a
failure at some stage but this risk applies to all second hane goods with no
warranty. Cost of running is a fraction of the cost of running an inkjet but
monochrome only of course. Apart from tray 1 pick up roller and separation pad
replacement servicing is fairly easy. I guess the bottom line is whether the
amount of printing you do justifies the capital outlay.
Tony
 
I know that the 2100 is a discontinued model, so maybe something newer (but
still used - reasoning being that I can buy more printer for the money)
would be better. Color would be a plus, but what I am really looking
forward to is the rich, crisp black text that my 2100 at work does so well.
Are there any particular models that you folks would be happy to recommend?

Thanks in advance,
Scott
Click to expand...
If you don't need to print photos, then a mono laser is much better
value.. If you need to print colour, but don't need photographic
quality, then a colour laser is better. It's only if you need to
print, regularly, photographic quality images, that you should
consider an inkjet.

--

Hecate - The Real One
(e-mail address removed)
Fashion: Buying things you don't need, with money
you don't have, to impress people you don't like...
 
I own both an Epson inkjet and a Minolta color laser. If you do photos there
is no question the inkjet is the better way to go. On the other hand, that
the laser is much faster, much cheaper to run and gives better text results.
 
Scott said:
Hello:

I have an HP Deskjet 682C that is about ten years old and, I'm afraid,
nearing the end of its service life.
Click to expand...

Just been through this myself. Decided to go for an HP 6840 inkjet to
replace my HP 895cxi which failed after 6 years.

The 6840 has both wired and wireless network and comes with a duplexer. I
went this route because inkjets are more flexible - someone pointed out that
laser printers sometimes have a problem printing on self adhesive envelopes
(heat + glue). Also I don't think you can use a laser for things like
T-Shirt transfers or similar but I might be wrong. Not that I need to do a
lot of this stuff but ocasionally it's useful to be able to run something
exotic through the printer.

The 6840 arrived late last week and I hooked it up to my network yesterday
using the wireless interface. Works great. Only think I don't like is the
crap output tray. It's not even a tray really.

The 6840 isn't sold as a photo printer but based on the one test I've made
so far it's actually reasonably good.
 
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