Which Laser Printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rick
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Rick

I need some guidance. I need (or think I do) a back up printer. As long
as I'm buying one, I want the capability to print mortgage and other
legal doc from email attachments, usually .pdf files. With the abundance
of problems with certain models, and the varying costs of toner and
repairs, I have no ideas of what relatively inexpensive printer to buy.
HP seems to be the laser printer of choice, but what model? If I buy
one, it probably should have 2 trays, one for letter and one for legal
size. Any ideas?
For those who might want an email address to reply, make the normal
changes and remove the 'netnet' below.

TIA

Rick
rcrwfrd1(at)gmaildotnetnet.com
 
Rick said:
I need some guidance. I need (or think I do) a back up printer. As
long as I'm buying one, I want the capability to print mortgage and
other legal doc from email attachments, usually .pdf files. With the
abundance of problems with certain models, and the varying costs of
toner and repairs, I have no ideas of what relatively inexpensive
printer to buy. HP seems to be the laser printer of choice, but what
model? If I buy one, it probably should have 2 trays, one for letter
and one for legal size. Any ideas?
For those who might want an email address to reply, make the normal
changes and remove the 'netnet' below.

TIA

Rick
rcrwfrd1(at)gmaildotnetnet.com
Click to expand...

Was this a wrong request for info, or am I on the wrong newsgroup? If
so, someone please point me to the correct place for this question.
Thanks

Rick
 
Rick said:
Was this a wrong request for info, or am I on the wrong newsgroup? If
so, someone please point me to the correct place for this question.
Click to expand...

You didn't provide any specifics that might make the question
answerable. Define "relatively inexpensive", for example. What
printing speed, and how many pages per month?
 
Warren said:
You didn't provide any specifics that might make the question
answerable. Define "relatively inexpensive", for example. What
printing speed, and how many pages per month?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response. I have no reference to go by. I suppose
$400-600 would be OK but cheaper is always better. Pages per month might
be 200-400, but that's only a guess, and is my idea of what might
happen in the future. Speed is a little harder to gauge. My present HP
7760 claims 14 PPM I think, but I seldom get more than 2 or 3 on the
stuff I print on it, which are usually Word forms. (I'm not counting
pics, which is less than 1 PPM)
I did have to print a 60 page document on my recently deceased HP 7350
and 3 copies took 5 hours and a full ink cart.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Rick
 
Hi Rick

I used to specify HP lasers, then Lexmarks, for
small businesses and schools.

These days I specify Brothers.

Reasons: tanklike, clean installation and driver software.

(HPs and Lexmarks have gotten flimsier, and HP installation and
driver software has gone from fair to execrable.)

Price, monthly volume, and speed are pretty much tied together.
For low volumes, the $300 Brothers will work fine. For large
volumes, there are nice $600 models. They also sell laser-based
multi-purpose machines (fax/copier/printer) that are great for
small businesses; nice ones run around $500.

-- stan
 
HP seems to be the laser printer of choice, but what model?

I generally like HP, but I would not reccomend the HP 1012. It's a
quiet fanless unit but can only print like 50p at full speed than drops
down to 5ppm or so after that. A family member was in a bind and
needed a printer "today" to print off a large report.. 1000p or so.
Two were returned because they melted under the load, though the 3rd is
officaly still in service. The toner cart is low yeild... $70/2000p or
3.5c/page. In all fairness they'll probally do the trick if your
monthly volume is under 1000p.

Oddly enough the folks at the retail store were saying "wow, you can't
use these printers to print so much". I thought they were on crack...
they are lasers after all.
 
Rick said:
Thanks for the response. I have no reference to go by. I suppose
$400-600 would be OK but cheaper is always better. Pages per month might
be 200-400, but that's only a guess, and is my idea of what might
happen in the future. Speed is a little harder to gauge. My present HP
7760 claims 14 PPM I think, but I seldom get more than 2 or 3 on the
stuff I print on it, which are usually Word forms. (I'm not counting
pics, which is less than 1 PPM)
I did have to print a 60 page document on my recently deceased HP 7350
and 3 copies took 5 hours and a full ink cart.
Click to expand...

The first thing that comes to mind is a used LaserJet 4000T or 4050T.
These printers have two trays, so you can keep them loaded with two
sizes of paper. Price should be in your range, but it depends on what
you can find locally. There are online places selling these and other
printers, too.

If you don't regularly use both sizes of paper, you can get by with the
built-in tray loaded with one size. When you need the other size, load
it in the front multipurpose tray. If that is acceptable, almost any
laser printer should work, including the venerable LaserJet 4.

Your page-per-month usage is very low, and some of the home printers may
be fine. I prefer the better paper handling and durability of the
business printers, and buying them used is a way to get them at or below
the new price of a home printer.
 
Thanks for the response. I have no reference to go by. I suppose
$400-600 would be OK but cheaper is always better. Pages per month might
be 200-400, but that's only a guess, and is my idea of what might
happen in the future. Speed is a little harder to gauge. My present HP
7760 claims 14 PPM I think, but I seldom get more than 2 or 3 on the
stuff I print on it, which are usually Word forms. (I'm not counting
pics, which is less than 1 PPM)
I did have to print a 60 page document on my recently deceased HP 7350
and 3 copies took 5 hours and a full ink cart.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Rick
Click to expand...

If you print 200-300 pages per month, you wait for the sales and grab
a Minolta 1350 or a low end Samsung , both regularly to be found at
Staples for $79 to $99. Either will really churn out 10-15 ppm at a
bare fraction of the price you pay to print b&w on ANY inkjet. The
text will be crisper and paper will also cost 1/3 of what you spend on
inkjet stock.
 
For a single-tray, the cheap $100-150 Samsung laser printers at Bestbuy,
Compusa, etc.; or HP 1020 series.

For a dual-tray, the Samsung ML-2251N series with optional 2nd tray.

---

Oh, gosh darn! correction! Samsung ML-1740 at $57 now on sale this
week!!!!!!

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/prod...BV_EngineID=cccladdfghmhekjcfngcfkmdffhdfgo.0

---

Keep in mind your future workload as well (which may go up). Here, you
may simply buy two cheap Samsung $100 laser printers - load one up with
legal, another with letter, and simply print to either depending on the
paper needs you have for a particular document.

This frees up a printer in case you do have a quick job you need to
print in the middle of a 100+ page print job, and you'll never be
'stuck' not being able to print at all if one of the two printers break.

Also, you can split huge print jobs and have the 1st half printing on
one printer, the other half on the other at the typical 17ppm+ that they
can do.

Keep in mind that for a business, it may cost you a lot more money to
delay the legal/mortgage paper printing for a day while you get a
replacement vs. buying two identical printers to serve as a live backup
to each other.

Certainly, for the $114 it'll cost you to buy two ML-1740's this week,
it will be even lower than the price of a new toner cartridge =O
(You may even want to consider buying more printers at this price as
well -- no point buying a more expensive laser cartridge when you run
out when you can simply take the cartridge from the cheaper laser
printer instead. Donate the printer for a tax write off.)
 
Thanks for the response. I have no reference to go by. I suppose
$400-600 would be OK but cheaper is always better. Pages per month might
be 200-400, but that's only a guess, and is my idea of what might
happen in the future. Speed is a little harder to gauge. My present HP
7760 claims 14 PPM I think, but I seldom get more than 2 or 3 on the
stuff I print on it, which are usually Word forms. (I'm not counting
pics, which is less than 1 PPM)
I did have to print a 60 page document on my recently deceased HP 7350
and 3 copies took 5 hours and a full ink cart.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Rick
Click to expand...

I would get a used HP 4000T or 4050T. Do not go for a 4100 if you are going to
use different sized media, especially envelopes. Scores the fuser roller
sleeve. A 4+ or 5 would be good too but I like the 4050 way better than my 4+,
and 2 drawers is harder to find on the 4 or 5 line.

My 4050 is GREAT and built like a tank. New HPs are really disappointing.
Email me (remove nospam) if you might like to buy my spare unit (bought 2.)
 
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