Printer Recommendation

[Matticus]

I need a new printer ... again.

I've never had luck with printers. Granted, when I was younger, they were the cheaper models - but the last one I got was more costly ... and it's still flaky. (It's a Dell, so no surprise there.)

This will primarily be used for printing forms and documents.

Here is what I do not need:

• I'll never be printing pictures, so I don't need fancy graphic capabilities.
• I don't need bells and whistles (which, in my experience, only serve to complicate the function and make the overall device more fragile).
• I don't need a built-in scanner.
• I don't need wireless capability (though I'd be fine with this feature if present).
• I don't even really need color (though again, I'd be fine with this feature if present).

Here are my only real requirements:

• Simple
• Sturdy
• Reliable

Has anyone had any positive experiences with printers that will fit my basic needs?

Ideally, I'd prefer to cap my spending around US $500, but I'm willing to hear any recommendations anyone might have.

Just in case it matters, I'm running Windows 7.

Thanks!
- Matt

[phantomotap]

O_o

You are facing the nature of modern printers. You'll not likely find a modern printer which really costs less to repair than replace. I'm not saying you should give a pass on flaky, but you aren't going to find a good dog that will stay with you under load for very long.

I'm again not saying you should be okay with flaky hardware. I'm telling you to look for a printer that has enough juice such that on inevitable failure you will have gotten your moneys worth without worrying about the cost of a replacement. You really can't find such a beast for $500.00 (USD) or similar. You need to aim lower.

I know my comment may sound bizarre, but I've exhausted a lot of printers. The trick is to buy recent yet not new generation printers with in a high duty offering. (You want to look for printers in the 6,000-10,000 range even if you've not printed 6,000-10,000 pages a year.) The older generations, each generations, also has the advantage of having more readily available alternative suppliers. The last many years I've spent a couple cents on a document page counting several printers and just all the paper ever. You probably can't buy ink for such a price if you buy a new model $500 (USD) printer.

As for wireless or networking features, you shouldn't waste money paying for such features every time you need a new printer. You can grab yourself a reusable print server stack (25$ Raspberry Pi/$10 WiFi USB) which works with just about any USB printer ever made. If you are going to buy for any feature, I'd recommend automatic duplex printing instead of wireless and networking.

Let me be clear, I'm talking about bulk black and white printing on laser hardware. I don't have much experience with large formats, photo, or very high density printing. (I actually only bought my first large format printer of my very on this week.) I'm just giving you fair warning if you left out some requirement.

Soma

[Mario F.]

Indeed. You need to go for laser printers. Modern inkjet printers are like disposable plastic bags with little manufacturing value and extremely low life. It is ok if you don't mind trading reliability for $100-$200 every 4-12 months. Except that their ink cartridges are expensive and with very low life, which raises considerably the printing costs. They also tend to go out of production just because. The only cartridge that I know of that has been constantly on sale for the last 5 years is the HP 122. And I suspect it is going to disappear soon enough, since I've not seen any new printer models supporting it.

With $500 you can get a foothold on laser printers. It won't be much for that sturdy model that will last you for years. But you don't want that either. Laser printers on the >$1000 price tag and with 3 year warranties come with high costs. They require yearly onsite maintenance and visits by technicians are expensive. They are best suited for offices. The $400-$700 range allows you to get a domestic laser printer that, well taken care of, can last you for 2, 3 years or even more. I use them for my office here in Luanda. Back in Lisbon, I have a couple more expensive models.

Now the following is my experience only. Take it as you will.

I only go for Xerox. It's the only brand I trust and with which I have experienced close to zero problems. I know them well. I was told once by a lab technician at Xerox they stress test their models in which they have them output pages almost continuously for a month. Something like 1 or 2 million pages, depending on the printer speed.

The Xerox - Phaser Laser Printer models have different price ranges. The monochromatic printers fall within the 400-700 price tag. All full duplex. This is the model family I use. The last one I bought is a dual tray with a capacity for around 1000 sheets, prints at ~40 ppm at a maximum of 1200 dpi. The automatic feeder can hold a full 500 sheets pack and the output tray roughly half of that. Duty cycle is 100,000 pages a month. Which is plenty and speaks for the printer quality. Cost me a little over $400.

The toner cartridges come in standard and high yield formats. Their price ranges between $150 and $300. The standard model has a yield of around 5,000 pages with standard quality settings. The high yield is 2.5x that at 13,000. So the high yield toner is more cost efficient; 3.0 cents versus 2.3 cents per page.

A word of caution: Laser printers can be messy when paper jams. The Xerox Phaser models don't jam too much, but it will happen. All printers jam from time to time. When it happens, you'll get your fingers covered in the ink dust coming from the toner. To avoid this (and the spread of toner inside the printer) you can buy a fuser unit sometime later. I always do for my laser printers. The xerox fuser unit goes for about $300. It will last you for around 40 standard toners. That is, it has a 200.000 pages lifetime, at a cost of 0.15 cents per page.

[phantomotap]

A word of caution: Laser printers can be messy when paper jams.

O_o

The words of a man who has never seen a photojet tug on bad phase while printing... parts of my ceiling are the wrong color.

Soma

[gemera]

I took the lazy way out a few months back, found this and bought the Samsung at the head of the list which does have WiFi, and its been fine.

[Matticus]

Thank you all! This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I now have a much better starting point for printer research.

I will start looking into laser printers. Not only does this fit my requirements, I'm also more than happy to say goodbye to crappy inkjet forever.