Color Laser Printer WIFI (Although I'm old!)

[GlennSprigg]

I don't mind copping 'flak', again, but please be kind to old pensioners!!!   

My Missus & I got sick of using/buying cheap $30 inkjet printers.  I tried various cheap ReFill
options from overseas. Let's face it, they make NOTHING on the sale of new printers, and try
to make their money on 'NEW CARTRIDGES'. So, we try to circumvent that...  Up until now, we would
use the printer until empty of ink, and then BUY another for say $29, (a fraction of the cost for new
cartridges!), and keep at least ONE of the old 'printers' as a 'SCANNER'.

Now, for the 1st time, I purchased a new B&W & Color Laser Printer. So many quality Laser
printed pages, that would take us a few years to use up!! Ok, so lets look at re-usability.
'Brother' quote the likes of $120 to $140 for EACH colour drum/cartridge. However, on eBay, we can
not just get a 'refill' kit as per the various inkjet printers, but a complete new replacement Cartridge
for about $30. Now, I'm sorry, but I do not care about 'standard' parts. If it works, and our distant
future succeeds with an additional 2000 to 3000 pages on an originally $250 machine, then so be it !!!

NOW, all of a sudden, things we want/need every day, just happen! We are networked anyway, between
all devices, like PC's, Laptops, iPads & SmartPhones on our NBN router. Everything on any device is now
printable, as it all happens locally via the NBN/Router WiFi
PDF files, instructions, Airline bookings/tickets...

Mind you, I showed my missus recently that all you need is your phone at the airport to scan now...
Just wake me when we get there!!!   

[jfiresto]

I am long time laser printer fan and do not mind paying 90 dollars or euros for a manufacturer's toner cartridge if I will get many pages out of one. Kyocera claims 7000 pages per cartridge for the P2040dn black and white laser printer I recently got. That is about half the cost per page of the Okidata printer it replaced. I only replaced the Okidata, because after 20 years, the rubber pieces had hardened and were starting to misfeed the odd sheet from the 200-sheet paper tray.

You can see where a manufacturer makes money if you calculate the cost per page for their different models. I bought Kyocera's second least expensive, network printer because I do not print much per year. The toner for their least expensive model (it is different) costs twice as much per page and only makes sense if you plan to retire the printer before finishing off a full cartridge.

[ebastler]

NOW, all of a sudden, things we want/need every day, just happen! We are networked anyway, between all devices, like PC's, Laptops, iPads & SmartPhones on our NBN router. Everything on any device is now printable, as it all happens locally via the NBN/Router WiFi PDF files, instructions, Airline bookings/tickets...

I must admit that I still get a kick out of the experience of having a photocopier at home.  

One of the "dream machines" of my youth, when information still came on printed pages, and it was such a hassle to take a bike ride to the next "copy shop" to copy a book chapter or magazine article... We have had an inkjet printer + flatbed scanner combo for a decade now, but I am still pleased that this magic machine is sitting there right on my shelf. The recent upgrade to a laser printer with automatic document feeder helped to renew the enjoyment. 

[SilverSolder]

I've managed to go almost 100% paperless, even though I like printing.  I only print photographs / artwork / technical stuff (PCB artwork etc.) these days... 

[james_s]

I got sick of inkjet printers about 12 years ago and bought a used color laser printer. Finally it was getting tired so I replaced it with a new much more compact HP color laserjet. I don't mind paying a few hundred bucks for a set of cartridges because a set of them lasts me years. It's far more expensive to buy $30 inkjet cartridges that dry up and clog after a few prints. Inkjet printers are nicer for photos but they're hopeless for someone who prints infrequently.

My printer has wifi but I've always used wired ethernet, I reserve wifi for laptops and mobile devices that actually need to be wireless, a wire offers far superior performance and better reliability.

[tooki]

I don't mind copping 'flak', again, but please be kind to old pensioners!!!   

My Missus & I got sick of using/buying cheap $30 inkjet printers.  I tried various cheap ReFill
options from overseas. Let's face it, they make NOTHING on the sale of new printers, and try
to make their money on 'NEW CARTRIDGES'. So, we try to circumvent that...  Up until now, we would
use the printer until empty of ink, and then BUY another for say $29, (a fraction of the cost for new
cartridges!), and keep at least ONE of the old 'printers' as a 'SCANNER'.

Now, for the 1st time, I purchased a new B&W & Color Laser Printer. So many quality Laser
printed pages, that would take us a few years to use up!! Ok, so lets look at re-usability.
'Brother' quote the likes of $120 to $140 for EACH colour drum/cartridge. However, on eBay, we can
not just get a 'refill' kit as per the various inkjet printers, but a complete new replacement Cartridge
for about $30. Now, I'm sorry, but I do not care about 'standard' parts. If it works, and our distant
future succeeds with an additional 2000 to 3000 pages on an originally $250 machine, then so be it !!!

Your original mistake was buying $30 printers. That’s a way more expensive way of buying ink than spending $200 on a printer and then having $12 (original!) cartridges.

Anyhow, nowadays, small laser printers use the old inkjet model, charging nothing for the printer and a fortune for toner that lasts just 1000 pages.

Meanwhile, for the past 5 years or so, the printers with the lowest page costs have been... inkjets. (Not all inkjets. Just that the cheapest per page inkjets actually have lower page costs than the cheapest page cost lasers.)

And more recently still, most of the brands have started selling inkjets that come filled with gigantic ink tanks that last for 5000-7000 pages before needing a refill. So you spend maybe $300 on the machine and don’t need to buy ink for years, and then it’s cheap, too.

[angrybird]

Look at the printer with WireShark or a good network router...  These networked printers are sending massive data to numerous IP's as you use them.  I suspect this data includes information about any other wifi devices it spots as well as other devices on your network.  I had an HP MFP series connected to the internet and it sent more than 500MB in a month, and with limited use.  Data went to IP's belonging to facebook, google, twitter, etc as well as some unidentified IP's in Asia region.

I won't connect printers to the internet anymore.  There is no privacy laws to keep them from doing this as long as they claim the data is "anonymized", though it can be used to trace directly to you with easy data analysis.

[rsjsouza]

I love laser printers, but in our house I couldn't get the missus to agree on one. In this case, we got the $150 office inkjet printer (HP Officejet Pro 8600) that has been in use for a number of years, is very frugal and the ink does not dry with our sparse printing output. When this one dies, I may either try the color laser again or perhaps get one of these Epson Ecotank printers, which are refillable inkjets.

[angrybird]

I love laser printers, but in our house I couldn't get the missus to agree on one. In this case, we got the $150 office inkjet printer (HP Officejet Pro 8600) that has been in use for a number of years, is very frugal and the ink does not dry with our sparse printing output. When this one dies, I may either try the color laser again or perhaps get one of these Epson Ecotank printers, which are refillable inkjets.

Color lasers just aren't economical and are usually too bulky for home use.  However if you start a small business, you are usually allowed to claim a loss X out of Y years and can write off your consumables like cartridges.

For mass printing of black and white documents, there are a lot of good deals for used laserjets that have good availability of aftermarket toner cartridges that are affordable and decent quality.  For this I prefer the P20xx series printers because you can get them with ethernet and duplexing (-dn option), they can do more than 20 pages per minute, and you usually find people selling them due to startup errors which require baking the PCB to melt the dentrites that have migrated between pins on the BGA chip.  In the long run, this does prove annoying and a bit silly though (Darn!  Time to throw the printer PCB in the oven again!)

[james_s]

Color lasers just aren't economical and are usually too bulky for home use.  However if you start a small business, you are usually allowed to claim a loss X out of Y years and can write off your consumables like cartridges.

My HP M254dw color laserjet is about the size of a breadbox, it's smaller than those stupid all in one printer/scanner units that are all the rage and was under $300 when I bought it. A set of OEM cartridges is kinda spendy but aftermarket is available and so far I'm still on the set that came with it. Back when I had inkjets I spent a lot more than $300 on cartridges that dried up and clogged after only a few prints. I often go weeks at a time without printing and inkjets really don't like to sit, at least not the ones I've had.

Another thing I really like about the laser is that the prints don't smear if they get damp.

[jfiresto]

The roughly 5 µm toner particles (from a 1200 dpi laser printer) also make good targets for testing stereo microscopes.

[shakalnokturn]

I gave up on playing with liquid ink printers 12-15 years ago, before that colour lasers weren't being thrown away too often so it kind of made sense to get covered in ink for the colour prints.

I liked the prints the Tektronix Phaser produced in its day, I've never owned one so I'm not aware of the clogging problems they may have.

I've been a black laser printer user for about 20 years now, I was (still am) a great fan of the LaserJet 4 and 5 with VFD display.
In 20 years IIRC I've only ever bought two new toner cartridges.
My most recent find is a colour HP MFC, I may have to buy a black cartridge for that as the drum is way past its best.

Colour laser printing is cheap when you don't have to buy anything, sometimes the printers are thrown-away with paper in the tray 

[SilverSolder]

I use both inkjet and laser printers, depending on what I'm doing.  I like printing large format photos, laser just isn't the right solution for that.  Printing masks for PCB lithography is more precise on inkjet (and can be made larger format).  Toner transfer works only on laser...

[angrybird]

Color lasers just aren't economical and are usually too bulky for home use.  However if you start a small business, you are usually allowed to claim a loss X out of Y years and can write off your consumables like cartridges.

My HP M254dw color laserjet is about the size of a breadbox, it's smaller than those stupid all in one printer/scanner units that are all the rage and was under $300 when I bought it. A set of OEM cartridges is kinda spendy but aftermarket is available and so far I'm still on the set that came with it. Back when I had inkjets I spent a lot more than $300 on cartridges that dried up and clogged after only a few prints. I often go weeks at a time without printing and inkjets really don't like to sit, at least not the ones I've had.

Another thing I really like about the laser is that the prints don't smear if they get damp.

That is pretty small but I should have mentioned what my personal idea of "small" is.  Do you remember the Canon BJ-200?   

[RoadRunner]

I own one those tank inkjet printer , they are quite economical, small and Easy to refill.

[james_s]

They're economical if you print a lot. If you're like me and frequently go a month or more between printing they will still clog up and waste a ton of ink on cleaning cycles.

[rsjsouza]

For mass printing of black and white documents,

Oh yeah. If I only printed B&W or dithered I would have kept my precious HP Laserjet 4100DTN - sold it for a song due to its large footprint.

My HP M254dw color laserjet is about the size of a breadbox, it's smaller than those stupid all in one printer/scanner units that are all the rage and was under $300 when I bought it.

Thanks for the information about the smaller size color laserjet. Unfortunately we use the scanner quite heavily (more than the printer) and therefore can't live without a multifunctional. The 8600 is about the height of a Tektronix TDS7104 and fits perfectly on top of an Ikea Besta bookshelf unit we have.

They're economical if you print a lot. If you're like me and frequently go a month or more between printing they will still clog up and waste a ton of ink on cleaning cycles.

Fortunately for us the 8600 really keeps unclogged over the weeks between printouts.

[ebastler]

I own one those tank inkjet printer , they are quite economical, small and Easy to refill.

I own one too (Epson EcoTank). It was nice until it started to spit large drops of ink on the paper unprompted. And now it turns out that there is no accepted way to mail it back for warranty repair, because there is no way to either drain or seal the ink system: "Ensure that the printer is not tipped or tilted during transport." 

Thank you very much, Epson. That was my first and last "EcoTank", and probably my last Epson product for a long time. It was quite expensive too -- with these printers, the ink is affordable, but you pay real money for the printer. 500 Euros for a photo-quality ET-7000...

Anybody wants to buy a complete set of unopened, original ink bottles? The printer did not even get through the first of the two included sets. 

[Bud]

I am curious why in this era of obsession with black computer equipment if is difficult to find a black printer.

[olkipukki]

Are people still using ink printers? 

The laser (colour) printers are cheap these days (yes, need take into account some manufacturer promotions, reseller discounts, vouchers etc.) and at the time you need to replace cartridges - literally through away it and buy new one 


P.S.

Apple users, please do not forget to check AirPrint compatibility 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201311

[SilverSolder]

Are people still using ink printers? 
[...]

Inkjet is still by far the best for photographic prints...

[tooki]

I am curious why in this era of obsession with black computer equipment if is difficult to find a black printer.

But is it, really?? I think we actually have a pretty good selection of them. I mean, look at the 90s, when every printer, without exception, was gray...

Nearly all of Canon's inkjets are black (some come in additional colors). Almost all Epson inkjets are, too.

HP's inkjets are mostly black, and their lasers are mostly half-black, half-gray. Brother is mostly black, even for laser.

Ultimately I think it's more by market: printers for home/SOHO use tend to be black, while ones targeted at larger offices are more likely to be gray. The closer you get to an enterprise printer, the more likely it is to be gray. And inkjets seem more likely to be black than lasers. But exceptions exist in every dimension.

[GlennSprigg]

Look at the printer with WireShark or a good network router...  These networked printers are sending massive data to numerous IP's as you use them.  I suspect this data includes information about any other wifi devices it spots as well as other devices on your network.  I had an HP MFP series connected to the internet and it sent more than 500MB in a month, and with limited use.  Data went to IP's belonging to facebook, google, twitter, etc as well as some unidentified IP's in Asia region.

I won't connect printers to the internet anymore.  There is no privacy laws to keep them from doing this as long as they claim the data is "anonymized", though it can be used to trace directly to you with easy data analysis.

Thanks to everyone for all for your replies!  However, to 'angrybird'...
I'm generally wary of what is connected to my WIFI, but my Brother HL-L3230CDW doesn't seem to
do anything 'behind the scenes'.  I utilize 'specialized' software that monitors ALL communications on
my router by any device/user, beyond the 'normal' monitoring people know of/use. There is no data
usage other than the expected handshaking to my other devices, and zero in sleep mode.

And yea, to others in general...  we wouldn't use but a fraction of what some people might in an office
or business environment, and there's no worries about 'clogged' inkjets between use, nor with spending
the fraction of the normal cost of 'propitiatory' toner cartridges when/if we need them after years!!

Mind you, I never thought about the claims of 'better' Photos with an Inkjet!!  I suppose it must also
depend on the specialized glossy/mat/sheen papers used???  Even with the past's Inkjets, it always
seemed cheaper/better to take a memory-stick to 'Office-Works' etc, & pay mere CENTS for a print!!
However, aren't they just using Laser Printers anyway??? (All-be-it a high quality one?)

[rsjsouza]

O used to have am Epson Photo 820 that had quite impressive photo printing. All other problems apart (clogged heads, tiny cartridges), the cost per 4x6 photo was prohibitive but immensely better than the typical drugstore printing service. However, the more professional services such as shutterfly were more expensive but, in the end, much more cost effective (quality was much better than the drugstore, but worse than the printer).

I haven't had a photo printer in years due to the cost.

[Lord of nothing]

Can some one PLEASE fix the horrible formation of the Text: