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Recommend a home laser printer
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I want to upgrade my home printer from the clunky ink-jet I have to a faster laser printer.

Desired specs:

- Laser
- Wireless
- Color
- Printer/scanner/fax
- Prints photos
- Price point under $500, hopefully under $400
- Fits on top of a filing cabinet (approx)

Looking at reviews on Amazon etc, it seems the laser ink replacement cartridges are super expensive, but the guy in Staples says "ah don't worry as you only have to buy new ones every year or so, unlike ink cartridges"

Is this BS?
What do you recommend?
Thanks!
Last edited by: Kay Serrar: Dec 2, 16 12:13
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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Dunno about color, but I got a $80 Brother black-n-white (Brother HL-L2340DW) a few months ago since I started working from home more, and it totally kicks butt.

Easy wireless setup, and prints fantastic. Would definitely recommend Brother is they have a color model with the features you want.

Cheers, Chris

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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How many pages do you print on a monthly basis? Unless it is a high volume, then more than likely you will not see the benefits of a laser printer over a ink printer, especially at the low end of laser printers.

ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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I am not sure why you would want your own printer anymore. We use Fedex for all our printing needs. They are just a couple miles from us and of course you can submit your print jobs remotely. I am done with the days of buying toner/paper. They offer a lot of services:

http://www.fedex.com/...@I@:20161202211908:s

"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [jkca1] [ In reply to ]
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jkca1 wrote:
I am not sure why you would want your own printer anymore. We use Fedex for all our printing needs. They are just a couple miles from us and of course you can submit your print jobs remotely. I am done with the days of buying toner/paper. They offer a lot of services:

http://www.fedex.com/...@I@:20161202211908:s

I need to print something every morning before work, we print photos, my kids print homework...all kinds of reasons. So I'm not sure that driving 1.5 miles (for me) into town to use FedEx each time would be very efficient.
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [nebmot] [ In reply to ]
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nebmot wrote:
How many pages do you print on a monthly basis? Unless it is a high volume, then more than likely you will not see the benefits of a laser printer over a ink printer, especially at the low end of laser printers.

Mainly I hate that the ink jet printer is clunky and prints quite slowly. I figured by now the price of laser printers must be low enough that it's worth upgrading.

In terms of volumes it's not huge. Maybe 10 sheets a day on average. Photos periodically. Scanning and faxing rarely but I want to be able to.
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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You should probably do some math like this to determine if you need a laser or not, but at 2-300ish pages a month, you will probably find that its not worth it.

Color Laser runs around $350+ with a yield of 2500 pages (4 toner cartridges @$70ea / 2500 pages = 8.97 cents per page)
Inkjet varies from $100+ with a avg yield of 250 pages (2 ink cartridges @ $35ea / 250 pages = 3.57 cents per page)

Substitute in whatever printers you are looking at and what the ink cartridges cost and you will figure what what is best for you.


With that said, I just bought https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N335R9K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for $87 shipped via prime from amazon.

ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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I have the HP Color LaserJet MFP M477fdw.
(I see it's about $450 on Amazon US)

Does all you listed, and does decent quality too.

My only complaints are the size of the thing (it's quite big) and the rate at which the kids burn through toner with their 'schoolwork'. Since when is printing an A4 colour picture of the Hulk considered schoolwork?

Selling point for me was duplex scanning.

Bought it in April 2016 and only now it's complaining about needing toner. Not bad.
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [nebmot] [ In reply to ]
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nebmot wrote:
How many pages do you print on a monthly basis? Unless it is a high volume, then more than likely you will not see the benefits of a laser printer over a ink printer, especially at the low end of laser printers.
Laser is always beneficial over inkjet. At high volume the laser is cheaper. At low volume the laser is again cheaper, because ink in the inkjet dries out if not used regularly, and needs replacing.

Inkjet printers are a racket.
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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I've been very happy with this printer: HP LaserJet Pro M252dw Wireless Color Printer.

It replaced a xerox colorqube which was the biggest piece of garbage I've ever owned. Basically crapped out on day 366, with a 365 day warranty. Never again, xerox. Vent over...

Caveat: I don't print all that much. But this is fast and prints very nice color images, in addition to b/w. My wife/kids use it often for school projects and I've heard no complaints, which is another way of saying it's working great.

Price point is very reasonable as well.
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [jw13] [ In reply to ]
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Thks. That would be perfect if it could scan and fax too.
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Dilbert] [ In reply to ]
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Dilbert wrote:
nebmot wrote:
How many pages do you print on a monthly basis? Unless it is a high volume, then more than likely you will not see the benefits of a laser printer over a ink printer, especially at the low end of laser printers.

Laser is always beneficial over inkjet. At high volume the laser is cheaper. At low volume the laser is again cheaper, because ink in the inkjet dries out if not used regularly, and needs replacing.

Inkjet printers are a racket.

Not always.
But OP doesn't want pro quality photos printed. I've got a nice color inkjet for that. It was over $400. Takes 6 $50 cartridges that last about 700 A4 sheets. That's about $0.66 per SF of printing.

I've got a Brother HL-L2340DW (probably the model before it) that I've had for almost a decade. It's great. Put a couple thousand sheets through it and on my 3rd toner. I've paid between $25 and $75 for each toner and $100 for the printer itself (not taking into account inflation etc.).

I'd get a Brother HL-3140CW unless you need duplex (of if, like now, the duplex version is the same price). $170 https://www.amazon.com/...ds=brother+hl-3140cw
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Re: Recommend a home laser printer [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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We have 2 printers. A black/white laserjet for high volume print jobs and text documents. (wife prints out hundreds of pages at a time). A color scanner and inkjet printer. which I only use occasionally. Still I spend more on ink for the stupid inkjet.
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