Need a printer advice

[Wrathinside]

I need a very basic comment regarding home printers. Being tired of constantly using some kind of printing service, with all the fees, transportation and file transfer issues - I've decided to give home printers a try. But... I've ran into some reality-related problems, where I found that not only printers require ink\cartridges\toners and other expendables(which I more or less knew or expected), but the things actually require maintenance. If I don't print a minimum amount of papers per month, I'm effectively letting my current expendable dry and waste. And if I print this minimum... Well, I think these expendables are also not meant to be changed once a year, right?

Point is, all I need to to occasionally print a paper or photo or something else, with ~50-100 papers printed PER YEAR, MAX. Given that otherwise it would cost 1-3$ to print ONE object, with all the abovementioned fees - I can assume a budget of 150$> for the subject.

Yet... everything I see either still requires this insane maintenance, or is simply a bad laser printer with no color printing option. So either I spend some 30-40$ for a bottom-end machine, then spend almost as much in the same year, and so on,or I spend at least 50-100$, but still am bound to run into expendable turnover. Or I spend at least 100$ for a basic laser printer, but still would have to use external services whenever I need something colored.

Is there any kind of solution within this budget? 150$> for the machine and 20$> annual support. If not... well, of course any external service is created "for this very reason"...

Maybe what I've read about maintenance is exaggerated. And it's enough to buy one set of cheap consumables every year and use them until they dry on a bottom-end machine, just to copy a photo or print a document.

 

[atljsf]

dry

i assume you mention dry thinking on ink printers

i hate those, they are a waste of time, money and ink, of course, ink mostly

if you really like ink printers buy one epson with the external ink reservoirs, that will give you the best in terms of color and cost operating it

no ink printer will offer you the simplicity and speed of a color laser printer, most color printers will print at least 4000 pages in color before making you change toner cartridges, ink can do something like that but color quality is relative

if you print barcodes, forget ink printers, completely

 

[ss202sl]

just a thought, but my local library allows me to print 10 pages a day without charge. After 10 there is a charge.

 

[Wrathinside]

Atljsf, so what you are saying is - that laser printers do not have anything that would dry? Their expendable parts last until they are... well, expended? Still, that means giving up color printing, and that's a lot.

 

[atljsf]

the color laser printer uses a powder inside a toner cartridge, nothing wet inside them, they use 4 toner cartridges, yellow, magenta and blue, with of curse the black toner

about the life expectancy why do you assume a ink printer will last more?

the ink printer will force you to print at least 5 pages daily, otherwise the ink inside the ink injectors can dry and damage them forcing you to buy new parts, this happens alot in those printers, especially afeter you stop buying epson ink(expensive) and buying big ink bottles form unknown chinese manufactures, that is what almost always happens

no printer existing at the moment is perfect but print quality and print speed on a laser printer cannot be matched

i would buy a decent hp, samsung or lexmark laser color printer and use it untill it explodes, usually this happens 4 years after you buy them but often they last 10 years

ink on the other hand, i never saw one of those working at least decently after 3 years

my pount is, don0t assume that ink is your only solution and don't take for granted that laser will not give you what you need

also don't expect to lower your print costs with any of those solutions, you could discover that paying what you pay, is less expensive and gives you better quality than buying paper, ink, toner, printer and having to fight troubleshooting print errors, problems with paper, problems with page sizes and problems with printers in general

you know, printers came from hell, to make you suffer, they can smell fear and will attack you if you don't love them

as you see, love a printer is not a good business

 

[Wrathinside]

I never assumed that ink will last more. Quite the opposite. I just needed to know how much worse it is.

So with 5 papers a day on ink printers, I'm definitely running into turnover expenses. But the lowest color laser printer is 300 euro. That's not my budget for this solution...

Well, okay, you've summed it up pretty nicely. And kudos to ss202sl too.

 

[atljsf]

if you consider alot 5 pages daily to keep working properly that ink printer, i do think that your print service is better

those ink printers with the refill tanks are meant for volume prints, something like 200 pages daily

especially once you buy cheap ink as i mentioned with the ink drying inside the ink injectors

but also i do think that a cheap black laser printer is a good addition to your workflow, so you don't have to pay every time for simple prints

you could do what i did a decade ago, buy a decent ink printer and later a decent laser printer, the ink is there for some tasks and the laser for others, lots of prints with a cheap refilled toner cartridge, the laser printer in question is still being used, around 10000 prints later and with the same toner bought in 2006

currently i have a samsung ml2165w for black prints only, connected via wifi, haven't changed the original toner yet, it is a bit expensive, 30 or 40 dollars, refill it cost around 20 dollars, this is the courtesy one that came with the printer, so it lasts around 700 pages and i plan to refill it later, the printer is rated to work for 30000 prints and then the fusor in it dies, this model doesn't offer a fusor replacement so it will be the end of his life, considering that the printer cost me 50 dollars 2 years ago, it has worked marvelously here

so if your budget and workflow doesn't benefit from having two printers, start by researching on a decent epson printer and really don't let it unused for many days to avoid clogged ink in the injectors

https://www.epson.co.uk/products/printers/inkjet-printers/consumer/ecotank-et-2600

and add a cheap laser printer from hp, samsung, brother, ricoh, any manufacturer

http://www.samsung.com/uk/printers/mono-laser-sl-m2026w/

that one uses a 1000 pages toner, you can refill most if not all models, cost is relative, some parts in the toner cartridge needs to be replaced each time

you might get this way cheap results or perhaps end up selling them to save on costs and go back to the paid print service

there is not a single way to shave a cat as you see

but one thing i can assure you, if your workflow requires great quality on color prints, eventually you will see those 300 euros as a cheap investment