Getting a bit bored of inkjet printers that work great one day then go all streaky and rubbish the next – and if left for a while cease to play at all. Maybe I’ve bought too cheap (HP Deskjet something-something so not really really cheap) but wondered if anyone had a (mono would be fine) laser printer at home? And if so can anyone recommend one? Am I on to a hiding to nothing with toner cartridges and should I just keep the inkjet?

I can heartily recommend cheap Samsung mono lasers. Easily refillable toner. Cheap as chips in the long run. Unbelieveably quick prints.

I’ve also got a colour HP which costs a fortune to fill.

I picked up one on freecycle. An old brother model. Hasn’t ran out of toner just yet and replacement is around 30 quid for 5000 pages. Great for text no good for pictures. It’s mono btw.

You seem to be able to pick up home models for less than 100 quid nowadays.

I have a black and white samsung scx-4000 which has been good, you don’t get a full toner with a lot of the printers mind, so bear that in mind

Interesting. Is this one TOO cheap though?? Samsung mono laser for £49.99.

We have a HP 1018 mono laser and an HP deskjet for colour stuff. Works out fairly affordable and its a very reliable mono laser, good quality and fast enough.

dirt cheap too.

The Hp 1102 is te current equivalent and has wireless network functionality. Can be had for <£60

Interesting. Is this one TOO cheap though?? Samsung mono laser for £49.99.

£50 is about right. As mentioned it comes with a half full toner (maybe 1000 pages worth). You can buy a bottle of toner for about £10 and top up yourself that’ll do a few thousand pages.

Eventually – after maybe 3 refills ime – you’ll have to buy a proper replacement toner cartridge. Crazily it can be cheaper to just buy a new printer and start again!

I have a cheap HP1018 mono laser.
Paid about £40 from PC World when it was on offer.
Cheap to run, great for general use for letters, directions etc.
I got sick of the Mrs printing out huge documents for work on an inkjet, cost a fortune.

Cool, thanks all – I’ll weigh up between the cheap HP and Samsungs then. Cheers!

My Inkjet printer just went wrong, after 5 years mind. I was going to replace it with a lazer printer as the ink cartridges had proven expensive. However… I have just bought another (HP) inkjet as the new ink cartridges claim to do twice as many pages and are cheaper to buy 🙂 I have tried the ‘cartridgeworld’ etc inks and have found them to be rubbish don’t last and streaky after a while so I buy genuine replacements.

At £50 you cant go wrong so long as the carts arnt silly priced.

The toner refill will proberly be a PCU(photoconductor unit,drum) so a couple of quality refills will save some money .

When you do the refill ensure you do not touch the drum or expose it to light for any longer than you can or any strong light otherwise it will be buggered as will your vac if you try to cleaned up more than asmall amout of toner .

I advised my Dad to get a cheap mono laser a couple of years ago and it has been great

Makes perfect sense to me – plenty of people don’t need A4 colour, there’s a multitude of online photo printers (or even in-store in Jessops, Boots and the like if you’re in a hurry) who can do a better and cheaper job of photo prints, and lasers don’t gunk up if they sit idle for a few weeks.

Even cheaper!

£39.97 Samsung ML-1865 from Tesco.

Almost rude not to.

Are there any decent home colour lasers at sensible prices?

We do a lot of photo printing and inkjets get a bit frustrating both for cost and reliability.

Timescales mean on-line printing isn’t an option.

A cheap good(for photos) colour laser printer is a rare thing indeed I havent seen one yet. They are more likely to need to be serviced to maintain the desired output quality.

With a B/W printer the quality can drop a longway before in becomes a problem as much as 40% but with colour if you are printing photos and are demanding it can drop less than 5-10% before it is a problem and good quality laser paper which is stored correctly is a must. A maintainence contact would be worth looking into .

The wax Zerox colorcube are possibly the best but £400ish exvat

Theregister happen to have such a thing today:

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/26/ten_colour_laser_printers/

As said, photo quality on lasers is pretty awful, they’re much better suited to business-type things, pretty pie charts and the like. Around 17p a page running costs are not good either.

If you’re doing a lot of inkjet printing and are on a budget, look for one that will take a continuous ink (CISS) setup – mostly Epson but some others these days too. You then just buy liquid ink in bottles which is very cheap in comparison.

I’ve had a HPLaserjet5 for about twelve years, on my third toner cart, and I used to print loads when I was doing IT training for a living. Have a colour inkjet too for when colour is needed.

Recently bought a HP1522 print/scan/copy thing and four full toners for £40 all in, at a flea market. I’d say any old laser you can get toner for is a much better bet for day to day stuff, paired with something good at photos, which is what I’d like now to go with the laser. It’s handy if whatever you get has a network port or wireless.

If the HP5 is any use to anyone you can come get it from Doncaster, it’s hardly been switched on since the 1522 arrived, it’s parallel port only but I have the usb converter lead.

I didn’t get on with the Samsungs (frequent paper jams) – but have been running a Brother 2030 for 3 years without an issue…with the cheap paper I use…

Eventually – after maybe 3 refills ime – you’ll have to buy a proper replacement toner cartridge. Crazily it can be cheaper to just buy a new printer and start again!

Do people have a preferred/recommended website for laser toner refills by any chance? There only seems to be one or two that are easily google-able…

+1 for cheap Samsung mono laser – run alongside cheap epson inkjet for colour printing photos and kids homework etc.

Even cheaper!

£39.97 Samsung ML-1865 from Tesco.
Or with free delivery:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B004E1VE56/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1322329690&sr=1-1&condition=new

Do people have a preferred/recommended website for laser toner refills by any chance?

I’ve always got samsung toner from ebay. Never had a problem.

Search for model name: eg “samsung ml 1640 toner”. Some models need a “reset chip”. Check if yours does – most sellers include this.

but have been running a Brother 2030 for 3 years without an issue

Another satisfied Brother user – 2035 here. Toner lasted a long while and just replaced cartridge – was not too dear and easy to replace.

I have a £50 canon laser printer. Very good it is too.

Where are you Munkster?

In my shed I have a little used HP1320 laserjet, I rescued 2 of them from being junked and have been using one for about 2 years (on the same cartridge). I could do with clearing some stuff out of the shed and this will be a start – if you can collect from Mansfield you can have it.

YGM Mr C – am in Derby so a collection is a distinct possibility!

bump,
TODAY ONLY at scan
http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/index.aspx

“Samsung ML-1665 Mono Laser Printer Worlds Smallest Black 16ppm 1200x600dpi 150 Sheet Tray Toner Incl”

for £43.19 inc VAT