Any printer experts here?

PapaDave said:

I think we'll really want the color, although I could probably do w/o most of the time.
Wow, a laser for under $100.
We've still got some pics of the grandkids at the beach done with an inkjet from several years ago. Some are starting to fade, yet some aren't.
My wife makes collages with them and has one from each of the last 10 years.
Here's an inkjet I can get for just over 100 from Sam's.......http://www.amazon.com/HP-Officejet-6700-Premium-Wireless/dp/B006M1MSKG

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I bought the Office Jet 8600 about 6 months ago and have really liked it. Print quality and speed are good. Has all the abilities to print, scan, fax and has network capabilities. The last one was important to me so that I don't have to have the printer connected to a specific computer and can send a scan to any machine on the network. One thing to be aware of is that the cartridges for the 8600 have expiration dates on them. They can only be used for 2 years from the manufacture date even if there is still ink left. Other than that I can't complain and would defiantly buy the printer again if I needed one.

For general use we use a cheap laser printer. $35 toner lasts a couple of years. Only need color to print photos and Target and Walmart are cheap enough for that. Have an Epson photo printer (free when we bought a camera) that takes about half an ink cartridge to clean it before printing photos. Won't be getting ink for that again.

Am a little confused by some of the info about the color lasers. Wondering if that one Brother linked at $3xx. or so will do color photos as well as an inkjet, or if inkjets are still necessary for photos.

Dave A. said:

Am a little confused by some of the info about the color lasers. Wondering if that one Brother linked at $3xx. or so will do color photos as well as an inkjet, or if inkjets are still necessary for photos.

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They will do the job but the quality of a laser will never be the same of that of a good inkjet (that is made for pictures) when it comes to printing off 4X6 or 5X7 pictures. The $3XX brother printer will be fine. but it prints on PAPER only. No glossy cards, etc. .

Andrew

Not a big fan of inkjets myself. Have a whole shelf full of them in the garage to dispose of. Every time one runs out of ink I'll just go buy a new printer, much cheaper than buying replacement ink cartridges. And it seems that by the time they need ink and you spring for the cartridges, that's when the "no feed" and the "paper jams" start.

Swedishchef said:

he $3XX brother printer will be fine. but it prints on PAPER only. No glossy cards, etc. .

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My present Canon is not a specialty photo printer but when I print on the more expensive paper made for photos it does a nice job. So you seem to be saying you can't use that kind of photo paper with a laser printer. Wondering which is the problem with them, the glossy or the card thickness, or both and if there are any laser printers that can do photos well for maybe a little more $.

Dave A. said:

My present Canon is not a specialty photo printer but when I print on the more expensive paper made for photos it does a nice job. So you seem to be saying you can't use that kind of photo paper with a laser printer. Wondering which is the problem with them, the glossy or the card thickness, or both and if there are any laser printers that can do photos well for maybe a little more $.

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It depends on the printer. You must make CERTAIN that whatever printer paper you buy can handle LASER printers. Why? Because it heats to (depending on models) 300-500F. Inkjet printers don't have that problem.

You can use different stocks/ types of paper. Just make sure they are made for laser printers. It's like overheads (acetate days..). Some were made for laser printers and some weren't. When they weren't, I'd take a printer apart to find melted palstic balls in the fuser. Sheet of plastic goes IN the printer and nothing comes out other than the smell of melting plastic.

I print and copy thousands of pieces/year on a $59 Brother. Love it ! It does not do well printing color stuff off the net or color copies. Heads also need cleaned once a month.
Had a $350 HP 6-7 years ago and it was the biggest POS I've ever seen.

Just to correct some false information. Toner in not dried ink it is plastic and metal power. Which has many benefits over ink. Waterproof and durable are just 2 off the top of my head.

Right.... but to the common layman, it's dry ink.

I have a chemistry degree but I don't tell people that should take Acetylsalicylic Acid when they have a headache, I tell them to take aspirin. Saves lots of "wtf" looks

Andrew

I've got a Brother MFC6800 laser. Had it for a long time, very happy with it overall.

I always knew it was kind of heavy on electric use, and it is always warm whenever it is turned on, and it dims the lights just a tiny bit when it prints a page. I just started a thread elsewhere about the electric monitor I just got - but I just printed something with the Brother, and the monitor sampled a 2kw jump in electric use when the printer was doing it's thing. Now as it's done printing but still in cool-down mode, it's using about 400w.

So I now have new respect for inkjets - yikes.

I just got an HP wide format 7610 inkjet a couple months ago - happy with it so far too but cost of keeping it in ink is still an unknown this early. I've always been an HP fan, still have a 41-CX calculator in front of me.

Glad you brought that up. Wasn't even aware of the issue. Apparently they need to heat up to 400F to fuse the toner. Still some seem to be more energy efficient than others--
http://www.sust-it.net/energy-saving.php?id=23#

I just dug my manual out - it specs peak power consumption at 940 watts. Standy 75 watts.

The thing is 9 years old now - maybe that's part of it. And it's got a cheap aftermaket drum in it that I'm not happy with (not very good quality). I'll be keeping an eye on it...