How do you feel about refilling your cartridges? I refill mine on all my Epson printers (WF-3540, Artisan 837, NX430) and it saves a TON of money.
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Deciding on a laser printer (low cost in use)
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How do you feel about refilling your cartridges? I refill mine on all my Epson printers (WF-3540, Artisan 837, NX430) and it saves a TON of money.
inkjetcarts.us
inkproducts.com
(no affiliation with sellers)
My experience with 3rd party laser printer refills convinced me to always go with the name-brand companies...and my aversion to potential messes has always kept me from trying to refill ink cartridges.
I actually did a per page cost analysis, and my Canon isn't that bad...but it lacks Air Print, so it's days are numbered...
Xerox
I've had 2x CP205w for years and buying genuine toner is always the way to go.
lightning fast for mono prints wirelessly and quick enough for colour, esp when connecting Mac via USB cable rather than relying on the wireless.
very economical to buy (around $200) and also to run.
I believe this is their latest offering at around $160 initial cost
http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/fuji-docuprint-cp215w-printer-fxdpcp215w
I've had 2x CP205w for years and buying genuine toner is always the way to go.
lightning fast for mono prints wirelessly and quick enough for colour, esp when connecting Mac via USB cable rather than relying on the wireless.
very economical to buy (around $200) and also to run.
I believe this is their latest offering at around $160 initial cost
http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/fuji-docuprint-cp215w-printer-fxdpcp215w
Which OSX version are you using? Perhaps the driver for your version of OSX is buggy or missing this feature.
I gather these printers are a bit noisy, and since I will have it nearby my workspace I assume the only solution to the above problem is to physically switch off its power whenever it won't be used for a while.
The "MFC" series are a little more "high end" than the "DCP" series I'm looking into, right?
I read somewhere that those cheaper laser printers have higher running costs and aren't built to last, but then again I'm not sure if the DCP-7065DN/DCP-7460DN printers are considered "low end", "cheap" or just "less featured than the top model". Opinions on this?
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I also had a Canon inkjet, which demanded constant feeding (and hence many visits to Staples). Even when, say, the yellow cartridge was low, I couldn't print in black unless I replaced the yellow one.
I got rid of it in favor of an HP LaserJet P1102W, which I bought for under $100 at Amazon. It's compact and takes up little space.
It connects wirelessly (and faultlessly) with my MBP, the cartridges last almost a year, and so I've had absolutely no problems with it. When I first set it up I called HP for some guidance on creating a wireless network, and they were great: clear and concise and patient as I set it up according to their instructions.
I got rid of it in favor of an HP LaserJet P1102W, which I bought for under $100 at Amazon. It's compact and takes up little space.
It connects wirelessly (and faultlessly) with my MBP, the cartridges last almost a year, and so I've had absolutely no problems with it. When I first set it up I called HP for some guidance on creating a wireless network, and they were great: clear and concise and patient as I set it up according to their instructions.
I recently bought a Brother HL-2270DW from Staples for $99.99. Fantastic little networked laser printer. The only drawback is the cooling fan runs for 15 minutes even if you only print 1 page.
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It's a printer design issue, nothing to do with drivers or OS used. I should look to see if there's new firmware available for it, I hadn't thought of that until just now.
Yes, they are noisy, especially when printing. Maybe not too bad in an office environment, but in a quiet home office it's a racket.
I may indeed take your idea and run with it and just power it down when not needed - the need for paper hardcopy has plunged overall, and even more so now that I have 2 27" screens.
Also - another drawback with the Brother I have is that it won't scan over the network, not sure where the problem might be, that very well could be my issue (set up or misunderstanding).
I agree that's there's less need for printing. I love OSX' "Print"-"Save as PDF" feature which is great for saving web pages or whatever. I've even set up a keyboard shortcut (CMP-P, then CMP-P again) which makes it very easy to do.
I do however scan a lot more (everything from simple black/white text documents to color drawings and photos) so I'm hoping for decent results (otherwise I may need to invest in an additional dedicated photo-quality scanner further down the line).
Our Epson XP-850 all-in-one inkjet's "Scan to PDF" feature along with the document feeder is invaluable! If you put a bunch of papers in the document feeder and select this function (from the printer's front panel) it scans all the pages then joins them together as a single PDF file! Love it!!!
I suppose it works the same way on Brother all-in-one printers.
For some strange reason the network scanning issue you mention is opposite of ours! Here, if the Epson printer's connected to the network you get to choose (from the printer's front panel) which computer the scanned files should end up at. It works with both "Scan as a single file" or "Scan to PDF". But strangely, when it's connected via USB to one of the computers it'll only scan to that computer, even if OSX' printer/scanner sharing is enabled. Does your Brother printer permit Mac OSX scanning/printer sharing?
Since the Epson's ink just ran out I'll have to get my act together and actually decide on a new laser printer if I want to do some more printing. What puts me off with the Brother printers is user-reviews complaining about high noise levels, flimsy build (breaks after a short period of use), low quality scanning and even high running costs (the latter I believe might be due to the supplied "starter" toner running out quickly and thereby making people think it eats toner as badly as inkjets while a "normal" toner likely will last a lot longer and thus result in a lot cheaper printouts per page.
I'm trying to read between the lines and am led to believe that either the Brother DCP-7065DN (no fax) or MFC-7460DN (with fax) both seem to be good choices.
I do however scan a lot more (everything from simple black/white text documents to color drawings and photos) so I'm hoping for decent results (otherwise I may need to invest in an additional dedicated photo-quality scanner further down the line).
Our Epson XP-850 all-in-one inkjet's "Scan to PDF" feature along with the document feeder is invaluable! If you put a bunch of papers in the document feeder and select this function (from the printer's front panel) it scans all the pages then joins them together as a single PDF file! Love it!!!
I suppose it works the same way on Brother all-in-one printers. For some strange reason the network scanning issue you mention is opposite of ours! Here, if the Epson printer's connected to the network you get to choose (from the printer's front panel) which computer the scanned files should end up at. It works with both "Scan as a single file" or "Scan to PDF". But strangely, when it's connected via USB to one of the computers it'll only scan to that computer, even if OSX' printer/scanner sharing is enabled. Does your Brother printer permit Mac OSX scanning/printer sharing?
Since the Epson's ink just ran out I'll have to get my act together and actually decide on a new laser printer if I want to do some more printing. What puts me off with the Brother printers is user-reviews complaining about high noise levels, flimsy build (breaks after a short period of use), low quality scanning and even high running costs (the latter I believe might be due to the supplied "starter" toner running out quickly and thereby making people think it eats toner as badly as inkjets while a "normal" toner likely will last a lot longer and thus result in a lot cheaper printouts per page.
I'm trying to read between the lines and am led to believe that either the Brother DCP-7065DN (no fax) or MFC-7460DN (with fax) both seem to be good choices.
I'll stick by my Brother laser units!
I've have a MFC-7840W for about 6 years now and its been flawless with one exception...
The original drum unit got some haze on it that the cleaning wire couldn't remove.
I contacted Brother CS and they recommended that I wipe the roller with rubbing alcohol with a lint free micro-fiber cloth...after that I'm still using the original drum unit to this day (that was over 2 years ago)!
I also have a HL-4570CDW purchased in Feb 2013 but not setup until July 2013.
It is a little loud for a couple seconds when it starts up but the printer works very well and I'm still on the original starter that was included with the machine and use it daily for ~10-20 pages...I also don't notice the "paper curl" that other reviewers have mentioned on my machine.
I like the Brother units as they calculate out to lower per cost page that many other brands (due to having seperate drum units) and I don't find them to be any more or less flimsy feeling than the other printers on the market = do your research, find your price point and the amount you want to print per month so you can make an informed decision for yourself!
I've have a MFC-7840W for about 6 years now and its been flawless with one exception...
The original drum unit got some haze on it that the cleaning wire couldn't remove.
I contacted Brother CS and they recommended that I wipe the roller with rubbing alcohol with a lint free micro-fiber cloth...after that I'm still using the original drum unit to this day (that was over 2 years ago)!
I also have a HL-4570CDW purchased in Feb 2013 but not setup until July 2013.
It is a little loud for a couple seconds when it starts up but the printer works very well and I'm still on the original starter that was included with the machine and use it daily for ~10-20 pages...I also don't notice the "paper curl" that other reviewers have mentioned on my machine.
I like the Brother units as they calculate out to lower per cost page that many other brands (due to having seperate drum units) and I don't find them to be any more or less flimsy feeling than the other printers on the market = do your research, find your price point and the amount you want to print per month so you can make an informed decision for yourself!
I tend to agree with you, however free space is at a premium here
Since I've only had a need for fax once during the past 5 years I can probably do without and save some $$$ by getting the Brother DCP-7065DN.
Seems experience with Brother printers is very positive here so it might be a better choice than the Oki printers (at least for Mac users).
I have a Brother 2380dw that does every thing except fax, but I have a Fax number to my computer for about $3 a month that works fine for the few times I need to fax or get one, Most of the time I just scan and send it email.
It was on sale for $129 at Office Max with a $30 gift card. I have another Brother that I've had for 5 years and still works fine but I needed a scanner. I love it but I especially love it for the price.
Another Brother vote
I've had numerous Brother MFC printers (my current one is the MFC-8480DN, which I've had for about 4 years). The price per page with the high volume cartridges (TN-650/750) is ridiculously low - nothing comes close. Mine does duplex printing, and works quite well as a photocopy unit (the auto feeder works very well on a stack of single sided copies). Networking is easy great (prints come out from mixed Mac and Windows machines over a large network in my house), with the printer connected via Ethernet to a 10-port switch in my office, connected via 75' ethernet run to the main wifi modem/router.
Brother has a Mac utility (various versions worked on OSX 10.6.7-10.9.5) that allows scans to document pdf's, etc, which I find much easier to use for simple text scans than scanning via my high end Epson V750 Pro flatbed scanner. And my mother is still using an ancient Brother MFC that must be 10-12 years old, with a recent iMac and 10.9, which shows how they update the software.
One downside for some is that the MFC line are LARGE printers. Not some little thing to put on the corner of a small desk. But if you are in North America you might check out Costco/Amazon - I believe their current MFC-8910DW model even supports duplex photocopying, which is one thing I miss on my older model. Currently about $340.
I also had a high end Okidata color laser for my office for many years, and the software updates for OSX were a REAL problem. In the end I had to do all sort of silly work arounds just to get a page of output - drove me crazy.
I've had numerous Brother MFC printers (my current one is the MFC-8480DN, which I've had for about 4 years). The price per page with the high volume cartridges (TN-650/750) is ridiculously low - nothing comes close. Mine does duplex printing, and works quite well as a photocopy unit (the auto feeder works very well on a stack of single sided copies). Networking is easy great (prints come out from mixed Mac and Windows machines over a large network in my house), with the printer connected via Ethernet to a 10-port switch in my office, connected via 75' ethernet run to the main wifi modem/router.
Brother has a Mac utility (various versions worked on OSX 10.6.7-10.9.5) that allows scans to document pdf's, etc, which I find much easier to use for simple text scans than scanning via my high end Epson V750 Pro flatbed scanner. And my mother is still using an ancient Brother MFC that must be 10-12 years old, with a recent iMac and 10.9, which shows how they update the software.
One downside for some is that the MFC line are LARGE printers. Not some little thing to put on the corner of a small desk. But if you are in North America you might check out Costco/Amazon - I believe their current MFC-8910DW model even supports duplex photocopying, which is one thing I miss on my older model. Currently about $340.
I also had a high end Okidata color laser for my office for many years, and the software updates for OSX were a REAL problem. In the end I had to do all sort of silly work arounds just to get a page of output - drove me crazy.
I've been using Brother All-in-ones for years also and I've been pretty happy. The ones I've had, which I'm assuming they are all the same, come with a drum unit that is separate from the toner cartridge. Maybe everything is made this way now, but my old HP has them together. In my experience, the third party toner is a bargain and the drum unit isn't. My track record went something like defect, defect and returned with replacement unit about 95% usable. You get about three times as many impressions out of a drum unit as you do a toner unit, and I think you can even fool it into believing an old drum unit is new, which if it's still working, which works for me. Go OEM on the drum unit and save a bundle on the toner elsewhere.
I bought the HP Color LJ Pro 200 M276nw - which is an AIO, wireless/ethernet capable.
I bought it at Staples about 2 1/2 years ago when they had it on sale for $150 and you could get an extra $50 on trade in. I also had some reward $ and ink recycle $ and another coupon $20 off 150 that they let me combine.
In the end I think I spent like $230 w/tax on the printer and an extra black toner catridge on what was once a $499 printer.
I'm still using the original ones since they don't seem to run out. I probably print about 500 pages a year.
My suggestion is to find a better printer on sale and go for it. I didn't think I'd want color or ever print color, but I'm glad I bought the color laserjet because I have used it quite a bit for color prints. It sure beats inkjet that dries up after 1 or 2 weeks of non-use.
I bought it at Staples about 2 1/2 years ago when they had it on sale for $150 and you could get an extra $50 on trade in. I also had some reward $ and ink recycle $ and another coupon $20 off 150 that they let me combine.
In the end I think I spent like $230 w/tax on the printer and an extra black toner catridge on what was once a $499 printer.
I'm still using the original ones since they don't seem to run out. I probably print about 500 pages a year.
My suggestion is to find a better printer on sale and go for it. I didn't think I'd want color or ever print color, but I'm glad I bought the color laserjet because I have used it quite a bit for color prints. It sure beats inkjet that dries up after 1 or 2 weeks of non-use.