Best vallue for money printer based on toner / ink prices

Looking for a new (mono) printer / copier for our internet cafe

No need for fax / scan capabilities

Average prints / copy's per month is 2000 pages

Don't wish to get tied into a 36/48 month contract with manufacturer

Based on cost per toner cartridge / page yield there of;

what are the best value for money (but still good quality) options?

jlct021 said:

Average prints / copy's per month is 2000 pages

Don't wish to get tied into a 36/48 month contract with manufacturer

Based on cost per toner cartridge / page yield there of;

what are the best value for money (but still good quality) options?

Click to expand...

uhmmm, you do know its recommended to have a machine serviced at a certain amount of prints right?
Page yields are based on a 5% page coverage, so you will always get a lot less prints than stated on the packaging or advertising material.

You also have to consider the options of having consumables (cartridges or toners), that have the drums/heads on them or as a whole seperate part. The cartridges with heads/drums on them are more expensive to replace, but you get a new drum with the cartridge. The other option, which contains the drum unit in a seperate unit, can be rather costly especially if youre going to have this machine as a public printer and some bloke manages to do something funny with it.

Its too close to 13:00 for me to research as to whats available at the moment (im at work). But some advice, dont go too small and DO NOT buy from retail stores like game, incredible connection etc because you will have to haul the machine back to them, just to wait a good few weeks or months to have it sorted. Look for a fairly large laser based machine that the seller is willing to give you good support on the unit. (ie they are willing to come and look at the printer at your premises due to it being a crucial part of your business)

Last thing. Please do keep a smaller backup machine for when this one fails. It will save you a lot of headaches etc.

hope this helps in some way!

Konica Minolta have offered us a refurbished Di2510 25 page per minute machine for R6 000.00 excl VAT and 7.5c excl vat per copy.

The 7.5c per copy (as i understand it) will cover our "service contract" with them which will inc provision of toner and servicing when needed.

Another option I've been looking at is the HP m2727f laser printer which retails also for about R6000. These printers have two options re cartridges (not sure about the head/drum situation) one yielding (they say) 3000 pg's per toner and the other 7000.

The cost of the 7000 pg toner is roughly R1000 new however available by refill / generic for +-R395.

If I'm doing 1500 prints per month charging R1.5 per page then by my calculations after 3 months give or take (with a 7000pg per toner cartridge) the printer would have paid for itself and I should see a profit of about R1900 a month.

Servicing could be an issue esp as placing refills in a new printer may render the warranty void Ive been told. (Ive been told).

7.5c per Copy isn't too bad, we charge roughly the same for our contracts. They do charge per copy because it is actually to recover some costs incurred. Profit on that 7.5c is most of the time 1c or less. Im not too familiar with that machine, but reason it is a "refurb", is because it was a machine another customer had a contract on and has either expired and not been renewed, or was cancelled of sort.

Just make very sure you look at what other items they include on the contract, mainly service items like the cleaning blade, fuser unit, feed rollers etc. Also make sure that they let you know about developer, if its a cost to you or them. Its a black powder similar to toner, but helps the transfer of toner to paper.

The advantage of the service contract is the quick service you should be getting. One normally states a response time on your calls to customers. The other bonus is the toner which isn't paid for by you. Now do keep in mind its a way of getting you to not care about how much you copy or print, seeing you pay cost per copy. But I have seen companies charge a customer for toner and cost per copy.

On to the HP machine....Yes, ANY cartridge not approved by the manufacturer does void your warranty(its written in the documentation supplied with the machine). These tend to run a lot dirtier as well as your prints coming out a lesser quality than with original supplies. SO it wouldnt be recommended to use those. You would end up having your machine serviced more frequently as well.
Do keep in mind the page yield is set at 5% coverage on all toners. So calculating profit or cost in a internet cafe environment is going to be nigh impossible, but on the average you could get roughly 1000 prints on a 7k yield. Depending on the amount of "text" on a page. You might even get less than that some months, others you could get more. They do come with a drum attached to the unit, hence the high cost of the replacement. When using the refill or refurb toner, keep in mind that you're using an old drum unit and you do not know how many copies has gone through it. So that drum could fail while you have for instance 40% or more/less toner left. Servicing of the HP machines is not included in the warranty either, so you basically only have support on the machine if it is in actual fact faulty.

I dont condone generic or refills because im the poor bloke having to clean the mess. lol