Printer advice

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Slartibartfast

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Advice on a new printer please +-R1000
Must:
Print about 100 pages a month for home office use –mostly e-mails/letters, the odd excel table and graph, kids project fodder (with colour pictures) etc.
Mustn’t:
Run out of ink within a month or poke me too much when it comes time to change the ink/toner
Thanks
 
a few questions:

does it need to be ink?
Roughly how often are you currently replacing cartridges?
Would you consider laser? (would recommend that if you're happy to print mono only. Colour lasers might not really be cost effective if you don't print that much. They are a fair bit more than mono laser printers)
does it need to fax?
Copy?
Scan?
 
@ChilliGirl, yea, id prefer color, print, copy, scan and fax but it doesnt have to be photo quality ink or laser is fine as long as the replacements aren't too steep.

Thanks Robertvv, the canon looks a good option.
 
without looking at the products(mentioned above), based on cartridge capacity: I'd say the HP is better value for money. Especially if you print more black than colour. Just remember the cartridge it comes with will not be the XL black. ...
 
1) HP is king. don't go for samsung, epson or the rest.

2) Lasers are better as they are cheaper to run

3) The cheaper the printer, the more it will cost you in the long run.


I recently bought the HP LaserJet CP1025 color - it costs around R1700. Toner is R600 each, but will print 1000 pages (or 1200 for Black)

it doesn't have a scanner, but man, this printer is awesome! It's a little more but as I said, the cheaper the printer the more it costs (ink charges)


I would rather pay R600 for a huge toner cartridge than R200-R300 for this minuscule matchbox sized ink dispenser, that has a giant sponge inside it and only prints 100 pages before running out

Trust me - pay a little more, and pay less to maintain it in the long run. also you get a better printer too (as the more expensive it is, the better printer)

so you have
a) cheap printer:
- not the best printer
- costs you a lot in the long run

b) more expensive printer:
- Good Quality printer
- costs LESS in the long run.


(The printer I have comes with half-filled toner cartridges for you, able to print over 450 pages of each color)


edit: also there is a samsung color laser, that costs R1499 - but its toner costs more (R700) and only prints 800 or 900 pages or something
 
Last edited:
I can also recommend the HP 6500A - good printer, good software. HP have done a lot of work of late to improve the installation and reduce the bloatware they used to ship with their software.

P.S. Slartibartfast, nice acronym. I'll keep you a place at The Restaurant at the end of the Universe....
 
Keeper said:
1) HP is king. don't go for samsung, epson or the rest.

2) Lasers are better as they are cheaper to run


3) The cheaper the printer, the more it will cost you in the long run.


I recently bought the HP LaserJet CP1025 color - it costs around R1700. Toner is R600 each, but will print 1000 pages (or 1200 for Black)

it doesn't have a scanner, but man, this printer is awesome! It's a little more but as I said, the cheaper the printer the more it costs (ink charges)


I would rather pay R600 for a huge toner cartridge than R200-R300 for this minuscule matchbox sized ink dispenser, that has a giant sponge inside it and only prints 100 pages before running out

Trust me - pay a little more, and pay less to maintain it in the long run. also you get a better printer too (as the more expensive it is, the better printer)

so you have
a) cheap printer:
- not the best printer
- costs you a lot in the long run

b) more expensive printer:
- Good Quality printer
- costs LESS in the long run.


(The printer I have comes with half-filled toner cartridges for you, able to print over 450 pages of each color)


edit: also there is a samsung color laser, that costs R1499 - but its toner costs more (R700) and only prints 800 or 900 pages or something
Click to expand...

generally speaking you are correct. & I would agree with you.

But

if you look at something like the HP officejet 8500 pro. The black XL cartridge can do 2200 prints & the colourXL 2000 each. They also cost in the same region as the laser toners. They printer is smaller, cheaper than an equal laser printer. But is outside the OPs budget.

I have to admit the 8500 is slightly older, i'm sure there are newer replacement models by now.
 
I print a lot, and went Canon, for refilling. I still use tanks to refill. [Don't buy generic cartridge}
It cost me R40 to refill one tank.
Please make sure the tank can be refill.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice, i ended up spending a bit more as Keeper suggested and chose the HP LaserJet Pro CP1025 - found it for just under R1500
 
ChilliGirl said:
generally speaking you are correct. & I would agree with you.

But

if you look at something like the HP officejet 8500 pro. The black XL cartridge can do 2200 prints & the colourXL 2000 each. They also cost in the same region as the laser toners. They printer is smaller, cheaper than an equal laser printer. But is outside the OPs budget.

I have to admit the 8500 is slightly older, i'm sure there are newer replacement models by now.
Click to expand...

I have the HP OfficeJet pro 8500A
2200 pages on a 940XL black cartridge(R299).
And colour cartridges are individual.

And this does adf, automatic double sided printing, fax, scan to network folder/usb drive/media card/email, fully networkable and wireless.
Mine was R2250 last year, saw it at esquire last month for R1500ex.

Was going to get a entry level laser, but their toners are around R600-R800 and only do a 1000pages.
Just make sure of the cost of cartridges/toner and how many pages to expect per cartridge/toner.
 
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