Good low end laser printer?

Viperoni · Post by **Viperoni** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:42 am

My dads starting up a business from home, and I've never really dealt with lasers except when I used to work retail 6+ months ago, and I remember the Samsung's we used to carry were decent.

He's looking to spend maybe $150 or so.
Refillability would be nice, a long lasting drum is important, print quality isn't a huge issue (it is a laser and he's only printing text so I'm not too worried)....

Thanks guys!

Oh yeah I ended up grabbing a Adaptec AC-364 (Dell 4351 PERC2) Quad Channel 128mb cache battery backup SCSI raid card: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0017143198

It's only Ultra 2 SCSI instead of U160, and 33mhz instead of 66mhz PCI (still 64bit though), but I'm pretty sure it'll do the job alright.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:40 pm

hehe hope you have a board to put it in

I've heard Brother ones aren't so bad, hard to get a real good printer for that price range

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:43 pm

I have a Samsung ML-2010 and I love it! It works great and I haven't had to refill it yet and I've printed over 1000 pages with it. I got mine for $70 shipped after rebates.. But last I checked NewEgg had it for $100 shipped w/no rebates..

eGo

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:54 pm

I've always had good luck with the Canon 1xxx series.

ha - i meant to say hp - i had one last me 6 years

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:23 pm

Avoid brothers. The drum wears out too quickly. Sometimes within a year.

Stick with HP. I've never seen a laser drum wear out on an HP. It's all I've ever owned, and all I recommend to my clients. They're rugged and you never have a problem finding toner for them.

LaserJet 1018 is the cheapest at $129, but not very rugged. Only has a monthly duty cycle of 3000 pages.

The Laserjet 1020 is better at around $170. Looks like Staples has it on sale for $129:
http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/store ... 6:CL142045

BTW: I don't recommend refilled cartridges. Sooner or later you have one that leaks and that toner powder will ruin the mechanism. I see it all the time. Buy the factory toner.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:12 pm

Never seen a Brother Laser printer's drum go bad yet... HP is another issue with a good number of them... Guess it is just a matter of different experiences...

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:23 pm

look for HP 5 or 6 P they are good BW printers.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:57 am

HP Laserjet 6P was a ROCK. I've been using one for 6 years.

Zyfer: I have a lot of small business clients using Brothers. I even recommended them once because they were fully HP Laserjet compliant and most custom office management software requires that.

However over time I have seen most of them require a drum replacement, while I have never seen a HP Laserjet require one.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:16 pm

hehe, I guess that is where experiences differ, why some prefer different brands over others because of their experiences with them.

MegaVectra · Post by **MegaVectra** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:09 pm

I was given a Tektronix Phaser 850DP Color Laser printer today, along with a bag full of ink refills. This thing is awesome, especially since it was free.

http://www.office.xerox.com/color-print ... -enus.html

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:47 am

eGoCeNTRoNiX, by the way the same Samsung printer you were talking about is available at Newegg for $63.45 after a $50 rebate. Link here if of interest:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6828112035

Viperoni · Post by **Viperoni** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:08 am

I'm probably going to get the HP 1020, I can get it for $159cad, and seems to be a pretty good printer.
I wouldn't mind an older HP, but my dad would want a slightly faster first-page-out time.
Thanks for all the info