[wheels]

One of the best investments that I made about 7 years ago was to buy a black and white laser printer for home:

http://www.okidata.com/mkt/downloads/B4250_B4350Series.pdf

I paid about €250 for it (which then was < $300) and not only does it print higher quality and faster, after printing thousands of pages (I'd guesstimate 5000 pages), it still hasn't run out of its initial toner cartridge, and the prices I've seen for when it does are about €25.

With printers, as with much in the electronics world, it makes sense to buy the lowest end professional device rather than futzing around with consumer-grade stuff.

[tumult]

I have a Dell laser printer I bought off of woot.com for $99 years ago. Still on its initial toner cartridge. Still works 100% flawlessly. It plugs in via ethernet, uses zeroconf/Bonjour, and requires no drivers. I still can't believe what a ridiculously good deal it was.

Like some other commenters here, if I need a color print, I just walk down the street and have a professional printer do it for one or two dollars for a huge glossy or matte high-resolution print. If you do the math, it's cheaper to do this regardless of how much you print -- per page, a consumer inkjet is more expensive than a professional print, and looks worse. There is no point.

(I can even just send it online, and walk over and get it sometime later when it's already done.)

[oops]

For color inkjet printing, these systems can save you a lot of money (if you can get past the look of them):

http://www.rihac.com.au/ciss-systems-c-26.html

We have a couple in our co-working space.

[thorax]

What is your model of Dell laser printer, if you don't mind me asking?

[tumult]

1700n. It was new, not refurbished, and came with a toner.

[qeorge]

Wow, that is wild. I bought that same deal off woot.com (although I think I paid $120). We've been using it for about 4 years now, and are also still on the initial half-filled cartridge.

Probably the best woot I've ever bought.

[tumult]

You're right, I think I did pay $120 for it, not $99. Maybe I unconsciously factored out the shipping, even though shipping was free.

[wendroid]

Same here with an HP4000+ from eBay. Full duplex, network, two full ream bins, $150. I expected it to die pretty quick but two years later (and 1000s of pages) the spare toner is still on the shelf.

[pmjordan]

Laser printers are great for many things, but when you do need good colour prints of photos, etc., you can apply the same advice to inkjets and get good results.

We got an HP Photosmart 8250 or so 3-4 years back. IIRC it was pretty much the most expensive A4 inkjet from HP at the time, but even that was only 2-3x as much as a mid-grade consumer printer. In any case, unlike most printers, it uses separate tanks for each colour of ink, and the print head isn't integrated into the cartridge. It makes a huge difference: the jets don't get blocked as they're designed to last. They also seem to be more precise, and you only replace the ink that's actually used up, and because the cartridges are "dumb", they're cheaper. Not quite cheap as such though, and bigger cartridges would be nice.

As for original manufacturer's ink vs third-party: in my experience, the HP stuff ages much better (especially when exposed to sunlight), everything else is probably subjective.

[wheels]

My compromise on color printing is in the rare case that I actually need it (I mostly print scientific papers, directections, etc.) I go to a local printshop and have them do it for a buck, eclipsing what I'd get even with a high-ish end home system. I prefer to think of ink-jet printers as dead to me. ;-)

[krschultz]

Costco does photos for about 9 cents each at a higher quality than I can print at home, and I don't have to do it. And you can get up to 30x20" things for $3. I'm replacing my inkjet with a laser the next time my ink cartridge is out.

Not to mention I prefer the quality of laser for B&W and that's all I do anymore.

[pmjordan]

OK, with prices like that there really is no point. I'm used to around €1 per 15x10cm photo in small quantities, much more for larger prints + €3-5 for delivery.

[theBobMcCormick]

Unless you print a lot of color photos and have a really good photo printer, it seems like it's hard to beat the cost-per-photo of just uploading your photo's to Walgreens, Walmart, or whatever other inexpensive photo printing place is near you.

[pmjordan]

Actually, it's more the opposite - if you just want to print a few at a time to send to relatives, it's a lot cheaper to print your own, as the delivery charges dwarf the price of the prints themselves.

[mbreese]

Unless you live close to a Walgreens / Walmart / Target. Then you can upload the photos and just pick them up directly from the store when you're ready.

[pmjordan]

We have one such service here, but they have a per-order charge that's only 50 € cents below their per-postage-order charge. Their pictures aren't that great quality either, unfortunately.

[jonknee]

But you don't have to buy the printer and the ridiculously priced ink. Most of the time you can just do it in the store too, no delivery.

[duncanj]

I find the Xerox (formerly Tektronix) Phaser solid ink color printers to be pretty awesome in this regard. They print fast and produce a glossy, professional-looking color print. I think the main problem is that they require more energy over the long term than a comparable laser.

[me2i81]

Those are fine for colored text or lineart, not all that good for photographs in my experience

[mhb]

2.5 stars on Amazon with 48/109 1 star ratings and 25/109 5 stars.

[petervandijck]

I have a black and white laser too, a Brother. But even there do the cartridges not last long enough. I put a little tape over the 'eye' that 'reads' how full it is, and that gives me months of additional printing.

[amalcon]

In some cases, it can still be worthwhile to buy ink, if certain circumstances are true:

- You can get an inkjet printer for free (not difficult, people throw working printers away all the time)

- You can invest the money conservatively at a high, but not extraordinarily high rate

- You print very rarely

My current inkjet cartridge cost $50. I've had it for two years, and it's about 60% full according to the display on the printer (which, admittedly, might be lying). That's a savings of about $250 over buying a cheap laser printer. Assuming that the laser printer will last indefinitely with no further expenses (hey, it very well might), I need to get about a 1/5 ROI on the $250 over the expected lifetime of the ink (5 years, but assume the software lies and call it 4) to break even. That takes about a 4.7% interest rate. If you can invest the money and make about 5%, it's actually cheaper to buy the ink. I could do this, by "investing" it in paying student loans more quickly, so it makes sense.

Of course, if you print a lot, it's absolutely silly to use an inkjet for it.

[listic]

I have bought black and white hp LaserJet 1015 6 years ago and it works great; stock cartridge lasted me 5 years and then I refilled it and I am good to go.

It's all about the technology, but I wouldn't generalize to 'professional' and 'consumer'. The base technology, laser printing, allows for high speed, long life of cartridge and printer, and other benefits.

i.e. look at the ssd/flash drive manufacturers; some of them may advertise huge shock resistance. Sure, it is true, but they didn't have to do anything about it. It's all about the underlying technology of mounting solid state parts on the PCB, and surface-mounted parts even further, that provides the benefits we receive. It's all about the technology; the division into 'consumer' and 'professional' is superficial.

[bensummers]

I've got an HP 1015 laser, and have had a similar experience. Inkjets are too annoying, and while they do colour output the quality is not exactly great. So a cheap black and white laser is actually a far better buy: the printed output actually looks good.

[truebosko]

We use a Brother HL-5370DW at work and the first high yield cartridge didn't run out until about 10,000 pages. We do a LOT of printing and it was pretty impressive. The printer was around $250 and a high yield cartridge is about $130.

Although we did have to put tape on the sides so the printer would stop complaining. It ran on that "empty" cartridge for another 2 months ;-)

[rs]

Same here, Epson EPL-5800 for £150 about 8-9 years ago. Best investment ever. The toner is just about done, and I suspect that the drum is almost reaching its last few pages. I did replace the toner once in the past.

I'm just going to get another laser printer once its on its last legs.

[mumrah]

Brother makes some nice cheap laser printers. I picked up one with wifi for 100 USD two or three years ago

[Dove]

I'll second that. I have a Brother HL-4040CN. I use it for cardstock modeling (www.worldworksgames.com). As in, printing lots of full, dense pages in vivid color.

Several hundred pages in, I'm still on the original cartridges.

[revital9]

B&W laser printers are very good for small business. I use one myself and I haven't replaced the toner since I bought the printer - 2 years ago. I don't print much, but it's still better than inkjet.