Is a laser printer better than a inkjet printer for home use?
Posted On April 28 In Featured, Personal Laser Printer
I read online a laser printer costs 2 cents a page and a inkjet costs 10 cents a page. Does anyone have a laser printer that they use at HOME?
Thanks!
Several years ago the answer to this question was always that a personal laser printer will cost less thatn an inkjet printer becuase of the cost of the replacement ink cartridges.
Now, inkjet printers are much more efficient – but – it still seems that the low cost inkjet printers are not effecient enough to compete with modern laser printers.
If one looks at the cost of ownership of several years, and if the printer is used on a regular basis, the cost of replacement inkjet cartridges can come out to as much as $700. This is a lot of money.
Let’s say you have a $60 inkjet model with black ink costing $19, and it printes 170 pages per cartridge. And lets say you print just seven pages per day for 300 days per year (not really a lot).
7 pages a day multiplied by 300 days equals 2,100 pages and gives an ink cost of $235 per year. If you own that inkjet for 3 years, the cost of cartridges comes to more than $700 or about 13 times the original cost of the printer.
Now, using a persoanl laser printer, the initial cost of the printer may be 3 or 4 times higher but the cost of ink is vastly reduced resulting in a significant lifetime cost of ownership.
Not only that, laser printers are much faster than inkjet printers.
Comments (8)
I have two black lasers, Brother HL2040 which we use for printing school papers and such. They cost $50 each about 3 years ago. I buy toner refill on ebay for $6 which lasts for 3,000 pages.
We also have 5 Samsung CLP-300 color lasers in our extended family. The most expensive was $96 off ebay brand new including shipping. A set of 4 toners is $50 at http://www.ccs-digital.com We just replaced our first black toner after more than a year of use. They last about 2,000 pages.
But a laser does not print on glossy paper or give you high resolution photos. These also do not have scanning or copying. If you’re looking for that, then you need an Epson workforce or NX series.
This is what I consider the best deal right now for a wireless scanner/copier/printer/fax with auto document feeder
Workforce 500 direct from Epson $70 plus free shipping with code FREESHIP5
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=63075462&RMID=eml_200908_estoreBTS&RRID=1013876963
Here’s a $60 Epson all-in-one with free shipping http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16828103385
NX100 for $28 from Target http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html?asin=B001G8H198&tag=tcom-gbexpo71-20
Artisan 700 $150 with free shipping direct from Epson
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/cross_sell.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&prod_oid=63075470&action=buy
The best warranty in the industry. For a year, Epson will fedex a replacement and pick up the old one should you need it.
You can now get 11 free cartridges every month for Epsons which each hold about double the ink of standard cartridges. This does not involve joining a club or mail-in rebates or committing to any other offer. You just buy the 11 cartridges for $30 and turn in your empties for a credit of the full purchase price. I’ve done it four times already. Here are the details: http://www.ccs-digital.com/freeink.asp
Typical home use ….NO
Laser printers can result in higher quality printing but they are normallly used in commercial uses for their speed in printing.
Inkjets today can be very high in quality and cost a fraction the price of laser printers. Oh, and check the price on replacement ink for lasers..
The bottom line for printer manufacturers is that they are not really in the printer business but the ink/toner business. Much more money to made!
A laser printer is more of an investment (cost) but it pays off in getting more pages out of a toner cartridge. Been using a HP 1320 for years.
Yes.
Laser is always better. If you are worried about toner and fusers, I would not worry. If you buy a new laser printer you should be set for years, toner aside.
Now if you need color; photo; or fax/scan needs then either buy two printers, like I have, one laser and one photo / color printer.
For home use Inkjet is better. Laser printer is for office purpose. When you print occasionally, Inkjet is better choice.
I have an old HP 2300 laserjet, picked up second hand, it does double sided printing of excellent quality.
Laserjets in general are better quality and more durable printing than inkjets. The toner carts usually have lifes measured in the 1000′s of pages (at 10% coverage).
On a colour laserjet there a three consumables, The toner cartidges (Usually 500-50000 pages), the transfer belt (2000-500,000 pages) and the fuser (Usually in excess of 100,000 pages up to several milion)
If the fuser gos then usually better/cheaper replacing the printer.
Aldi are selling hp colour lasers at a bit over £100 at the moment which looks like a great deal.
Laserjets put coloured powder onto the page and then melt this into the paper with the fuser giving a water resistant durable result, much more fade resistant than than injet print.
Another advantage of lasers is the ink won’t dry out if unused for a while.
Best for you if you print a lot, if you only print a few pages now and again then stick with an inkjet.
Check out the capacity and replacement costs of toner carts before buying any laserjet
HP P1005 printer is really good for home use.
http://blog.123inkcartridges.ca/2009/08/overview-of-hp-laserjet-p1005-printer/
The new compatible toner cartridges for HP P1005 is really cheap and reliable:
http://blog.123inkcartridges.ca/2009/08/overview-of-hp-laserjet-p1005-printer/
Firstly a laser printer is almost always less expensive than an inkjet printer. The manufactures of inkjet printers sell the printers for very cheap, rather inexpensive. The catch is that they want you to buy ink for them. The ink cartridges are very small therfore you buy them regularly. Cost is usually $20-$35 for each color.
The IMPORTANT thing to know is that you only usually get about 170-200 pages per inkjet cartridge. If you replace only that one cartridge 10 times and $200 later and 2,000 pages of print.
This would be equal to replacing one Q2612A toner on a starter size laser Printer that gives you 2,000 pages at a cost of $54.00 through EnviroTone Imaging.
You can be the one to decide, but laser printers are simply built to supply years of dependable service. HP makes great laser printers and EnviroTone Imaging can help you here as well.
Bio-Toner is available in September 2009. contact randall@envirotoneimaging.com