Cheapo printer filter!

January 11, 2006 12:45 PM

Printer filter: Which of the cheap (roughly <$50) printers are most economical with ink costs factored in?

I'm a grad student in a writing-intensive program, and anticipate printing 500-1000 pages a month, all in monochrome. Color's not important, but cheaply refillable ink is (so Epson printers with the chip that "knows" how much ink's left are out, as are photo-type printers with proprietary ink). Any built-in extras (scanner, copier, fax machine) are great but not essential. I'm not opposed to buying a used/older printer, either.

posted by soviet sleepover to computers & internet (23 comments total)

I have an Epson Stylus Photo R200 that I'm very happy with. I'm told Epson is the only printer manufacturer that sells new printers with full ink cartridges, which is something you should consider. You can actually buy a new printer more cheaply than replenishing the ink.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:53 PM on January 11, 2006

Buy a laser printer. I bought a LaserJet 2100 on eBay for 200 dollars and have saved at least a gajillion dollars in ink in the past year and a half. That means I'm ahead by... 200 dollars less than a gajillion.
posted by bcwinters at 12:53 PM on January 11, 2006

Sorry, missed the more inside.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:54 PM on January 11, 2006

Samsung makes some great laser printers, and you can buy the toner refulls very cheaply on eBay. Their ML-1710 sells for about $80 new, and you can usually find a rebate to get that price even lower. I love mine.
posted by Coffeemate at 1:01 PM on January 11, 2006

If you're printing out that much, all in monochrome, you'd do much better buying a cheap laser printer: the extra you spend on the printer will be more than made up for by the lower cost per printed page.
posted by mcwetboy at 1:04 PM on January 11, 2006

I bought one of those ink-refill kits on ebay. If you are willing to put up with the hassle of refilling your ink with a syringe, you can cut down on ink costs quite a bit. You can refill a cartridge 2-3 times before the print head wears out.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 1:11 PM on January 11, 2006

Thanks for the quick answers! Any basic guidelines about buying used laser printers, then? It looks like HP's toner cartridges have built-in expiration dates that make them stop working. I'm all over ebay right now!
posted by soviet sleepover at 1:15 PM on January 11, 2006

Fourthing a laser printer, specifically the cheap Samsungs. The per page cost is way lower, and the output will look much more professional. You can even refill the toner cartridges with very good results.
posted by zsazsa at 1:16 PM on January 11, 2006

I suspect that you are going to have to go laser to not break the bank. I have an old HP LaserJet 4m that would do what you want fine. I'd look for something like that, used.

The toner is expensive -- but it lasts forever in a home-use situation like yours. So its $80 that will last for years.
posted by teece at 1:17 PM on January 11, 2006

Oh, and the most crucial part: the printer has to be OS X compatible.
posted by soviet sleepover at 1:21 PM on January 11, 2006

I'd actually recommend taking advantage of your school's printing dept. It might cost you 20% more than a laser (maybe less), I always recommend letting someone else handle printing. It's such a pain in the arse.
posted by unixrat at 1:22 PM on January 11, 2006

zsazsa writes "Fourthing a laser printer, specifically the cheap Samsungs."

Wow! I'm impressed by how cheap those Samsungs are. I had no idea that you could get a brand new color laser printer for under $400.

Do these things come with some ink, or would I need to factor ink into my initial cost?
posted by mr_roboto at 1:36 PM on January 11, 2006

For an inexpensive b&w personal laser printer that will handle greater-than-average print loads, I'd probably recommend the Brother HL-5250DN. It supports Postscript printing and includes a duplexer for two-sided printing. It is network-ready out of the box as well as supporting USB 2.0. It is compatible with Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. It has gotten good reviews. Amazon sells it for $250. About the only missing feature I can think of is it lacks the ability to print envelopes.
posted by RichardP at 1:52 PM on January 11, 2006

Another vote for the cheap Samsung. Mine was under $100 and I'm using on OS X. Over 6 months of average printing and no signs of toner fade with the included cartridge. It's been a godsend after those Epson ink-chip refills.

For some odd reason they don't advertise as being OS X compatible in the US, but they offer an OS X driver on the Australian site that have worked flawlessly.
posted by FearTormento at 1:57 PM on January 11, 2006

I would 99th a basic laser printer. HP makes good ones that generally last forever, and there are so many available used from businesses that it's not funny. Laser toner cartridges last a long time, print quality is better than inkjets - there are many advantages. I wish I could get back the years of my life I spent futzing with inkjets before going laser.

Lasers are also *faster* than inkjets, something that is going to save your ass at least once when you're printing something at 8:57 for a 9:00 class.
posted by jellicle at 1:59 PM on January 11, 2006

If you can find a used HP LJ 4, they were the last great printer HP made.

A toner cartridge will run you about $100.00 but it will last forever. Parts are easy to replace if you know how to use a screwdriver. You'll have no problems with drivers on any OS.

They don't have USB on 'em, but they'll work with a cheap print server or an adapter.

I love mine.
posted by bondcliff at 1:59 PM on January 11, 2006

ANOTHER vote for the Samsung laser printers...I just bought one and it's lasting forever. I think each toner cartridge will print roughly 3000 pages per, at 5% page coverage...relative to an inkjet in your situation, you'll be saving a ton of monet (I heard a stat that each page on an inkjet costs roughly 11 cents compared to 4 cents per page on a laser printer...it can cost a bit more at the beginning, but you'll make it back in the savings especially if you're printing as much as you are)
posted by johnsmith415 at 2:04 PM on January 11, 2006

Yeah, a nice LJ 4 would do the job fine for you. If you can't get that, even an old LaserJet III would work, but it will probably need a bit of service, since the pickup rollers will be rotten by now. A LaserJet II is the same as the III for your purposes, but will raster pages (ie: calculate them for printing) really really slowly. You can fit an LJ III mainboard in an LJ II printer if you have an LJ II with working mechanics and an LJ III with a working board. The memory upgrades for LJ II, III, and 4 printers are totally different, mind you! You'll want an upgrade if you get a II or III. The 4 should have enough RAM for you onboard.

Your cost per page should be about 1/20th of a cent per page (not including paper) assuming you refill and refurbish your own toner/drum carts. :-)
posted by shepd at 2:13 PM on January 11, 2006

You can refill epson cartridges, but you'll initially need to lay down $8 for the chip-resetting tool.

I got mine on ebay for about $3 + $5 shipping, but most sellers seem to be more in the $11 range once you include shipping.

If you get an epson, the tool might pays for itself within one or two set of cartridges even without using it to refill, since the chips shut down the cartridge before it's completely empty, so you can use the tool to get the rest of the ink out.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:34 PM on January 11, 2006

Skip the inkjet. They are costly and require expensive paper to get the best quality out of it.

I use old Apple LaserWriters. I have a LW 4/600 PS that I found at a yard sale for $3. I buy toner for $15-$20 a shot on eBay (3000 pages.) It's only 4 pages a minute, but it quality is great.

You can find these so cheaply because they don't hook up to newer Macs readily. You need a Localtalk-to-Ethernet adapter, found on eBay for $30 or so.

Also had a LaserWriter Select 360 that I got for $20 from craigslist. Faster (10ppm) and immediately network-capable. It died, tho.

Also, I concur with the votes for the HP Laserjet 4M/5M/6M's. A little more expensive, but also worth it. The MP variant is worth a few more bucks on as it has PostScript.

Keep in mind that new laser printers, while still a good deal, use cartridges with less toner than their older counterparts.

Feel free to contact me about any other particular used laser printer you consider. I buy and sell old laser printers, toner, and network adapters on eBay, so I've learned all of the little tricks about pros/cons, etc.
posted by Charlie Bucket at 4:48 PM on January 11, 2006

Most of the cheap Canons are great if you don't mind an ink/bubble jet. I refill both the color and black cartridges for about $6 together each time with generic cartridges.
posted by wackybrit at 5:10 PM on January 11, 2006

If your university has surplus property auctions (example) and there's one coming up soon, you might be able to score a printer for next to nothing. At one of Virginia Tech's surplus auctions last year, I bought an HP inkjet, about 3 years old, in very, very good condition, and an Okipage 14e LED printer (similar to a laser) with an image drum showing signs of having done one heck of a lot of printing (exhibit A: grey fringing along the page margins) for the combined princely sum of $10.

It does take some time, though, and it can be a bit of a gamble as to how much life the printers have left in them. Mostly, though, it relies on your university doing something like this, so this post may have been completely useless.

I will, however, nth what's been said above: Inkjets are for occasional to moderate printing that at least sometimes contains color. Laser printers are for frequent and voluminous monochrome printing. A lot of people are in the middle ground. You're firmly in the laser camp. For what you're doing, they're faster (generally), better (arguably, with respect to the crispness of text output), and cheaper (by a lot, in overall cost of ownership).
posted by musicinmybrain at 7:35 PM on January 11, 2006

cheap, good reviews, $50 rebate:
steal
posted by |n$eCur3 at 1:50 AM on January 12, 2006