Laser jet printers

[Fishing Addict]

Anyone have advice on a decent laser printer? Must be color, have copying capabilities, WiFi enabled and capable of 8.5 x 11 plain paper and card stock. My wife is a pre school teacher and prints a metric $hit ton weekly.

[Missedone]

Don't just compare the price of the printer - check the price of the refill cartridges and if you can replace the colors individually or are forced to change them all at once.

[Fishing Addict]

Good points. That is the type of information I’m after. Just looking for a jump-off point because there are a zillion available with pricing varying from a couple hundred bucks to a couple thousand.

[Transom]

I do not know if you have used them before but if not if you ever spill any toner make sure to use COLD water only to wash your hands.

[CatFan]

Brother has historically made fairly reliable reasonably priced printers.

[Fishing Addict]

I do not know if you have used them before but if not if you ever spill any toner make sure to use COLD water only to wash your hands.

Ha, yes, been there and done that with out office xerox machine. That crap was EVERYWHERE for several months ��

[breeves2245]

Seems it hard to find a printer that doesn't give you fits one way or the other. I'm happy with my last Brothers purchase. Much better then most and inexpensive. Check the INKvestment tank idea. It supposed to reduce ink cost. My ink levels seem to be going down much slower than other printers.

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/mfcj4335dw

[DoctorJJ]

I’ve got a couple of the HP Color Laserjet MFP M180nw printers and they have performed flawlessly.

[psubob]

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hp+283+fdw&ref=nb_sb_noss

This has been a good printer for us lots of printing by our staff working remotely. We have about 7-8 of these. If your wife prints a lot I would definitely be looking at laser printers and not inkjets. Brother makes a fairly comparable one its a little cheaper but does not scan like the HP. About two weeks ago this HP was actually $100 less. Price fluctuates on it.

[rds_nc]

We have a Brother. Just black and white and none of the other bells and whistles you’re looking for but after having an HP inkjet with all the features I would definitely look hard at Brother.

[okhawg]

We have 2 Brother laser printers and they both have been very good. I would go up to a mid level laser printing that much. We have a 3230 (I think) and it has been very reliable, but we don't print near as much as she wants to.

[printman71]

It's hard to beat a Brother.

https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L3...id=674469&th=1

Be sure to purchase the toner cartridges also, as they are extra on most.

[Fishing Addict]

Good info so far, thank you all. Scan quality is a non-issue for her. Mostly, she is printing pictures, etc off the internet from her phone, (about refuses to use her computer), which is why it needs to be WiFi. For the most part, print quality doesn’t need to be the best, this is not a business application, it’s for 2-4 year olds. For reference, she burns through a ream of paper in 1-2 weeks. Current ink cartridges last 2 weeks tops at 150 for the combo. Yes, I have the lowest resolution settings as the default already.

[jb882]

I think a laser is a better choice but just like an inkjet the supplies are going to be expensive and often. There will be 4 cartridges in it and depending on the printer the color ones can be good from 700-2500 pages depending on the size of the cartridge in the printer and each one can cost $50 and up.

You probably also need more of a "home/office" type of printer to handle that kind of load. One thing to watch out for is that you stay within the manufacturers suggested pages per month, it can be lower than you think. For instance the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw is good for ~2500 pages a month or 5 reams of paper where the smaller cheaper M182NW is good for only 3. Exceeding those numbers you may well wear it out quickly. I used to fix laser printers early in my career and have seen it happen a bunch.

What you need to do is get a somewhat accurate page count, find out what printers can handle it and look at the supplies and see how often you will need to buy and how much. I think youy will find its still going to be expensive no matter what.

[Fishing Addict]

I think a laser is a better choice but just like an inkjet the supplies are going to be expensive and often. There will be 4 cartridges in it and depending on the printer the color ones can be good from 700-2500 pages depending on the size of the cartridge in the printer and each one can cost $50 and up.

You probably also need more of a "home/office" type of printer to handle that kind of load. One thing to watch out for is that you stay within the manufacturers suggested pages per month, it can be lower than you think. For instance the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw is good for ~2500 pages a month or 5 reams of paper where the smaller cheaper M182NW is good for only 3. Exceeding those numbers you may well wear it out quickly. I used to fix laser printers early in my career and have seen it happen a bunch.

What you need to do is get a somewhat accurate page count, find out what printers can handle it and look at the supplies and see how often you will need to buy and how much. I think youy will find its still going to be expensive no matter what.

Excellent info. Thank you

[greg88]

The wife and I use the cannon PiXMA series it does stadard paper,8.5x14 and cards ink is currently fair in price and it is a laser jet unlike many listed above.

[jb882]

The wife and I use the cannon PiXMA series it does stadard paper,8.5x14 and cards ink is currently fair in price and it is a laser jet unlike many listed above.

Just FYI, the Canon Pixma series is an inkjet printer not a laser printer, Canon's lasers are called "imageclass:. The term "laser jet" is actually the product name for HP's line of laser printers.

[lakefolk]

Forget laser,, i have used many printers in home and office environments. both laser and ink.
laser will be better overall in quality and price per page in MOST cases.. up front costs are more and toner is definitely expensive..
a couple of years ago i got sick of our home HP printer, like all the HP's we've had it was a POS. Costco had their Epson Eco Tank printers on sale so we bought the middle of the road model and this thing is the best printer i've ever owned,, quality is good, ink lasts forever and when you do need ink it's easy to fill and you don't need a loan to buy it. It stays connected to the wifi great and is very easy to operate..
The thing just works,, always............

[ChuckTR21]

I've done IT for over 30 years. Don't get a true inkjet. Look at an Epson EcoTank printer or if it's in the budget, look at a color laser (Brother or possibly HP) which has good yields from it's toner cartridges. The Epson will be immediately less expensive and over a bit of time, so will the color laser, but it will take a little time. Ink is more expensive than blood, leave the Inkjets alone.

[MCPO]

Had a brother for years, finally got fed up with it and got a HP. Its has been GREAT.

But one thing I have learned; if it tells you to change a new toner cartridge, don't. Wait for it to run out. I have a cartridge that it has been telling me to change for about 6 months.