Anyone suggest a good reliable b&w laser printer? Mine's just cra*

[The Natural Philosopher]

India Pale Ale?

[PeterC]

I had a 5N for several years, 2nd. hand when I got it, and it never broke down. Used to refill it quite cheaply. Gave it away in the end to, I hope, a happy retirement home.

[PeterC]

Not only did they waste a lot of energy when sleeping, mine was 45s from off to go or 45s from sleeping to go, so no point in leaving it on.

[Jeff Layman]

I don't know about current mono laser printers, but most inkjets these days come chipped so they won't take anything other than the manufacturer's cartridges and they can't be refilled.

Even older laser printers started having chips fitted to prevent recycled or refilled cartridges being used. Some were ok if you didn't update the firmware. I have an old Samsung mono laser (ML-1640) which has a counter chip and stops after a specified number of "average" pages have been printed, even if the toner cartridge is still half full. A fix available on the internet shows how to short circuit a couple of pins on the counter chip to reset it (or leave it short circuited with a soldered link to prevent it ever counting). But, that only works if a software update has not been applied. If it had, you were screwed as the pin shorting method no longer worked.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , The Natural Philosopher escribió:

I wouldn't waste $BEER on a bleedin' printer!

Isopropyl alcohol, aka isopropanol.

There are more suitable products, including "platen cleaner" or "rubber reviver" that the printer fixers at a repair centre I worked at used, but IPA works for me.

Seem to remember someone here suggesting brake fluid.

There's also a little cork or rubber separator pad that the pickup roller works against - that needs cleaning too.

[ss]

I have a Samsung ML 2240, my son bought it second hand off ebay and then gave it to me, must be years old by now Works perfectly and I refill the carts myself, I probably get around 6 refills before I need to buy a compatible cart for around £12, it is used almost daily.

[Lobster]

On 13 Feb 2016, "Robin" grunted:

Another vote here for ancient bomb-proof HP Laserjets. I bought mine off ebay years ago for about 30 GBP; I run it exclusively on genuine new HP OEM toner cartridges which are still readily available on ebay for about 8 GBP delivered; those last me around 2 years / 8,000 pages. What's not to like, really?!

Well, according to the specs, my LJ 5 does 18-24 W when asleep.

What are the thoughts on switching off when not in use? I tend to turn mine on when I first need it, then don't switch off again till bed time, just on the basis that powering electronic kit up and down multiple times per day makes it more likely that something electronic will blow. So my policy could be 'wasting' about 100 kWh/year doing this. Is it a sensible precaution or not?

[RJH]

I've a Samsung 4300 - £50ish scanner/printer. Just fine for low use. Need to switch off between uses though - high standby consumption (10W/hr IIRC)

[newshound]

I have a couple of 2300dn models which I picked up from ebay dealers (obviously ex-business). It's nice to have duplex printing. One of them had a fuser fail after a couple of years, which was why I bought the replacement but then the replacement parts were only about £20 and fixed it fine (so I am keeping it as a spare).

Toner is cheap and readily available as are all spares, they are designed to be maintainable. I have used loads of 4's and 5's in the past, I think the 2300 is the successor model.

Although if your budget stretches, you might consider a colour laser now. I've currently got a Lexmark CS410dn, also duplex, which has been reliable although doesn't get the use of the 2300. It does surprisingly good prints from photos, expecially if you laminate it afterwards which gives you a very durable glossy print. No need for special paper. It has its own black toner cartridge so you are not wasting expensive colour toners for mono printing.

[T i m]

Looking at that pic reminds me that the two I'm about to strip / dump are probably LJ4's

I don't think most people worry too much about how much they consume when in use as unless you are a business then they are only used sporadically? [1]

I'm please with this Ricoh (I was given by a mate with more money than patience ) and whilst it is a bit of a best, it seems to work ok (I did do a firmware upgrade when I first got it but I doubt that made much difference) and I'm pleased to learn it's pretty low power on standby (as it all adds up).

Luckily it also came with 4 new toners fitted as I think it would cost more than I would consider paying for a printer to replace them with genuine (and still not 'cheap' with clones).

I'll not chuck the P2015dn till I've checked it out (it started being a bit intermittent and with faint prints) as toners were only 15 quid a pop.

We also have a Canon MFP Colour laser I picked up from Freecycle and I repaired (open circuit thermal switch on the fuser) but because of the temporary repair (shorting out one of the two series thermal switches) we only turn it on and of as required.

Cheers, T i m

[1] Same with PC's. I was recently given a nice (but older) gaming PC that I have tidied up and am going to give to my mate for his young daughter. Whenever playing with PC's I power the base unit from a Power Meter and so get a good feel just how power hungry these boxes are. This particular one averages around 80W and is often over 100W so not the sort of thing you would want to use as a basic file server. Plus it's pretty quick (Core 2 Duo) so does make a good workstation (as long as it's not on all day every day). ;-)

[T i m]

Other than ours is upstairs and we all print to it so that would be a bit awkward.

We do do that with another printer that is right beside me (but has more expensive consumables and isn't duplex).

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Leaving it on in the winter is probably a good idea as any wasted energy is probably going out in heat and taking some load off your overall heating costs?

Cheers, T i m

[cl]

Similarly slightly later HPs like the 1320n, I've just pensioned mine off but only because I replaces it *and* a colour inkjet with a single colour laser printer.

[cl]

Not always necessarily the major cost. I had (well still have actually but they're going to my brother-in-law) an HP 1320n mono laser printer and an HP Photosmart colour inkjet all-in-one.

I've replaced them both with an Oki colour laser all-in-one. It saves a bit of space (though it's pretty massive) and lots of cost and hassle with the inkjet supplies. Yes, the laser colour cartridges are more expensive per page, but they don't dry up when I print my typical half-dozen clour pages after three months idleness. I don't print thousands of pages, even in mono, probably only a hundred a month or so. Thus running costs are not as important as ease of use and reliability.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , The Natural Philosopher escribió:

Agreed. Indestructible machines. The service manual is easily found online and parts are still available.

The only problem I have with them is they're so slow to process and print a page. When you've been spoilt by the speed of modern mono lasers where the page is practically on its way out of the printer before you've taken your finger off the mouse button, going back to those is like, "well, come ON, where's my printout?!"

[Robin]

Sorry, yes, I'd forgotten both have a PowerSave mode after Standby.

[Bob Eager]

If you use PCL rather than PostScript (assuming it's an M model and *has* PostScript) it generally goes reasonably quickly.

[pamela]

My Epson WF-7610 shows a warning against the "dangers" of using a lookalike cartridge when ti detects one but it doesn't actually stop you. That's why I like it so much. The lookalikes for that printer are dirt cheap (?6 for 1000 pages, allegedly) probably because they don't need to contain a print head.

Trouble is the ink quality of lookalike cartridges can be very mediocre.

The ML-1640 is a lovely little printer. I think Consumable Cafe (who were great but have now gone) used to sell a chip which skipped all that absurd counting nonsense.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , pamela escribió:

I got my Mom that printer. Toner refills are available on ebay which come with the chip. You pour in the bottle of fresh toner, then change out the little PCB with the chip. They work fine. About 8 quid.