Color Laser Recommendations

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I have an HP that I picked up from Tiger Direct for $150 on sale. It is a refurbished unit but has worked great in the year that I have had it. I liked it so much that I bought one for my Daughter too. She loves it. I can post the model number later if you like as it is at home.
 
I have had great luck with both color and b&w printers from Samsung. They usually come on sale now. I like the B&W models as most can easily have the cartridges refilled for very cheap, under $10 with a chip
 
Originally Posted By: Blkstanger
Originally Posted By: racer12306
Multi function or just printer?
Just a printer. It's also WIFI.


I meant for the OP to specify.

Many people say printer and mean printer, many other people say printer and mean an all in one.
 
Originally Posted By: GGorman04
Was looking for a good color laser printer.

Why a laser? Are you looking for low running-costs?

Lasers are cheap to feed, but color rendering tends to be much inferior to inkjet.
 
After having one issue after another with HP, I bought a Brother and have not looked back. Now if you are doing high volume printing,like my wife who is a notary, nothing sold at the local electronics store would seem to hold up. They would start having issues after six months. We finally got here a Kyocera mid level printer.
 
I have been happy with a recent purchase of a HP LaserJet Pro M277dw (multifunction wireless)

I will agree with ^^^^ if you want to do nice color pictures and such, inkjet is the way to go. For us, if we want pictures, we get them printed at Walmart/Walgreens for not a lot of money, those instances are few and far between. The laser benefits are high enough (ie next to no shelf life for toner) to deal with not printing pictures in house.
 
I was just in a similar situation, wanting a new printer and deciding between b&w printer, b&w multifunction, or color. I don't print much, so my requirements are probably much looser than yours.

I couldn't justify the added cost of a color laser printer. I almost never have a need to print color, and when I do, it's usually pictures that I get printed at the store. I settled on a multifunction b&w laser. Just scan/copy/print (no fax) with a document feeder with wireless connectivity. I realized that the only time in the recent past that I've needed to print or scan is to print tickets (movie, concert, flight), or print/sign/scan contracts - all of which I could do in b&w. I did some research and it seemed that the Brother brand is a very good value, so that's what I end up with. It was also much cheaper at $100 than I had initially planned for the printer purchase.

What's your budget? How much do you print? Do you need network connectivity (wired/wireless)? Do you want an automatic document reader? Do you want automatic duplex printing?
 
Color would be for very limited copies but sometimes it will be necessary.
Would love connected because there always seems to be issues with wireless. I do not print often but would like the option of color.
Laser is preferred due to the printing costs.
 
Most large towns have goodwill stores, and usually one of the goodwill stores specializes in refurbished computers including printers.

I got my computer from one for $100, and a black and white laser printer for $30, a little less than a year ago and everything is still working fine.
 
Originally Posted By: GGorman04
Laser is preferred due to the printing costs.

If I were you, I would do the math before deciding. If you don't print much, the extra purchase-cost of a decent new color-laser may outweigh the per-page cost of an inkjet.

Plus those color cartridges can be really spendy. JimPghPA's suggestion may be your solution, as long as you're OK with settling for non-color.

Years ago we used to have a consumer-grade Brother color laser that replaced the several inkjets we had before that. I'm not sure of the exact numbers anymore, but I remember that the laser ran us about 2 cents a page for black-and-white; the inkjets might have been a nickel a page for the same thing. Where the laser really shone was in full-color printing, where it was somewhere around a nickel a page where the inkjets were closer to 30 cents. We do a lot of printing, so much so that we now have a Konica Minolta BizHub, a $10,000 machine.
 
Consider the cost of replacement toner cartridges for a color laser. Big bucks compared to replacing or refilling ink jet cartridges. If color printing is a must, stick with ink jet for that.
 
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You might find color printers at the goodwill store. Do not assume that every goodwill store handles refurbished computers and printers. Usually only one store in each large town handles the computers. You could stop in any goodwill store and ask which goodwill store in the area handles computers.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
Consider the cost of replacement toner cartridges for a color laser. Big bucks compared to replacing or refilling ink jet cartridges. If color printing is a must, stick with ink jet for that.


This. I had an HP Color Lasetjet - $400 to fill it up for ink as each cart was about $100 and it needed the CMYK ones and they lasted 2500 pages. Switched to a "Business Injket" and the carts are $50 each and last about 2000 pages. I've got an Epson WF-4630 and it's a great multifunction. Great prints, scans and seems frugal with the ink.
 
HP color cartridges are insane. HP plotter cartridges are even worse.

The plotter cartridges for a unit I serviced at work were $125 each. I think there were 5 colors in the plotter. The total service was nearly $1000 for me replacing all the cartridges and a couple lamp filters for the scanner.

For home use, I would look on amazon and ebay at aftermarket color toner, then buy your printer based on what is economical and available.

We have a monochrome brother laser printer and the toner is $10, and the drums are $15. Costs about $10 per year to operate.
 
What sold me on going laser is being able to use all of the toner. We just don't print enough so ink tends to dry up.
 
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