OT: Best New Laser Printer to Buy

David T. Ashley · 2006-12-31T00:12:41+00:00

What is the best new laser printer to buy (for tecchie home use)?My story: I bought an HP LaserJet 4 in approximately 1992 and put it to medium-volume use. After about 8 years, it started having paper feed problems. I applied some roller renewing chemical to the rubber rollers, which lasted about a year before the paper feed problems reappeared. Then, I ordered a kit of new rollers for $49.00 from a place online--it required a bit of surgery to get them all installed, but now the printer is going strong for several years now with new rollers.I've noticed that the LaserJet 4 parts chain is still going strong, and I can at this point order anything I want. But sooner or later, something will break and the parts chain will dry up.Is HP making any decent "workhorse" printers these days? Shamefully, I'm looking for something that will last me another 15 years after I buy it.Constraints for me:a)High volume toner cartridges (I need several thousand sheets of paper between changes). (No inkjet or other technologies that are a hassle.)b)Must work with LaTeX, GhostScript, and other serious tecchie applications.c)Would be nice if it were directly connectable to an Ethernet network (so I don't need to turn my big computer on to share the printer with my laptop).d)Color not required an in fact not really desired.HP is turning out so many printers these days ... it is hard for me to differentiate the workhorses from ones that aren't as well built.Thanks for any input.------------------------------------------------------------David T. Ashley ( (Consulting Home Page) (Personal Home Page) (GPL Publications and Projects)

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Anton Erasmus 19 years ago

I stand corrected, but the Kyocera printers that support KPDL supports Postscript as well. (If one sends a postscript file to the printer when it is in KPDL mode, it gets printed correctly)

The number of prints one gets on a cartridge is much higher than any other brand. I get on a TK-20H cartridge (US$100) using an FS-6700 printer with a mixture of A3 and A4 I get 23000 to 25000 prints per cartridge. The A3 prints are mostly mechanical drawings and schematics, while the A4 are typical technical documents such as user manuals etc.

The drum which Kyocera rated at 300000 prints needed replacement after about 250000 prints. The quality of the paper we can get is fairly low, so I expect if one used better quality paper one would easily get the 300000 prints stated life.

Regards Anton Erasmus

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Alex Gibson 19 years ago

I've got a FS-680 that I bought in 2000 that is still going strong. Go through 3 - 4 toner units a year and approx 500 - 1000 pages A4 a month.

Just looking for new printer myself looking at something like a sumsung clp550N with colour and duplex

Alex

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David Kelly 19 years ago

Printer comes with a TN550 which is rated at 3500 pages (I got about

1800 but 900 of those were full page pictures).

One nice thing is the toner cartridge has an opaque "cork" and tape seal proclaiming, "Warranty Void If Removed". Looks like refill will be trivially easy.

Printer page count is currently 5142. Know I installed the TN580 shortly into the 2800 page-side print. So what I'm trying to say is that last time I checked the printer the TN550 (and the printer) had about 1700 pages (when the toner light first came on), so the TN550 must have had more like 2200 pages before it came out.

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David Kelly 19 years ago

Yes, we have a Kyocera something-1650 at work which I found hard to verify that it had Postscript, but printed correctly when I sent a Postscript file.

There are modes in the Kyocera setup which allow hard selection of KPDL or Postscript, vs. the default auto detection.

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Joerg 19 years ago

What kind of toner do you use for refills? I tried that with an old HP-III a long time ago. Bought "loose" toner for copiers, filled it in and got only faint smears on the paper. It didn't work.

Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com

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David Kelly 19 years ago

I don't refill, yet. That is why I bought a new TN580 as I knew the small TN550 would be running out and aftermarket toner refills were not yet available. Now there are a couple of companies selling refill kits specifically for TN550/580.

As you learned, not all toner is the same. I wasn't going to experiment with generic toner without knowing exactly what it was this particular printer expected. Still don't know, but somebodies of modest reputation are now selling toner specifically for this application.

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Warren Block 19 years ago

You were right the first time. KPDL is emulated PostScript, according to Kyocera's terrible web page.

Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA

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Clint Sharp 19 years ago

In message , Grant Edwards writes

Just watched someone attempt to fit a fuser assembly to a 1320 today, probably easier to throw the thing away and buy a new printer, it's a POS from the service point of view, looks like it needs a complete strip down to replace the fuser assembly. Removal of both side covers, logic board and a really nasty gear train that self disassembles when you release it from the printer is required for this 'simple' job. Avoid.

Clint Sharp

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gary drummond 19 years ago

I had a cheap HP that is still working fine after 7 years. I gave it to my son after buying the all-in-one version, but never finished using the first toner cart before feed problems started. I started just using it for sending faxes, and copying while feeding paper a sheet at a time. It crapped out before I could install the new drivers to hook it up to XP in 2005. Other than the feeding, I didn't like the way the low-temp toner would flake off on folded paper, but with both problems I was kind of soured on gettig a new HP.

Dec 2005 I found a Samsung 2152W which is still running fine. It is also a Postscript clone, with other emulations too. Ethernet, wireless, USB, Parallel port, built in duplexing, all for $300.

If you can find one, it works great on all the interfaces at the same time, and as a network printer is OK with Solaris/Linux. The only flakey thing is the wireless cannot be disabled!

Sadly, my model has been discontinued, and the new version doesn't have Postcript. If you can fine the original, or the new one, it's a good buy if you have need for higher volume and duplexing.

Gary

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