New colour laser printer workhorse required

[Chriss31]

Hey all,

The time has come for us to abandon our allegiance to Epson and embrace a brave new world, and I'm hoping you can help. Essentially we're looking to buy a half dozen colour laser printers for use in our IT rooms within the school. Currently we have a mix of C900's, C1100's and C2000's (all Epson).

Conventional wisdom (and my searches on Edugeek) would suggest we look towards HP as our saviour, however I'm stuck beyond that decision. Initially I was drawn to both the 4600n and the 2605dn, however both models have now been discontinued, leading me to believe I should focus on a currently made model.

I would very much appreciate any comments and/or suggestions on what would be our best course of action.

Many thanks.

[localzuk]

I can vouch for the HP CP3505n. Excellent speed, quality. A good workhorse. And the cost per page is very competitive. We've now got 4 of them in our school, and I've not had any problems with them at all (not even complaints of jams). And swapping toner is easier than any Epson printer i've come across too - ie. you don't get toner all over your hands

[steve]

Unfortunately the HP CP3505n is now end of life, and they are very hard to come by :-(

[localzuk]

Unfortunately the HP CP3505n is now end of life, and they are very hard to come by :-(

Ouch, that sucks. They are *very* nice machines.

[Chriss31]

So close! All these models are still available, but I'm concerned buying discontinued models is a foolish idea...

[Chriss31]

Having agonised over this for far too long, I think we are going to go for the Dell 3130cn. Cheap initial cost, extremely cheap toner replacement, and every review I've found has nothing but praise.

Has anyone here taken the plunge and bought one of these yet? If so, any opinion?

[ninjabeaver]

Having agonised over this for far too long, I think we are going to go for the Dell 3130cn. Cheap initial cost, extremely cheap toner replacement, and every review I've found has nothing but praise.

Has anyone here taken the plunge and bought one of these yet? If so, any opinion?

I thought the Dells where just rebaged Lexmarks. I'm probably wrong though.

[BatchFile]

Hey all,

The time has come for us to abandon our allegiance to Epson and embrace a brave new world, and I'm hoping you can help. Essentially we're looking to buy a half dozen colour laser printers for use in our IT rooms within the school. Currently we have a mix of C900's, C1100's and C2000's (all Epson).

Conventional wisdom (and my searches on Edugeek) would suggest we look towards HP as our saviour, however I'm stuck beyond that decision. Initially I was drawn to both the 4600n and the 2605dn, however both models have now been discontinued, leading me to believe I should focus on a currently made model.

I would very much appreciate any comments and/or suggestions on what would be our best course of action.

Many thanks.

Just out of interest, what's put you off Epson? Personally, I've always regarded C1100Ns as the best compromise between disposability (due to low initial price) and reliability

[gibbo_ap]

will read through wat others have up after my brew but,

kyrocrea printers are about the same rrp as hp printers but the toner lasts alot longer, we have wroked out that purchasing enough of them will pay for themselves in a year with savings from toner.

if you are interested in the doc we created for the boss let me know, im going to get a brew and sit by the radiator now

[CPLTD]

Having agonised over this for far too long, I think we are going to go for the Dell 3130cn. Cheap initial cost, extremely cheap toner replacement, and every review I've found has nothing but praise.

Has anyone here taken the plunge and bought one of these yet? If so, any opinion?

Whats the best price you have been quoted for the Dell 3130CN , I'm sure we can beat it.

[dgsmith]

And the cost per page is very competitive.

Not with the recent price increases it isn't, although not as bad as the 2600n costs. Even using compat cartridges, you can't get anywhere close to the economy of a kyocera or konica minolta (the latter of which we have several, one in each main IT suite).

With LnL, we pay £90 for a 12k page black and £145 for a 12k colour (or £413 for 12k on all colours), and that price includes the imaging drum costs, plus warranty etc. With the CP3505n, OEM cart prices are nearly £100 for each colour on 6k, so certainly not as economical, but I suppose not terribly bad either. In fact, we're retiring an old 5430DL due to it being too much to run, which in itself is close in price to the HP printer on OEM cart prices. Compats are a different story, but I don't think it's fair to compare with them here.

[gibbo_ap]

ill agree our konica printers are not to bad i just hate them....its not the make, i have one of their cameras, i just dont like them

[Chriss31]

Firstly, thank you for all your replies.

TonyRidal - To be honest I was not totally dissatisfied with the Epsons, however they are extremely messy to maintain, and having had three go wonky at once (hence the replacement) we were purely interested in trying something new. Given the initial and running costs of the Dell (which as far as I'm aware ARE repackaged Lexmarks), I doubt I'd find a more economical alternative.

CPLTD - Our order has gone in now at £255 a piece, from Printware.co.uk.

Regarding Kyoceras, I can't stand the buggers. We have them as our main B+W printers and they are messy and awkward to maintain. My colleague has a deep personal hatred for the waste toner bottle required to maintain them

Still, they are extremely economical, so we're still buying them!