Laser Printer Brands

[Geoff]

Dell kit is just someone else's kit re-badged. Your better off finding who really makes it and buying direct. It'll save quite a bit of money.

[Norphy]

I'm well aware of that. It always used to be rebadged Lexmark kit, I assume it still is.

[john]

Dell kit is still re-badged Lexmark stuff, but some won't take a Lexmark cartridge.

[michael.fre]

well at least it not oki

[localzuk]

I notice no-one uses Epson's so far. We use exclusively epson lasers around the school (except one HP and one OKI in the deputy head's and year head's office).

We use the Epson acculaser 2600 (not the C2600) which is 'a mono laser with colour capabilities'. You can slot 4 black toners in instead of the 4 colour ones and voila, 25k prints at a very reasonable price. We've not had any trouble with them - so long as you default the driver to 'b&w' for the job type on the print server.

[mrforgetful]

That's my fear, we don't faff now, once they're working they're working until the toner's out, or someone holds the buttons when they're unattended.

Have you tried compatible toners as a way to reduce costs? It's not something I've tried yet, but will be with one of the colour lasers when the next toners run out.

As for the buttons, you could use web jetadmin to lock the printers down so that the buttons are disabled

I've not tried compatible toners but feel the way about them as when we had people using cheap ink carts...[ramble]they tend to be cheap because they're cheap and unreliable. When I order a cart I want to know it works, with originals this is what you get. With third party's there are all sorts of problems from not been recognised to having colours missing to been stripey for the first 100 sheets or whatever, I don't appreciate the hassles I find so will always get originals. [/ramble]

As for locking down buttons, not tried it I'll take a look into that cheers.

[Butuz]

IMHO Kyoceras are shockingly bad and Brothers are just plain bad.

What is bad about the Kyoceras out of interest? They seem pretty well built, theyre certainly well designed - and the drivers are very compact and easy to install unlike some of HP's recent efforts.

Cheers

Andrew

[meastaugh1]

I've not tried compatible toners but feel the way about them as when we had people using cheap ink carts...[ramble]they tend to be cheap because they're cheap and unreliable. When I order a cart I want to know it works, with originals this is what you get. With third party's there are all sorts of problems from not been recognised to having colours missing to been stripey for the first 100 sheets or whatever, I don't appreciate the hassles I find so will always get originals. [/ramble]

You're probably right, but I thought I should at least give it a go when a set of replacement toners are coming in at £500. 8O

[mrforgetful]

£500? For one printer? Not even a full set of our colours costs that!

Also we advise that departments charge for colour prints.

[meastaugh1]

I believe it does for a 5550, for the originals. If you are aware of somewhere I can get them cheaper, I'd very much appreciate hearing about them.

[Cmd.exe]

my 2 pence, for what its worth (probably about 2 pence), is with compatible/reman/refills, I won't use inkjet carts because of all the hassle you mention - DOA and damaging my printers, but I've never had a problem with compatible/reman/refill toner carts over the years. I can't explain why.

[mrforgetful]

Ahh we've only just got one of them so yet to buy replacement toner, still for a printer that cost 2 grand...and just looked at the supplies status, they've done 400 pages and have over 11,000 remaining, obviously at the 5% coverage ratio.

Could try WT Supplies on 01274 408080, dunno if they'll be cheaper or what but worth a look.

[srochford]

Kyocera printers pretty much exclusively here (and several hundred of them!)

Very much cheaper to run than (say) HP. Very easy to sort out paper jams (paper feed mechanism just slides out so nowhere for paper to get stuck).

There have been some problems - eg someone mentioned the feed rollers on the 1000/1010 etc but replacement rollers are about a fiver so it's not a big deal.

Drivers are sometimes problematic - we tend to use the "mini-drivers" which don't have all the bells and whistles (which most people don't use!) but do work fine.

[john]

IMHO Kyoceras are shockingly bad and Brothers are just plain bad.

What is bad about the Kyoceras out of interest? They seem pretty well built, theyre certainly well designed - and the drivers are very compact and easy to install unlike some of HP's recent efforts.

Cheers

Andrew

Well Built 8O 8O 8O 8O Baked Beans cans more like! I can literally push the copier to bits at work thats a Kyocera, im surprised I don't see Heinz on it somewhere, and the printers are the same from what I've been told and seen. HPs are strong machines as are samsungs.

[crc-ict]

I've not tried compatible toners but feel the way about them as when we had people using cheap ink carts...[ramble]they tend to be cheap because they're cheap and unreliable.

Don't do it! One of my schools uses cheap compatible toners in our Konica Minoltas and in my opinion it is false economy - they're poor quality, they don't last as long as they should and you don't get the option to send them back free for recycling, so we have to get rid of the dead ones somehow. And they're not a whole lot cheaper either.

I've also tried DIY refills in various Samsung's at home and they were pretty crappy too.