Small office printer - recommendations?

[Koldov]

I have one of the SLT moaning about the printer in their office and so have been told to get another one...

 

Trouble is I can't even remember the last time I looked into small consumer grade printers!

 

Only two people in the office and it wouldn't get a lot of use, inkjet is OK I suppose for the workload, would be helpful if it could be networked (one uses desktop the other laptop). Don't really know what else to think of...

 

Any ideas?

[DaveTheTech]

Recently got a HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw.

Apart from the agony that was finding the correct drivers on their site, it was OK.

 

We have Ricoh MFDs, I'd be tempted to look at them. I supose it depends if you need to load any managed printing solution on it.

[Norphy]

Old place of mine always used to get Kyoceras as the consumables were relatively cheap, even at the scale you're looking at.

 

Like you though, it's been a damned long time since I've thought much about office printers though

[Koldov]

Recently got a HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw.

Apart from the agony that was finding the correct drivers on their site, it was OK.

 

We have Ricoh MFDs, I'd be tempted to look at them. I supose it depends if you need to load any managed printing solution on it.

 

I think in all honesty we'd be looking at something even smaller than that and no need for management.

 

Currently they have an old Brother MFC-6890CDW ink-jet A3 MFD (doesn't need to be A3 though) and although it hasn't had a lot of use, it is a bit slow and has the occasional misfeed/paper jam even though I've cleaned the rollers etc... which leads to me getting the call and the usual 'oh it's broken again, it's such a load of old junk - can we have a new one?'

[Brax]

Plus one for DaveTheTech's recommendation. The HP laserjet M400 series are pretty reliable, never usually have to carry out any repairs with them apart from changing toner.

[DavR]

Another +1 for the HP M400 series. We have M402 and M404 printers in use, each shared between two PCs, but there's probably a newer iteration now. The M404 I seem to recall we initially had some trouble with the devices not waking from sleep, but a few driver changes and that seems to be resolved.

 

I personally wouldn't even consider consumer grade inkjets, yes they're cheap, but they're only going to cause you trouble further down the line. Cheap in purchase cost, expensive in maintenance time.

[skywalkergr]

Hi there

 

Why not an Epson Ecotank where consumables cost air

E.g. L6160 for a small office https://www.epson.eu/en_EU/products/printers/inkjet/consumer/ecotank-l6160/p/22130

or an L15160 for a bigger one https://www.epson.eu/en_EU/products/printers/inkjet/consumer/ecotank-l15160/p/27711

[Davit2005]

I'd stay away from Inkjets if the printer is seldom used. I bought a Brother Laser printer for home about 4 years back and it is still going strong on it's original toner but I've had Inkjets dry out. The laser cost about £300, does colour, networked and Double sided prints.

 

Had a few M400 series at a previous place and they were fine too.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Davit2005

[robintech]

Another +1 for the HP M400 series. We have M402 and M404 printers in use

 

got two M402 that only needed toner over 50,000 pages. HP2035 is probably the longest lived though without problems.

M281 about the worst

[GaryPad]

I'd second Daveit2005. If inkjets aren't used for any length of time then the heads clog up on the cartridges so you have to replace them. Laser buying costs are higher than inkjet, but running costs are considerably lower, and you can have one idle for months and it will still work (although the paper might dry out and jam ). Unless the SLT member can justify colour printing I would get them a cheap monochrome laser; doesn't even have to support duplex, and then force them to print to a departmental colour MFD when they have jobs that need it.