What A3 colour printers are you using in your schools?

[projector1]

our Design Technology department are trying to source a A3 colour printer, there budget it £300.

Ideally they would like it networked but at that budget i think they are going struggle. Can i just ask what is being used out there in ICT land! so that i can suggest a few models to them

 

they have looked at a dj 1280 (and thought of having it running off a printer server (usb or parrellel) or shared via a cleint pc

 

many thanks

[wesleyw]

Kyocera C8008DN here but sadly thats a little out of your price range lol erm..? Probably an Epson A3 inkjet with say a dlink print server box attached?

 

 

 

Wes

[Netman]

After destroying various HP and Epson A3 inkjets I bought our Art dept a Canon i6500 and now they have three, all of which are bullet-proof and cheap to run... so recommended...

[plexer]

HP K850DN around £350'ish built in networking and duplexing. Seperate ink tanks HP 10 & 11's

 

Which mean a binkini set will fit.

 

Ben

[Norphy]

We have a mixture of HP 1220Cs and 1280Cs. They run quite nicely off HP EN3700 USB printer servers.

[Ric_]

HP K850dn here. Seem to do the hjob but they do tend to crash every now and then but a quick powercycle fixes it! Reminds me... must go and install one now!

[Guest richard]

I used HP1220c's at my old school and found them very reliable.

[Dos_Box]

I have a HP 2800 Business Inkjet. Very nice and fast it is too.

[meastaugh1]

Can also recommend the HP 2800 Business Inkjet: very reliable. Have a few Canon i6500s which are also good, but not networked.

[Quackers]

HP 1220C's here too. Do not cause me any problems

[Sylv3r]

HP 1220C's here also with no problems.

[ChrisH]

We have 2 2800s and two K850s. Both duplex. The 2800 is a better built printer with an LCD display etc and a proper jet direct card in it. You wouldnt notice the difference though unless you used something that was expecting to interface with a jet direct card . HPs Jet Direct software picks up all the neccessary info from the K850s.

[webman]

We currently have 1x Kyocera C8008N as well.

[john]

My favourite is a Toshiba E3511 but thats a bit out of your price range, so I use 1220Cs, they are good but do get annoying when they are getting old. Probably replace them with a BIJ or Officejet, I like the sound of built in Jet Direct much better than external boxes.

[bossman]

Kyocera C8008N very cheap to run but £1772 to buy from XMA excellent quality.

[projector1]

well as usual many thanks for the advice. I will talk to the department ask them to approach the head of ict, and ask if he can contribute towards the new printer. Looks like it will be the hp 1280

[Little-Miss]

Our is HP 1220C is evil!

[contink]

Just a small suggestion but I'd actually reconsider the 1280 on the basis of the consumable cost you're going to hit which will quickly wipe out any benefit you might gain from the lower printer price.

 

They use a tri-colour and black cartridge approach which means you'll be wasting at least half your ink every time one of the tri-colour runs out. Your options regarding third party consumables are pretty much nill too because the printhead is built into the cartridge and won't stand much refilling (which is what the 3rd party folks tend to do).

 

My humble albeit third hand advice would be to consider the K850 or new K8600 and I'd strongly recommend you get the dn version with the built in printserver/network-connectivity. Consumables on those are considerably cheaper, much higher capacity and the duty cycle is higher too. However be careful which 3rd party consumables you get as some folks hit problems with the K850 recently with some crap from IJT (probably chinese gunk ink).

 

Granted all the usual issues of paper feed that come with pretty much any HP printer are there but some testing with different brand media can work wonders in that regard.

 

... I can also help on the consumable front if you're interested (PM if so).

[Geoff]

Our technology department has a HP Colour Laser 5550. This is after having a mixture of mono lasers and colour inkjets. It works great, but mind the price tag.

[button_ripple]

I have a HP 2800 Business Inkjet. Very nice and fast it is too.

 

We have one too! erm... wouldn't say exactly the same comments as you - our one jams, leaks, now won't duplex, and won't do A3. The paper tray is tiny and needs filling up all the time. The ink cartridges are too small for this printer!