Laser Printer Brands

[mrforgetful]

Is it worth experimenting with different Laser Manufacturers?

 

We currently use pretty much exclusively HP Laserjets for our mono lasers. They're reliable, easy to use and work. But they are expensive. And the parts are expensive. And the toner is expensive.

 

Does anyone else use another make?

 

Been looking at Samsung and Brother, they're cheaper but are they as easy to use and reliable?

[plexer]

We use samsung for all our mono lasers from small desktop ML-1210 upto 3500 series for high capacity duplexing.

 

Remans available for all but possibly the newest one.

 

Ben

[plexer]

We use samsung for all our mono lasers from small desktop ML-1210 upto 3500 series for high capacity duplexing.

 

Remans available for all but possibly the newest one.

 

Ben

[meastaugh1]

I certainly wouldn't recommend Brother. We had Brother when I arrived and I've converted to HP. Imho, Brother printers are poor build quality, and a general PITA to maintain. The only downside to HP besides cost, are their crappy drivers.

 

I'm not suggesting HP are 'the best', but they work for us and we spend significantly less faffing with them, than we did Brother.

[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.

 

If it was just up to me I'd keep spending more in HP.

 

I'll suggest that, or that Samsung would be better than Brother. We do have a couple od Brothers and they seem cheaply made I agree.

[tosca925]

I certainly wouldn't recommend Brother. We had Brother when I arrived and I've converted to HP. Imho, Brother printers are poor build quality, and a general PITA to maintain

 

I'll second the above, we have a hell of a lotof Brothers and will be replacing them with HP as soon as i can.

[krisd32]

in my opinion we have mainly brothers throughout the school and i've never had a problem with them! infact i prefer them to the hp's we have which have a tendency to lockup and do what they want!

 

i really can't fault the brother printers good price consumables etc... we've had 2 now for around 4 years in our it suite's and they get absolutely hammered but they are still going strong! drivers are easy to install.

 

so my vote is for brother!

[meastaugh1]

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

[elsiegee40]

I have OKI c3200 colour, c3100 colour and mono - they're a pain.

 

The ancient samsung ML-1250 mono sits quietly and behaves itself

 

Lin

[webman]

Don't use Kyocera. Every Kyocera printer we've had has had some problem - first the soft rollers on FS1010/1020s. Intermittent network problems on C8008N. Pickup/fuser problems on C8026N. Random problems and poor quality on C5016Ns...

 

All others (HP) are fine, except our oldest 4600 needed a new Jetdirect card a couple of months ago.

[klawd]

We have had great success using OKIs colour 5250n, colour 5600n and mono b6300n.

 

The mono is amazingly fast and all are working out well on toners, no problems so far using cheapo generic toners either.

[Butuz]

Have previously been HP only - but having recently bought a few different Kyocera lasers both colour (C5015N / C5030N) and mono (4000N) i have to say I won't be buying any more HP's again.

 

Andrew

[Ric_]

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

 

I use exclusively HP - pretty much all second user and they just last forever. My current favourite is the 4100tn which you can get from ICT Direct for £100-£120. You also know that you can easily monitor the HPs using Web JetAdmin and Nagios which helps a lot!

[Cmd.exe]

Brothers have caused me problems in all places i've worked.

 

I'd choose HP almost every time, I've had 6Ps and 5Ms go on forever with minimal attention.

However I may have to try a cheaper alternative in the next few months because i need a good few new printers. Possibly samsung.

Oh and Konica Minolta Colour lasers seem ok.

[Norphy]

My new place is using Dells. My NM raves about them, I'm reserving judgment for the time being. Cheaper to run than the HPs though.

 

At my old place, we used HPs exclusively. Every time we tried another brand (be it Kyocera, Brother or Konica Minolta) it was a disaster.

[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.