Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 52034	2004-12-07 14:06:00	the laser printer	Eric Richards (6226)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
300526	2004-12-07 21:40:00	So on a cost-per-page basis, are Colour Lasers cheaper than Inkjets?	somebody (208)
300527	2004-12-08 06:04:00	> So on a cost-per-page basis, are Colour Lasers > cheaper than Inkjets? In theory yes, but that relies on large volumes of pages going through the printer. For black and white printing only the economies are there and you don't need to do large volumes to get the cost per page down. But when you spend up to $1000 or more on a colour printer, you should be printing at least (more like an absolute minimum of) a ream or 2 of paper per month to make it worthwhile. For the average home / home office / small business user it takes a mammoth effort to get through one ream of paper every other month - let alone colour prints to make it worthwhile. I personally use an inkjet for my colour prints. I know the cost of ink is more per ml than French champagne but if I'm only printing 20-30 pages a month of colour then there's no point having an oversize $1-$2000 paperweight on my desk and all the cost per page calculations go out the window on such a miniscule volume. Godfather made a verygood point earlier about the purchase price of a colour printer being just the "deposit" - the future payments for consumables (and it's not just the toner cartridges) will leave a sizable dent in anyone's wallet. So in conclusion, stick with an inkjet for your colour printing unless you going to print a large enough volume. Andrew.	andrew93 (249)
300528	2004-12-08 06:31:00	For day to day use we use our digital photocopier which hooks into the computer and does scanning, printing, faxing (ie scan the page then send it) and (obviously) photocopying. For colour we just have a normal epson inkjet	lagbort (5041)
300529	2004-12-08 07:50:00	Well I got my Laserjet 5p for 10 bucks and got a new fuser for $150 (It worth it I say) and couldnt be happier since monochrome is what i mainly print. Its not the fastest and its done 220,000 pages but its still going	bob_doe_nz (92)
300530	2004-12-08 07:54:00	> down. But when you spend up to $1000 or more on a > colour printer, you should be printing at least (more > like an absolute minimum of) a ream or 2 of paper per > month to make it worthwhile. For the average home / > home office / small business user it takes a mammoth > effort to get through one ream of paper every other > month - let alone colour prints to make it > worthwhile. Where do you get that logic from? The cost per page does not make any difference if you use it for reams of paper per week or a ream over 4 months. I have a HP Laserjet 5P that is only on its second toner cartridge and it is about 4 to 5 years old and while it may be slow it is still faster than an inkjet and does a heap more copies than an inkjet does. Toner cartridge replacement cost $100. I would like to see you get a inkjet that can do as many copies without having to change the ink that many times that it would soon mount over $100.	Big John (551)
300531	2004-12-08 08:52:00	John, if you bothered to read my post, you will see that I did not say an inkjet was cheaper to run than a black and white laser (which is what the 5P is). Secondly I'm not going to defend my logic to someone who is upset at me for saying to be aware of the Brother laser printers (which is what your post is really about). If you want to buy a Brother colour laser printer then be my guest but don't get upset when the real cost of consumables comes back to bite you.	andrew93 (249)
300532	2004-12-08 09:04:00	My baby's an HP LaserJet 1300n - I recommend it thoroughly. Except the ~n version is only $600 extra for the jetdirect card in the back - a bit pricey.	Growly (6)
300533	2004-12-08 23:37:00	> John, if you bothered to read my post, you will see > that I did not say an inkjet was cheaper to run than > a black and white laser (which is what the 5P is). I did not say that but you said if you are going to buy a laser for over $1000 then you need to put over 2 reams of paper per month. I simply said that logic was cock-eyed as it did not matter how much went through it because it still came out the same price. > Secondly I'm not going to defend my logic to someone > who is upset at me for saying to be aware of the > Brother laser printers (which is what your post is > really about). If you want to buy a Brother colour > laser printer then be my guest but don't get upset > when the real cost of consumables comes back to bite > you. I never saw you mention brother at all. I did and I know exactly how much the consumables are, what my usages are and what it will cost. I am not upset but your logic at usage rate is really way out there. All colour lasers are expensive to run when it comes to consumables but then they are usually cheaper than injets in the long run.	Big John (551)
300534	2004-12-09 05:18:00	Dear me boys,just stick the facts and all will be well. From my point of view you are both good and helpful chaps,so lets be terribly objective;)	Thomas (1820)
300535	2004-12-09 06:15:00	I've changed my mind & will defend my logic because IMO less speculation and more facts are needed in this debate rather than, in your own words, "cock-eyed logic" or statements. Let's look at the total cost of ownership of the Brother 2700cn Colour Laser (what you have proposed) versus an HP deskjet 930c (the solitary inkjet in my office surrounded by a sea of B&W HP laser printers). At first glance you'd think it was no contest but lets look at the facts. Both printers come new with half full cartridges, cost of Brother printer =$840, HP printer = $150. 2700cn - black toner costs $235 & expected yield = 10k @ 5%, colour toner costs $210 (each, so cost is x 3) & yield = 6.6k @ 5%. 930c - black ink costs $50 & yield = 833 @ 5%, tri-colour costs $55 & yield is 450 pages @ 5%. Both consumables costs are based on OEM, not remanufactured or refilled (which will accelerate the deterioration of the printer). Assuming 75% of the prints are documents (which are about 5% coverage) and 25% are photos or pictures (which are closer to 100% coverage) then we can use 5% usage of each colour per page. This is a reasonable assumption, because if no photos or pictures will be printed, then why buy a colour printer? (an oversize papaerwieght perhaps...) 2700cn - fuser costs at least $640 every 60k pages, and a transfer belt costs at least $430 also every 60k pages. No additional costs for the 930c. Assume no call out costs for either printer, and assume there is no need for replacement pick up rollers or separation pads for the colour laser (which deteriorate with time and sometimes UV light). TCO = cost of printer + ink / toner consumables + fuser & belt (if required) The break-even or cross-over point is around the 12,000 page mark. Under 12k pages the TCO for the 930C is less than the 2700cn but over 12k, the TCO is less for the 2700cn. But here comes the interesting part ... per you previous post, you mentioned usage of a ream every 4 months, which is 1,500 pages / year which means the cross-over point would occur at about the 8 year mark. That's a long way away. Do you think the Brother printer would still be working then? From experience a fuser in a laser printer has a 50/50 chance of lasting this long (probably less) and would probably have, what we in the industry call, an "early failure" given it would produce print defects at less than the 60k page mark. A replacement fuser (and in all probablity a transfer belt too) would put you back $500-$1000 and based on usage of 1,500 pages / year it would also put the 2700cn way behind in the TCO and cost per page calculation versus the inkjet. Ok, so maybe the usage is closer to 4 reams per year or even 6 reams per year (6/year is a big ask for an average home user, home office or small business per my previous post - an average user is not a professional photographer or printer <- they have special needs which would not be met by a retail model colour printer) and lets assume there is no early failure of the fuser (another big ask for a Brother). At 4 reams per year the cross-over is 6 years and at 6 years the cross-over is 4 years. So now we are getting somewhere - at this point in time we would be indifferent over this time period given these assumptions and costs. But this is still a long way off and the colour laser has significantly more mechanical parts that may fail or require maintenance (plus the reliability issue) Ok, lets go over the top and put a ream of paper through the printer each month, 6k pages per year - the crossover occurs at 2 years. Now we are really getting somewhere - it's in that area of "should I or shouldn't I?" and we haven't even taken into account the time value of money yet. Let's pump the volume right up to 2 reams per month, 12k / year, cross-over at 1 year so it's an absolute no-brainer. Point proved. This volume is not unreasonable - I see printers that print in excess of 100-200k pages per year - some of the HP printers we service are up to 2.5m pages in less than 10 years. Let's go back to my personal usage of about 25 colour pages / month - the cross over would occur sometime in about, oh, 2044! There is absolutely no "cock-eyed" logic there and I will resist the temptation to your quote back onto you. Before the knockers bring up the resale value of the colour laser, have a look at TradeMe sometime - there is no value to 2nd hand colour laser printers with a few years and pages under their belts. Case closed. [/rant]	andrew93 (249)
1 2 3