some questions about buying printer for home-use

I only had a laser printer few years ago and for many years I haven't used an inkjet printer

I did not like my laser printer because it's very bulky, while it could release unpleasant smell from the printer during the operation...

1. Does all types / brands of current laser printer in the market release some gas or smell?

2, I don't print very often, 1 or 2 times a month, is inkjet the best choice?

3. I am also concerned that inkjet cartridges would leak ink easily which cause a lot of mess around. Is it common that all types/ brands of inkjet printer would leak ink easily or does it depend on the brand or models?

4. which brand makes the best printer that would less likely leak ink or have problems with the printer pins? printing quality is my least concern

 

I would stay away from refills to prevent leaks but otherwise it seems most are reliable. Myself I went with a wide format Epson WF-7610 as there are some off brand cartridges that are as good as OEM without the cost. You have to search this out on Amazon.

 

Years ago I discovered that I was spending money on replacement cartridges because they dry out and when my kids would need a project I was having to replace them, I then went to a color laser printer it was expensive $400.00 but over the years I have not had to replace as many cartridges because they don't dry out. I'm on year 7 with my current one and I have had to replace 1 black toner cartridge. This print is bulky but I don't notice any odor from it, it's an HP laser jet 2000 series.

 

I used a laser printer from BROTHER, which released a strong odor on the first day of use.

Now the fact is
1. I don't need quality prints.
2. I may only need to print 1-2 pages per month.
3. I don't want any odor
4. I want to avoid ink leakage because my home is very small which would affect many other things

What is the best printer choice for me then

 

Ink jets are cheap but if the ink drys up due to your infrequent use it would cost more in the long run. This may be different with modern printers, I haven't owned one for a long time. You could just go to staples or another store close by which offers print services,that would be the cheapest, no spills or smells.

 

My anecdote
I just switched from running colour laser (Samsung clx 3185) to an almost as old brother a3 workstation inkjet 6510dw and wish I did it sooner. I print regularly so gunking heads is not a concern and if it does use a fair bit of ink cleaning itself... Yumcha cartridges are 4 bucks each and look and work fine. Well I did absent mindedly open one that had leaked in the bag over carpet that's the only problem I've had... Lesson learned

Compare with the Samsung where to get toner cost down into reasonable range I had to buy toner in bags and refill my own and use tech mode to stop Samsung's disgusting count based component lockouts (I used over 100000 impressions on the fuser before the first PQ artifact showed up... Samsung refused to print more than 24000 without a counter reset and that's a replacement part at nearly half the cost of the printer when new). So when the supply of people selling their barely used old clx3185s for 10 bucks dried up so I could scavenge a belt here, drum there, the odd half used cart so I could batch refill more at a time... i moved on.

It's quieter, doesn't smell, quicker for low volume jobs, doesn't heat up or overheat as the laser would over 15mins continuous and despite being 50% larger footprint is half the weight AND has more functions like auto duplex and scans and prints A3.

If you're not using it sparingly and won't see yourself needing to buy replacement consumables (not toner but the other bits, drums fusers rollers belts etc) go for as cheap a laser as you can with your print quality and feature requirements. Factor all consumables into the cost of ownership if you do see yourself hitting their page limits though.

 

I have an all-in-one black and white Brother laser for general printing, and a cheap HP color laser for color stuff. Brother is about six years old and still going strong. Cartridges are only about $50 and last about 2000 pages. I just bought generic HP color cartridges for $100 and those last a good 1500 pages. I will never use ink jet again.

My recommendation is an HP color if you need color or HP black and white. First day or two may give an odor, but after that nothing.

 

I am using Samsung SL-M2020W/XAA Monochrome Printer since last year. I think it will be perfect as per your requirement.
The cartridge is long lasting and printer quality is very good.