OT**Any experience with cheap color laser printers?**OT

Like the title says.
Recommendations.... The good, the bad, and the ugly..
Please nothing over $200.00..new or refurbished is fine.
I am looking at Samsung right now. The CLP3** series.

NO Inkjets Please don't waste the time to type.

 

The most important info i can give you is price the replacement toner before you buy, as it can cost nearly as much as the printer, for some models/brands.

John.

 

Aftermarket toner carts are $30.00 and up on fleabay. That's for about 1500 pages per cartridge. Sure beats inkjet. I have a Canon ip4200 which does fantastic photos and I hacked it to print cd's (not standard for US models). It will not print black only and goes through a cleaning cycle every time I print. I waste 3 times more ink than I ever use. That just infuriates me.
I do refill the ink cartridges myself and the stuff is available to refill the toner carts. But at $30 per 1500 pages, I won't probably bother with refills.

 

I have a Brother HL-4040CN; it's a good machine. Typically available now as NOS/Refurb in the $125-150 range, reman cartridges approx $30 ea. Plus, it doesn't stop dead in the water if you run out of a single color like many models will.

mnem
*Colorific*

 

I have the same series brother, nice machine, works fast and reliable and most important, it has a seperated drum and toner unit. So you don't need to replace the drum when you replace the toner. drums should be able to last 50k to 100k prints, toner should last somehwere between 1000 and 5000 prints.
Before you buy, just do the math and calculate how much toner is per page. Can save a lot of money if you print a lot!

 

I've got a samsung color laser MFP, model CLX-3175. I bought it because I got sick of inkjet cartridges drying/plugging up constantly because I print so infrequently. The 3175 was the most compact Laser MFP I could find at the time and I got a good deal on it ($250 if memory serves).

Overall I've been very pleased with it. I only have one complaint (which I have a work-around for) I can scan a document and print out the scanned image and it looks great... but using the copy function on the printer looks really low resolution.

I doubt that this is the lowest cost per page device out there but when I do print, I want the thing to work. Reliability is more important than cost per page for me.

 

Well, I decided on the Samsung CLP-325W.
Wireless, Color laser, 15"x12"x10". Refurb for $82.00 to my door
Toner isn't the cheapest but I will refill. I just got an extra set of all 3 of the color toner carts for $46.00 to my door. No extra black yet. I'll wait for a great deal on fleabay. The printer comes with a set of cartridges so no hurry.
I looked at that Brother HL-4040CN. I really liked the wireless and the smaller size of the Samsung. I did like the idea of still working with 1 cartridge empty. The brother is cheaper on toner cost also.
I looked at the CLX 3185 also. All in one is nice, but my Canon lide 50 still works great and stays upright and out of the way behind my monitor. The CLX 3185 was almost double in cost. Couldn't see spending the extra for a scanner I already own. I would like the convenience of the copier, but scan and print works fine vs $70.00 more.

Oh, almost forgot, the Samsung is rated as having near inkjet quality photo printing. With some tweaking of the colors it is hard to tell the difference.(From what has been reported anyway.) The reviewers say that it is on the high end, photo quality wise, of color lasers.

PS. in order to get the lide to work on Win 7, I used the lide 60 or lide 70 driver. Forget which one exactly, but it works fine.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions

 

I bought an Epson Stylus Office BX635FWD. The ink is cheap. imitation ink is about 4$ a cartridge. Price per page is cheap aswell. It can do duplex printing and also duplex scanning. I got a good deal from a Dutch internet warehouse, that gave me 5 years guarantee for 24 euros extra. So, thats nice aswell.

Oh, my Epson is a Inkjetprinter.... I was thinking about laserjet, because i had a HP Laserjet 5 before, but the epson does its job good. Got it since 1 month or so.

It also has wireless, USB, and support for memory cards. One big PRO is that i can use this laserjet without a computer. Its has many buttons and a little TFT-screen.

 

Dear Tianrebzuan, you posted the same reply to my posts on 3 difrent topics. Are you a spam-bot ?

Seems, that tianrebzuan is a spambot. Also another forum i visit each day, also has spambots. MAybe my pc is infected by some spamm software. I have AVG, any hints how to remove nasty spam software ?

 

and where did you get it for that price

 

It's not you, it's the forum. We used to have a member; Tomcat/Alex who dealt with these guys. "tianrebzuan" seems to be shilling for Amazon.
CAP

 

I deleted his last two post...now to ban him

 

PM sent........

 

Printer is here. Amazing color photo printing. Small in size and quiet.
The wireless network setup is spawn from Satan.
3hrs and I finally gave up. At work I setup the boss's new wireless HP printers in 10 minutes. All I had to do was type in the WEP key.
This thing needs to find the wireless then hook it up to USB, then to get actual access to the printer to change defaults you must use an Ethernet cable.
It finds the printer, just nothing talks to the printer wirelessly.
I tried dhcp, wps static, infrastructure, latest drivers, ad hoc........ad nauseum...
In the future I will try a hard reset. No I won't. Ethernet cable works flawlessly.
Oh and with all the fartin around my cf 52 no longer has internet access. Windows auto fixed it when I hit repair connection. DHCP was off
Any magic cures to suggest?


EHTERNET cable was the magic cure

 

My magic cure would be to connect it via ethernet anyways, as you already have access to it via your existing WiFi.

Muahahaha!

mnem
*naughty*

 

Well, once I got some sleep and let my head rest for 24 hrs, that is exactly what I did. It took 10 minutes last nite to set it up.
Lack of sleep:SLEEP: makes Shawn rather stupid and stubborn. I was refusing to give in and move on to plan B.
I can touch the printer with my left hand and hold the router with my right at the same time. I mean like wow, I needed to run a 4 foot Ethernet cable.:confused2:
I don't what's up with the wireless on the Samsung printer. The setup is insane complicated compared to a HP printer. Some part of the problem was me I am sure. The simplest solution was the answer.
The bottom line is
The printer works great and I am very pleased with it.:thumbsup:

 

You're welcome. };-)~~~~<

Glad you found a printer you like.

mnem
*Pointing out the incredibly obvious since nineteen-mumblety-mumble*

 

GROOVY............

:thumbsup: Thanks:thumbsup:

 

Refill options for your printer...

2 years ago, I had about 50 pallets of used Samsung laser printers that were returns from Staples Superstore... had to figure a way to refill the toners since of course Samsung has built-in a system that wants to force you to buy new toners every time (as most other manuf.) At that time to buy a cartridge was $50 each color x 4 = $200 !

Solution 1) you can solder a reset chip on mainboard and refill the toners to your hearts content. One time install. The most
cost effective but need to know how to solder. Cost $27 + ship * by far the best solution *

We did this install a gazillion times on clp-315, clx-3175 models. On Scx-4826 we found a way to do this WITHOUT a reset chip, ask me if anyone needs this done... I don't sell these chips anymore, but you can buy from this seller on eBay

Samsung CLP325W CLP325 CLP320 CLP320N toner reset chip fix cartridge refill | eBay

Solution 2) you can get reset chips that you just stick on each cartridge (no soldering) but have to stick a new chip every time you refill the cartridges
so at $24 cost for every refill vs. one time cost of $27 (add cost of refill powder as well)

Samsung 4 Reset Chip (1 Set) CLT-K407S M407S CLP320N CLP325W CLX3185FN CLX3185FW | eBay

Good luck !

 

Yes, I was looking at those chips. It's probably the route I will go. I don't print that much right now. but I never know what the future holds.
I probably ought to buy that chip now before he reads the forum and "things" change". Even if I don't install it for a while. It will be good to have ready.

Thanks