[AlanHo]

For some years I have happily used an OKI C511DN colour laser printer (the term laser is a misnomer - it actually uses Diodes). It prints colour at 26 pages per minutes and black text at 30 ppm. I am now on my third identical printer in the past 7 years.

I use a colour laser printer because I am the director of our retirement village management company and do a lot of admin and accounts work for it. This includes me compiling, printing and issuing a monthly full colour Newsletter to keep my inmates informed of our activities. My printing costs are met by the community but the time and effort I put in is voluntary.

WOW - I hear you say - why buy another printer if they only lass for a couple of years. You must be a financial masochist to put up with such unreliability..

Not at all says I - the printers a very reliable - the reason I buy new printers is to save cost which I will illustrate by explaining why I have just ordered a fourth one.

Laser printers have a series of components which have a limited life. These being the Image drum, transfer belt and fuser. My third machine has been operating for the past few weeks warning me to order a new Image Drum and Transfer belt because they are near the end of life and print quality is falling off - plus the black and yellow toner cartridges are almost exhausted.

The cost for these spares and consumables are as follows

Image Drum                         £118.80 
Transfer Belt                         £ 64.74
Black Toner (3,500 pages)     £ 59.74
Yellow toner (2000 pages)     £ 80.73

Total                                    £324.73

However - the printer was made obsolete a couple of years ago and there are still a few left in stock at various dealers.

I just ordered a brand new identical printer  from Colour Laser Printers Ltd at a total cost of £167.39 which has a full set of 2000 page toners, a 3 year on-site warranty and free delivery. Thus saving myself £157.34. Not only that - I will be getting cyan and magenta toners plus a fuser unit worth in total a further £221.75 that will soon need changing anyway. So the total saving over the coming few months is actually £379.

It's pure madness - printer spares and consumables are a racket.

Now - keep this to yourself - I don't buy genuine OK toners. I buy compatible third part supplies at a cost of around £110 for the set of black and 3 colours. In so doing, the three year warranty does not apply - if OKI find you using  non-genuine toners they refuse to provide technical support.

Before you suggest I take out the genuine toners and replace them with compatibles so I can slip the genuine ones into the machine if I ever needed need to call in one of their technicians - it doesn't work. They can read the data log in the printer's electronics which records if non-genuine cartridges have ever been used.

I also have an Epson XP-425 printer/scanner which I use for scanning documents and for printing the odd photograph on glossy card. I also use it to produce some of the greeting cards for Libby which are illustrated by water colour paintings she does at her art classes.

To save cost, like many people I also use compatible inks in the Epson and have never had a problem with them. The newer inkjet printers from some manufacturers cannot be used with compatible inks - so before you buy a printer check that cheaper supplies are available for it, if cost is relevant to your needs.

[Surferdude]

I worked a lot of this out years ago. Only use a black laser printer (Brother) but Ink Station sells you two cartridges, delivered free next day for less than one genuine unit costs.

[Shambles]

For quite some time my laser needs were met by a Lexmark CX310DN and like yourself, decided it was cheaper to replace the whole device when the basement offers came up. I no longer use one but over the years it was more economical to pay £150 than replace the toners and image/toner dumps. The shittiest part of the swap was disposing of the 45kg of landfill.

[Dazzler]

I've had a Fuji Xerox colour laser for a few years now. I don't need to use it as near as mmuch as you Alan, but I find it works great with a set of compatibles from inkstation costing only about the cost of one genuine cartridge for a full set of 4 and they last ages. There are a lot of benefits with a laser printer as you wuld obviously know. I like they fact the printouts don't smudge if they get a spot of water on them. I also like the fact you don't have to run a print head clean if you haven't used it for a while like you do with an inkjet.

I didn't get a wireless one because you would need to leave it powered up and laser printers use more power on standby. We have a cheap wireless epson which also works well with cheap compatibles for that.

I used to buy good quality canon printers for photo and CD printing but all of them had the same fault after about 2 years not printing black properly somethIng to do with ink waste unit or some such crap so will not buy any more canons.

Laser and cheap epsons from now on...

[Aussie Keith]

The money is made on consumables and not the printer itself, surely. I cannot fathom how its possible to make a basic duplexing laser printer and sell it for for about $100 at officeworks. A decent multi function mono laser is about $250. Duplexing scanner too. Amazing times we live in.