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Which Printer ?.

johnboy992

johnboy992

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 25, 2018
13
0
yorkshire
Hi, Been looking for a Printer that uses Black Ink only without joy to use on my iMac 2017 but all I could find was a Laser Jet Printer that uses Black Ink only. My question is do any of you Guy’s own a Laser Jet Printer & if so how do you rate them compared to the Deskjet Printers that use Ink Cartridges. ( The Printer that I have been looking at is :- HP LaserJet Pro M15W Mono Laser Printer ) any info would be appreciated. John S.
 
johnboy992 said:
Hi, Been looking for a Printer that uses Black Ink only without joy to use on my iMac 2017 but all I could find was a Laser Jet Printer that uses Black Ink only. My question is do any of you Guy’s own a Laser Jet Printer & if so how do you rate them compared to the Deskjet Printers that use Ink Cartridges. ( The Printer that I have been looking at is :- HP LaserJet Pro M15W Mono Laser Printer ) any info would be appreciated. John S.
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I work in IT Support and I only recommend Laserjet. I always tell my customers to buy laserjets for business.

They last a lot longer. Toners are more expensive but they don’t dry up and last a long time.
 
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The small black only HP Laserjet's are great, they seem to last forever. Toner lasts a long time. Plus it is dirt cheap to get a third party replacement toner on Amazon.

I've found the color HP laserjet models to be unreliable. Based on customer usage. If you went color and wanted a cheap consumer model. I'd go with Brother.

The black only Brother units are quite good too.
 
I've used a range of laser printers over the past several decades. HP's are very good. I generally prefer text and line graphics printed on laser printers. Laser printers are genereally rather poor at reproducing photographs, even B&W photos.

My home network currently has 4 color inkject printers (all HP) and one HP 1102w B&W LaserJet. The LaserJet is networked via WiFi and has worked well with the various computers (1 older MacBook, 2 Win10 notebooks, 1 Win10 tablet, and 1 Win10 desktop).
 
I have not had good luck with ink jet printers. We use the HP 452 color laser without issue. When I used a monochrome laser, it has not been entry level. A lot depends on job volume. If one is printing a job with a higher number of pages, I find the more costly lasers better. I do not find ink-jets to handle large print jobs well.
 
johnboy992 said:
My question is do any of you Guy’s own a Laser Jet Printer & if so how do you rate them compared to the Deskjet Printers that use Ink Cartridges.
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Just to back up other posters - can't comment about that specific model but I've mostly been happy with HP LaserJet printers, and have found them much less trouble than inkjets. For large volumes, lasers are cheaper to run (the cartridges are more expensive but they last far, far longer) and for occasional use you don't waste 10 minutes and a load of ink cleaning the dried-up head each time.

Just get used to the fact that when you come to change the cartridge it might be a toss-up whether its cheaper to get a new cartridge or a new printer (although that's more an issue with colour lasers).

The only reason I'd get an inkjet would be for printing photo-quality colour/large format on special paper - which is probably why you can't find any black-only ones!
 
theluggage said:
Just to back up other posters - can't comment about that specific model but I've mostly been happy with HP LaserJet printers, and have found them much less trouble than inkjets. For large volumes, lasers are cheaper to run (the cartridges are more expensive but they last far, far longer) and for occasional use you don't waste 10 minutes and a load of ink cleaning the dried-up head each time.

Just get used to the fact that when you come to change the cartridge it might be a toss-up whether its cheaper to get a new cartridge or a new printer (although that's more an issue with colour lasers).

The only reason I'd get an inkjet would be for printing photo-quality colour/large format on special paper - which is probably why you can't find any black-only ones!
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The problem with repeatedly getting a new printer, rather then cartridges, is the cartridges have a fraction of toner that a new one has. This is particularly the case if you might elect to use high capacity ones. You need to do the math.
 
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jaybar said:
The problem with repeatedly getting a new printer, rather then cartridges, is the cartridges have a fraction of toner that a new one has. This is particularly the case if you might elect to use high capacity ones. You need to do the math.
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So far, I’ve managed to avoid the worst “starter cartridges” scams (it’s something to look out for if you think you have found a really cheap printer) but, yes, of course you have to do the math. Always check the price of consumables.

HP tend to go for half-full “starter” cartridges which aren’t too bad. Googling the HP in question, It looks like it comes with a “generous” 500 page starter cartridge c.f. 1000 pages for the regular ones (which “only” cost 2/3 of the price of a new printer).

It’s more the colour ones with 4 cartridges where a new set of cartridges costs more than a new printer. At home, I need a printer when I need one, but the actual volume is tiny so the printer can be several years old and ready for an upgrade by the time I need a second or third set of cartridges.
 
theluggage said:
So far, I’ve managed to avoid the worst “starter cartridges” scams (it’s something to look out for if you think you have found a really cheap printer) but, yes, of course you have to do the math. Always check the price of consumables.

HP tend to go for half-full “starter” cartridges which aren’t too bad. Googling the HP in question, It looks like it comes with a “generous” 500 page starter cartridge c.f. 1000 pages for the regular ones (which “only” cost 2/3 of the price of a new printer).

It’s more the colour ones with 4 cartridges where a new set of cartridges costs more than a new printer. At home, I need a printer when I need one, but the actual volume is tiny so the printer can be several years old and ready for an upgrade by the time I need a second or third set of cartridges.
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Just got a new HP inkjet, and for my printing needs, the instant ink program looks like it will work well. Is there something like that for the laserjet toner?
 
johnboy992 said:
Hi, Been looking for a Printer that uses Black Ink only without joy to use on my iMac 2017 but all I could find was a Laser Jet Printer that uses Black Ink only. My question is do any of you Guy’s own a Laser Jet Printer & if so how do you rate them compared to the Deskjet Printers that use Ink Cartridges. ( The Printer that I have been looking at is :- HP LaserJet Pro M15W Mono Laser Printer ) any info would be appreciated. John S.
Click to expand...

If your only interested in black & white, laserjet is hands-down the best way to go. Faster printing, better quality and much more cost efficient. I have a compact Brother laserjet printer. A $12 (US) toner cartridge through Amazon will print 2600 pages. My color deskjet is rated 550 pages from a $15 set of ink cartridges (also through Amazon).
 
I have had a Brother Laserjet B&W which worked for years with no problems. Gave it away years ago and think it is sill working. Had nothing but problems with inkjet printers.
 
Jeffois said:
Just got a new HP inkjet, and for my printing needs, the instant ink program looks like it will work well.
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Well, yes, because on printers that offer the "instant ink" feature, the retail price of the cartridges will be set to make the instant ink program look good. Just looking at the "instant ink" rates vs. the cartridge prices sets off my "what's the catch?" detector - maybe a lot of people over-estimate their usage or perhaps its expensive to go over quota. Plus, of course, your printer decides when you need a new cartridge. You need to have a regular and predictable rate of consumption so you can do the math.

If you're on the "free" 15 pages/month tier, bear in mind that even the "starter" cartridges in a laserjet would last you for a couple of years... If you're in the "heavy consumption" range then maybe think about the more expensive "enterprise" printers where the cartridges look pricey but are good for 10,000+ copies.

Thing is, if anybody sells you a cheap printer its because they're planning to pull a King Camp Gilette on you and shaft you for consumables.
 
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I worked for Lexmark for nearly 20 years, with about half it in tech support and the latter half as a product engineer. If you mostly intend to print text, then I completely agree that a small B&W laser printer the is way to go. I am understandably biased when it comes to brands on laser printers, so I won't get into that. It also depends on how many pages you think you might print per month and compare that to the monthly duty cycle of the printers available to match it to the one for your needs. Also factor in replacement toner, and whether it is a replacement toner cartridge only, or an integrated toner cartridge and photoconductor drum. The integrated PC drums are very expensive and you are likely run out of toner before the PC drum needs to be replaced. Finally, only buy what you need. Most of the consumer or small office devices are integrated multifunction devices with fax and/or scan capability. The scanners are usually CIS (contact image sensor) technology. If you have a relatively new phone, it's camera might make a better image than a CIS scanner.
 
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Yet another vote for monochrome laser printers, and I'd suggest Brother as one of the best value small volume lasers available today.
 
I have used a Brother B&W laser printer for 3 years without problems. Easy wireless setup, seemingly endless printing, especially when you reset the toner cartridge after it "runs low on ink". Short Youtube tutorial and great hack.
 
johnboy992 said:
Many thanks for the replies much appreciated.
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Main tip is to have some idea of the volume that you will be printing so you can estimate the "total cost of ownership" over a few years - more expensive printers tend to be cheaper to run long-term if you print enough pages.
 
I bought my HP printer for when I first started at university in the summer of 2002! 16 years later and it still works perfectly. Pretty incredible huh!
I get around 500 sheets from the HP56 black ink cart :)
 
There are better alternatives to HP if you are just looking for a simple laser printer. www.printerbase.co.uk do some good deals too. I've had Samsung and Brother printers over the past few years and have been happy with both. I were to choose one now I'd probably go for another Samsung. Build quality and performance were good, as were running costs and the drivers.
 
I've had my eye on the Brother HLL2395DW Amazon has had it as low as $100, and I might jump on it next time it's down that low and the inkjet I have is in need of ink.
 
HP makes great and reasonably cost laser printers. I vow to never buy another one due to their software.
 
an-other said:
HP makes great and reasonably cost laser printers. I vow to never buy another one due to their software.
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HP slaps its name on Canon printers and sells them as Laserjets - at least it used to. Some of them had poor design, with degrading color.

Don't know if they still do this, but the print quality was great initially.
 
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