Wireless Mono Laser Printer?
Community Forums/General Help/Wireless Mono Laser Printer?
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| Just wondering if anyone could recommend a wireless (mono) laser printer. I'm basically just looking for something for business use (ie: printing invoices, contracts, receipts, etc.) so something which isn't too big, doesn't cost a fortune, economical for someone who's only printing a few dozen sheets per month, would be ideal. I'm leaning towards one of the Samsung ML xxxxW models, but there don't seem to be many reviews of wireless laser printers. I guess everyone wants to print photos and that means color inkjet to most people. I've nothing against color inkjet printers per se. I just don't want to pay for coloured inks when I won't be using them, and most of the color inkjet printers seem to follow the old "it's cheaper to throw the printer out and buy a new one than fill up on the inks" mantra. |
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| If you dont print in colour, you wont use the colour cartridges. I'd just get an inkjet - Canon, HP or possibly Kodak (who claim to have the cheapest ink) would be my bet. Just don't buy anything too cheap. Last edited 2011 |
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| If you dont print in colour, you wont use the colour cartridges. Really? I thought it was all the rage to use all three color inks to produce black and/or tie the cartridges in together so that you have to replace the color cartridges when you replace the black? I've seen the Kodak ads for economy, but all the reviews I've read of Kodak printers say they're utterly rubbish. |
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| Yeah, just make sure you always print in mono. I've seen me print letters and stuff with my colour ink jet and for some reason the colour cartridges seem to get used??? |
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| Most inkjet printers will not print at all - not even in monochrome - if there isn't a color cartridge present, or if its empty. There's no reason for this - other than the printer manufacturers want your money. |
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| I once had a printer that had using colour to produce or supplement black as an option you could turn on or off; it produced slightly better results with it on but obviously used more ink, and it meant you could keep printing documents after the black ran out. Of course, more recent designs may not be so considerate. |
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| Ok, well there seems to be enough issues with inkjets to make me stick with my original plan to avoid inkjets. Thinking I might pop down to Staples to see if they have one of these instore. Looks like it fits everything I was looking for. http://www.staples.co.uk/technology/printers-scanners-and-fax/printers-scanners-and-fax/ml-1865w-mono-laser-printer |
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| In the U.S. the Samsung ML-2525W (wireless mono-laser/ MFG refurbished) can be had for 79.99+shp (50.38 sterling) http://www.pricewatch.com/gallery/printers/laser (3rd column, 2nd row down) If you look around, I'm seems you should find a better price in the U.K. Last edited 2011 |
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| I've got (a new and a refurb I bought a year later) Samsung CLX-3175FN. It's color laser, and MFC, and not wireless (though it is networked so just hit it with ethernet and you can print from your wireless devices on network...) so not exactly what you're looking for but they have been, bar none, the best printers I've ever had the dubious fortune to use (all printers are evil. this is documented scientific fact...). The carts are pricy (as all laser carts are) but they last a LONG time to the cost per page is very small (as it is with all laser). Since it's not wet ink they don't go dry due to only occasional use (very important if you don't print much). The print quality has been fantastic for me. And the extra bells and whistles of the MFC are really nice (scanner is good, not amazing but it gets the job done AND it has an auto feed which is REALLY handy for scanning documents and contracts etc.), scanning to a PDF and having it mailed straight from the device is very handy for simple stuff (just scan, check mail, have document). |
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| Is there any real advantage to the 2525? I mean apart from stuff like slightly bigger sheet feeders and slightly faster print speed. Is there anything major? It looks like I might be able to walk into a shop and walk out with the 1865, which saves me a lot of inconvenience if I had to have the 2525 delivered. I'm glad all printers are evil. I was beginning to think it was only *my* printers which were. I can't see spending all the extra on a color printer though. The scanner might be useful for scanning contracts, so I could maybe be tempted by a multifunction printer if they make such things as wireless mono laser MFCs. Last edited 2011 |
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| Printers are the most evil things ever. Fax machines might be a tiny bit more evil because it's a printer that likes to talk to telemarketers... But any given printer in my experience of years of consulting work will fail more, and more annoyingly, than any other piece of hardware no matter what. I hate them with a passion that burns like a thousand suns. |
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| If you're looking for just basic laserjet and don't need to print huge volumes, then these aren't bad: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828115639&Tpk=hp%201102w HP 1102W, $99.99, supports both wired ethernet as well as 802.11b/g wireless. |
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| Ok, well there seems to be enough issues with inkjets to make me stick with my original plan to avoid inkjets. What exactly is wrong with inkjets? You say that you are only printing a few dozen sheets per month, which would not stretch even the cheapest inkjet. All decent inkjets have a dedicated black ink cartridge, and on some there are high capacity cartridges available that are very economical (e.g. HP 940XL - £16.35 for estimated 2200 pages) Most printers come with all the cartridges included: you would not need to buy any that you would not be using. But you might actually find that you occasionally want to print in colour, which is not something you could do with a monochrome laser printer anyway. Do you have access to a scanner or photocopier already? If not then would you not find a printer/scanner/copier useful? I'm not saying you should buy an inkjet, ultimately that is your decision to make, I'm just asking why you have firmly ruled them out. In my experience, most problems with inkjets occur if they are not used for long periods (six months or more) because the print heads get blocked up. But it does not sound like this would apply to your situation. Last edited 2011 |
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| In my experiences inkjets have much lower build quality than laser printers.. for high volume printing they are expensive (cost per page) and for low volume turtle are expensive as well (clogged/dried out nozzles, rendering the remaining ink useless). I've gone through half a dozen inkjets over the years, and never looked back after switching to laser myself. ymmv, of course. |
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| dito to xlsior Inkjet is cheap to get started but it REALLY costs you long term. a halfway decent laser will pay for itself over and over again. The downsides are the upfront cost, the sticker shock when you need new toner (but really cost per page is lower so you just have to choke it down) and the lack of a new shinny gadget as you won't be trashing old inkjets regularly. Now that I think about it I've never seen a laser get thrown away, just re-purposed. I know plenty of people still rocking laserwriters from back in the day... thats getting your money's worth, 26 YEARS of reliable printing from one device, the headache is keeping up with the adapters to make it work with a modern computer without an ADB or LPT port... |
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| I can recommend a Brother HL-2030 Got it for £50, lasted ages, should do all you need. Yes its a b&W laser but not wireless, you will need a print server for that. Last edited 2011 |
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| Yes its a b&W laser but not wireless, you will need a print server for that Not necessarily a print server: You can make any ethernet device wireless by using a 'gaming adapter', like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156258&cm_re=gaming_adapter-_-33-156-258-_-Product sometimes also called a 'wireless access client' -- I use this one myself to hook up my DVR to my wireless network: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156295 (This one can run either as a normal access point, or in wireless access mode, which is what you'd need to hook up a non-wireless printer. With one of those, the printer just sees a regular fixed wireless connection, while the gaming adapter communicates to your wireless accesspoint on its behalf. |
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| I've seen me print letters and stuff with my colour ink jet and for some reason the colour cartridges seem to get used??? I think by default most inkjet printers are set to use all colour/BW carts but the HP Deskjet 2050 I bought yesterday has the ability to use black ink only ... I have to admit it was quite hard to find the setting as its hidden in a myriad of option settings. The above printer was a replacement for my Deskjet F380, which died earlier this week, and I came very close to replacing it with a laser. Since my print volume is very low and I needed colour printing too, a colour laser is not worth it considering the costs of toner cartridges, drum replacement etc. This is just my opinion ... Last edited 2011 |
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| On the subject of print servers, if you have an apple airport family wifi box of just about any sort they almost all have a USB print forwarding service built in. I just mention it since they're so common you might be able to scare one up from a friend or family member who moved on to a new one etc. On the subject of color inks being used. I think it's down to lazy design with no interest to fix it since it means more ink is sold (which is where the profit is, that's why they literally give printers away, I've got 3 free ones in the attic that have never been opened...). Generally if you set your print job to B&W or grayscale specifically it won't use the color, but this isn't a steadfast rule. Not sure why they mix the colors in with the black when the content is just black but they seem to, so I chalk it up to "we can make it darker by dumping extra ink then they have to buy more". |
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