Decent black and white laser printer for home business?

Cromulent · 20 Sep 2020 at 21:16

I need a printer for my home business, but I don't have much money. I know that laser printer toner cartridges are more expensive than inkjet printers, but I've been told that laser printers are better valued in the long run. Is this correct?

It'll be things like printing invoices in PDF format and printing out text-based documentation for various things. I can't imagine I'd use it much so if I could connect it to my computer via wifi that would be excellent (I don't have room to put it next to my computer to use a cable). The only potential problem I can see is that I use Linux, so I'm not sure what the driver situation is.

What should I buy? As I said I'm pretty poor at the moment so the cheaper, the better. Having said that I don't want something that will break after a months use. I value reliability, especially when it comes to my business.

Thank you.

JasonM · 20 Sep 2020 at 23:37

Brothers are pritty good for office use, I have 2 of them here, my first from 10 years ago, and a more recent one. 3rd party ink is cheap, plus you can cover over a sensor on the printer cartridge to make the ink last much longer.

DCP-L2530DW or similar will do the job.

Cromulent · 21 Sep 2020 at 11:38

JasonM said:
Brothers are pritty good for office use, I have 2 of them here, my first from 10 years ago, and a more recent one. 3rd party ink is cheap, plus you can cover over a sensor on the printer cartridge to make the ink last much longer.

DCP-L2530DW or similar will do the job.

That looks like a really good printer. Thanks. I can see myself using the scanner quite a bit as well. I hadn't thought of that before. I'll have to wait until the end of the month I think but that is certainly I'll look into more closely when I have the money available.

JasonM · 21 Sep 2020 at 17:52

Cromulent said:
That looks like a really good printer. Thanks. I can see myself using the scanner quite a bit as well. I hadn't thought of that before. I'll have to wait until the end of the month I think but that is certainly I'll look into more closely when I have the money available.

There quite versatile home/office printers, print quality is good, reliability good, hardly if ever jam, envelope feeder very useful, the scanner is reasonable quality also. Mine have been quite invaluable for office work.

Quartz · 21 Sep 2020 at 18:03

Hi have a Brother DCP9020CDW. That's a colour printer, of course, but it scans and prints duplex and has served me well for many years.

Cromulent · 21 Sep 2020 at 18:07

Quartz said:
Hi have a Brother DCP9020CDW. That's a colour printer, of course, but it scans and prints duplex and has served me well for many years.

How much does it cost to replace all of the toner cartridges though? That is my only concern when it comes to colour laser printers. Thanks for your reply.

Quartz · 21 Sep 2020 at 19:03

Cromulent said:
How much does it cost to replace all of the toner cartridges though? That is my only concern when it comes to colour laser printers. Thanks for your reply.

A third-party set of all four cartridges (CMYK) cost me £22. Genuine cartridges are £50 each, so £200 for a set. The black cartridge does 2500 sheets, so a genuine cartridge will cost you 2p per monochrome page and a third party 0.2p per monochrome page.

Cromulent · 21 Sep 2020 at 20:16

Quartz said:
A third-party set of all four cartridges (CMYK) cost me £22. Genuine cartridges are £50 each, so £200 for a set. The black cartridge does 2500 sheets, so a genuine cartridge will cost you 2p per monochrome page and a third party 0.2p per monochrome page.

Oh. That is much better than I thought when using third party cartridges. Thank you. I'll have to do some hard thinking on this one. Money is tight and I need to make the right decision. Colour would be nice but it is non-essential. If CMYK third-party cartridges I guess just needing a single black third party toner cartridge would be even cheaper so that comes into my thinking as well.