Colour laser printers

[dickm]

My second Samsung CLP315 has developed the dreaded "red light permanently on" and none of the recognised fixes seem to help. So it looks like it's time to let the moths out of the wallet and get a new one. Problem is, which? It will probably only be doing 20-50 A4 pages per week, but need to be able to do colour posters and similar. Thinking to spend not more than £150 if possible, and would prefer a machine where it's not necessary to take out a mortgage for new toner. According to Which, the newer model of the Samsung are recommended, but after bad experience with two............?
Alternatively, is there anyone who can be a**ed to repair laser printers? Or any more suggestions?

 

[ardenwoodcraft]

Hi,

I have a Brother laser printer and find them better than inkjet printers for occasional use when they are going to be left unused for long periods.

Have you checked your fuser and waste toner tanks?? If these need replacing it will be cheaper than buying a new printer. Lots of people think that laser printers only need toners replacing, but there is also a fuser oil cartridge that is good for about 5 - 10 thousand copies before it runs out. it's what fixes the toner on to the paper to create the printed image.

There is also a waste toner tank that may need replacing, it's what stops your printed images from being smeared with the previous printed image when you send a new print job to the printer.

If these are in order then it's probably electrical, in which case a new printer may be the best option!

Hope this helps,
Regards,
Dave.

 

[Racers]

We use HPs at work they seem to last well and be reliable.

Fuser oil, not come across that before, looks like its just Xerox machines that have it, the fuser, fuses the toner powder on to the paper.


Pete

 

[RogerS]

HP Laserjet 100 color MFP M175nw...superb printer, scanner and colour or b&w copier. It even has a sheet-feeder. Stacks of excellent software comes with it. Network cable or wifi. So, so many features and facilities. You can even set it up so that you can print on it from a remote location...not quite sure why you'd want to do that but it does work.

 

[dickm]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Yes, I've dealt with the waste tanks but not yet looked at the fuser roller. Have the feeling that buying spares for the Samsung may be good money after bad
Don't really want an "all in one" - have no use for fax and prefer a separate scanner as mine gets used for photo work as well. But it does sound as if HP may be a good brand.
Wondering if the lads (and they are all lads, not a woman in sight) at the Aberdeen Hackerspace might like the challenge of printer repair!

 

[Harbo]

Doesn't get a very good review

http://mobile.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/p ... nw-review/

Rod

 

[RogerS]

Doesn't get a very good review

http://mobile.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/p ... nw-review/

Rod

Maybe they had an early version. The print quality is excellent. Delay before the print comes out? Anyone would think they were talking hours !! It comes out very quickly. Price of laser toner? Why buy HP? I just bought a set of five (two black and the three colours for under £40 and they all work well. Sometimes I wonder what planet these reviewers are on!

 

[RogerBoyle]

Doesn't get a very good review

http://mobile.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/p ... nw-review/

Rod

Maybe they had an early version. The print quality is excellent. Delay before the print comes out? Anyone would think they were talking hours !! It comes out very quickly. Price of laser toner? Why buy HP? I just bought a set of five (two black and the three colours for under £40 and they all work well. Sometimes I wonder what planet these reviewers are on!

Sometimes the reviewers do get it correct
My Printer for the home is the HP laserjet 200 colour MFP M276 WN
Again it has all the bells and whistles, wirless ,Fax, remote operation, scan ,copy etc. etc. but god help you if you do not use HP Toners
The prints all produce streaks on them switch it back over to a HP cartridge and perfect printouts are once again achieved
I have tried 3 different sources for compatibles but it made no difference

The Printer that it replaced a Dell is still going strong on my workshop and it uses nothing but compatibles at a grand cost of £32 for the 4

 

[dejaa]

Hi
Personally I would have a Lexmark C540n and have never had any problems with it. Yes I acknowledge the cartridges are a bit pricey, but given the number of prints you mentioned that's not of great concern.

I run my own computer based imaging software company up until I took early retirement and became a cabinetmaker, I've had Lexmark printers over 30 years and they work - also you can talk to them and get voice help, something most big companies seem reluctant to do these days. I think the C540n or it's replacement is in your price range

David

 

[Racers]

Lexmark printers for over 30 years! wow so from before the firm was founded in 1991!

:wink:

Pete

 

[dickm]

Anyone got the Oki C110? The local Digital Croft (!) said it looked good value, and my daughter has had an older model of this for a lot of years.

 

[dejaa]

Lexmark printers for over 30 years! wow so from before the firm was founded in 1991!

Well spotted, you're correct of course, but Lexmark didn't just materialise overnight from nowhere; it was a spin-off from IBM, who'd been making laser printers since the "3800" in 1976, but somehow that seemed a bit too pretentious to make comment about for someone asking for buying advise, so I genaralised.

:wink:

Pete

 

[Racers]

Yep i remember the old IBM ones, the daisy wheel ones and the ones with a thermal head and ribbon, can't remember what they where called!


Pete

I remembered Quietwriter!

 

[g.m.alexander]

Have a look at the brother office printers, I have an inkjet fax scanner, copier which cost less than £100:00 from PC world its been running close to your specs for the last 18mths without any problems and the inks are cheaper on line. regards picture quality it actually prints greater quality than many cheeper lasers.

 

[DiscoStu]

There's an old quote in IT "Nobody ever got fired for buying an HP printer"

We used to only use HP, we are now all xerox across our estate but I'd still recommend HP for home use. I can also recommend Lexmark - good value for money. Actually as I type I am thinking that I have a Lexmark B&W that is about 7 years old and it's still perfect. We never had great results with a brother that we had. With printers, manufacturers make their money on the toner, so look at what the cost per page is. It should be worked out on a 5% coverage per page. So look at the cost of a 2000 page cartridge for all the printers you like. Also be are that nearly all printers come supplied with a very low yield ink or toner cartridge. Again it forces you to buy toner. I don't know if it is still true but at one point ink cost more per gram than gold.

The more expensive the printer, the cheaper the cost per page so worth working out how many pages you'll print over 3 years, add that to the cost of the printer. Do the same for all the printers you're looking at and you'll get an idea of the real cost.

 

[dickm]

Possibly the wrong decision, but finally bought another Samsung (a 410) from John Lewis on the grounds that the two year warranty is easier to deal with locally. It seems to work fine, although colour print quality isn't quite as good as the older model. Everything has been made lighter, presumably for cost cutting, but no doubt sold as being "easy to move around".

So now have a couple of the older ones sitting round taking up space and wondered if anyone had ever had one of these things repaired? Ideally, needs a guy who is happy to cannibalise two in hopes of making one useable one, but obviously not a good idea to throw much money at it.

Any thoughts? (Or, ideally, the name of a genius in Aberdeen who can work miracles with these things!)