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Advice on Cheap, Reliable Network Laser Printer

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pagreen

Technical User
Jun 2, 2003
44
US
In my office, we have a Microsoft Server and about 15 networked LaserJet 4+s, with a few 5s thrown in. Although cheap to run and generally reliable, they are 20 years old and showing their age. I would like to start replacing them with newer laser printers, preferably all-in-ones (we do a lot of scanning these days). While there are some pretty inexpensive all-in-one laser printers out there (some of which are even iPad compatible, which is a real plus), I question their reliability as well as the cost of supplies. On the LJ4+s, the only consumable is the toner cartridge, which can be had very cheaply. Furthermore, since the printers are all compatible, I only need to stock one set of toner cartridges--a real savings. The newer printers seem to require drum replacement as well as toner cartridges, and they often seem to have "kill switches" that knock them out after a certain number of pages. Not good. I Suggestions for worthy replacements for the LJ4+s greatly appreciated.
 
Our Brother MFC-7840W has been doing fairly well.
Yeah, it's been warning us about the drum for quite a while, but we have a spare on hand, and it's still working ok.
It's sort of trailing edge now, I guess, but toner is still available.



 
As a Xerox vendor, my reply might seem a bit bias. if you can get your hands on some inexpensive hp multifunction LaserJet printers off of Ebay or Amazon, I would try to do that. Then you can buy generic supplies to save on costs. Having said that,

You might want to do a "printer audit" to see how many pages, how much toner per page, how much it costs to print on a page by page basis. Several manufacturers have "cost per page" programs that seem to be cheaper now than 5 or 6 years ago. The reason for this is because the equipment is getting cheaper, and the toner is getting more expensive.

I offer cost per print programs where there is a service contract where all Parts & Labor, Toner supplies are bundled into a single price per page. We can do this remotely across the country because of software that can communicate with Printer equipment and report back how many pages are printed to charge on the credit card. Xerox does this well because they don't care how much toner coverage is on a printed page. So in theory, you could have a 10,000 page cartridge, and print double or triple the amount of toner per page.. which would drastically reduce your yield... Xerox won't care and only charge the flat fee. which is nice. They also do this on color equipment as well.

We have a client who has a color printer in Boston Massachusetts, that prints for 2 cents black and 15 cents per color page.. unlimited supplies and support. Hope by reply helps.

David Drury
AA Universal Toners & Technologies LLC
Xerox IT Channel Partner
401-495-1000
 
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