Has anyone used one that worked out well? Even just a brand recommendation would be nice...

The main things I need are:

1 - Good scanner quality
2 - Strong photo print quality (which I realize inkjets do better)

10/13/2013 12:50:34 PM

Paging fregac...

[Edited on October 13, 2013 at 1:22 PM. Reason : n00bed all over myself]

10/13/2013 1:21:23 PM

Yeah I was about to just PM him, but figured I'd open the discussion a bit...

10/13/2013 1:26:01 PM

I made the mistake of buying a color laser a couple of years ago and I have regretted that decision. I have an HP laserjet pro and the color toners cost me $80 each ($240 total) for every ~2000 pages. Refills are about half price, but the quality takes a big hit when you refill toner. Also keep in mind some toner printers require a separate drum unit to be replaced every few toner replacements, which add up to more $$.

Unless you are running a business that prints 10,000+ pages per month, get the HP 8600 office jet pro plus ($200, amazon).

It's an all in one color printer, great photo quality, and the XL cartridge for the black ink can do up to 2300 pages and only costs $40. The color inks are $35 each for the XL and can do ~1000 pages each. It's also wireless, networkable, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Officejet-Wireless-Printer-Scanner/dp/B005O55U2Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381759541&sr=8-2&keywords=hp+8600

10/14/2013 10:10:01 AM

The biggest question here is what kind of volume you're talking about. Once I know that I can throw out a few suggestions. The biggest thing to avoid are the all in one color lasers marketed toward small businesses and home offices (AKA most of what you can buy at places like Staples) . . . . they have horrible toner capacity, poor quailty, and no reliability. Trick is to buy a used enterprise grade machine, for instance an LJ3600 series multifunction prints in the neighborhood of 8k pages per toner (which are pretty reasonable), does so quickly, and easily handles 20k+ pages/month.

10/15/2013 10:54:29 PM

Volume is pretty low...we'll call it 20-30 pages per day.

And I really do need the All-In-One functionality...they do a lot of scanning. Is the LJ3600 a multifunction? Can you find a link for one?

[Edited on October 16, 2013 at 9:53 AM. Reason : ^ thanks, I really want a laser but i'll consider that one]

10/16/2013 9:51:12 AM

Issue I have seen with recent color lasers is that they are becoming more affordable...But in doing so the manufacturers are increasing consumables costs.

Toner costs more... and it seems like the new units have fusers and other parts that need to be replaced every 5-10k pages...Some of the older units would run forever without needing to be changed...

10/17/2013 8:39:33 AM

^ That's a fair point...though I can't imagine many need anything other than toner every 5-10k pages.

10/21/2013 1:50:08 PM

synapse: if you're only printing 300 pages a month perhaps an inkjet would be a better option. Color lasers are awesome, but if you want a good multifunction model the price goes up 4-5x as opposed to just a printer. Higher supply cost but literally no up-front investment for inkjet versus high up front cost and then nearly no supply cost for laser. If you're printing under 1k pages a month inkjet wins for price and quality . . . and the one FloppyD3dot5 linked is an excellent choice.

10/23/2013 2:06:48 AM

Quote :

"if you want a good multifunction model the price goes up 4-5x as opposed to just a printer"

It's not my money I'm spending here . It's a small business...I'll try to get a better idea of their volume. Thanks!

10/23/2013 1:11:16 PM

I'm sure JBaz would build you one if you ask nicely

10/23/2013 1:35:41 PM