I need a printer that won’t break the bank but that will print nice graphics without little lines or dithering or whatnot, especially if I have to print swaths of solid color (those artifacts are noticeable when there’s lots of solid blocks). I have a Canon Pixma G7020 super tank and two HP Smart Tank 6000s.
The Pixma has trouble communicating with the computer and keeps starting/restarting. It also doesn’t print as nicely as the HP Smart Tank.
I was happy with the HP, but they die within 1-2 years each. Not totally dead but their printheads clog up and I am cleaning them every few days. It is wasting so much paper and ink. Tonight, I’ve had it as both HP Smart Tanks are acting up. I can’t afford to keep cleaning and trying to get them to work.
Is color laser the way to go? The toner cartridges are so expensive. I can’t afford that unless they last a long time. Maybe I need another brand of smart tank? What does anyone here recommend? If you know how to fix my problem, that would be great, too. Both HP Smart tanks are printing white horizontal lines, which is cured with lots of printhead cleaning. I have tried cleaning the rollers. Regular printhead cleaning doesn’t work, either. I have to take the printheads out and soak them (per manufacturer’s instructions) and then do a printhead cleaning cycle. Lots of time, lots of paper, lots of ink.
Laser toner cartridges do tend to last a very long time. You may be able to get specifics on that somewhere on the web per brand.
I haven’t bought the actual brand name toner for my 20 something year old Canon laser printer in 10 years. The knockoffs work the same and cost $23. Replace it maybe once every 18 months.
Some newer laser printers won’t allow knockoff toner cartridges to work so do your research there as well.
When it comes to cost, just think about all the printers and tanks you are going through. In the end, laser might be less expensive once you factor everything in, including your frustrations…
I’m sure someone here will chime in with what’s working for them.
Would you describe the print quality as sharp? No artifacts (lines, pixelation, whatever those things are called, etc.)? Even shading, no light/dark blocks where there shouldn’t be?
I’ve seen some affordable laser printers on Amazon, but I read that the toner cartridges cost more than the printers.
You might be able to replace the print heads and save that HP.
Color Laser Printers tend to be a bit higher in cost and color toner costs are usually high as you have probably seen while searching. We got rid of an HP Laser Color Printer because of the cost of the toner cartridges and the fact that they didn’t really last that long (not like a black laser).
We would look for the replacement printer heads for that HP and maybe buy a couple sets just to have longivity.
^^^^^ This. We went to color laser over 10 years ago and will never go back to ink. For someone with medium to low volume, toner lasts forever, and there are no print heads to clog if you don’t use ti every day either. I highly recommend a laser over another inkjet. I still have my original Xerox 6505N from 15 years ago and we still print our soap labels on it which is thousands of prints. I get a whole set of toner for about $60 and it usually includes 2 blacks because you’ll use more of that than any other color.
Think about the point @ASV_Vites made about all the printers and tanks you go through, not to mention when the print heads are clogged when you have an important job to print. That doesn’t happen with a laser.
We have both office printers and an in-house print department, and for our needs, we use laser (toner) for office tasks and inkjet for our product labeling needs.
For the average Joe, laser is going to last better for home office needs, especially if you’re not printing regularly/daily. While there’s hypothetically the chance of the toner losing charge, the average home office printer puts all the change parts on the toner cartridge for ease of user operation.
Resolution/print quality will likely come down to a printer-by-printer comparison. Distortions happen sometimes.
We been using the HP Color LaserJet Pro M454 for many years. Still works great, I’m sure its’ discontinued by now and replaced with a newer model. I find the cheaper refurbished toners work just as well in it.
I see $299 on Amazon for the 3201dw. You got 30 days to test it
It comes down to volume, how much you’re willing/able to put into cleaning it, etc., whether you need a specialty label stock printer. We’re rather fond of our AstroNova printers and label stocks. But you can also get toner label material to run through a standard desktop toner printer. It really comes down to what you want to spend/what quality you want/how much you’re printing daily.
Tabletop/consumer/home inkjet label printing is available at lower daily volume than toner label printing, however you’re going to run into the printhead/cleaning issues you’re used to if you’re not printing daily.
Whenever I get a laser printer the first step is to seeing what 3rd party replacement toners cost!
We have a bunch of old HP Laserjet 1020 & 1022 that still run great.
Tens of thousands of pages printed.
Brand name toner $105 each (outrageous) 3rd party toner $10!
We print all our product labels on the laser - matte finish and gloss clear labels for our ingredient panel and the quality is stunning. Keep in mind this printer is 15 years old and the new tech is much better now. Laser labels don’t smear or run if they get wet either.
I used to print shipping labels and bar codes on that printer until we got our thermal printer and they were also top quality. You can’t beat a laser for text IMHO.
Belatedly - I do not own stock in or get paid to promote AstroNova, blahblah, disclaimer. It’s just a brand that we’ve stuck with longer than others at work. I have passed the edit window or I’d just put that in the post.
I would never consider an inkjet printer and am surprised you used one long enough to wear it out. The ink isn’t colorfast and at risk for any moisture. The cost is higher than b/w laser toner. The need for color is infrequent for me.
I have an HP color laser sitting around waiting to be dropped off at recycling. Don’t need the color, the cost of new HP cartridges is outrageous. Every refiller I have tried cannot maintain quality on their cartrodges. Tired of leaky cartrigest
I like a lot of the OSFE old timers use brother b/w lasers. Cheap OEM cartridges, super cheap off brand cartridges. Good quality print, long cartridge life.
I would echo the owners of OLDER laser printers, prior to every firmware update disabling another brand of knock-off toner (read Cory Doctorow’s writings on the “ensh*ttification” of printers, if you’d like to get angry about something). However, it’s hard to find older laser printers for this reason. I would similarly stay away from the color laser printers … they now require ALL cartridges be at least half full (the point at which they flash “out of ink”) even if all you want to print is black. I hate Brother with the fire of a 1000 suns at the moment.
I don’t know about the tanks, but with inkjets, when they start requiring constant “self-cleaning”, I’d remove the cartridges, put some rubbing alcohol on a QTip, and rub the ink off the “nipples” inside. That often fixes the problem.
I usually go to ebay & look for old printers with LOW page counts.
Then I offer half and see if anyone bites. Usually, you’ll find a seller just wanting to get rid of it for half price instead of it sitting around for a few more years gathering dust and becoming more outdated.