Color Laser Printers

[CYdTracked]

Looking at possibly buying a color laser printer and wondering if anyone here has one or or has any recommendations on one. Preferably want an all in one model but depending on price it may not be in the budget.

I've gotten my money's worth out of my black and white laser that is still on the original new toner from when I bought the printer used either in 2001 or 2002 for $50 + $100 for the toner. Can only imagine just how much money I saved over the years not buying inkjet cartridges all the time and at a point I have more of a need to print more stuff in color these days.

 

[DJSteve]

I've had a Dell 3100cn color laser since 2005.... it's huge and built like a tank, but I've never once regretted throwing away the inkjet I had previous. (I don't know much about Dell's current offerings, though. Unless something has changed their laser printers used to be re-badged units manufactured by someone else. At the time I got mine they were one of the few "affordable" color lasers)

I've also had really good luck with a few Brother laser all-in-ones; all my direct experience is with monochrome models but have heard decent reports on their color units from others I know.

My parents have had a Samsung color laser for 6-7 years. Samsung are attractive for a home laser because they're very compact, however I wouldn't really recommend them. The toner cartridges are small so print cost seems kinda high, and my parents have had some other durability issues that don't seem acceptable given the limited amount of printing they do.

If you have a Staples or similar store nearby I might suggest going there and looking at stuff in person. They usually have a bunch of printers set up and you can print test pages to compare print quality, speed, and noise level. I might suspect HP and Xerox have stuff that would be worth considering, but it's been a while since I've shopped for one and I don't have much personal experience with those brands.

You may already be aware, but depending on what type of color printing you need to do color lasers typically aren't spectacular for printing photos.

 

[CYdTracked]

Dell printers were made by Lexmark. Used to intern at a place that used Dell and Lexmark almost exclusively and they were piloting some of the first Dell printers which were basically Lexmark printers with some cosmetic tweaks in colors and logo it seemed like. Bought my parents a Lexmark color laser around 2005 I think and between that one and the ones I worked on at the office I am steering clear of them. They eat up toner and have a lot of cheaply made parts that are expensive to replace.

Looking at Canon, Brother, and HP printers mostly but just hoping maybe someone has a certain brand or model they have personal expirience with to share an opinion on. I've worked on a lot of business class printers over the years and feel they usually hold up well but seems like you pay more for that kind of quality too.

 

[CYdTracked]

Digging up this thread from a year ago as I put off this purchase and once again the need has arose that I just need to buy one. Anyone have some recommendations on a decent priced all in one color laser printer for home use? Trying to keep the cost down so the $250-$350 range is my budget.

Not interested in inkjet printers, I don't print frequent enough so the trade-off for paying more up front for a laser is not having to replace ink cartridges constantly as toner will not dry up so will be saving $ over the long haul. I still am on the original black and white cartridge I bought with my black and white laser printer over 15 years ago.

 

[Bader]

I've had a Brother black and white laser printer for years and have been incredibly happy with it. Can't speak to the quality of their color prints but the machine itself is reliable and network printing is great.

 

[kingcy]

I print a lot of color field maps and such and for me the cheap Laser printers are junk. 6 years ago I got an HP Pro ink jet printer because it had the best options for the money and it has been a great printer. The inkjet cartridges are not very expensive if you shop them around on line.

 

[CYdTracked]

I know one thing is that I'll never buy Lexmark again. Between one I bought my parents years ago and the ones I've worked on at the office they are a pain to work on and don't hold up well due to their poor designs. Never worked with a Brother brand printer before but I do hear good things. Leaning towards Canon or HP brands.

Seen several models of the Canon imageClass MF series all in ones that seem to get good reviews when I research them and they fall within the budget I am looking for. I know HP is good quality too but their models tend to run a little more than I'd like to spend. I also get the trade off in prices with an inkjet and laser, there are pros and cons to both types but for the minimal amount of printing I do I think I'd probably save more in the long run with a laser than inkjet even with the higher upfront cost. Probably can get a quality all in one inkjet in the $100-200 range One of the HP inkjet AIO models I found for $150 when I search for replacement cartridges if you go with the HP brand that has all 4 cartridges it's $100 to replace. Right there you'd be up to $250 invested on the printer once the original cartridges dry up and need replaced. I could probably make the original toner in a laser printer last me years before I'd have to replace them so I see some long term value with a laser over inkjet just in the longevity of the consumables alone. I'm sure I can find some knock off compatible brands of ink but I know from 1st hand experience sometimes you get what you pay for when you buy off-brand toner and ink and risk ruining your printer when they leak.

 

[isufbcurt]

I have a Brother MFC-9130CW and love it

 

[intrepid27]

I have a Brother MFC-L3770 and love it.

Had it for 18 months. Bought it after buying a new ink jet every 3 years for the past decade and a half.
Very easy to set up and use.

 

[3TrueFans]

Also have a Brother B&W laserjet for several years now and the thing just works, I think I paid $60 for it and the toner is like $10.

 

[CYdTracked]

Went out to Office Max and Best Buy over lunch to see what they had in store as I like to actually physically look at something like this before a purchase. Was really disappointed with the lack of options they had but that's probably the nature of the beast these days with brick and mortar stores not wanting to stock a lot of inventory.

Office Max had 2 models I liked what I saw that I need to research some:
Canon ImageClass MF743CDW and MF644CDW. Besides price of $279 to $209 main difference I could tell on quick glance was an extra tray and faster printing on the higher model. Funny thing is Best Buy had the MF743 printer at $529 although I need to look at the SKU's closer but even still when I look at their website they have another listed at $364 which is still overpriced. They had a MF642CDW for $349 which I would assume is comparable to the same $209 644 model Office Max has

They had 1 Brother AIO model at BB MFC-L3770CDW for $369 which is what Curt says he has so I need to research it some. Sucks that only Staples in town is either Ankeny and Altoona now as would like to see what they have too in store. Any other retail places that sells office technology in DM that I am not thinking of?

 

[CYdTracked]

I have a Brother MFC-L3770 and love it.

Had it for 18 months. Bought it after buying a new ink jet every 3 years for the past decade and a half.
Very easy to set up and use.

Wound up buying this printer today. Any tips or tricks you have about yours feel free to share as I haven't dug into the settings and features too much yet. Planning to print out our Christmas letter this weekend and did a test run by printing last year's out and the print quality of the photos looks good on just some cheap standard paper. Was really easy to setup and is super quiet, just need to find some kind of stand now to sit it on as the small filing cabinets I have my old printer sitting on are a few inches too narrow for it.

Probably going keep printing black and white on my old (and by old I mean 20 years old by the manufacture date on the back) monochrome laser until that toner runs out but it's nice to finally have a color all in one in the house so we don't have to run somewhere for color copies or photos or have the need to copy or scan something. We usually don't print many photos but I am curious to see how this printer does just for the few that we do once in awhile.

 

[cytech]

In the event you have some issues with your choice, I have been using a HP office Jet Pro 476dw for several years with great success. Ink costs are cheaper than traditional laser printers. Today they are call the HP pagewide pro 477dw.

This is not a laser printer it uses a new inkjet technology that uses a cartridge the size of the page. Which they call page wide printing.

This would be a little above your budget range, but depending on the amount of printing could save money over the life of the printer

 

[spierceisu]

I have an HP Laserjet CP1025nw laser color printer. It has been a good printer for me. It is a low cost printer but does the job for me. I have never had a problem with it. It is not an all in one, but was a good printer for around $200. My only complaint is that it is slow, but I don't print much. I had a lexmark inkjet once and it was complete garbage. Always had good luck with HP. I went to a laser printer since I don't print much at all and my ink cartridges were always drying out from lack of use. I would print something about once every 2 months and would have to buy new ink constantly due to this problem. No problem with this since going to Laser. I found a place online called Inktonerstore.com that I got really cheap toner and it was a legit site. Great experience using them.