Home
Newsletter December - Buying a Colour Laser Printer
Welcome again to The Cartridge Family Newsletter
Positive Printer and Cartridge News to save you time, money and stress
Considering a Colour Laser Printer? Read on for some important tips!
What to look for when deciding to buy a Colour Laser Printer
Most families and small businesses start colour printing with an inkjet printer. The upside of inkjet printers is that they are cheap to buy, and often, great on the cash flow to operate. However, the downside is that the cartridges seem to run out very quickly, particularly when the printed page is covered in colour images.
When the downsides present themselves, many people start to consider the purchase of a colour laser printer. But the range is so great, and the options so varied, so the decision is often put off whilst they continue to spend money on the inefficient inkjet printer.
4 Starter Questions When Deciding to Buy a Colour Laser Printer
1. How many pages would you print in a month (both mono and colour)?
Printers have maximum duty cycles. This is the maximum number of pages that the printer is recommended to print on a monthly basis. Printing less is ok, but printing more may place a strain on the hardware and cause problems. Many lower end laser printers do not have a fan, and whilst that is great for peace on the ear, the printers can get quite hot and bothered as they overheat after a few pages are printed in one go. One basic rule of thumb is to choose a printer that has a duty cycle of at least twice your expected monthly printing requirement.
2.What is your maximum buy price?
Colour laser printers start at about $500 and range almost infinitely up from there. It is advisable to find the model that you wish to buy and simply shop around for the best price. Talk to your friendly printer cartridge supplier or printer technician, they may even be able to source it at an even better price than some of the large corporates.
3. What is your consumables budget?
Colour laser printers use 4 separate cartridges - Black, Cyan Magenta and Yellow. And some printers don't use toner, but use wax sticks. Some printers also need additional consumables such as drums and fuser units (more information below).
If you were replacing two $50 inkjet cartridges (one black and one tricolour, or one black and 3 single colours at $25 each) once a month, and printing approximately 200 pages per month, would you be comfortable replacing 4 cartridges (black, cyan magenta and yellow) at $100 - 140 each every 10 months?
4. Would you buy outright, Hire Purchase or use other credit terms?
All printer suppliers have the ability to put you in contact with someone who can offer you terms of credit on your printer purchase. Some of the advantages of this process are tax related and cash flow related. The disadvantage is purely that you will, in the end, pay a little more for your printer.
Large corporate and retailers require you to buy your printer "upfront". Other companies may be happy to invoice you for your purchase, enabling you to pay on your normal payment cycle (7 days, 30 days etc).
More factors to consider whilst you are researching your new purachase.
- Calculate the cost per page on the printers that interest you (take the RRP of the cartridges and divide that into the page yield that they print - eg. $140 / 2000 = $0.07 per page. As a rule of thumb, an inkjet printer will often cost around 10c per page to print (and more) and a colour laser will mostly be between 5c and 9c per page.
- Many colour laser printers have additional consumables that need to be replaced. For example, a printer might have inexpensive toner tubes that are under $100, but also have a maintenance kit, fuser unit and drum unit that last for every 5 to 10 cartridges. These items can price in the many hundreds of dollars and need to be factored into both your budget / cash flow, and your cost per page analysis.
- Some colour laser printers include the drum in their cartridges. (The drum is the part that picks up the image from the computer, magnetises the toner onto it, and passes it to the paper, ready to be heated on by the fuser unit). This means that you are paying a little more for the cartridge, but there are no costly additional drums to buy.
- Colour laser printers don't print photographs very well. You may need to run your inkjet concurrently to print photos.
How else can I glean other info about certain printers or brands?
Talk to your friendly printer cartridge supplier and your printer technician. Often problems and highlights are known by these guys. For example, a printer cartridge supplier will be able to name a couple of brands that appear to cost their customers more, more often, than others, simply because those customers complain! And your technician can tell you which brands require the most servicing and have the most common problems.
***
All in all, printing colour pages from a colour laser printers results in an amazingly professional outcome, far superior to a standard inkjet printer. By using the above guide, it is possible to make your purchase as easy as possible, giving you the printing results that reflect your hard work and efforts.
If you have any other printer, cartridge or register roll queries:
CALL 1300 1 TONER (1300 186637)
Our friendly team will be delighted to assist!
The Cartridge Family
Helping you Prevent CART Attack
C Check your Printer Vitals Regularly
A Always Keep a Back-Up
R Remember to Call 1300 1 TONER (1300 186637)
T Trust The Cartridge Family - We'll Look After You
Next page: Ink Jet Printers and Cartridges
Web Design: