[distan]

Im in the market for a monochrome laser printer.
Can anyone recommend any that they've had for over a year now that has been reliable with low operating costs. I had read some good initial reports about the Samsung ML1710, but after 12 months some were complaining about banding and drum replacement costs for example.
Basically, Im after something cheapish - to purchase and run. I dont have high printing demands, but my inkjet (Canon s520) is just too expensive for everyday printing now. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Im running Panther on a dual 867 G4 PM
Cheers

[griffman]

I have a Brother HL-1270N that we've had for a couple years. We don't print a ton of stuff, but the toner was just replaced for the first time -- I found that fairly impressive. Toner was $70, not bad for two years of printing (though I can't tell you how many pages we printed).
-rob.

[Martian]

If you do less than, say, 3000 pages per year get the cheapest laser on sale/rebate/promotion. Samsung and Brother seem to have models that are almost priced as throwaways like bottom end inkjets. Of course watch for the b] partially filled starter cartridge ripoff.
If you intend to do higher volume, you must do more research into toner and drum costs per page.
Some or all of the Lexmarks use replacement cartridges that replace the drum and toner supply as a unit. These cartridges can be ordered on-line directly from Lexmark on their prebate program (they take back the core for rebuilding). So there is never a separate drum replacement.
I suspect that the drum/toner unit cartridge is considerably cheaper than separate replacements, and certainly easier. The Lexmark cartridge removal and replacement process takes 10 seconds, 15 seconds if you use only one hand.
Of course, Lexmark, and HP tend to have higher initial purchase prices.

[Martian]

In reply to:

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though I can't tell you how many pages we printed

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griffman, check your manual. At least some if not all lasers keep track of page count. There may be some button pressing combo that will cause the printer to print out its stats.