Laser vs InkJet printers.

[The Theory]

I have an inkjet printer (with ink tanks on the side) that print heads clog out every once in while. 500baht every time for cleaning and the guy says that I must use it at least once a week (😆),otherwise this is going to happen again (500). I'm not sure if replacing printheads is right thing to do and it will work for long. 

How you deal with your inkjet (do you have the same problem or it's only mine 🤔) or do you own a laser ? 

I decided to buy a B&W laser. HP or Brother? 
 

[Dmaxdan]

I have a Brother laser printer (scanner copier) simply because I don't use it very often and it never dries out or becomes blocked. It's ready to go any time I need it.

[Crossy]

Yup ^^^.

 

Lasers print first time, every time! 

 

OK, once ours didn't, but that's because a jinjok who wasn't fast enough went through the fuser, it took a couple of sheets before his ghost didn't appear on prints.

[zhounan]

CW loves my laser-printed ekkasan

[impulse]

20 years ago, I bought an HP laser printer and an HP scanner and came to find out that the drivers could not both be run on the same PC.  Incompatible.  So I've been a never-HP guy since then, and I don't miss them a bit.  Too many better choices.

 

I like Brother lasers...  Never had a problem with any of the half dozen I own in different locations, even the cheapies.  Epsons are okay, too.  But they come with way too much bloatware.

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

We have had a series of inkjet printers going back many years, primarily for the children to use for school projects and the like. The printers would sit unused long enough that the only remedy was to take them to the shop and have new printer heads installed. Our current inkjet/scanner, an Epson L4260, is the only one that we have had that has been able to successfully self-clean the printer heads after sitting for several weeks. 

 

As a backup, I bought a cheap Brother monochrome laser printer that I can use for documents so I don't have to worry about having to take a printer to the shop to unclog printer heads if I need to quickly print something important.

[connda]

I changed to laser printers years ago and have never looked back.

[connda]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

Yup ^^^.

 

Lasers print first time, every time! 

 

OK, once ours didn't, but that's because a jinjok who wasn't fast enough went through the fuser, it took a couple of sheets before his ghost didn't appear on prints.

Did you have to replace the toner cartridge?  Poor little dude. 

[Crossy]

1 minute ago, connda said:

Did you have to replace the toner cartridge?  Poor little dude. 

 

Nah, his ghost finally faded. All rather sad really, a perfect 2-D representation of a jinjok 😞 

[OneMoreFarang]

Because I use my printer only seldom, I bought a laser printer for that reason.

 

There is no problem if you don't use a laser printer for a few months or even longer.

But be aware that toner doesn't last forever. I once worked in an office where they had a big central later printer and everybody had a personal laser printer on their desk. One woman basically never used her personal laser printer. After years, the toner just faded away. When she printed it was never black because the toner was not black anymore.

As far as I know that takes years. But it happens. 

 

For all printers are the consumable materials the expensive part - not the initial cost. 

[xtrnuno41]

Brother now also quite some time now) have LED laser printers, they have some advantages to laser.

I believe they have in their name an "L" as for LED. As most common they call it after all laser printers.

For instance : Brother DCP-L3550CDW all-in-one A4 laserprinter

[The Theory]

42 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

For all printers are the consumable materials the expensive part - not the initial cost. 

Cartridges were expensive and after market cartridges did not worth refill even once. I refilled the original cartridge 2 times (each time about more than 500 copies), but little by little it got lines on its drum (appear on copies). So 2 times refill max.

[Kinnock]

I'm an infrequent user of an Epson ink tank printer, and each time I want to use it the print head is blocked for at least one color.  Fortunately Epson have a 'power clean' option buried in the maintenance menu, and this gets it working again.  

 

But next time I'll go for a laser printer.

 

[The Theory]

56 minutes ago, xtrnuno41 said:

Brother DCP-L3550CDW all-in-one

Too expensive for me (using for immigration only 🤔). It's about 14000b. 

[KhunBENQ]

Brother Laser Printer/All in one, DCP 1510. Cheap toner refill. Lasts me forever. Have it since at least 6 years.

Switch on, print and no hassle.

 

Makes me cringe when I remember taking care of the granddaughters HP ink printer.

 

Did you read what HP now practices with the ink printers?

Printing subscription, minimum amount of printed pages per time-span, disabling infrequently used printers, improved method to block printing with 3rd party cartridges...

Laughable reasoning for original cartridges: 3rd party cartridges could carry viruses!!

I would show the finger for that.

 

Edited January 31 by KhunBENQ

[The Theory]

27 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Brother Laser Printer/All in one, DCP 1510. Cheap toner refill.

I checked it out on Lazada, ฿3800. Very nice for the price and cartridge is cheap as well. I shall buy this. 
thanks a lot 👍

Edited January 31 by The Theory

[Mutt Daeng]

I only need to print immigration stuff, so a Brother HL-1110 mono laser is good enough for me. Cost 1850 baht in July 2018 and I replaced the toner cartridge with a generic cartridge In Nov 2023 which cost 350 baht on Lazada. My previous printers were Epson/Canon Inkjets and I eventually got sick of pissfarting about with the cartridges/tank.

Edited February 1 by Mutt Daeng

[HappyExpat57]

As a teacher, I go through about three reams of paper per week and print double-sided. I use a Brother DCP-T520W with toner reservoirs and have been very happy with it. The color prints I use very sparingly as they print really slowly. Toner is always available on Lazada. The only problem is about a 3% roller failure where it pulls in more than one page for print so I have to check each time to make sure I don't have any blanks. Other than that, it's been a tried and true little work horse.

[The Theory]

2 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

only need to print immigration stuff, so a Brother HL-1110 mono laser is good enough for me.

But I guess better to have with WiFi and print wireless. Easy to print from phone. 

[connda]

With laser printers you pay more up-front, but the cost per printed page is a fraction of the cost of ink-jets.  So long-term, a laser printer is far cheaper than an inkjet to run and maintain.  I did that 'cost-benefit' analysis regarding "cost per page" years ago which is why I switched for good.  I recently purchased a combination printer/bed-scanner laser printer to replace my old mono-colored Brothers HL-1110.  I'm still using the the first B&W replacement toner cartridge I purchase to replace the original tone cartridge in the HL-1110 in my new printers.  The tone cartridge that came with the new printer is in a drawer unopen and brand new.  Whatever year the old toner cartridge runs out, I'll have a spare to replace it.

[BigStar]

3 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

I only need to print immigration stuff, so a Brother HL-1110 mono laser is good enough for me.

 

Yeah, me too. Reliable, known workhorse, replacement cartridges readily available--if ever need one, ha ha. Linux-friendly. Wired, I never print from my phone.

 

I like a separate scanner, too. Already outlasted my previous printer.

[Mutt Daeng]

6 hours ago, The Theory said:

8 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

only need to print immigration stuff, so a Brother HL-1110 mono laser is good enough for me.

But I guess better to have with WiFi and print wireless. Easy to print from phone. 

Agreed. However, even though the HL-1110 has no inbuilt network capability, I currently have my HL-1110 configured as a "network" printer. This is done by attaching the printer (via usb cable) to the USB port on my Asus AC86U router, which acts as a print server, allowing any device (windows/mac/ubuntu) on my network to send prints to it.

https://www.asus.com/us/support/faq/114024/

I've never needed to print from my phone. Update: Just discovered that my Nuc mini pc running Ubuntu on the same network has detected the HL-1110, so I can now print from it as well.

Edited February 1 by Mutt Daeng
added text

[Pouatchee]

I had a brand new fujixerox color printer. Did not use for a while. When I finally needed it it did not work. I printed less than 500 copies and it died. Sent it for service and nothing they could do. This was the 2nd fuji i bought... never again. Crap company, warranty and products. Avoid at all cost.

[FolkGuitar]

I've been happy with my Canon inkjet printer for years. Great for documents, but only good (not great) for photos. With built-in bulk ink tanks, the cost of ink is a non-issue. For maintenance, I print out a test sheet once a week. No big deal. If there is an ink blockage, Canon's software has four different settings to clear it quickly and easily with the click of a mouse.

We just don't print enough to justify the expense of a laser printer, and not in business any longer so no need for that level of quality.

Edited February 15 by FolkGuitar