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Wanted: Colour laser printer advice
Topic Started: Aug 24 2016, 01:33 PM (293 Views)
jvenables
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Hawk
[ * ]
I am considering buying a colour laser printer but I have no idea what is available and what is good value, so thought I'd throw the question in here.

It will be strictly for home use, so does not need to have a high speed, high paper volume, fax connection or any other bells and whistles. I am essentially looking for something that is small, reasonably priced and has a good colour output.

It is not for necessarily decal production, but at some stage I may want to dabble with a few home made decals.

Any suggestions or experiences?
James from Brisbane, Australia
Now living in Laos

Nil illegitimi carborundum
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Greenshirt
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Tim Holland, Southern MD - USA
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For the price, my experience has been that inkjets work just fine. Very cheap up front costs, and almost cheap enough to replace when you run out of ink. The real costs are in replacement ink cartridges. I've used a Canon for 3 years now, got the ink in bulk online. It doubles as a scanner which is good for transferring the odd mag article to my archives.

I've used my inkjet to test print, then gone to Staples to final print my decals. I do that once in a blue moon though...

Laser printers really are only necessary if you do a lot of printing, as the printer is faster, and more durable.

But if you insist, Dell makes an affordable color Laser printer. It's rated well online in terms of performance vs price. "Better" seems to triple in price.

Tim
Tim Holland

I'm a "green shirt" because I work on the carrier's flight deck and maintain US Navy aircraft. Safe sorties are my life so we can be anywhere, anytime -- from the Sea.

http://greenshirt-modeler.blogspot.com/
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Starfighter Decals
Hero
[ * ]
If you want a printer to print decals, outside of the Alps, you need what is called a "LED" Laser printer. Dell makes a nice one, but the toner will kill you and it's the only source for it. I used an Otaki one for years. c5200 if I remember correctly. The toner was a good value (1000 sheets average) and was very reliable. I just wore them out, printing 4-5000 pages a month for 5 years. The replacement/newer model was outside my price range, so I went the Dell route and only use it sparingly (>20 pages per month).

My daily printer is a Epson WP-4020. Had two of them so far. Street price is around $150. Ink is reasonable, easy to find on ebay for $20 or so. Several versions even use 6 or 8 ink tanks for a rainbow of pastel and grays colors for professional photo printing, all for a very reasonable price.
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erussell
C'est
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For general printing there are lots of guides on the net. Generally, as above, decals are a specialised field. I would avoid anything made by Hewlett-Packard who used to be a good company.
Ed Russell at www.redroomodels.com
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Big Kohona
Hero
[ * ]
. .
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jvenables
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Hawk
[ * ]
Sincere thanks for the suggestions and comments so far, but I did say I'm looking for a laser printer (not an inkjet) and that printing decals is not the reason why I want a new printer (though it is possible that I may want to try decal printing some day).

The main reason why I want laser over inkjet is quite simple: I live in SE Asia where we have high humidity all year round (slightly lower for a few weeks during our brief winter) and a monsoon season that lasts 6-7 months. It is therefore impossible to keep printer paper completely dry and paper that has absorbed moisture never allows a sharp print quality from an inkjet. There is always a "smudging" effect which may only be obvious under a magnifying glass, but it is enough to give less than stellar prints. This is not necessarily always a problem but there are occasions when a page needs to be printed that is professional, sharp and blemish-free such as when my wife needs a print of the scan of a title deed for some land she is buying or selling, or when I need to print a map or technical report for a client.

I currently have a rather old (about 11 years) HP Deskjet for colour and an almost as old Canon monochrome laser printer for black & white but they are both on their last legs, so I'm thinking that a colour laser is the best option for a replacement. Toner cost is fairly minimal here, as I can get very cheap refills across the border in Thailand.

I have had a look at a few online review sites but some of these seem to contradict eachother and most seem to focus on aspects of the printers that are of little importance to me such as their wireless connection, output speed, etc. This is why I thought I'd seek genuine opinions from like minded folk who have used colour laser printers in a similar manner that I will.

Ed, I'm also curious to know what problems you have had with HP. My last two laptops have been Compaq/HP products and I have had HP printers and scanners both here and in Australia over the last decade or more and never had any specific issues. The only gripe I have ever had is that genuine HP inkjet cartridges seem to be more expensive than most other brands.
James from Brisbane, Australia
Now living in Laos

Nil illegitimi carborundum
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Mark Schynert
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Yeast
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Big Kohona,Aug 25 2016
10:46 AM
Isn't it funny, I have several HP products (a printer/scanner/fax, a separate scanner and several monitors, including my current one) and have had no problems or complaints.  They've all lasted me and the only reason I replaced them was out of choice or when I updated my OS and I could not get driver's for the device.

This is pretty much my experience with their printers, and I ride my printers hard, especially the color laser.

I will say, however, that one should be careful *which* HP printer one gets. Look at user reviews, and you will see that some models are dogs, others very good. This generally correlates to price, and ink jets tend to behave less well than lasers. So if anyone wants an inkjet color printer, I'd be sure to check the HP offerings very carefully, and perhaps go elsewhere. I do have a color inkjet (inherited) from HP which prints lovely photos--I don't use it for anything else. I don't know if it's cost-effective, since I didn't buy it, but it goes through ink a lot faster than the color laser goes through toner.

And all that said, I do not print decals, though I've got some decal paper (laser)--just haven't seen anything yet that I needed badly enough to fill up a whole sheet.
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erussell
C'est
[ * ]
Big Kohona,Aug 25 2016
08:46 PM
What sort of problems have you experienced?

I have had a fair number of HP products starting in the 80's with a dot matrix printer and moving on to scanners etc - all excellent pieces of equipment. However the 6000 series printer has to be one of the worst things I have owned. Decent quality print when it works but frequent breakdowns, unavailable spare parts and evasion of responsibility for warranty. Extremely poor customer service but this may be country-specific. They were forced by consumer protection authorities (ACCC) to refund purchase price to hundreds of buyers and I still feel it was poor value at $0.00...!

I can't help with laser recommendations.

I do my limited amount of decal printing on an early Alps.
Ed Russell at www.redroomodels.com
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dknights
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The court of LAST RESORT!
[ * ]
Starfighter Decals,Aug 24 2016
03:18 PM
If you want a printer to print decals, outside of the Alps, you need what is called a "LED" Laser printer. Dell makes a nice one, but the toner will kill you and it's the only source for it. I used an Otaki one for years. c5200 if I remember correctly. The toner was a good value (1000 sheets average) and was very reliable. I just wore them out, printing 4-5000 pages a month for 5 years. The replacement/newer model was outside my price range, so I went the Dell route and only use it sparingly (>20 pages per month).

My daily printer is a Epson WP-4020. Had two of them so far. Street price is around $150. Ink is reasonable, easy to find on ebay for $20 or so. Several versions even use 6 or 8 ink tanks for a rainbow of pastel and grays colors for professional photo printing, all for a very reasonable price.

I think you meant Okidata not Otaki. :lol:

I had an Okidata laser for years. Great printer.
David M. Knights
Fortes fortuna adiuvat

14 Finished: Special Armor V-2, Airfix P-51
15 Finished: SBS Gladiator engine
16 Finished: Brengun C2 Wasserfall, Merit SS-N-2 Styx, World's smallest diorama, Airfix Hurricane.
17 Finished: Japanese Carrier Deck, Belcher SS-4, Italeri AB41, PLAN Type 039A (not 72nd scale)
18 Finished: NONE
The bench:Platz T-33, Trump. T-34/85, Meng F-106, Airfix P-51 #2, Airfix P-40
Revell MiG-21F-13, Ace Citroen V-11
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