Understand the Advantages of Laser Printers

Does your inkjet printer run out of ink a lot? Cartridges dry up? Do you spend a lot on ink? Read on and find out why you should consider a laser printer.

Steps

  1. Understand the advantages of owning a laser printer rather than an inkjet printer. Here are some of the advantages:

    • A laser printer requires no ink. Laser printers use toner, which is plastic and iron particles which melt to the paper with special heated rollers called a fuser unit. No ink means nothing to "dry up". With a laser printer, you can take that vacation knowing that you will have a working printer when you get back. You won't need a new set of cartridges when you come back because they dried up during your absence.
    • Laser printers are far cheaper to operate. It is a well known fact that vendors give inkjet printers away knowing that they will make lots of money on the ink. Laser printers may cost more up front, but the cost per page is a little as a tenth of what it is for inkjet printers.
    • Laser printers offer waterproof printing. Ever had the ink smear when it got wet? Doesn't happen with a laser printer - plastic is melted to the sheet and is completely water-proof.
    • Print quality is better. You can "feel" and see the difference. Laser printers are the standard for professionally printed letters. Ever notice how nice that letter is that you got from your doctor or lawyer's office? It was printed on a laser printer. You can really feel the difference.
  2. Be aware that the consumables (toner) for the laser printer last a long, long time. It is common to be able to print several thousand sheets on a single toner cartridge. The bigger the model of printer, the more you can print per cartridge and lower cost per page. Average laser printers cost around 3 cents per page.
  3. Be price savvy. Laser printers can offer outstanding color at reasonable prices. Color laser printers are widely available to the masses for as little as USD$200. Expect to have a larger printer than the inkjet, but the benefits are well worth it.
  4. Expect reliability. Laser printers tend to be far more reliable. Many laser printers are rated for 30,000 pages a month or more! Laser printers are legendary for their service life. Some people have had experience of Laserjets that are still working fine after 15 years of daily use.
  5. Expect minor repairs. Most repairs are just a matter of changing parts available in a standard "maintenance kit".

Tips

  • Good makes include: HP, Lexmark and Konica-Minolta. The clear advantage of buying one of these brands is the availability of maintenance kits and additional accessories to "pimp" your printer.
  • While many smaller offices or home-based businesses can survive on a business-oriented inkjet, anyone or company that needs a moderate workhorse should be looking at laser printers or LED printers. Both of these printers use light as a means to project the image onto a rotating drum and then from the drum it is transferred to the paper and “baked” on. The result is crisper text than an inkjet printer and also generally better graphics. These printers are faster than inkjets as well, though an inkjet still has them beat on photos. The cost per page is less than inkjets as well.
  • Monochrome lasers have come down a lot in price and even at the $100 level, you can find a reasonably reliable one. Color laser printers and color LEDs are slowly gaining in popularity and could eventually become the standard for offices and businesses. Part of the delay or reservation in going to color may have to do with the existing printing infrastructure. That is, if the machine still works and the maintenance isn’t burdensome, why change? Also, because color printers are generally larger machines, both them and their consumables take up more space.
  • Laser or LED models, no matter how much we wish, are not capable of producing great photos, but many produce very high quality graphics and charts. The machines that come closest to printing high quality images are very expensive and are generally purchased and used by folks like graphic designers and other such professions.
  • For printing photos, inkjet printers will offer a better overall look than laser printers, so get your photos printed at Walmart or Costco if you don't own both.
  • Look for a model that has a built in ethernet adapter for networking if you have more than one computer.
  • There are also fears (whether rational or irrational) about office workers being discriminating as to when it’s appropriate or necessary to use color versus when it’s not. Some of these things can be managed through printer software, however, that may or may not require additional hands-on staff time. Some offices may even choose to outsource their printing and the management to alleviate their potentially over-burned IT staff.

Warnings

  • Laser printers take a lot of power to initialize - if your electrical circuits are weak, you might want to avoid a laser printer (that is if you already trip breakers from running too many things on that circuit).
  • Many laser printers are heavy. Avoid lifting them if you have back trouble - get a friend to help you.

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