Office Printer/Laserjet recommendations

patch29

I need a new printer for printing out regular letters, etc. I am looking at getting a Laserjet from HP, specifically the 3030. I don't have a fax, or flatbed scanner so it looks like a good unit for me. I need it for printing letters, etc, and making copies of checks and such. I am tired of using inkjets for regular printing. I keep wearing out the cheap units and spending a lot on ink. I also think the text quality will be better on a Laserjet.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the HP laserjets, if something else would be better? I can get this one for $400.

How long should this last with not a lot of printing, a few things a day, occasionally a larger set of pages? That is probably my number one concern, that it will last for several years, making it easier to take the upfront expense.

dragon300zx

I have a HP color laserjet 5m that is over 10 years old at this point. Laserjets will take quite a bit of beeating especially the HP's. I could see it lasting 5+ years under medium to heavy use. Brother, Tektronix, also make good laser printers that may be cheaper.

David_S85

HP forever
I haven't found a way yet to kill my 10+ yr.-old HP LaserJet 4. It will probably live beyond the next war, plague, flood, tornado, and the end of the human race. The toner cart's go strong for a couple years at a time. The only thing I don't like about the thing is the units mass.

It has survived the brief ownership forays with a couple other Epson units. The first thing I'll do when I get my WIN XP unit up and running will be to hunt down a driver for it.

For a biz printer, you can't go wrong with HP.

bkriete

My folks have had an HP Laserjet 4P through their last three computers. It must be close to ten years old, great printer. I don't think the new ones are anywhere near as robust though. We use several of them at work and they are much more prone to jamming and "weird" error messages.

patch29

I finally broke down today and bought the HP 3030 multi function laser. The only thing I wonder is why did I wait so long to do this. It is so nice.

Thanks for the help.

patch29

I have noticed that the scanner bulb remains on at a low setting, is there a way to turn it off? I will probably only make copies a few times a week, so I don't want it on all the time.

I can just turn the whole unit off when I am not using it, is that bad for a laserjet to turn it on and off? It would probably be off most of the day.

Seymore

patch29 wrote:

I have noticed that the scanner bulb remains on at a low setting, is there a way to turn it off? I will probably only make copies a few times a week, so I don't want it on all the time.

I can just turn the whole unit off when I am not using it, is that bad for a laserjet to turn it on and off? It would probably be off most of the day.

Not knowing anything about this specific model, I can only guess. But specs are here. NO, it should not hurt it at all. Just takes a bit to warm up. if you can live with this, save on the power and shut it off.

wxwax

Sucker's built for up to 7,000 pages a month, so it's built to be on all the time. Personally, I'd leave it on, as that's what it was designed for.

patch29

wxwax wrote:

Sucker's built for up to 7,000 pages a month, so it's built to be on all the time. Personally, I'd leave it on, as that's what it was designed for.

It's not the printer I worry about, it is replacing the bulb in the scanner/fax/copy part of it.

patch29

wxwax wrote:

Sucker's built for up to 7,000 pages a month

Great. I missed that, guess I will need to go pick up a second one.

patch29

So far so good. I have noticed after an hour or so the scanner bulb does turn off, so I leave it on now unless I am going out of town for a few days.

I really like having a laserjet, this one is not super fast for a LJ, but much faster than an inkjet.

patch29

Six month review.

I still love my Laserjet and the flatbed copier. This is simply a great tool. I cannot believe I waited so long to purchase it. I am still on the original toner cartridge too, I am sure it will run out with my next page I print, but so far so good. The laserjet is the way to go for printing text/forms. It is faster and I believe I will recoup the expense very soon not buying lots of ink for my inkjet and having them break.

David_S85

patch29 wrote:

Six month review.

I still love my Laserjet and the flatbed copier. This is simply a great tool. I cannot believe I waited so long to purchase it. I am still on the original toner cartridge too, I am sure it will run out with my next page I print, but so far so good. The laserjet is the way to go for printing text/forms. It is faster and I believe I will recoup the expense very soon not buying lots of ink for my inkjet and having them break.

HP still makes nice printers, at least laser monochromes. Are you still
leaving the thing on most of the time?

Make sure you take that toner cartridge out every now and then and rock it slowly back and forth to help distribute the toner evenly. This can allow a few hundred more pages near when it is almost depleted. Another trick is to dial down the saturation of toner onto each page. By default, all printer companies fuse way too much toner onto the page so you'll buy a new cartridge sooner. If you can control this somehow (printer driver, dial inside the machine, or both) for text-only pages, try setting it between 50-70%. On mine, the pages look just the same, and I can extend the life of the cart. I can easily get 12,000 pages per $60 black cartridge.

The Mrs. just bought the Dell 1700 personal laser. I think Samsung makes it for them. Ordered it yesterday late afternoon, and first thing this morning the extra toner cartridge she ordered with it was on the doorstep. That has to be a new record for normal UPS ground. The printer will follow shortly we gather. This means the old 50 pound HP LJ4 won't need to be toted around the house anymore, saving my back a lot of anguish. We should have a user report up pretty soon on the new Dell printer.

patch29

David_S85 wrote:

Are you still leaving the thing on most of the time?

Yes, unless I go out of town for a few days. Thanks for the toner cartridge tip. I was also able to set the toner level used, or whatever they call it. I did a few tests and use the setting that looked the best.

patch29

One year update. I still really enjoy having the laserjet and flatbed copier. I wish there were a way to know the number of copies and printed pages I have printed, but needless to say I am still on the original cartridge (I will now probably have to replace it tomorrow ).

I have also used the flatbed for a scanner, usually just for to post online. It does a very good job.