I can't recommend a particular printer, but if you're on W10, and if you buy a second hand printer, make sure that there is a manufacturer available printer driver.

Also make sure you check out costings of the consumables; some are very expensive, as the drum(s) comes with the ink cassette; it's almost as if the printer is a loss leader, with the overall profit on consumables, particularly at the domestic end of the market

I'm happily using an ancient Samsung colour CLP510 laser, but getting it to function on W7 or later is interesting at best. Pattern refills though are cheap enough. It uses a separate drum, and a further separate ink transfer belt, but I have a spare printer for when they wear out.

I know you've asked about a laser, but I also run an A3 Brother combined inkjet printer/scanner, with auto document feed. It's now superseded, but I've been happy with it for several years a MFC-J6530DW; Pattern ink is available when the warranty runs out.

It really should be left powered up though as the is a regular cleaning cycle to avoid jet blockage; the cartridges and print head are separate, unlike my previous HP with integral print heads. That might be wasteful if you only ever print very occasionally. I think bulk ink tanks are available as well for heavy users.

I use an OS mapping program on the PC, and my primary use for this printer is for +150-200% A3 maps of areas where we go out walking, to avoid needing to carry several full sized commercial 1:25,000 maps.
The A3 aspect is also useful for workshop diagrams.

Bill

I have a Brother MFC 2700 mono laser printer which has worked perfectly for 5+ years. Does double sided scanning and printings.

As an alternative view, I had an inexpensive Brother monochrome printer that didn't last much longer than it's initial low capacity "starter" toner cartridge, but long enough to be out of warranty. It started leaving lines across the page & needed another replaceable part (cant't recall the part name now, but the toner cartridge fitted into this part that had a "corona wire" IIRC) that cost more than the printer did initially to replace. Similar situation at work, where the expensive (both to buy and for consumables) Brother colour laser that was bought to replace a Brother printer/scanner//fax died irrepalrably after a couple of years – the inkjet had done 5 years & the laser was replaced with a another Brother inkjet that is still going strong after more than 5 years.

My Brother laser got recycled & replaced with a Canon inkjet, which don'r suffer from the blocked nozzle situation that afflicts Epson printers if they don't get used often enough, due to using different print head technology. Downside is that the replacement cartridges cost more, as the print head is incoprorated into the cartridge. Upside to that is that in the rare event of a print head clogging irretrievably, a replacement cartridge fixes it at a much lower cost than replacing the printer. I can leave the Canon unused for weeks at a time & it just works when required.

For the limited amount of printing I do the Canon inkjet has proved to be the least expensive, most reliable solution for me over the last several years.

NIgel B.

I have a Xerox Phaser 6510 colour laser (LED really as are all budget printers)

Good as gold and prints decent colour photos..

Just one thing to remember when you buy a pattern refill and the printer asks if this is a genuine cartridge tell the truth and reply NO! deny it by saying yes and the printer will lock the refill out till you buy a very expensive genuine one.

Pattern parts are ok , but counterfeit ones are illegal.

LASER is an acronym so it is correct with an S even if you are American. The S stands for stimulated.

Edited By Mr C on 06/08/2023 16:58:55

I got fed up with Inkjets of any make and replaced mine with a Brother HL-1212W laser. Very basic, works with Windows, Linux and Apple, came with a lifetime supply of toner cartridges. Ok rather than wonderful but fast and reliable.

I notice chaps are keen to select printers by brand-name when they should be worried about printer technology and how well suited it is to their needs. Brand name is a poor guide because all manufacturers produce equipment ranging from almost toys to professional grade. They all have good kit, but domestic users dislike the prices!

The usual domestic InkJet is rock-bottom cheap, and ink is very expensive. Suitable for frequent low volume printing. Not mechanically tough enough for big print runs. and – much more serious – if not used almost daily, they gum up. They un-gum by forcing ink through the pipework, wasting lots of precious ink, and a serious blockage is fatal. Good for printing a few letters and photographs every day, otherwise avoid.

Office inkjets are much cheaper on ink, and strongly built, but again have to be used frequently. Costly for home use and likely to disappoint if the ink congeals due to low usage.

In short, InkJet technology is cheap to buy, but I don't think it does a good job unless what you need is a close match what they're good at.

Lasers are good for infrequent use because there's no ink to gum up. Basic models like mine are very cheap, and are uncomfortable doing large print runs. Tens of pages rather than thousands. Small Office and Office printers are beefed up, often considerably, and the price reflects this. Black and White is cheaper than colour.

Colour lasers have similar characteristics but are more complicated, hence pricey. They too vary from cheaply made for low volume home printing up to super luxury-yacht expensive for industrial-grade printing.

As I don't print enough to keep an Inkjet in reasonable fettle, I switched to laser. For cheapness, black and white. When I need a colour print, I nip to my local print shop with a USB stick, or send the files off to a print service. Convenient though it would be to have one, I don't do enough printing to justify buying a colour laser, especially not an office-grade machine.

Dave

After owning several inkjets over the years, I concluded some years back that they are a ripoff and a complete waste of time. So I have a laser printer/scanner for black and white, and I get colour prints done by the photo shop, they can do it cheaper and better than I can. One of my experiences was having a brand new set of cartridges that never actually printed anything because the heads never came clean.

I would certainly recommend against anything from HP, they have gone over to the dark side, and are not the same outfit that used to make such excellent test equipment 40 or so years ago. That side of the business went to Agilent.

John

I bought a second hand demonstrated working Canon for £30 from someone local on fb marketplace, I figured it was worth the gamble, and it still print perfectly two years on…

Drivers are a problem! Or maybe not. Proprietary print drivers are slowly being driven out by standard interfaces like the Internet Printing Protocol, which covers AirPrint, Mopria, Wifi Direct and others. With luck you can't find a Linux driver for your Epson because it doesn't need one!

IPP is supported on Linux by the Open Printing Project. Their front page links to 3 databases of IPP compatible printers including Epsons. If your Epson supports IPP, it doesn't need a driver. Instead your Linux needs IPP.

I'm not sure what has to be done to get IPP working on Linux: seems just to be installing a CUPS plug-in, so probably not difficult. Can't try it for you because my basic Brother HL1212W doesn't support IPP.

Dave

Dave

Over the years I have had 2 HP inkjet printers, and an HP B&W laser. The inkjets printed well, cartridges expensive and did not like intermittent use which was a real problem after the laser, which was supplied by work, arrived as we rarely used the inkjet. The inkjet was disposed of and we lived with just the laser.

The laser died early 2022 and my them employer did no provide printers for home workers. Purchased Kyocera Colour laser. Excellent printer and driver support. Print quality is also excellent.

Most modern printer will work under the Universal Print Driver, may not support all the features, but will print .

I am afraid that I will have to disagree with you regarding HP laser printers – I have been using them for 35+ years and in my last job before I retired two years ago we hdr 10 in use with virtually no problems. They were all B&W or Colour run on compatible cartridges and normal office quality paper. Even so some of the cartridges were expensive and we had a couple of equally reliable brothers as well but while the cartridges were cheaper you had to replace the belts, drums etc separately in addition unlike the HPs where everything got swapped with the cartridge – but you paid for it. The main problem with the brother printers was that while an HP would carry on printing even if streaky when the internal counter on a brother toner, drum, Waste bottle or belt clicked over to enough the printer stopped – some counters could be reset but not all meaning that the occasion when any printout, even if low quality, would on a HP on the brothers you got nothing.