Cost benefits of ink jet vs. laser printers?

Question

I am most concerned primarily with B&W printing.

Thank you!

Answer 1

A lot of this, imho, has to do with cost per page...With 5% coverage (average letter), a black and white laser printer is by far the best bet.....

While inkjet printers cost less initially, even with small amounts of printing, the costs will increase substantially over time (in ink cartridges alone). Cartridges for inkjet printers usually only yield you 100-200 sheets, while laser toners will usually yield in the 1000s The thing I've always told my customers back when selling computers is this:

Inkjet printers now-a-days are commodities...The printers themselves have very little margin. However, cartridges can run upwards of 50% or higher in margin, which is where printer companies make their money...If all you do is B/W printing, invest in a laser printer...Over the long term, you'll save a LOT more money. You could even invest in a color laser printer, which have become a lot more reasonable in cost.


http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/testdrive/article.php/3521141

Answer 2

Colour laser cartridges are a lot more expensive than inkjet, but don't clog the way some inkjet cartridges do. They're also much larger and therefore, take up more space. Many of them also require replacement of certain parts, such as fixer units (which seal the toner on the paper making it permanent) on a regular basis which is also an expensive proposition. Because colour lasers are so much more expensive, if something does go wrong with it, you're more likely to get it repaired which can mean having to ship it back to the manufacturer or call in service. Because inkjets are cheaper, most people who do experience problems with them are more likely to just buy another while the first is repaired or toss the first entirely. If you purchase a laser printer or an inkjet, make sure your local office supply carries the cartridges for it. At some point you will run out of toner (probably at a very crucial moment) and you'll need to know you can just run out and grab another one. We had a dreadful Tektronix model and NO ONE local carried the cartridges...if we ran out, the printer was out of commission until a shipment of cartridges came in. We now have an HP 4650 and Staples seems to have the toner when we need it. Are far as picture quality, you're never going to get better than a laser printer, though some inkjets do have remarkably good imaging ability. Personally I have the HP Deskjet 9300 at home and one at the office as well as a backup for our colour laser printer. The image quality is good enough for scientific presentations and in photo mode, it can compete fairly well with a laser printer. I haven't had any major problems with the jets clogging after weeks of the printer being idle though I did have to run the cleaning cycle once or twice to clear them. Many if not all inkjets have the same problem. And no matter which you get, you're likely to be outsourced to some third world country if you ever call their help lines.

Answer 3

The math is easy.

Inkjet printer, say about $100
Laser printer, say about $200

Inkjet printer cartridge, about 500 pages, about $25-35
Laser printer toner cartridge, about 3000 pages, $60-90

So... 6 times the pages, 2-3 times the cost.

You can adjust the numbers, but it'll end up about the same.

Answer 4

I agree 100% with cigarandawaffle, and I'd like to direct you to HP or Samsung for the better value in laser printers.

Their monochrome lasers have toner and drum in one single unit (as opposed to Brother and most Xerox), and their color laser printers have become quite reasonable in price.

If you are not against buying remanufactured laser cartridges, they can also be refilled to higher yield than the OEMs, saving you even more money.