OK tech experts....printer advice needed

[Coley]

Alright, I'm going to be upgrading my home office printer in the next couple of weeks so I wanted to see what the tech/printer experts had to say.
This is what I'm looking at:
-Laser Printer
-Primarily Black and White (very little to no need for colour printing)
-PPM (pages per minute has to be reasonably quick)
-Wireless preferred
-This will be primarily for (2D) Engineering drawings and word documents (WORD/EXCEL/ETC)
-Not for family photo stuff or 'fun project' stuff.....not my thing, thats for the kids....lol
The budget is $200-$400 probable.

So within the current group that I have browsed I have seen BROTHER, CANON, and HP printers.

Any of these superior in your opinion?
what about the cartridges?....ones to avoid?
Etc.

Any input on this is very welcome guys!

Many Thanks
Coley

[richard2717]

It has been my experience that the printers are cheap regardless of the brand but the toner cartridges are very expensive regardless of the brand. A full set of toner cartridges cost just as much as both of my HP lasers did, but they do give you a few more thimbles full of toner vs the starter cartridges. With that said I have had very good luck with my HP printers. Even in color mode they are still fast chucking the pages out. My oldest one is a HP3600dn laser jet and was bought back in early 2000's and still runs great as long as I do not use the aftermarket toners in it. What a mess that was. My newer on is a HPMFP M477 and it is lighting fast on everything. Probably a little more than what you are looking for if not doing a lot of color but I hope I get the service out of it that I have the old one.

[harpo231]

Here's what I use....

HP® LaserJet Pro M227fdw

about $225

[vetnat]

I'll throw my 2 cents in for HP as well. My now dearly departed 19 year old cat spent a good deal of her life sleeping on top of the computer monitor. Cats often vomit a fair bit (I'm a veterinarian, I should know ), and my HP printer often took the brunt of the chuckage. Gave away my old HP to a friend when I wanted a new one. Got another HP and it got more of the same. Both printers still fully functional as far as I know. Take a lickin and keep on tickin.

[FleetsidePaul]

I have an HP Envy 7640. It's wireless and I've never had a problem with it. I just had to replace the ink cartridges and they weren't too expensive online.

[Coley]

Great info guys....looks like HP has an advantage over Brothers and Canon.
Within that group are there any that are definitely 'for avoiding'?
I will start checking out some of the pricing on these through Amazon probably within the next few days.
Many Thanks again
Coley

[NorCalC20LWB]

My wife and I have a small business, so we do go through a lot of ink and paper. Pretty obvious the business model for printers is sell 'em cheap and hook 'em for expensive ink cartridges for the life of the printer, like $100 worth of ink every month for a $100-$200 printer, definitely adds up. Our current HP printer is a few years old, so starting to research newer ones now. Suggest you look into the newer crop of liquid ink printers, where you buy bottles of ink and fill the printer when needed. More expensive up front but MUCH cheaper for ink in the long run. Just depends on how many pages you copy per month whether it's more economical I guess.

[Coley]

You make a good point.
My current printer (older HP officejet) is an older inkjet printer and I must have pumped $2000 or more into cartridges for that thing (probably more, lol)....and it does not print quickly.
The cartridges for that thing have been going up every year as they push it towards obsolescence.....I think they are $50+ each now (black)....yikes.
I don't print a massive amount of stuff on a daily basis.....I might do 30-50 sheets a week but I like them to print relatively quickly.


Coley

[Coley]

Ok...quick update.
Picked up a HP M227 Laserjet printer.....
Wireless, reasonable speed, non-color the usual copy/scan/fax etc....hopefully get it installed this weekend.
Thanks for the input guys!

Coley

Coley