Brother Printer "consumable" part MORE than a new retail printer?!?

[Paul F.]

I'm shopping for a color laser printer for work..

Here is a lesson in "total cost of ownership" research before purchasing;

Brother HL-2700CN Color Laser printer...
Pro's:
Network ready, Postscript 3 (emulation), Mac support back to OS 9 and forward to OS X.4. Cost: $450 from CDWG.

DING DING DING DING!
Now for the down side!
The "OPC Belt Cartridge", a 60,000 page replacement part: Cost: $503
The 4 color Toners are $160 EACH...
Fuser unit (60,000 page maintenance part also) is $577


So, basically, you have here a printer that is TOTALLY NOT WORTH using past 60,000 pages (assuming those page counts are accurate, or that Brother doesn't make it stop printing at that count like they do with the drum units of their cheaper B&W lasers)
If you don't plan on getting more than that out of it...
No problem, might be a great printer.
As a matter of fact, it's NOT off my list of printers to consider... the older Mac OS support is highly desirable... so is AppleTalk protocol support.


Just a lesson to DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

[Jimmypoo]

Think Polaroid.



60,000 prints is a lot for a NON-school.

And for the record, despite my previously stated (and clearly so) dislike of Lexmark AND their president, a friend who bought one of their color lasers (and also has a Bro 5170N monochrome laser) says nothing but great things about it and dual platform ease, etc.

I'll say this though---- the Oki laser output I've seen at the stores is superior to all color lasers I've seen (certainly in the price range Paul is talking about).

Never looked at prices on toner for it.

For home use, I can't imagine getting to the point of belt and toner.
I've still only put 10,000 prints on my LaserWriter 360 and about 2000 on the Lexmark e310 I found at GoodWill for $12, without issues.

[Paul F.]

IF this was for home, the Brother (consumable wise) would be a front-runner at this point...

This will be for the school office, where the B&W laser runs (and runs.. and runs...) as long as the lights are on here.
It's done 20,000 pages in 18 months service...

I'm not a fan of Lexmark either, but I WILL be looking at their color laser..
And the Oki is also on my list..


Cheap, but not so crappy I have to listen to the secretaries accuse me of sabotaging their printing is going to be the name of the game here...

[rz]

seems to be common among other color lasers too. I have the HP 2550 and am hoping that by the time I'm ready to replace the 4 toners, that they've come down in price. Right now, they almost cost as much as a new printer. If that continues to be the case, I'll just buy a new one and sell the old one.

[elmo3]

always, always, ALWAYS look at the COST OF OPERATION and NOT the price of acquisition.

Those figures you quoted tell me that the Brother comes out to about 10 cents/page. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, it could be more, depending on your ink coverage.

You *can* get a fixed cost printer; Xerox, for example, quotes around 9 cents/page for a color click (any size) and about 1.2 cents/click for a black and white click (any size). That covers ink and maintenance. The issue is, you have to acquire the unit--at $13K or so.

It's just math. If you're doing the volume, you MUST evaluate all aspects of acquiring and running the printer.

That's why a dealmac-like price-only list isn't adequate for color printers, or any printers. Anything that uses consumables cannot be evaluated on the price of acquisition.

[jardster]

AND- often the Brother stuff comes with "starter" toners, that don't last as long as the ones you buy. On the other hand, your B+W is doing 20,000 copies in 18 months. Will the color do more than that? If not, you are looking at it lasting around 5 years. To me, that doesn't seem to be a bad investment. But I guess I live in a disposible world.