Anyone know these printers?

[ffutures]

Some time soon I'll need to buy a new printer, my old Xerox 6100 is running out of black toner and needs lots of other consumables, so much so that it's probably cheaper to bin it and buy a replacement. It's also huge and noisy, which I could live without.

I've been thinking in terms of trying to get another duplexing colour laser printer, but need to face the fact that they are hideously complex and get very expensive once things like drums and transfer belts start to wear out. Duplexing is actually more important to me than colour, so I'm not ruling out a mono printer.

Currently the two main contenders are these

Canon LBP 6650; it's a duplexing mono network printer, the price works out at £50 after the cash back, but the toner looks pretty expensive - more than £100 for a high-capacity cartridge, I can't find anyone selling refill kits. The printer is available around this price from several dealers. If I got this I would also need a colour printer for occasional use, but a basic inkjet would probably suffice; I've been thinking about buying an inkjet for printing directly onto CDs anyway.

Dell 3130cn; another duplexing colour laser at a little under £300, the toner looks to be VERY expensive but it looks like cartridge refill kits can be found.

So - anyone know anything good (or bad) about either of them?

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I don't know either of them. My printer is a Lexmark laserjet with a duplexer (but is only mono), its drum costs 180 quid but it has been totally reliable from occasional jobs through to runs of hundreds of pages (at around 10 sheets per minute duplex so it gets though a pack of paper in under an hour).

However, if you intend to get a colour inkjet printer for occasional use, be aware that if they aren't used regularly it is common for the jets to clog up. For CD printing the Epson ones are cheap (from PCWorld and the like) and have individual colour cartridges.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's probably an Epson I'd go for - the cartridges seem to be dirt cheap if you shop around.

Thanks!

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

One place I support has a Dell 3115cn, and I can't recommend it. The 3130 looks like a practically identical unit. I can go into more detail if you want, but yeech.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Can't say I'm entirely surprised - thanks, I think the Canon plus a cheap inkjet is probably the way to go, especially since I've found a slightly cheaper source for the toner, which works out about 1.5p per page.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

I reverse engineered the decision. I phoned my supplier of recharging toner and recharged cartridges, and asked what printer could they support.

They suggested Brother, in the world of "cheap 3 in 1 but it won't even scan unless you keep buying ink". Works well, though.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Don't need a scanner etc., just a printer. I haven't seen any particularly good deals on brother anyway.