OT printer recommendations

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

Spoke too soon. Printer died today...

It heard from the router that you were talking smack about it.

[William]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

Spoke too soon. Printer died today...

10 years ain't too bad a run...just sayin'






W.

[Dino Suegiù]

Originally Posted by C40_guy

We've had the same Xerox color printer for a couple of years now, and I've bought generic cartridges from LDProducts.com. Much less expensive than the Xerox branded products, and they work fine.

Note -- do not buy more than you need...they do age out and become unusable.

@C40-guy:
iirc the Xerox laser printer you have is the Xerox Phaser 6500, is that right? Is it basically the same (previous model maybe?) as the Xerox Phaser 6510/DN we just bought?

If so, were you able to use the LDProducts.com toner cartridge on your printer perfectly OK, without the screen stating that the cartridge was not "official Xerox, therefore not recognized, therefore unable to print"? How long have you successfully used the LD cartridges?

Also, since we would like to order the LD cartridges, what time frame more or less does "they do age out and become unusable" cover?

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by Dino Suegiù

@C40-guy:
iirc the Xerox laser printer you have is the Xerox Phaser 6500, is that right? Is it basically the same (previous model maybe?) as the Xerox Phaser 6510/DN we just bought?

If so, were you able to use the LDProducts.com toner cartridge on your printer perfectly OK, without the screen stating that the cartridge was not "official Xerox, therefore not recognized, therefore unable to print"? How long have you successfully used the LD cartridges?

Also, since we would like to order the LD cartridges, what time frame more or less does "they do age out and become unusable" cover?

Dino,

We bought the 6500 about 3 years ago, and I think we've replaced the toner cartridges twice since then. The 6510 looks to be a minor upgrade from the 6500...I think it's basically the same print engine.

We had no issues with the aftermarket LD cartridges. They plug right in.

I don't remember how long the cartridges last on the shelf (before use). You might want to ask LD about that. Up until the past two months, it was easy to get new cartridges within a couple of days, so I didn't worry about running out. The printer interface does allow you to see roughly how much toner is left for each cartridge...

Good solid printer. It does take a while to print large photos (which isn't the best use of this printer...).

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by William

10 years ain't too bad a run...just sayin'






W.

Nope. Not at all. In fact, I can buy more printer now for the same dough than I spent 10 years ago.

[Dino Suegiù]

Originally Posted by C40_guy

Dino,

We bought the 6500 about 3 years ago, and I think we've replaced the toner cartridges twice since then. The 6510 looks to be a minor upgrade from the 6500...I think it's basically the same print engine.

We had no issues with the aftermarket LD cartridges. They plug right in.

I don't remember how long the cartridges last on the shelf (before use). You might want to ask LD about that. Up until the past two months, it was easy to get new cartridges within a couple of days, so I didn't worry about running out. The printer interface does allow you to see roughly how much toner is left for each cartridge...

Good solid printer. It does take a while to print large photos (which isn't the best use of this printer...).

Thank you very much for the detailed response. Excellent.

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by C40_guy

It heard from the router that you were talking smack about it.

I get that a lot...

--
QUESTION/OPINION:

I'm trying to decide between a laser monochrome All-In-One (mainly for the added scanning capability) vs a color laser single function printer.

My use is relatively low volume and I really need both color AND scanning - but not all the time. I guess I'm too cheap to buy a laser color AIO, and I'm having a hard time prioritizing scanner vs color decision. I know it's for me to decide, but anything come to mind? Thx.

[Dino Suegiù]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

I get that a lot...

--
QUESTION/OPINION:

I'm trying to decide between a laser monochrome All-In-One (mainly for the added scanning capability) vs a color laser single function printer.

My use is relatively low volume and I really need both color AND scanning - but not all the time. I guess I'm too cheap to buy a laser color AIO, and I'm having a hard time prioritizing scanner vs color decision. I know it's for me to decide, but anything come to mind? Thx.

We used to have a separate (large 11" x 17") bw/color inkjet printer and a separate, high-quality, image scanner, primarily for images but obviously fine for documents.

We recently replaced the printer with a print-only bw/color laser printer, since we already have the still excellent stand-alone scanner. However, even if we did not have the separate scanner, we would have bought a print-only printer 100 times out of a 100. We would have bought print-only even versus "3-in-1" (no fax).

"All-in-one" seems like 4 things to go south/planned obsolescence rather than just 1.
1) Print: need all the time.
2) Copy: never need, same as Scan.
3) Scan: need occasionally, but built-in all-in-one scanners do not offer great resolution/reproduction (the whole point) unless one pays $$$ anyway.
4) Fax: really? Ride to Staples, etc with the flash drive and fax from there, 2x year max.

I would definitely recommend the better color laser printer only, and if you really need a scanner, then a stand-alone scanner that fits your needs. "All-in-one" only if the combination of printer/scanner price/quality exceeds the 2 stand-alone unit price/quality.



(How nice that we can politely and helpfully discuss toner here, but how sad that we absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, discuss tone. )

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by Dino Suegiù

We used to have a separate (large 11" x 17") bw/color inkjet printer and a separate, high-quality, image scanner, primarily for images but obviously fine for documents.

We recently replaced the printer with a print-only bw/color laser printer, since we already have the still excellent stand-alone scanner. However, even if we did not have the separate scanner, we would have bought a print-only printer 100 times out of a 100. We would have bought print-only even versus "3-in-1" (no fax).

"All-in-one" seems like 4 things to go south/planned obsolescence rather than just 1.
1) Print: need all the time.
2) Copy: never need, same as Scan.
3) Scan: need occasionally, but built-in all-in-one scanners do not offer great resolution/reproduction (the whole point) unless one pays $$$ anyway.
4) Fax: really? Ride to Staples, etc with the flash drive and fax from there, 2x year max.

I would definitely recommend the better color laser printer only, and if you really need a scanner, then a stand-alone scanner that fits your needs. "All-in-one" only if the combination of printer/scanner price/quality exceeds the 2 stand-alone unit price/quality.



(How nice that we can politely and helpfully discuss toner here, but how sad that we absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, discuss tone. )

Funny - You didn't really tell me any facts that I didn't already know, but your perspective on all this was really very helpful. I've obviously been on the fence, but you may have swayed me over to the better color laser rather than the AIO. Thanks!

Oh, and if you want to discuss 'tone', this might be a good option: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...ps-and-cabs.3/

[Dino Suegiù]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

Funny - You didn't really tell me any facts that I didn't already know, but your perspective on all this was really very helpful. I've obviously been on the fence, but you may have swayed me over to the better color laser rather than the AIO. Thanks!

You are most welcome. We went through the same exact process, weighed the same pros/cons as yourself, very recently, and so the decisions weighed and made are still fresh.

I really think that, for low-volume/occasional use especially, the "All-In-One" model can so often be overkill, just unnecessary sales talk. Why pay a lot of extra $ for some very occasional use? For our use, the base requirements were:

B/W printing (~80%)
Some color printing (~15%) (Color images for long-term keeping/framing, ergo not that often, get printed at the copy store in any case using their better paper and better print quality)
Some (much less) scanning (~5%)
Copy (0%)
Fax (0%)

So, there was no way we were going to pay more money for at least 2 functions we didn't need at all, while very possibly simultaneously sacrificing the quality of the printer itself.

A good scanner worth its salt will not be in most "All-In-One" printers. Also, good stand-alone scanners are not expensive, last a long time (ours is a 15+ -year old Epson Perfection 1650, and it still works like new today), and do not take up much space.

I would definitely recommend:
1) buy the best stand-alone color laser printer your needs/budget justify
2) see if you can survive using one of those cellphone scanner apps (some printers like HP even integrate their scan app to the printer apparently)
3) if that is not satisfactory, then buy a good used or new stand-alone scanner

I would guess that you get a lot more mileage out of that approach.