WWYD about this printer dilemma?

[plain jane]

I have a color laser all-in-one printer that is now 5 years old. It has served me faithfully and I've had to replace the black cartridge 2x now, each color once and the drum once. Yowzers, expensive but I do a *ton* of printing as well as a lot of photocopying.

 

My colors all need to be replaced now and I've noticed that when my printer does it's "calibration" there's a squeaking noise that's not very pleasant although the machine still operates as normal. It's a bit louder when it photocopies so *some*thing is going on in there.

 

I've also been thinking about getting a duplex printer since I'm going through obscene amounts of paper from printing out PDF files and noticed that for the price of the 3 colors of laser cartridge I can get a color laser duplex printer (NOT all-in-one).

 

Now, I just replaced my black cartridge but since I do most of my photocopying in black and use color for print jobs, I am thinking maybe I should buy the new printer instead of spending the money on color cartridges for my all-in-one. My reason for thinking this is I don't know what is causing it to make that noise and am pretty sure a service call is going to be big $$$. I'd also like to have the ability to print double-sided, but if I don't replace my color cartridges, I lose the ability to photocopy color (which I rarely do). Of course, when the black runs out of my current all-in-one, I'll be left with just a color laser printer and in desperate need of a photocopier. :001_huh:

 

WWYD? I'm so indecisive about this one.:001_huh:

[plain jane]

Awwww, a forum full of homeschooling moms and not one has an opinion on a printer? :toetap05: :D:bigear:

[GnomeyNewt]

I think your plan sounds great, since the cost is the same. If it does both sides at once, I say go for it because that is a feature I would LOVE. I don't really ever do color copies either, but if you do need to you still can scan it with your old one and than print it from your new printer :).

 

Only issue I would think you need to consider, is that it will take up more space. I currently have 2 printers, an all-in-one color inkjet that pretty much just scans and a b/w copy/printer, which I use the most and is always out. I store my all-in-one during most of the year.